The AOTA Fellowship Program for occupational therapists
AOTA recognizes post-professional fellowship programs for licensed occupational therapists in focused areas of practice. Sponsoring organizations build each fellowship around AOTA’s criteria and five learning objective areas, with mentored practice and a clinical caseload in the focus area. AOTA publishes a directory of programs. Completing an AOTA-approved fellowship can shorten the experience requirement for AOTA Board Certification from three years to two. AOTA’s eligibility page calls the fellowship “not required” for that, and a fellowship is not a license.
Quoted from official pages checked November 10, 2026. Confirm current requirements, fees, and dates on those sites. This page is not legal advice and does not guarantee eligibility, certification, or licensure.
AOTA’s pages were read in a JavaScript-capable browser on November 10, 2026. A plain (non-browser) fetch of the same page returned no readable article.
What it is
AOTA’s Fellowship Program page states: “The AOTA Fellowship Program cultivates, promotes, and recognizes post-professional training programs that advance the knowledge and skills of licensed occupational therapists in various focused areas of practice.” It also states: “The AOTA Fellowship Program provides sponsoring organizations with a comprehensive framework to develop a fellowship program in a specific focused area of practice.” The page describes these programs for licensed occupational therapists. It does not describe a fellowship route for occupational therapy assistants.
What a fellow learns
The page states that each fellowship incorporates both the Fellowship Program criteria and the Fellowship Program Learning Objectives (FPLOs), which it says are based on AOTA’s Standards of Continuing Competence. It lists the five FPLO areas as “body of knowledge, reasoning and performance skills, ethical practice skills, interpersonal skills, and scholarly and/or professional activities.”
It states: “The curriculum will incorporate in-depth mentored practice, coupled with clinical caseloads in their focused area of practice that includes” “direct exposure to targeted evidence-based research and clinical practice” and “providing occupational therapists the opportunity to improve and advance their clinical skills in a focused area of practice”. AOTA sets no caseload number on that page, and none is given here.
Finding a program
The page links an AOTA Fellowship Directory and states: “View the current list of AOTA's Fellowship Programs by focused area of practice and stage in the recognition process.” This site names no programs. The AOTA Fellowship Program page opened for this site did not publish a single national rule on admission, program length, pay, or cost. AOTA’s separate pages for potential fellows, its policy and procedure manual, and its schedule of fees were not opened, and no fee is copied here. Ask each program listed in the official directory.
For organizations seeking recognition
These dates apply to sponsoring organizations, not to individual applicants. The page states: “The initial accreditation process starts with submitting an Intent to Seek Accreditation (ISA) form. Once the ISA is approved, the next step is to submit a Candidacy Application by one of the review cycle deadlines: May 1, September 1, or December 1.” Fellows apply to programs, not to that review cycle.
Fellowship and AOTA Board Certification
AOTA’s advanced certification eligibility page states: “Though not required, those who have completed an AOTA-Approved Fellowship Program are eligible to apply for advanced certification after obtaining two years of experience as an occupational therapist (rather than the typical requirement of three years), provided that the experience hours listed above have been attained.” It also states: “To apply using this early eligibility option, you must submit a copy of your fellowship certificate with date of completion listed.” See AOTA Advanced Certification.
How this compares with physical therapy
In physical therapy, ABPTRFE accredits residency and fellowship programs; see PT residencies and fellowships. The OT program above is AOTA’s own, and AOTA’s page names no outside accreditor. Neither is required for a license.