ESOT Has Launched! A New Chapter for School-Based Occupational Therapy

Celebrating Our October 26 Launch and the Beginning of a Growing Professional Learning Community

Effective School Occupational Therapy (ESOT) officially launched on October 26, 2026!

We were excited to introduce ESOT and share our vision for advancing the quality, effectiveness, and impact of school-based occupational therapy. Our inaugural presentation, “ESOT Is Here — And We're Just Getting Started!”, brought together an exploration of the challenges facing school-based practitioners, the importance of evidence-informed professional reasoning, and opportunities to strengthen practice through collaboration and continuous improvement. The 90-minute event introduced the foundation of our work and the professional learning opportunities we are building.

Why ESOT? Why Now?

School-based occupational therapy is increasingly complex. Practitioners are navigating diverse student needs, educational expectations, workforce challenges, and growing demands to demonstrate meaningful outcomes. During our launch, we explored a central question:

How do we know our practice is effective, and how can we make it even better?

We discussed the gap between what research tells us and what happens in everyday practice, emphasizing that effective service delivery requires more than technical knowledge. It requires reflection, professional reasoning, evidence translation, collaboration, and the ability to adapt within complex educational systems. These convictions inspired the creation of ESOT.

Making Quality Visible: Introducing the QISP

A major focus of our launch was the Quality Indicators of School Practice (QISP), a framework designed to guide reflection, professional reasoning, and continuous improvement in school-based occupational therapy. Participants explored the seven performance domains of the QISP and considered how quality indicators can help practitioners evaluate their decisions, identify opportunities for improvement, and demonstrate the value of occupational therapy services.

Through a practical school-based scenario, we examined how the QISP can support a progression from recognizing a practice concern to gathering evidence, considering alternatives, making informed changes, and evaluating student participation outcomes.

Our central message: Quality indicators are not prescriptions for practice. They are tools to strengthen professional judgment and make quality visible.

From Individual Expertise to Collective Capacity

Perhaps the most important message of our launch was that advancing school-based occupational therapy requires more than individual expertise. It requires a community. We introduced the ESOT approach to continuous improvement, connecting four essential processes:

• Reflect: What are we noticing?

• Reason: What matters in this context?

• Apply Evidence: What informs our decisions?

• Evaluate: What changed?

These processes provide a foundation for strengthening practice and creating meaningful educational outcomes.

We also introduced ESOT's expanding opportunities for professional learning, including our Evidence-to-Practice Review Series, Implementation Labs, mentorship initiatives, quality improvement learning opportunities, and resources designed to help practitioners translate evidence into action.

And We're Just Getting Started!

Our October 26 launch marked an important milestone, but it was only the beginning.

We envision ESOT as a place where school-based occupational therapy practitioners can connect with colleagues, explore emerging evidence, strengthen professional reasoning, share challenges, and develop practical solutions that improve student participation and educational outcomes.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our launch and helped us begin this journey. We look forward to continuing the conversation and building a community committed to advancing effective school-based occupational therapy.

If you were unable to attend, we invite you to explore what ESOT has to offer including a video recording of our launch discussion.

Visit www.effectiveschoolot.org to learn about our upcoming events, professional learning opportunities, and ways to get involved.

ESOT is here — and we're just getting started!

Evaluating Practice. Delivering Impact.