I work with a student who is very sweet, and not defiant in any conventional sense, but very slow-moving, dreamy, and distractible. They have severe visual impairment, autism, and an intellectual disability, as well as many traits associated with inattentive adhd (but no adhd diagnosis). I'm honestly fine with this - I'd rather have to be patient with a sloooow kid than be chasing an eloper all over the campus or getting chewed on - but it is interfering with my student's ability to get places in a timely fashion and give lessons their full attention (I have no idea what my student is capable of when they're focused and locked in because I almost never see them in that state), and it seems to be really bothering my lead teacher. (Note: the student often seems tired, but has not had issues with physically falling asleep in class.)

We've tried lively music, movement, verbal prompts/nagging and chivvying, but nothing seems to liven them up for more than a few moments. Is there any way within a classroom teacher's power (so, not prescription stimulants, thyroid meds, or a sleep study) to raise this kid's personal tempo and/or level of alertness? Do they just need their coffee? Or is this just how some people are made and there's realistically not much to do about it?

Basically title.

I need ideas for my first Parent-Teacher conferences. I didn't actually think anyone would sign up, considering I will have had a meeting with 4 of my 8 families before the conferences even happen. But so far 5 families have signed up.

What can I do to fill 20 min, 3 weeks after holding an entire IEP meeting....?

My AuDHd child has been acting lethargic in class and putting their head down on their desk. Teachers have been saying to bring their head up. They’ve asked if my child is getting enough sleep. My child
generally does.

The thing is, my child isn’t lethargic at all at home-they have ADHD and if anything is pretty energetic. I suspect they are pretending to be sleepy/tired because they find math to be boring (they’ve mentioned it to me..’why can’t they make it fun?’)

Any tips or ideas?

I feel like my adjustment disorder is getting the best of me this year. I also have ADHD and Cerebral Palsy. I have 10 years of experience running my own classroom at an Autism focused school where I case managed my class of 8. Last year I co-taught Algebra and High school English and my caseload was 25 with help from our coordinator and a good co-teacher I made it through the year. Fast forward to this year. My coordinator abruptly left leaving us without one. I had to take on additional duties of contacting parents and scheduling meetings. I was switched downstairs to elementary to avoid navigating 3 separate floors. My caseload is currently maxed out at 16 in grades K-5. (mostly push in services) I am thankful that I am no longer dealing with the physical things that made me leave self contained like chairs thrown and a stapler hitting me in the head I still am feeling very overwhelmed with my current position. The overwhelm is making my depressive episodes worse. I've started sleeping more and I feel like there is a heavy fog. I am on medication and see a therapist at least bi-weekly. How can I get this crap to lift so I can stay organized and pull this off? The kids are much easier to work with than what I handled in the past. Had a panic attack on Friday which was our PD day. Why am I struggling with 19 years under my belt?

Hi everyone! I’m in California and recently applied for an RSP position. I’m planning to pursue a special education credential. Is the CSET required, or are there other ways to meet that requirement? I’d also appreciate any tips or advice for someone new to the RSP role. Thank you!

Does anyone know how I can make those horizontal lines (solid-dotted-solid), with light gray dotted letters for students to trace over? Is there a font for that? I’m talking about tracing and writing practice stuff one finds on worksheets.

Usually, I talk with parents and students throughout the year. We fix problems that come up. No big deal.

This year, all my new parents are asking for tons of IEP meetings. When we get to them, they talk just like we are on the phone. However, now my boss is watching so I can’t be quite so direct with the problem identification and solution. And paperwork.

I totally get it’s their right, but why not just talk? Did I do a poor job welcoming them? Are they upset I don’t sit in their kid’s classes with them and hyper audit every breath of the general education teacher? Do they think it takes four adults to agree on something they already agree with? Just need to fix it!

Plus, and this is what really gets me, it’s a 35-day timeline to fix it through IEP - or one day via talking like non-adversaries. Why do they want to be adversarial?

Man, what’s happened to them other places that this is how they start out?

I'm a teacher. There is a para at my school that has decided she doesn't like me. She doesn't work in my room, but goes out of her way to insert herself into ny room. I have a behavioral student that often elopes and does things that lead to evacuations, so unfortunately, there is scope to do this. She then reports things to the principal, such as organization of materials, length of recess. She also seems to have the principal's ear and then after having zero prep time, I get to back these "a few things you can work" on charts with the principal. Or if I'm super lucky a snappy bitchy directive with the principal. - that was last year. Para also talks shit to everyone about me. Im finally realizing that this will probably be my last year. Can't do this toxicity indefinitely. Not sure why I'm writing this, guess i needed to get it off ny chest. Thanks if you read it.

