Psylio and Remedial Teaching: Professionalizing Record Keeping

In collaboration with ADOQ.

In the wake of the professionalization of remedial teachers, it has become imperative for those working with students with learning difficulties to look into their record keeping and information processing.

This article will clear up which type of document should be produced based on the actions taken and time of year.

Diverse Frameworks

It is essential for remedial teachers to understand which laws apply to them, because they have a major impact on record keeping. Consent, access to files, confidentiality, etc. are all governed by law. The Civil Code of Québec and the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms include, among others, important chapters on confidentiality and the right to privacy.

Currently. remedial teaching is a profession that can be practiced in various contexts. As a professional title that is not yet governed by its own professional organization, it remains an individual responsibility, depending on the work context, to respect the standards in place. When it comes to retention of personal information in particular, it is important to refer to the law that applies to the context in which you work, either the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector or the Education Act.

When remedial teaching takes place in the education or health and social services networks, there are internal regulations and laws that dictate the information that must be recorded, where, and how often it must be done. In a firm or private practice, as a member of the Association de orthopédagogues du Québec, there are guidelines for managing record keeping (French only) as well as the Association’s ethical code (French only).

One thing we can say for sure is that the nature of work done by remedial teachers, no matter the context of practice, deserves to be treated with rigour and professionalism.

Leaving clear records of the approach taken, the student’s evolution, and the steps left to be taken remains an important skill that must be developed by professionals in this field.

Record Keeping for Remedial Teachers: WHAT, HOW and WHEN

Regulations on record keeping and consultation rooms for remedial teachers in Québec (French only) indicate that remedial teachers must create a file for each person they work with and ensure it is up-to-date and stored. This record keeping must respect confidentiality and be done in compliance with rules in place regarding the protection of personal data. The files must contain information such as:

• The date the file was opened.
• The client’s name at birth, gender, birthdate, address, and phone number, and when the client is a minor, incapacitated or incapable, the name of their legal guardian or representative.
• A brief description of the reason for consulting.
• A brief description of professional services rendered and their dates.
• A description of the intervention plan and recommendations.
• Client progress notes following the rendering of services.
• Any document related to transmission of information to third parties including any document signed by the client authorizing transmission of such information.
• A copy of any service contract or the description of any special agreement concerning the nature and terms of an intervention.
• Requests for consultation made to other professionals or organizations, if applicable.

Remedial teaching progress notes should be written regularly to keep the file up-to-date and provide regular follow-up on the evolution of the intervention. They should include the objections worked on and the progress made by the student. A note template is available on Psylio to help facilitate the process.

The remedial teaching assessment makes it possible to monitor the progress of an intervention. Its purpose is to inform those who are working with the student, their parents, and the student themself about the intervention and its impact on the difficulties they experience. The assessment makes it possible to figure out the current situation, to readjust the intervention and redirect services as needed.

This can be done at the end of the year, between two blocks of intervention, when changing to a new teacher, or at the end of the remedial service. An assessment is also important as a means of documenting persistent difficulties to contribute to a diagnosis process or when implementing an adaptive measure such as assistive technology for learning. The assessment can be found in the “Documents” section on Psylio.

The remedial teaching report is a tool for reporting on the remedial teaching evaluation. Sometimes, a complete evaluation and written report are necessary when difficulties persist despite the interventions being carried out with the student, and an understanding of the situation is needed to be able to guide future interventions. It’s a collection of data in a specific moment during the remedial intervention approach. This type of report becomes an important document in the diagnosis process for a learning disability in a multidisciplinary team, for example. The evaluation report must paint a specific portrait of the difficulties the student is experiencing in the target areas, present observations, evaluation results, a professional opinion, but must not come to any conclusion or diagnosis, as this can only be done by those in other professional fields. The remedial teacher may talk about their impressions, for example. This report could be saved in the “Documents” section of Psylio. We have suggested an editable PDF that may help save you time.

Record keeping, as it is structured in Psylio, is a way of ensuring that a student’s information remains confidential and can all be found in the same place (profile sheet, progress notes, assessment and reports, documents). The tool was developed considering the requirements of professional organizations for mental-health professions (OTSTCFQ, OPQ, OPSQ, OPPQ) both in terms of data security and record keeping standards.

We believe that record keeping is just as important for those who support students on a pedagogical level as it is for the psychosocial level, even if the profession is not yet governed by a professional organization. A record keeping platform like Psylio will allow for the rigour, convenience and confidentiality that are needed!