Summer Looks Different Depending on How You're Feeling About Your Job
If you love school-based practice and can't wait to come back in September, this post probably isn't for you. Enjoy your summer.
But if you've been grinding through the school year on fumes — IEP season, impossible caseloads, documentation that ate your evenings — and you're arriving at summer feeling more relieved than rested, this post is worth reading before you let the next school year sneak up on you.
Summer is the best window school-based pediatric therapists have to think clearly about whether the current arrangement is working. No IEP meetings. No coverage drama. Actual time to breathe. That clarity doesn't last — September has a way of pulling you back in before you've made any decisions. So if something is going to change, summer is when you plan it.
Here's how to use the time well.
First: Be Honest About What's Actually Wrong
Before you make any moves, get specific about the source of the problem. Summer is a good time to do this because you have enough distance from the school year to think clearly, but not so much distance that you've forgotten what it actually felt like.
Ask yourself:
- Was it the caseload size, or would a more reasonable caseload fix it?
- Was it this specific district, or is school-based practice itself the mismatch?
- Was it the documentation volume, or the content of the work?
- Was it the setting, or the pay?
- Are you burned out on pediatric therapy, or burned out on the school model specifically?
The answers matter because the solutions are different. A caseload problem in an otherwise good district is worth trying to negotiate. A values mismatch with school-based practice isn't something a new district fixes.
Most therapists who reach this point are dealing with more than one thing at once. That's normal. But being clear about the root cause keeps you from making a lateral move that doesn't actually solve the problem.
Option 1: Use Summer to Test Independent Practice
Summer is genuinely the best time for school-based therapists to explore in-home independent practice — not because you should quit your job, but because you can try it without quitting your job.
Many families with children who receive school-based therapy are looking for summer continuation services. Schools don't typically provide extended school year (ESY) services to most students, which means families whose children were making progress during the school year face a gap. They're looking for therapists who can see their child through July and August.
That's your entry point. A summer caseload through Coral Care lets you:
- See what in-home pediatric practice actually feels like, without leaving your school job
- Experience what it's like to have billing, credentialing, and documentation handled for you
- Build relationships with families who may want to continue in the fall
- Earn meaningful supplemental income during months you'd otherwise not be working
- Make an informed decision about the school year with actual data, not speculation
The two-week onboarding timeline matters here. If you apply in May or early June, you can be credentialed and seeing patients before school lets out. Waiting until July puts you mid-summer before you're up and running.
Option 2: Use Summer to Prepare a Fall Transition
If you've already decided that next school year is your last, summer is the window to get the infrastructure in place so you're not scrambling in September.
What that looks like practically:
- Apply to Coral Care now. Credentialing takes roughly two weeks. If you start the process in June, you could have an active patient panel by July and real caseload data before you need to make any September decisions.
- Run the financial math. Map out what your school salary and benefits are actually worth in total compensation (salary + health insurance employer contribution + retirement match + PTO value). Then map out what a realistic independent caseload looks like at target volume. Many therapists who do this exercise find the gap is smaller than they expected.
- Sort out health insurance. This is usually the most anxiety-producing part of leaving a school job. Research your ACA marketplace options now, while you have time, rather than in a panic at the end of August. Our post on what happens to your benefits when you go independent walks through this in detail.
- Give your district proper notice. If you're leaving, give your district as much notice as you can manage. It's the right thing to do, and it protects your professional relationships in a small community.
Option 3: Build a Side Practice and Keep Your Job
For therapists who aren't ready to leave — or don't want to — building a part-time independent caseload alongside your school job is a real option. Coral Care has no minimums. You can see 4 patients a week or 14. You can take summers full and scale back during the school year. You can build slowly and decide later.
The most common version of this: school-based therapists who build a small in-home caseload during evenings or Saturday mornings during the school year, and expand to a full summer caseload when school is out. Over one to two years, many of these therapists quietly build enough of an independent patient base and financial cushion that the decision to leave the school job becomes a lot less scary.
It doesn't require a dramatic leap. It requires starting.
What Not to Do This Summer
Don't spend three months decompressing and arrive at August 15th having made no decisions, only to sign your contract for another year by default. That's what most school-based therapists do. It's how people end up doing the same unsustainable job for five more years than they intended.
The school calendar gives you predictability and structure. It also creates a rhythm that makes it very easy to keep rolling into the next year without ever choosing it actively. Summer is the interruption in that rhythm. Use it.
If You're Ready to Have the Conversation
Coral Care's intro call is 30 minutes, no commitment, and will tell you exactly what the independent practice model looks like in your state and specialty. If now is the right time, you'll know by the end of the call. If it's not, you'll have better information for when it is.