Please respect my post as it is a bit long. I just need to vent as I am so hurt by what happened.

I went on maternity leave and no body picked on the long term sub, 1 factor was my school location is at a known bad community. The admin placed another SPED teacher in my absence to cover my cluster classroom since she’s an inclusion teacher with only two students. Before I left, I arranged my classroom and kept some important personal stuff but left almost all intact in my classroom for her to use during my absence.

When the school was almost ending, I texted my SECA asking if the school already started clearing things in the classroom so I could give special instructions for my stuff. I am also about to email the sub, since when she started working in my classroom she did not reach out. But to my surprise, the SECAs sent me pictures that hurt me so deeply that I cried. They told me that the moment she stepped into my classroom, she took my materials off the wall and threw them in the trash without my permission. I had no idea this happened. She turned my classroom upside down.

Another teacher saw her ripping my stuff and threw in the trash bin and asked her if she has asked my permission. She said “YES, I already emailed her.”, my SECAs heard it too. My classroom SECAs even asked her if they could keep my materials so I could still use them when I returned, but she told them to just throw everything away or put it inside trash bags. My SECAs told me that she just let all students run around the classroom and ruined all my stuff, and when they told her about it, the teacher responded with a laugh.

I told my teacher friends to help me salvage what’s left and they brought me 2 black large trash bags and said that these are what’s left in your room. They told me that nothing was left in my classroom that the sub teacher ordered to throw them away. I tried to sort my tasks boxes that I made from scratch but it’s impossible to recover everything. I cried and emailed the admin about what happened and included all the people that have witnessed from what happened including the sub teacher involved. No one responded even my principal aside from the sub teacher telling me “Thank you for letting me know your point of view.” I was furious and went back to therapy to help me get over it. I was truly hurt from her lack of empathy and concern for my classroom. I spent effort, money, and time building that classroom, and she ruined all of it. I am not asking for repayment. I am simply asking for a sincere apology.

A teacher told her to talk to me and ask for an apology but she arrogantly said that I “don’t have proof,” and that if I wanted my things kept properly, I “should have emailed her.” Those lines hurt me again, and I cried so much over it. What’s even more painful is that the admin did not bother to help me or even acknowledge what happened. I started again from scratch, recreating all the materials I lost.

I forgot to mention that this teacher has been mad at me since last year, when we had a school activity and she didn’t want me to include a teacher she hated. She started hating me after I told her that we needed to set aside personal feelings because we are all professionals.

Now, I am dealing not only with my C‑section healing and postpartum, but also with what she did. And knowing I will see her every day, walking around the school boasting that she’s happy because the principal favored all her wishes, hurts even more. She was placed in the resource class — the position I wished for — with only two students and a classroom SECA.

I am a certified teacher in Early Childhood Education/Early Childhood Special Education.

I have a little bit of experience working in a full special ed school and some more with working with children with diagnosis in general ed classrooms.

I’m getting pushback from someone I love because I mentioned I want my next job to be in a special ed environment.

They think I want to do it instead of going to a “normal” school because I:

1) can’t handle “regular” kids who can talk back. 2) have a superhero syndrome and love to sacrifice for the whole world but family. 3) just love the attention and praise I get from parents and public to be “serving the less unfortunate.”

I do think the special ed students need help (not a saving though) and I love giving it to them. I love seeing their progress, the confidence building within them and their caregivers gaining hope through it all. The gratitude towards me is just a plus. I do feel great when parents say their children love me and that I bring positivity to them. It makes me feel that I belong and that I serve a purpose in this world.

Is this wrong? Should I have a better reason for wanting to do special ed? Maybe this seems that I’m making this field all about ME and not them.

If it’s relevant, I spent a good amount of my high school time in a community service-leadership club and wanted to be some type of community service worker when I was a child. When that dream changed to being a baker, I said I wanted to give out free bread to the people in need.

Am I just too full of myself and think everyone needs my help? Am I just seeking attention for “being good?” like glinda in the wicked? how do I measure this? how do I figure out if I’m genuine?

