Direct Service Hours

To make the transition from Associate to Professional Member, AET requires a minimum of 1500 direct service hours with clients within the past ten years. Associate applicants are not expected to have their full quota of service hours when submitting for membership, but it is helpful for the committee to have as complete a representation as possible of the direct service hours that you have accrued. These may include fieldwork or practicum hours required in a higher education program, in educational therapy or in a closely related discipline. Verification for the 1,500 direct-service hours requirement may include signed supervisory contracts and letters of verification from work site administrators and professional colleagues. The 1,500 direct-service hours shall include, but not be limited to:

• direct work with clients
• school visits
• parent conferences
• professional consultations
• observations of clients for purposes of diagnosis and information gathering
• consultations related to clients’ work and independent living

Note* Candidates who submit hours not gained under the auspices of a higher education program and/or hours which do not demonstrate clinical teaching (for example, hours spent in regular classroom instruction) may be required to obtain additional hours that clearly demonstrate clinical teaching.

Upon approval of Associate Membership, the hours accrued thus far will be used in conjunction with information in the résumé, to determine the number of BCET supervised hours to be assigned. All new Associate Members are assigned supervised hours. Depending upon the levels of individual experience 50 to 500 hours will be assigned to Associate Members, who will work with students in a 10 to 1 ratio under the supervision of a Board Certified Educational Therapist. The goal of these assigned hours is to provide mentorship and support to new educational therapists. For the experienced Associates collaborative work is viewed as valuable, and provides AET a way of assuring that new Associate Members understand AET’s goals and expectations. If you know a BCET with whom you would like to work please provide that information in the space on the academic worksheet under Supervised Hours.

The following letter is a template that you may use for submission of direct service hours.