VISSPA FAQs

The VISSPA is a tool for analyzing a workload. Workload includes time for student-specific activities (e.g., material/equipment preparation, evaluations, assistive technology support, etc.), non-student-specific activities (e.g., district-required meetings, professional development, etc.), and documented time activities (direct service time, collaborative consultation time, travel time, etc.). The caseload includes the number of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) served by VI professionals through direct and/or collaborative consultation service delivery options. Workload also includes this service time.

The VISSPA should be completed by a VI professional. This data can then be shared with an administrator or decision-making team who may collect the data from the tool to determine appropriate caseload size and other job duties.

The VISSPA can be completed at any time an individual or an administrator seeks to assess the workload of a VI professional. Common times the tool may be used include when assigning students or when there are significant changes in a professional’s responsibilities (e.g., new students move into a district). The tool should be used at least annually when analyzing the distribution of caseload and other job duties within the VI program—at the end of a school year or at the beginning of a new school year.

Once you are familiar with the VISSPA and have collected the needed data, the time needed to complete the scale is approximately 30 minutes for the VI professional to complete. With increased use, the process will become faster.

Preferably, yes. The numeric results from the VISSIT and/or O&M VISSIT are the foundation for the workload tool. Using another service intensity tool or method would not be correlated the same way with the outcome of the workload analysis tool.

Yes, the VISSIT and O&M VISSIT require current evaluation data, and the VISSPA includes the results from one or both of these scales.

Whereas there is a shift in caseload/workload during these times, you will be guided by your district’s policies for providing services. It is anticipated that your typical workload tasks will change, but you will still address the categories outlined in the VISSPA, changing the workload.

Yes, you can use the VISSPA for any service delivery model. Just note your time under the direct and collaborative consultation Documented-Time Activities section, or any other category, depending on the service or task (e.g., evaluations done remotely).

You share the results with your VI team and administrator in order to use the data for an equitable allocation of workload. The tool may also provide documentation for the need of additional VI personnel to serve the students in your district(s).

No, because the VISSPA was designed for VI professionals working with students who are in the birth through 22 age range in itinerant educational settings.

You would still include that time in the appropriate category, and it should reflect more than a 40-hour week so that your administrator knows that you are working more than you should be each week. That would be a point of discussion to see if there is something that could change with your workload or perhaps there is a need for additional personnel.

The VISSPA looks only at the travel time needed to provide direct and collaborative consultative time and the time needed to complete the other responsibilities of your position. Travel is not simply a factor of mileage and should take into account traffic and other issues that may add to travel time. Whether to also count time spent in travel at the beginning and the end of the day is a district administrator’s decision.

These devices are an option, but using a computer to enter data will be more efficient.

First, download the VISSPA document. Then, save it on the computer. Next, open the VISSPA in Adobe Acrobat Reader and enter information into the VISSPA form. For more information, click on VISSPA Step-by-Step Instructions.

Yes. VISSPA will work with JAWS.

Note this time in the Student-Specific Activities section under the Evaluations category. Calculate all the time spent on evaluations. These include but are not limited to, reviewing records, interviews with the family/school personnel/student, observations, preparing evaluation materials, direct interactions with the student, and report writing.

Technical Assistance/Training for Others provides training to the district, community workers, campus staff, and others who are not directly related to a specific student. Collaborative Consultation is student-specific, documented in the IEP/IFSP, and is an interactive process that enables VI professionals to generate creative solutions to mutually defined problems with other educational team members. Refer to Terminology for clarification on both terms.

This time would be documented in the Non-Student-Specific Activities section under Technical Assistance/Training for Others.

Note this in the Non-Student-Specific Activities section under the Technical Assistance/Training for Others category.

You should use your professional judgment to include that time in the most appropriate category. It is important that you attempt to capture all of your workload time.

No. Please use the choices provided.

Yes! Every box defaults to zero until you change the number. In some cases, certain workload activities may not apply to the current duties of the VI professional. In these cases, that workload area should remain filled in with a zero. All sections of the VISSPA should be carefully addressed if the totals are to represent an accurate analysis of the required workload time.

In order to maintain consistency in the way that time is reported, the VISSPA needs to express documented time in minutes per week.

The following time standards were used for an academic year, based on services in Texas. These time standards may change depending on individual state laws.

