The Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) program at CCBC has existed since 1988 and is accredited through the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education. Students enrolled in this program learn to assist in providing occupational therapy to patients with a variety of medical and psychosocial diagnoses.
Occupational therapy assistants provide treatment interventions to assist patients/clients to maximize skills in order to function as independently as possible when faced with physical and/or psychosocial challenges caused by injury, illness, disease, or developmental disability.
Graduates of this program can work in hospitals, health care centers, nursing facilities, school systems, inpatient/outpatient mental health programs and rehabilitation centers.
Understand the admission requirements for the Occupational Therapy Assistant program.
Review the admission packet for this program.
Collect pertinent materials like unofficial transcripts for all U.S. college-level coursework and testing completed. Use these to help you complete the application.
If you have never before applied through the SHP central application system, then create an account in SHP CAS through the applicant portal. Follow the directions to complete the applications process.
If you applied using the SHP CAS before, login and verify that all areas are correct. If you have taken additional courses, you must add them and send an official transcript showing the completed or in-progress courses.
Once all sections of the application have a green check mark, you will be able to pay the $50 non‐refundable application fee. It is better to submit the application at least a month before the application deadline: June 1 for fall semester.
Submit your official US college transcripts, including CCBC, electronically to the SHP CAS. This is done in the Academic History quadrant in the SHP CAS application. Under each college that you listed as attended, there is an Order button. Click on that and you will be able to access the transcript companies to request the transcript(s).
If your college only sends hard copies through the mail, include the Transcript Request Form found in the Academic History quadrant of the SHP CAS application. The form connects your transcript to your application account. Both documents should be mailed to:
SHP CAS Transcript Processing Center
P.O. Box 9134
Watertown, MA 02471
CLEP, AP and non-US college transcript evaluations (AACRAO, WES, etc.) should be sent directly to the CCBC Registrar’s office, for transfer of credit to occur. Complete the Transfer Evaluation Request Form to ensure that your submitted transcripts will be evaluated.
It can take four to six weeks for any transcript to be received, evaluated and verified. Check your SHP CAS account frequently, by clicking on the “Check Status” button. It is better to send all transcripts as soon as possible.
After you submit your SHP CAS application and it is Verified, the SHP Admission Office will send an email requesting that a supplemental application be completed. There is no additional fee associated with the supplemental application.
Expect communication regarding your application to the email address that you entered into the SHP CAS.
This program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), located at 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200, North Bethesda, Maryland 20852-4929. ACOTE’s telephone number c/o AOTA is 301.652.AOTA.
Graduates of this program will be eligible to sit for the National Certification Examination for the Occupational Therapy Assistant administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT). After successful completion of this exam, the graduate will be a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA). CCBC Occupational Therapy Assistant program results from NBCOT can be found online at https://www.nbcot.org/Educators-Folder/SchoolPerformance.
This program has been granted re-accreditation through the year 2023/24.
| Graduation year | Students entered | Students graduated | Graduation rate |
| 2020 | 35 | 28** | 80% |
| 2021 | 37 | 30** | 81% |
| 2022 | 20 | 22** | 110% |
| 2023 | 31 | 30 | 97% |
| Total | 123 | 110 | 89% |
** Graduation impacted by COVID-19.
Program Director, Occupational Therapy Assistant
