Smart Scheduling for OTs (Even on a Rotating Calendar)

Whether you’re managing three school buildings or juggling 40+ students across push-in, pull-out, and consult, scheduling as a school-based OT can feel like its own full-time job. Kit helps you create smart, flexible schedules that work the way you do — even when every week looks a little different.

As an OT, you’re not just filling time slots. You’re trying to fit therapy into bell schedules, travel time, and student needs — all while making sure you meet service minutes and avoid overlap. That’s no easy task.

What OT Scheduling Usually Looks Like

Let’s paint the picture:

• • A Google Sheet with 12 tabs (one per school)

  • Sticky notes with “tentative” times for each student

  • Calendar reminders to update your actual calendar

  • Mental gymnastics to remember which kid is on a 3-week rotation

It’s functional-ish… until it’s not.

Kit Makes Scheduling Simpler (and Smarter)

Kit’s built-in calendar lets you:

• • Create separate calendars for each school or service type

  • Add one-time, weekly, monthly, or custom recurring events

  • Attach a school to the event so you can filter by building

  • Block time for therapy, meetings, consults, testing, or documentation

  • Easily drag-and-drop to reschedule if a student is absent

“I love that I can see my whole week at a glance — including makeup time and consult blocks. It actually feels doable.” — Morgan, OT

What It Looks Like in Practice

On a typical Monday, you might:

• • View your schedule by week (or day, or month)

  • See your first event: a 9:00 group session at Oak Elementary

  • Know instantly which students are assigned, what goals you’re targeting, and how long the session runs

  • Move the 2:00 session to Tuesday when you find out there’s an assembly

No cross-referencing three tabs. No rebuilding the whole week when one thing shifts.

Why This Matters

Smart scheduling helps OTs:

• • Stick to service times

  • Minimize missed sessions

  • Plan proactively for testing and team needs

  • Reduce mental load from constant shuffling

Want to Try It?

Kit for Teams was built to work with your workflow — whether you’re on a strict rotation or adapting every week. Start your free 14-day trial and take the chaos out of scheduling.

👉 Start my free trial

See How AOTA Supports Caseload and Workload Balance

Check out AOTA’s School-Based OT Resources, which includes caseload-to-workload solutions and advocacy tools for managing time and services more effectively.

More from This Series
This blog is part of our Kit Feature Deep Dive series for school-based OTs. Explore other posts in the series:

• • How OTs Plan Goal-Aligned Sessions in a Snap

  • How OTs Take Real-Time Data Without Losing Engagement

  • A Better Way for OTs to Visualize Student Progress

  • How OTs Can Prep for IEP Meetings Without the Last-Minute Guess, Panic, Scramble

  • OT Attendance and Medicaid: Clear Logs Without the Redundancy