An academic year has:

• 180 days
• 36 weeks
• 9 months

A semester has:

• 18 weeks

A week has:

• 40 hours (37.5 hours plus 2.5 hours for lunch)
• 2400 minutes (includes lunch)

A day has:

• 8 hours (7.5 hours plus 30 minutes for lunch)
• 480 minutes (includes lunch)

The VISSPA can be used by any VI professional, regardless of the number of days/hours contracted. You will fill out the VISSPA scoring sheet, and your results will indicate the total amount of time it takes to accomplish your tasks. You can compare the grand total amount of time on the VISSPA with the hours for which you are contracted.

Although this tool ultimately calculates time per week, workload tasks do not necessarily occur on a weekly basis. Range scores account for the variability in the time any individual VI professional spends on workload tasks throughout the entire school year.

You can use a calculator or a time-tracking app/tool available online to track your time. Some tasks you perform regularly are easy to track, such as the time you spend planning lessons, accountability reporting, and/or weekly team meetings. Other workload tasks may not be performed as routinely, such as time spent attending IEP meetings, filling out summer program applications, attending conferences, and/or attending a medical appointment with a student. You might consider tracking your time over a period of two weeks or a month, remembering to add in tasks done only once a year.

Remember that the time on your current VISSIT/O&M VISSIT is your initial recommendation to the IEP committee. The committee team may agree to a different amount of time, which should be noted at the bottom of the VISSIT/O&M VISSIT. If there is a discrepancy between the VISSIT/O&M VISSIT results and the time tracking tool, you will need to take a deeper look into why there is a difference. It could be that services delivered throughout the school year are different from the amount of services that were indicated in the VISSIT/O&M VISSIT as student needs change. For example, it could be a result of changes in IEP, changes in a student’s medical status, student progress, or unexpected global events.

If the work week is over 40 hours and the VI professional is unable to complete all job responsibilities, refer to Suggestions for Workload Adjustments to use as discussion points for making adjustments. Since educational programs may vary on individual policies, refer to your state and local requirements in light of these possible suggestions. You are encouraged to involve your administrator and any additional VI team members in a conversation in which you share the results of your VISSPA data, and together, you determine possible solutions. These solutions may indicate the need for additional personnel (e.g., TSVI, O&M specialist, braillist, intervener), reducing drive time by consolidating campuses, reallocating student caseloads, etc.

If the work week is under 40 hours and the VI professional has additional time remaining, refer to Suggestions for Workload Adjustments to use as discussion points for making adjustments. Since educational programs may vary on individual policies, refer to your state and local requirements in light of these possible suggestions. Again, you are encouraged to involve your administrator and any additional VI team members in a conversation in which you share the results of your VISSPA data, and together you can determine possible solutions. These solutions may indicate adding additional duties, reallocating student caseloads, assisting with more evaluations, and/or building professional capacity in additional skill areas in order to serve as a district resource to the other members of the team (e.g., AT, communication, collaboration, Active Learning, CVI, early childhood, ECC).

The VISSPA will provide quantitative data to help VI professionals determine time allocated to your entire caseload. By including workload elements, along with appropriate service time and intensity, the VI professional can better quantify the time it takes to complete all their duties and responsibilities. Thus, the VISSPA may help educators better meet student needs and prevent VI professional burnout.

If you completed your VISSIT/O&M VISSIT on each student accurately, based on current evaluation data, your VISSPA results should clearly reflect your workload. If, however, you completed your VISSITs/O&M VISSITs based on your available time, your results will not accurately reflect the time required to meet student needs. In the case of inaccurate reporting, the results of the VISSPA will not provide your administrator with the data to consider possible changes in order to adequately serve your student caseload.

This would be an option for individuals who want to document the percentage of time spent for each role.

Administrators can make decisions about hiring additional staff, utilizing contractors, adjusting caseloads, shifting job responsibilities, etc. For more specific ideas, please refer to the Suggestions for Workload Adjustments document.

A consideration is to calculate the average of the total range score, which gives the number of minutes per week. Then, look at the number of minutes spent on documented-time activities and compare it to the time spent on both student- and non-student-specific activities. Use the numbers to calculate a percentage of the time spent on each category of activities: documented-time activities and student- and non-student-specific activities.

For more information, please refer to VISSPA Scenario: Teresa and check the information under Results. Helpful calculation tools can be found by clicking on Average Calculator and Percentage Calculator.