Special Education Teachers' Perspectives on Collaboration with School-Based Physical Therapists

This study explored special education teachers' (SETs) perceptions of collaboration with school-based physical therapists (SBPTs).

SETs who taught in the school year 2021 to 2022 completed a survey on participation in and perceived benefit of 7 collaborative activities with SBPTs.

Of 238 SETs, 131 collaborated with SBPTs. Instructional and planning activities occurred at similar rates and were both perceived as beneficial. 80.9% of SETs who collaborated with SBPTs reported greater confidence supporting student participation. While SET-SBPT collaboration occurred more often when the SET was a case manager for students with physical therapy (PT) services (89.3%), it also occurred when the SET had no students with PT services (18.8%).

SETs find instructional and planning collaboration with SBPTs beneficial and, importantly, are more confident, increasing participation for students when they collaborate with SBPTs. Enhancing engagement in instructional and planning activities may improve teacher confidence and student participation.