ACCESS™
School-based PT relevance
- AAccess to learning
- CContext of school routines
- CCollaboration with the IEP team
- EEnvironment
- SSafety
- SSchool participation
What it solves
ACCESS answers the question school-based PTs face constantly: does this motor concern belong in school-based PT under IDEA? It operationalizes the line between educational relevance and medical necessity, so you can triage referrals and defend recommendations to the IEP team.
When to use it
Reach for ACCESS when you are triaging whether a motor concern qualifies as a school service, justifying a recommendation to the IEP team, or explaining to a family why a medically relevant therapy may not be an educational one.
In practice
If it does not improve ACCESS, it is likely not school-based PT.
Run the concern through the six lenses. If supporting it does not improve the student's access to and participation in the school day, it usually belongs in a medical setting, not on the IEP.
ACCESS™ is one of 14 frameworks in the Playbook
Read the full treatment in Chapters 6 and 7 of the Pediatric PT Playbook (the one framework the book teaches twice, as a repeat-to-master anchor), with the cases, scripts, and documentation to match.
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