OTD Admissions

The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process, Fourth Edition (OTPF–4), describes occupational therapy as the therapeutic use of everyday life occupations to support participation for persons, groups, and populations (AOTA, 2020). Occupational therapy students learn to use occupational analysis, evaluation, clinical reasoning, intervention, documentation, and professional collaboration to support safe and effective services in accordance with applicable professional standards and law.

The OTD Program applies its published academic and technical requirements consistently and in accordance with applicable federal and state law, Texas A&M University System and University policies. Students are expected to communicate respectfully, apply professional ethics, exercise sound clinical judgment, and provide client-centered occupational therapy services consistent with client needs, applicable standards of care, and the requirements of each practice setting. These expectations concern observable professional conduct and competent practice.

Qualified students with disabilities may request reasonable accommodations through Tarleton State University Student Accessibility Services. The University evaluates accommodation requests through its established confidential process and in accordance with applicable law. Students are encouraged to contact Accessibility Services promptly when an accommodation may be needed. The Program and its faculty will implement accommodations as directed through the University’s authorized process; faculty should not independently request medical documentation or make disability eligibility determinations.

A student may demonstrate an essential requirement with or without reasonable accommodation, including approved assistive technology or alternative methods when appropriate. An accommodation does not require elimination of an essential academic or clinical requirement or a fundamental alteration of the Program. Decisions concerning accommodation effectiveness, essential requirements, patient or student safety, or potential fundamental alteration require individualized assessment and coordination with appropriate University offices. A diagnosis, disability disclosure, or use of an accommodation does not by itself establish inability to meet a requirement.

Performance is assessed in relation to the actual educational or clinical task, the expected level of training, relevant safety standards, and approved accommodations, when applicable. Skills must be demonstrated with sufficient accuracy, timeliness, consistency, and safety to achieve the learning or clinical objective. Specific conditions may differ across courses and experiential settings. This list describes essential areas of performance but is not an exhaustive inventory of every course, site, or licensing expectation.

1. Communicate accurately and effectively with clients, caregivers, faculty, peers, and interprofessional team members, using methods appropriate to the task, audience, and setting. 

2. Demonstrate respectful, ethical, client-centered professional conduct and account for the client’s stated priorities, relevant circumstances, needs, and occupational goals when planning care. 

3. Collaborate appropriately with clients, caregivers, peers, supervisors, and other professionals to support safe services and shared decision-making. 

4. Participate in assigned team, leadership, and supervisory activities within the student’s training and authorized role. 

5. Receive, interpret, and use constructive feedback to improve professional or clinical performance. 

6. Use suitable verbal, written, nonverbal, and/or assistive communication methods for clinical interviews, education, group activities, and professional exchange. 

7. Use therapeutic communication and professional interaction skills to establish an effective working relationship with clients. 

8. Communicate relevant personal limitations, accommodation-related implementation needs through appropriate channels, and client safety concerns in a timely manner.  

9. Maintain appropriate professional boundaries, confidentiality, and role expectations. 

10. Use required instructional and clinical technologies, including electronic documentation systems, to communicate, access information, and complete tasks. 

11. Demonstrate professional presentation and conduct consistent with legitimate instructional, identification, infection-control, and clinical site requirements. 

12. Demonstrate dependability, preparation, timely communication, and accountability for assigned responsibilities. 

13. Apply strategies to maintain professional judgment, respond to feedback, and function safely during challenging or changing circumstances. 

14. Follow required infection-prevention, exposure-control, and safety procedures when working in clinical environments or with clients experiencing illness, pain, distress, or other challenging circumstances. 

15. Gather and interpret relevant verbal, nonverbal, observational, and record-based information for evaluation, intervention, reassessment, and discharge planning. 

16. Apply applicable ethical standards, professional responsibilities, privacy rules, and institutional and site requirements. 

17. Organize work, prioritize responsibilities, and complete essential coursework, fieldwork, and capstone tasks within applicable deadlines and operational requirements. 

18. Maintain sufficient functional endurance and positioning, with permitted supports or adjustments when appropriate, to participate in required educational and clinical activities for the duration necessary to complete the task safely.
19. Perform essential therapeutic activities and required clinical tasks safely within the demands of the assigned learning or practice setting, including tasks that involve physical effort when relevant.
20. Assist with client positioning, movement, and functional activities using appropriate technique, available equipment, assistance, and safety procedures; recognize when additional personnel or equipment is required.
21. Participate appropriately in hands-on instruction and therapeutic procedures when essential to the learning objective, while maintaining consent, boundaries, infection control, and safety.
22. Access and navigate necessary instructional, treatment, and community environments using effective means of mobility and approved supports as appropriate.
23. Operate, position, or direct the safe use of relevant occupational therapy tools, adaptive equipment, therapeutic materials, and task-specific technology, with appropriate assistance where permitted.
24. Gather and respond to relevant visual, auditory, tactile, and other clinical or environmental information through effective sensory, communication, or assistive methods sufficient for the task.
25. Identify and respond to urgent safety concerns in a timely and effective manner, including alerting others, activating emergency procedures, and obtaining assistance when indicated.

