Sanity-Saving Data Collection One of the most challenging (and often time consuming) things we face in the schools

seeing children in groups is compiling and filing therapy notes. I have a system to offer that makes the process much easier. You can collect data for six students on a single page, then easily transfer the data to each students individual file. Heres how you do it: (1) Find ink jet printable shipping labels that are 4 wide x 3.3 tall. Staples sells these labels online for $25.65 (estimated CA tax included). They come in a set of 100 sheets with six labels per sheet (total 600 labels). This makes the cost per label approximately 5 cents. Staples also sells a larger box (250 sheets of six labels per sheet, totaling 1500 labels) for $73.83 (estimated CA tax included. These are also approximately 5 cents per label. See Label Sample pdf. (2) Next, print each page with a solid series of horizontal lines, from top to bottom. Space the lines so that each label has approximately 8-9 horizontal lines. You can pre-print the entire box. I would suggest adding Student and Date on the first line of each label as a reminder to document which label belongs to which student, but if you still have adequate STM that might not be necessary. See Label with Lines pdf. (3) Then, during each group take data/notes for each student on his/her own label. See Label with Example pdf. After the session concludes, peel off each individual label and place it on a blank sheet in the students file. You will be able to document 12 sessions (6 on the front of the page and 6 on the back), which should get your through 6-12 weeks of documentation. You might end up with 3-8 sheets per students using this method. (4) Its essential that you come up with your own abbreviations and ways to make the therapy notes concise (you dont have much space to work with), but Ive found the space is generally adequate for a !-hour group. I use IM for imitated, PR for parent report, AO for auditory-only model, AV for an auditory + visual speech cue model, TC for tactile cue, SC for self-correct, ! for increase, " for decreasevery basic things like that, but it saves space. I also put something at the beginning of the line that identifies the goal being targeted. You could also have a numbered list of each students goals in their individual file, and use the goal number to identify the goal on the label, but I think many of us think of goals as the [w/r] goal, the pronoun goal, the on-topic goal, etc. Use whatever works best for you.