Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) for 2022-23 School Year
FTE: .4 – 1.0 FTE (Days of service are negotiable)
Posted 4/25/22
Location: River Grove is a public charter school serving students in grades K-6, located in the
beautiful Wilder Forest. Our incredible campus setting, on 73 acres of wooded and lake
property, is utilized on a daily basis to provide a unique learning program that emphasizes the
outdoors and place-based learning. Project-based learning is incorporated in each classroom.
Job Summary: Provide services (including fine motor, sensory and behavior) to students with
disabilities based on their Individual Education Program (IEP) needs and in collaboration with
the IEP Team. Additional duties include contributing to the comprehensive evaluation,
developing IEP services and accommodations, and documenting services for insurance billing.
Work is performed under the direction of the Director of Special Education.
Essential Functions:
● Evaluate students with suspected educational disabilities to identify the need for and
goals of an occupational therapy intervention program.
● Provide direct and indirect occupational therapy services using occupation and
evidence-based treatment activities.
● Support students’ fine motor, gross motor, bilateral coordination, self-care, social,
sensory processing, visual, and cognitive skills affecting their independence throughout
the school day.
● Participate in educational program planning for individual students to coordinate
occupational therapy goals and program plans within the total educational program.
● Implement an intervention program to facilitate an individual’s optimum functioning and
enhance the student’s ability to learn and develop.
● Consult with school personnel and parents regarding services provided by occupational
therapy and as to an individual child’s progress.
● Maintain an inventory of materials and assessment instruments and request new
supplies when necessary.
● Compile and maintain pertinent records.
● Orient each student’s new teacher prior to the beginning of each school year.
● Complete Due Process paperwork.
● Attend parent meetings, special meetings for in‐service training, special education
director/principal directed meetings, or other meetings as deemed necessary.
Qualifications:
● Valid Minnesota Occupational Therapist Assistant license
● NBCOT Certification
Preferences:
● Experience as an Occupational Therapist Assistant in an educational setting.
Opportunities:
● Work in the Outdoors: River Grove teachers and students frequently spend the
majority of their days in our outdoor setting (weather permitting), enjoying our amazing
campus.
● Professional Development: River Grove provides professional development for new
staff depending on needs and interest, but always including best practices of teachers in
building a safe and inviting climate for learning.
● Travel: Teachers are provided opportunities to participate in training provided in the Twin
Cities, across the U.S.
● Career Track and Advancement: Many opportunities are available to River Grove staff,
depending on their interests, efforts, and expertise.
● Be a part of something new!: River Grove is just 5 years old and still forming new
traditions and experiences for its staff and students.
Physical Requirements:
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk, hear, climb,
balance, stoop, kneel, reach for objects, stand, walk, push, pull, lift, and use hands to grasp and
feel. The employee must frequently lift and/or move 40 pounds or more. Specific vision abilities
required include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. Work regularly
requires speaking or hearing, frequently requires sitting and occasionally requires standing,
walking, using hands to finger, handle or feel, stooping, kneeling, crouching or crawling,
reaching with hands and arms, pushing or pulling, lifting and repetitive motions; work has
standard vision requirements; vocal communication is required for expressing or exchanging
ideas by means of the spoken word and conveying detailed or important instructions to others
accurately, loudly or quickly; hearing is required to perceive information at normal spoken word
levels and to receive detailed information through oral communications and/or to make fine
distinctions in sound; work requires preparing and analyzing written or computer data, operating
machines and observing general surroundings and activities; work has no exposure to
environmental conditions; work is generally in a quiet location (e.g. library, private office,
conference room). Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with
disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Rev 2020.2.11