An elementary school student’s “occupation” is learning. Occupational therapists or OTs help kids learn how to use their hands with classroom materials like pencils and scissors so they can write and make art. They also help many students with sensory processing.
Wendy Sagona just retired after over 30 years as an occupational therapist with Rockford Public Schools.
She says that, over the past year, the district has made it more difficult for students to get the therapy they need.
“If you don't get those services early on," said Sagona, "then it's very frustrating, because they already are delayed, and the gaps just get bigger."
This fall, 400 Rockford students sat on a waitlist, not receiving their legally required occupational therapy.
The district said it was because of staffing shortages. But, according to emails obtained by WNIJ, the district made the choice to significantly reduce its OT staffing levels.
Sagona believes it was so they could try to save money by hiring therapists directly. Like many school districts, RPS contracts with an outside agency, the Northwestern Illinois Association, for some special education services, like occupational therapy.
Last spring, RPS abruptly informed the agency that they were ending their contract -- cutting all 18 of their occupational therapists. But the district discovered that, legally, they couldn’t do that. So, instead, they requested to reduce staffing at the maximum level possible in a single year under the contract: 25%.
It would take them from 19 to 14 occupational therapists for this school year.
In ensuing emails, NIA staff were very concerned. CEO Jon Malone asks the Rockford special education administrators what staffing formulas they used to calculate that they’d still be able to adequately meet student needs, since there wasn’t a reduction in the number of students who need occupational therapy.
RPS also wanted to take over managing OT caseloads. The sudden shakeup left their occupational therapists with a lot of questions and worried they’d soon be out of a job.
In April, Malone informed RPS that three full-time OTs assigned to Rockford resigned “citing the uncertainty about future working conditions within the Rockford Schools as their primary reason for leaving. We are anticipating another resignation imminently.”
Five occupational therapists ended up resigning last spring. That includes Chris, who asked WNIJ not to use their real name. They worked at the elementary and early childhood level at RPS for several years.
“I just had to make the decision to leave for another job that I knew would be more steady and would be available," he said. "It was a very difficult decision for me, because I loved my work there."
He had only been there a few years, so he was afraid his position would be part of the 25% cut. But on top of that, he’d grown frustrated with what he calls a “clearly coordinated decline of service” by the district.
He says the district made decisions based on money, not student needs.
Wendy Sagona was discouraged too. Wendy and Chris were part of special education teams who evaluated students to see what services they needed and if they could succeed in a general education classroom. But she says more and more administrators were coming in more and more often to tell them that their placement evaluations were wrong.
“You come and look at the kid for one blink of an eye and say, ‘No, we're going to put him in a regular program’. We have to try it first, because that's ‘least restrictive,’” she said. “No, it's not least restrictive if those kids aren't able to access any of the curriculum.”
It is difficult to hire occupational therapists. And after so many RPS therapists resigned, it made it challenging for the district to hire even the fewer number of therapists they’d requested. Even by the summer, they were still several OTs short.
By then, emails show RPS administrators acknowledged that even if they hired all 14 therapists, it might not be enough to meet student needs.
We asked Rockford special education executive director Michael Ryia if the district knew before the school year that students would have to be put on waitlists. Ryia said no, but, in an August email right before the first day of school, Ryia sent over language staff should use when asked about unserved students.
“The district is currently looking for more OT's and PT's. We are currently understaffed and therefore some students will be without services and need to go on a compensatory waitlist list," said Ryia's email. It finishes “We are actively looking to fill our shortages in these positions but understand the nature of our reality.”
The district started filling OT positions throughout the fall semester, eventually more than the 14 they’d originally asked for. To cut down waitlists, they also hired virtual OTs to deliver therapy services over the computer. Ryia says 20% of students receiving occupational therapy are still receiving it virtually.
Therapists like Sagona say that’s not very effective, especially if the paraprofessional helping guide the lesson on the student’s side of the computer screen doesn’t have much experience with OT.
“There's so much adapting for each kid that you do just automatically after a while, like, 'Oh, this position isn't working because he's not like resting his elbow, let's put him on the floor,'" she said. "You're trying to do that through a screen with someone else and explain the kind of adaptations that you want to be in place. You don't get very much done.”
Overall, Sagona is confused about what happened over the past year.
“I just don't understand their reasoning, their thought process," she said. "What seems to be a lack of planning."
Ryia says no Rockford students are currently on waitlists. But therapists like Wendy Sagona and Chris say there wouldn’t have been hundreds of kids on waitlists in the first place if the district hadn’t decided to cut so many positions with NIA. They’ve worked with them doing this model of OT service delivery for decades, so why the sudden shift?
Chris not only quit working with RPS, the experience made him leave education altogether. But, he says, he’s not the victim here.
“The OTS don't suffer. I mean, we're going to find jobs in other places," he said. "It's the families that suffer. It's the service delivery that declines. I don't see them worried about that.”
A spokesperson for the Northwestern Illinois Association says they remain committed to supporting all of their partner districts, including Rockford, in meeting their occupational therapy needs. And that they’ve provided their recommendations for fully staffing their OT needs next year.