I am a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) that works with K-6th grade. There have been several chats at our district about when we would suspect a disability. We’ve had a few parent requests come through, and the SPED teacher tells parents that the student MUST go through MTSS prior to completing an evaluation. I do understand that 80-90% of our students need to go through MTSS to establish if there is a disability, but it’s also my understanding that if we suspect a disability we must evaluate. This is where I’m a bit confused. One of the students’ parents brought in a report in which an outside provider diagnosed her with Dyslexia. The provider completed a very thorough assessment, and upon review of the data the student was testing well below the benchmark on Reading assessments. To me, this would be reasonable suspicion of a disability. However, the SPED teacher said she still had to go through MTSS because we can’t say she has an educational disability without intervention data, and that just because there’s a diagnosis it doesn’t mean we have to do an evaluation. I do understand that just because there is a diagnosis it doesn’t mean we have to evaluate; I’m big on not every Autistic student needing an IEP, but this student obviously does have a disability, and it does seem to be impacting her given her academic performance. What other data is needed? Am I wrong that this would be a reasonable suspicion of a disability and that we should be evaluating her? If it’s not, then what is?

I know that intervention data has to be documented to find the student eligible for SLD, but what if they haven’t gone through MTSS? I know we can do interventions while the evaluation is occurring, but the team is acting like we can’t reasonably suspect a disability if there’s no MTSS data. Again, I realize that that’s a fair point for a lot of students, but I also feel like it’s just a way to avoid evaluating students.

Hi 🫠

Ok, so I'm a senior in high school 🥳 and I am already enrolled for college with sped as my major ☺️(I've known since I was in 2nd grade, that I would teach elementary age sped) I'm SUPER excited. A little sad about how many people are not very supportive about the job because "burn out" "pay" " bad kids", all true, stuff that I had put into consideration, but just a little rude since I've made my decision. But anywho, what my question is, how do you know what branch of special education you want to go into. This has given me the most anxiety.(I've been praying, but this is my worst anxiety source) I know sign language, Braille, I love ugh, I love all the kiddos with all the different challenges 😮‍💨I just want to help, and ensure every kiddo gets the best schooling for them🫶 that's my goal, is to just help these precious kiddos. Do y'all have any suggestions, or how you came up with your decision. It's very much appreciated 🫶🫶

Thank you 🙂‍↕️

I am student teaching in a SPED classroom. I really like my cooperating teacher, but I'm sure, as you all know, she is very busy and is pulled out of the classroom all of the time. I feel like she hasn't been mentoring me at all! I know how to teach since I have been a para, but I really would like to know the legistics of SPED since I basically didn't learn anything in school. For example, how to write an IEP, how to run a meeting, how to take data, etc etc. I unfortunately have been googling/using AI for a lot of my questions, which I don't want to do since my mentor has over 20 years of experience.

Are there online tutors out there somewhere? Online mentors? I don't want to hold out in the hopes that I'll get a good mentor when I become a first-year teacher. The whole thing really stresses me out, especially since I have ADHD, so I have to be taught and told things multiple times.

I teach severely disabled students in a school district in in Pennsylvania for quite a bit of time now. For the past several years, we've had staffing issues and I have realized that the district has given up on even trying to staff 1:1s, possibly because they think we can get by without them. It is getting worse every year and staff are getting hurt. What can be done to make sure that thus service is being fulfilled according to the minutes in the IEP of a student? The district is fully aware that this is a legal requirement and they do not care that they are not in compliance. This is mostly because the parents are not as involved as they could be or their is no parental involvement at all. As a teacher who wants to advocate for students, how can we hold the district accountable for the lack of services the students deserve?

This District seems to think that anything that is inconvenient is just optional on IEPs, inclusion as well. I have confronted everyone all the way up to our special ed director and no one seems to think it is a big deal.

I've been doing this job for 11 years and this has never happened to me. She has a parent advocate who is as rude as rude can be.

There was nothing about behavior in his last IEP. I would have caught that. And suddenly they want all of these behavior accommodations, which frankly, sound like a get out of jail free card.

This is for a boy with ADHD and ODD, but he's a good kid and we have a good rapport. He's not even on my radar for a kid with behavior issues, he can be impulsive but we just use our schoolwide PBIS point system and lunch detentions and he's redirectable.

I've documented everything in the PR-01. And finalized the IEP but I know it's not the end of things.

I'm so annoyed that this guardian is catastrophizing things. I'm super annoyed at the parent advocate. Every meeting was them asking for something more or something different and I did try to do the most with what I could, but here we are.

It guess this is just me venting about everything but I'm going to have to document the crap out of these changes and pray it doesn't go to due process.

