School-Based Occupational Therapy for Bay Area Private Schools

Therapy that happens where the challenges happen is therapy that sticks.

School-based occupational therapy means our therapists come to your child’s school, working with them in the actual environment where their developmental challenges show up: the classroom, the lunchroom, the playground, the hallway between periods. This is not a clinical office with a waiting room. It is OT embedded in the real context of your child’s school day.

Working in the school setting gives our therapists immediate access to the tools, routines, and relationships that shape your child’s daily experience. We can observe how your child manages their pencil grip during a writing assignment, how they transition between activities, how they navigate the sensory demands of a busy cafeteria. That real-world observation makes the therapy sharper and the goals more meaningful.

For families in the Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Sunnyvale area, having a Therapeeps OT on campus means one less appointment to schedule, one less commute to manage, and a child who receives support in the moments they need it most.

Our school-based work covers the full range of challenges that affect a child’s ability to participate and thrive at school.

School-based OT with Therapeeps addresses the specific skill areas that matter most in an educational environment. Services we commonly provide on-site include:

• Handwriting and fine motor support: targeting pencil grip, letter formation, written output fluency, and the underlying hand strength and coordination that writing demands. We support children with dysgraphia (a specific learning difference affecting written expression) and children who simply struggle with the motor demands of a writing-heavy curriculum.
• Sensory processing support: developing sensory strategies and environmental modifications that help your child stay regulated during the school day, whether they are hypersensitive to noise and touch or seek constant movement and input.
• Self-regulation and executive function: building the tools children need to manage transitions, follow multi-step instructions, manage frustration, and persist through academic challenges.
• Gross and fine motor skill development: supporting physical education participation, scissor use, fastening clothing, and the motor skills that affect a child’s confidence and independence throughout the school day.
• Visual motor integration: the coordination between what the eyes see and what the hands do, which underlies reading, writing, copying from the board, and completing worksheets.
• Sensory diet planning: a personalized, scheduled set of movement and sensory activities (called a sensory diet) built into the school day to help your child stay regulated and available for learning.

The best outcomes happen when the OT and the classroom team are working toward the same goals.

One of the most valuable aspects of school-based OT is direct access to the people who see your child every day. Our therapists make it a priority to communicate regularly with classroom teachers, learning support specialists, school counselors, and administrators, building a shared picture of your child’s needs and a coordinated approach to supporting them.

This might look like a brief weekly check-in with a teacher about how the sensory strategies we introduced are working in the classroom. It might mean co-planning a modified writing approach with the learning support team. It might mean providing the school with a written sensory profile and accommodation recommendations your child’s teacher can implement immediately. We adapt our collaboration model to what the school’s structure allows and what your child most needs.

For school administrators considering a Therapeeps partnership, we offer clear communication, professional documentation, and a collaborative approach that supports rather than disrupts your school’s existing systems.

We work with private and independent schools across the Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Los Altos area.

Therapeeps currently provides on-site occupational therapy at private and independent schools across the Bay Area, with a concentration in Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, and Cupertino.

If you are a school administrator interested in bringing Therapeeps onto your campus, or a parent whose child attends a school you’d like us to serve, please reach out. We are actively expanding our school partnerships and welcome conversations with school leadership about how a Therapeeps OT can support your students.

Whether you are a parent or a school administrator, we make it simple to get started.

Getting your child access to school-based OT starts with a conversation. Call us to talk through your child’s needs, their school environment, and how a Therapeeps therapist can support them on campus. We will walk you through the evaluation process, answer your questions about scheduling and private-pay options, and help you understand what to expect.

School administrators: we welcome your call to discuss a campus partnership, service agreements, and how we document and communicate with your team. Therapeeps serves the Bay Area with therapists based in Sunnyvale and San Jose, positioned to reach schools across the entire region efficiently.