Lessons Learned My First Year as a Contract Orientation and Mobility Specialist

kassy, seated at table with computer open and coffee mug

It's been a full year since I’ve been contracting as an Orientation and Mobility specialist.

I have to say, “I Love It!”

It's as dreamy and as hard as everybody said that it was.

Leave a comment below and share with us some of your biggest tips for being a successful contract O&M Specialist.

Contracting as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist

As with anything, there are positives and drawbacks to working as a contract O&M Specialist. This past year, I contracted with school districts and although I signed up to contract with adults, I didn’t end up taking any clients.

Positive Aspects of Contracting as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist:

As a contract O&M Specialist you get to charge more per hour because they don't pay for your travel fees. Some O&M Specialists have worked in travel fees...good for you guys! I didn’t learn about that until way later. You do get paid a little bit more per hour of direct service time.
You get to set your own schedule. When there was “Muffins with Moms” on Friday for Mother's Day, I got to go! It was so exciting! I got to be there with BOTH of my kids, which I've never gotten to do before. It was amazing to be able to spend the whole time there. I had to rearrange some things around but, because I knew it was coming up I was able to do that. Also, I have a little bit more flexibility in my schedule. When my kids got sick I was able to switch around my schedule a lot easier than if I had to take the day off and then remake those students up during my planning periods or staying late. Which was always a little tricky and a bit hard to do.
You get to choose your own caseload. This year I worked with one school district in rural Texas and one charter school, here in town. I got to choose how far I was going to travel. I only wanted to work with a small number of students because I have to focus on our courses and the symposium. I didn't want to overextend myself.

Drawbacks of Contracting as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist:

The positives very much outweigh the negatives. But, I think it is important for you to know that it is not all rainbows and unicorns. Here are some of the drawbacks that I faced as an O&M Specialist when I contracted with school districts.

Yellow school bus, top portion with tail lights written School Bus on back and emergency door. My first year contracting as an Orientation and Mobility Specialist.

You aren't a team member and you know it. It can be kind of choppy at first. There is no professional development offered for free. You don't go to staff development days. It's all on you. That's the biggest drawback
Another con is that you really have to be meticulous with your time and you have to be on the ball with every single thing. I once got an email stating a student, who is 45 minutes away, was having an IEP meeting that day. There is no way I could make that. I'm not in their system for them to tell me ahead of time. I had no idea who the people were to even ask! That was a little tricky to navigate.

What I did well as a first year contract Orientation and Mobility Specialist:

I will have to say I'm really good at systems and I'm really good at the legal aspect. I did those things really well.

I became an LLC before I even started. You might need to figure out the tax and legal ramifications for all of those types of tax situations for yourself.

I paid for a Google Suite system email that allowed my documents to be FERPA compliant. There is a specific G-Suite option that is HIPAA and FERPA compliant, so I just work from that one. This has put me at ease a little bit more. I worked from a FERPA compliant Google Doc so I know that I'm covered..
I was also able to use QuickBooks Self-Employed. It’s $5 a month and very much worth the cost! QuickBooks Self-Employed will help track my mileage. I can also do my invoices from there. I was also able to add access for my accountant. She was then able to see what revenue came from where when we were doing taxes.

What I will work to improve in my second year as a contract Orientation and Mobility Specialist:

While reflecting on my first year, I remembered some of the basics we all tend to forget. These are some areas I plan to improve on this year.

Make a good first impression on your first visit. I remember specifically, Dr. Lewis taught us that bringing cookies help people remember you. I didn't bring them with me and it cost me. Especially with the students that I didn't see every single week. I had some consult students who I would email or I would see them once or twice a year.
I will call team meetings sooner rather than later. I got stuck by not knowing who to contact or how to find their email addresses. When I did email, they didn’t know who I was. It took a while to get a team meeting and place. Then it took time to figure out how to coordinate with the student and determine my role. For one student, once we did have a team meeting I found I had been working off an IEP goal that was no longer in place. I was only given the paper copies and not given the newest paper copy.
I will make sure the entire office staff know my name and my role. Once I was left in the front office for more than 10 minutes after the IEP meeting should have started. I wasn't allowed to go back into the IEP meeting with all of the other service providers because they didn't know who I was. They thought I was a parent, even though I've been there multiple times!
I will ask for help before I’m in a situation where I'm looking around and I have no idea how to handle this. Even though it feels like I'm on a crazy island all by myself, and it felt like that until after spring break. There are so many supports available, especially in Texas, but I didn't use any of them. I didn't know what to ask, who to reach out to and I didn’t want to bother anybody with something I felt I should know. We all made it through, but I feel I could have been a better O&M Specialist for my students.

There you have it my friends! The positives, the negatives, the highs and the lows. It's fun, it's sticky, it's choppy and once you get the hang of it, it's really awesome! I am looking forward to maintaining a smaller caseload next year so I can focus on the symposium and our courses. This job is AMAZING!

Ok friend, leave me a comment below. Looking back on your last year write below what went well for you! How do you plan to improve in the coming year? I look forward to hearing from you!