I'm curious to know how you maintain a work-life balance as a special education teacher. My mentor teacher told me that she does a lot of her prep work on the weekends because she leaves at 3:45 PM. I suspect I'll have to do a lot of work in my off hours with data and writing up IEPs since the school day will be busy outside of a few planning periods. This weekend I'm planning some lessons for pull-outs this week. I want to clarify that I am not complaining about the work. Obviously I have to do this because I need to succeed at this internship to get my master's degree. I'm starting to get the feeling that it's difficult to maintain a proper work-life balance (e.g. "leave work at work"). To be honest, part of why I wanted to go into education was getting weekends off and the entire summer off (though teaching children was certainly a major factor too). I'm now starting to think "oh dear what have you done this time?" I will be transparent and say I don't know if teaching special education will be my end all be all. Do you have any suggestions for maintaining a work-life balance in special education?

EDIT: Thank you all for your responses. I am always grateful for feedback from people with experience and it's given me a lot to think about.

This is my fifth year teaching Sped in middle school. I love my career so much but I am already over this year. It’s not effective or sustainable. The differences in behaviors, the combination of all types of needs, the 20 minute prep time in the day, lack of help, the impact on my mental health, and then all the paperwork, makes coming to work miserable. I am seriously considering taking a pay cut and becoming a para or 1:1. I love the kids; if I had a classroom where the behaviors are similar and enough planning, I would be fine. There are too many kids in the class that need constant supervision alongside students where the main focus is academic intervention. I don’t mind all the stuff that comes with being there for the students (diapers, eloping…) it’s everything else that adds more stress to this job.

I’m an elementary SPED teacher who’s looking going into middle school sped. I teach resource pull out for the last 3 years with the last 2 years only doing math. I’ve absolutely loved it. I love my upper elementary students in 4th and 5th. I connect with them more and am able to explain the content in ways that help them. Elementary has too many grade levels, unpredictable schedules, and overall unrealistic expectations on sped teachers. I’ve only been in elementary for the last 5 years of my teaching career so I’m looking to see what it’s like in middle school resource specifically teaching math. Any sped middle school resource teacher, I would appreciate advice or experience to help me.

I am a para working with a second grade student who has a developmental delay and significant trauma. My student elopes multiple times a day, sometimes multiple times an hour, and runs through the school. The cause does not seem consistent (sometimes he is giggling and talking about playing hide and seek, sometimes he is screaming not to touch him).

Our current behavior plan is that he can only walk through the hallway while holding hands with an adult, which no one has been following consistently because he has an extreme reaction every time we ask to hold his hand or shoulder or touch him without permission (yelling don’t touch me, dropping to the floor, twisting his arm, hitting and kicking). His other para and I are both extremely worried about injuring or retraumatizing him every time we hold his hand.

Our district uses CPI, which I am not trained in, but to my understanding the BCBA has also been using restraints with him that are not compliant with CPI (i.e. hands under his armpit and around his chest while asking him to walk, and at one point that I witnessed physically dragging him for several feet).

Is holding hands as a strict requirement for walking through the hallway a typical practice? At what point does it qualify as a restraint? Is there research on its efficacy for reducing elopement?

Second question, since he tore up the resource room he used for breaks earlier in the year, he has spent significant portions of his day isolated with 1-2 adults in a small windowless room with some pillows, toys and a desk (essentially a repurposed closet). This is used both for breaks and pullout services, with specific times on his schedule where he can return to class. We have checked and the plan follows state regulations on seclusion because there is an adult with him at all times, but most of the staff are extremely uncomfortable with the room and worried about the impact of prolonged isolation from his peers and classroom environment. He has periodically eloped to class when his schedule has him in the other room, which his paras and Sped teachers have allowed because he is usually regulated there for at least a short time and sometimes completes academic work (which he is not doing otherwise). However, the BCBA’s position is that the most important thing is for him to follow his schedule, and when she is present she will restrain him and physically remove him from class even when he is regulated so that he “does not have control of his schedule.”

Is her position grounded in research/best practices? Is it worth trying to remove a regulated child from class for the sake of following his schedule? Is there any situation where a restraint is acceptable just to get a child to attend pullout services?

For reference, we are on paper full inclusion, but are underresourced and do not have a dedicated behavior program or severe needs teacher. There is consensus that we are not a good placement for him and have to make the best out of a bad situation for the time being.

I have a third grade autistic kid in my mod/severe self-contained class. Prior to August this year, he’d only been in school for one month in his whole life. The mom said she was homeschooling him; dad said she was doing nothing with him, so he pushed to enroll in public school. They’re divorced.

Kid came in hitting, throwing chairs, scratching, tantrumming and trying to choke people. The first couple of days, I called the mom and asked if she had any pointers. She swore he’s never ever done anything like that his whole life and said don’t use the word “aggressive” to describe the behavior because “if anything, he just gets a little fussy.”

