Program Accreditation & Licensure

The Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) Program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (AOTA) located at 4720 Montgomery Lane, P.O. Box 31220, Bethesda, MD 20824-1220, phone: 301-652-AOTA.  The OTA program is currently on Probationary Accreditation Status.

Graduates of the program are awarded an Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree and are then eligible to take the national examination to become a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA).  The national examination is administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) located at 800 S. Fredrick Ave., Suite 200, Gaithersburg, MD 20877-4150, phone: 301-652-990-7979.

Once certified the individual must apply to the Texas Board of Occupational Therapy Examiners (TBOTE) for a license to practice in the state of Texas.  The TBOTE is located at 333 Guadalupe, Suite 2-510, Austin, TX 78701-3942.

Graduation, certification and licensure are separate mechanisms and are the responsibility of the individual student.

TEXAS DEFINITION OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

As of September 1998, the State Texas defines Occupational Therapy as follows:

Occupational Therapy -  The use of purposely activity or intervention to achieve functional outcomes.  Achieving functional outcomes means to develop or facilitate restoration of the highest possible level of independence in interaction with the environment.  Occupational Therapy provides services to individuals limited by physical injury or illness, a dysfunctional condition, cognitive impairment, psychosocial dysfunction, mental illness, a developmental or learning disability or an adverse environmental condition, whether due to trauma, illness or condition present at birth.  Occupational therapy services include but are not limited to:

1. The evaluation/assessment, treatment, and education of or consultation with the individual, family or other persons.

2. Interventions directed toward developing, improving or restoring daily living skills, work readiness or work performance, play skills or leisure capacities;

3. Intervention methodologies to develop, restore or maintain sensorimotor, oralmotor, perceptual, or neuromuscular functioning: joint range of motion; emotional, motivational, cognitive or psychosocial components of performance.