26. Acquire, understand, recall, integrate, and apply relevant knowledge using appropriate instructional and learning methods. 

27. Complete assigned learning activities and critically appraise research and other evidence to inform occupational therapy reasoning. 

28. Integrate complex theoretical, contextual, clinical, and scientific information in occupational therapy evaluation and intervention. 

29. Interpret concurrent client, environmental, procedural, and safety information and prioritize actions appropriately. 

30. Participate meaningfully in team-based learning, clinical consultation, group activities, and professional collaboration. 

31. Sustain and manage attention sufficiently to complete essential instructional and clinical tasks, using approved strategies or supports where appropriate. 

32. Understand, apply, and adapt to required safety procedures and changing client or environmental conditions. 

33. Use critical thinking, sound judgment, and clinical reasoning to identify occupational performance needs, evaluate options, and support safety. 

34. Develop, explain, implement, and reassess appropriate occupation-centered plans based on evaluation findings, client goals, evidence, and contextual factors. 

35. Comply with applicable classroom, laboratory, community, fieldwork, and capstone rules, including documentation, professional conduct, supervision, and safety requirements. 

36. Maintain sufficient functional alertness, awareness, attention, and responsiveness throughout assigned clinical and simulation activities to recognize, interpret, and respond appropriately to client needs and environmental safety concerns. 

37. Demonstrate consistent and reliable clinical judgment and performance during safety-sensitive activities, including recognizing changes in personal functioning that may compromise the ability to perform essential clinical responsibilities. 

Patient safety is an essential requirement of occupational therapy education and clinical practice. Students must demonstrate the ability to perform assigned clinical responsibilities safely, consistently, and reliably, with or without reasonable accommodations. Students must demonstrate sufficient functional awareness, alertness, responsiveness, judgment, and physical control to monitor client safety, recognize foreseeable hazards, and respond appropriately throughout assigned clinical activities. These expectations apply to classroom laboratories, clinical simulations, community experiences, fieldwork, and doctoral capstone activities involving direct client care or the simulation of clinical responsibilities.
Students must demonstrate the ability to:

1. Maintain continuous awareness of relevant client and environmental conditions during assigned safety-sensitive activities.
2. Perform essential clinical tasks with sufficient consistency, reliability, and responsiveness to protect clients from reasonably foreseeable harm.
3. Recognize changes in client status or personal functioning that could compromise safe performance and take appropriate action.
4. Respond promptly and effectively to unexpected clinical situations, including obtaining assistance and transferring responsibility when necessary.
5. Demonstrate safe performance during therapeutic handling, transfers, functional mobility, equipment use, and other activities where interrupted performance could create a significant safety risk.

Successful performance of an essential clinical skill on a single occasion does not necessarily establish competency. Students must demonstrate the required level of safe performance consistently across relevant learning and clinical experiences. An inability to demonstrate an essential patient-safety requirement may affect participation in clinical activities or academic progression. Any such determination must be based on documented performance, individualized assessment, consideration of reasonable accommodations, and applicable University procedures. A medical diagnosis or disability alone does not establish inability to meet these requirements.

If a student experiences difficulty demonstrating an essential requirement, faculty should identify the specific task, required performance outcome, observed performance, relevant safety considerations, and any instructional feedback already provided. Concerns should be described objectively and without assumptions about disability or personal characteristics. Faculty should discuss academic or clinical performance expectations with the student and consult the Program Director and appropriate University offices when accommodations, accessibility, or safety are implicated. The University’s approved accommodation process and applicable academic policies govern the subsequent review. Decisions about progression or participation must be based on documented performance, applicable requirements, individualized review, and authorized institutional procedures.

Texas A&M University System Policy 08.01, Civil Rights Protections and Compliance (revised December 18, 2025): https://policies.tamus.edu/08-01.pdf

Texas Education Code § 51.3525 (SB 17): https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.51.htm

Tarleton State University, SB 17 Compliance: https://www.tarleton.edu/university-compliance/sb17-compliance/

Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; applicable University accessibility procedures.

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2), 7412410010.