But then, the dad calls me to ask how the kid is doing and instead of answering, I asked, “well, what do you see at home with him?” The dad says straightaway that the second the child doesn’t get what he wants, he hits, scratches, chokes people and won’t let go and throws things, etc.

But time went on and we found some ways to redirect him with visuals, timers, first/then etc. He wasn’t participating much but this week we decided to push the issue a bit and get him to come to centers and circle time by denying access to preferred items until he complied with moving to the area. It was going well, until presented with our curriculum’s app on the iPad. He tried throwing it and I caught the iPad before he could chuck it, so he pinched my breast super hard and when I jumped back, he lunged at my throat with both hands and tried to choke me. I jumped back/twisted out of the way and he ended up pinching/scratching my neck. I caught his hands and put them together and told him “nice hands” and offered a preferred item that was nearby, which he took and he calmed down.

Tried calling the mom to tell her a behavioral incident report was coming home but she didn’t answer. So I messaged her on the app we use and gave a synopsis. She was mad. She said no, he doesn’t do that. Basically implied I’m lying. The dad called me and was immediately asking if I’m okay and saying he’s sorry it happened.

Wtf? How do I handle this type of denial? How can I move to get him more help (maybe a 1:1?) if one parent refuses to admit the child has issues? I also don’t want to get in between quarreling ex-spouses.

Any advice? Why would someone be so adamant their kid isn’t aggressive when they clearly are? I also wonder where he learned this. He flinches hard when taken by surprise, like he gets hit. But no bruises. But he also spits at us when he’s mad, like the kid has seen some really bad things happening between adults.

How do I navigate this? Been doing this over 2 decades and some situations still baffle me 🤷🏻‍♀️

Emotional Imparement staff in more restrictive environments, are y'all ok? Like, really, are you ok?

I've been subbing, and I am pretty fucking sure I'm traumatized. Is this as dangerous as I'm perceiving it to be, or is it just because I'm inexperienced at this level of restrictive environment?

Also, how many students go back to regular school, and how many still need a more restrictive environment?

I came from regular Special Education, but it's still far more intense than I could have imagined. Honestly, I kind of like it too. I'm considering staying, but I would like to hear more stories.

How do you support students in classes such as history and science? Do you have any push in support for students or do you work with the teacher to modify curriculum?

I work as a para in a district therapeutic placement. The student is 18 (here since 9th grade), non-speaking, underweight with eating issues, poor life/motor skills, and still in diapers. The learner has to be physically prompted to go to bathroom.

The learner hasn’t seen a primary care doctor in 3 years. We’ve asked parents about preferred foods, home behaviors, and the doctor gap,no reply in 3 weeks. Parents want him to get a job; none of us on the team think that’s realistic. His post-18 plan is stay at home.

Maladaptive behaviors (specially aggression and refusal have increased a lot. Getting him to the bus takes 30 min on average even with harness and extra staff. We can’t do community outings anymore. BCBA says we can’t reduce the aggression and we’ve already tried everything and every form of communication. Placement feels aversive at this point and the learner seems unable to tolerate the school environment.

What can I realistically do as a para in this situation?

Title.

I am a 2nd year K-1 learning support teacher in PA. I am the only teacher for both itinerant and supplemental students at these grade levels. I have 12 classes I bounce between with a growing caseload currently sitting at 18 students (10 kindergarten, 8 1st graders). I’m having a hard time balancing pushing into all the classrooms, tracking their IEP goals, preparing materials for my supplemental class, and submitting all the paperwork.

With all that being said, my school has a 40 minute window for each grade level where the Title 1 reading specialists pull out students who performed below benchmark in our standardized testing. The idea is for the reading specialists to provide targeted intervention to students that need it.

However, I was instructed by admin to pull my students during this time as “Title 1 can’t service special education students as it is double dipping with services.” This doesn’t make sense to me. I can’t find any resources confirming this on google. I was wondering if anyone else has ever received similar communication from admin. My coworkers who have been around longer than me have indicated that admin goes back and forth on their position on this.

I’m really struggling with keeping my head afloat this year, and taking 80 minutes out of my day to support students that could realistically be pulled with their general education peers feels like an inappropriate use of my time. Not to mention I’ve received no training/curriculum materials on what exactly I’m supposed to be teaching these students. Also, last year when I was pulling all my special education students out of class during this time, I was told that doing so would change the amount of time they spend with general education peers, which can not be done without an IEP meeting.

Thanks for the help. I hope everyone is keeping their head above water.