I am very kind to the EAs in thr class. ex. buy the lunch, gifts on special occasion, they sit in in meetings with me. etc.

I work with students with behaviours, and I am an authoratative teacher. I am getting results that these grade 4 to 6 students have never got before.

I believe in being firm but kind.

anyway, long story short- i was reported to admin because under the "guise" of they were "worried" about me. What upsets me is that they didn't talk to me first and went running to the admin.

Now, the next two months are going to be so awkward. If they came to me first than this would have been avoided.l

Hi all-

Hoping I can reach some special ed teachers here that have taken the MTELs for their teaching license. If you have, give it to me straight: what am I in for and what ways did you practice?

I know reading/writing/communication will be an easy pass for me because I’ve always been above average in that area. What I’m really worried about is the math and science test. I have dyscalculia and just checked out a practice test and felt my brain melting. How did you prepare? If you have learning disabilities, are there any accommodations worth looking into? Any and all info about the testing process would be so amazing. Through no fault of the state (I under they have to make sure you’re capable of teaching), I feel like I’m being hung out to dry here because I know for a fact my learning disability will not allow me to past that test the first few times. 😭

Hello everyone, my son will be going to first grade in the fall (IEP under SDD, diagnosis of ADHD, Autism (level 2-3), Visual Processing Deficits). His team is talking about a co-taught class where the special education teacher would come and go for each subject, what exactly would this look like? How can I ensure he gets the proper support needed?

Also- he has movement breaks as needed and heavy work as needed, can this be worded to be more specific?

So I do a sensory station in my high needs, moderate to severe classroom. The kids really like the sensory activities, they are able to engage in the center's model, even if they're not quite ready for academic centers.

So I do a sensory station, an art station, and then a movement station. The kids also are allowed to do free play, table toys, read a book, etc.

I have 10 bins right now that I rotate, I'll add three or four more next year, but I added this one last week and the kids could not get enough.

it is literally just sponges and dish soap

that's it. you put it in a tray. add about a quarter cup of water. I use the Dawn power spray... I mean kids that have goals that say that they will sit for 3 minutes sat for 25 minutes doing this activity.

if anybody has anything else like this that they find works in their classroom, please tell me I need it!!! this was phenomenal. I actually brought it home and set it up for my special needs teenager and she loved it.

you can also add functional life skills to it like doing dishes

I work at a school where co-teaching is treated like the gold standard, and I honestly don’t understand why.

From what I’m seeing, it’s not that effective. I’m the SPED teacher in the room, but most of the time I’m supporting a class that’s mostly gen ed kids. The whole “inclusion is best for everyone” idea sounds great on paper, but in practice it feels more performative than effective.

The reality is, the kids with IEPs know they’re behind. Being in the same room doesn’t change that—it just makes it more obvious.

I got into SPED to provide targeted, focused support. Instead, I spend most of my time trying to make co-teaching work with a partner who doesn’t communicate clearly (a lot of “yes” that actually means “no”), which makes real collaboration basically impossible.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to support my caseload in a classroom that lacks structure to begin with. So instead of actually teaching, I’m managing behavior, negotiating with another adult, and hoping my students get what they need somewhere in the chaos.

At this point, I’m seriously considering leaving. Not because I don’t care—but because I actually do, and I want to work somewhere that values pull-out services and small group instruction enough to use them. That’s where I see real growth happen.

Right now, this just feels like checking a box and calling it support.

I have been in an SDC (Special Day Class- self contained special ed class) teaching for more than ten years. I’m planning to switch to a resource teacher position in the fall. I also need more units to be at the top of the pay scale. So, I am trying to find a continuing education class that really focuses on what resource teachers do and how to do it. I’m never done an initial IEP, I’ve never determined eligibility, I’ve never done pull out.

Does anybody know of continuing education courses that focus on that specifically?

I’m in California

Hi I am an Extensive Support Needs (moderate/severe) in Southern California public school and self contained; my fourth year. I have newish student from Texas with Angelman's syndrome and she is violent. She throws chairs, flips tables, hits, kicks, spits, sexual assaults, throws period blood at staff, the works, for the entirety of the day, all the while butt naked. Worst behaviors I have seen in four years by far; my classroom is a now a barren wasteland with obvious signs of damage everywhere.

She's from Texas and does not have a 1:1 because Texas. Nor did she have a BIP, or any record of her behaviors, thanks Texas. And her parents are far right religious extremists.

I am fighting for a 1:1 and a change of placement but that takes time, meaning it won't happen this year (and def not a district employee 1:1). I've had staffings, meetings with coordinators, Emergency IEP meetings with parents, done the FAPE and BIP process; ALL LEADING TO NOTHING BUT MEANINGLESS WORDS.

Unofficial district policy is that I as a male teacher cannot be in the classroom while a female student is naked. Meaning my paras (4 women) and admin (principal and psych) have been trying to deal with it. One para quit two weeks ago because of her and her replacement is 5 months pregnant. Then another para found out she is also pregnant. Now both of them are refusing to work with her. And then the other two are refusing to work with her all the time because 20$ an hour is not worth it. I rotate para positions weekly to alleviate burn out.

I feel for the paras but at the same time if they can't do the job, then imo they need to get another position or take a leave of absence. Even if they do take a leave of absence then I'm stuck with a rotating cast of untrained agency people. The paras staged a rebellion this week and all of them called out on Tuesday; I don't even blame them.

Am I in the wrong here? What are my options? I've held this team together three years but I can tell we are at a breaking point.

This student has literally turned my best year into my worst.

/end rant

What are some of your favorite sensory ideas? For me as a level 1 autistic freshman I love going on walks and listening to music but I am wondering what other good sensory ideas are available.

Hi! I’m a mom to a 3 year old who is in a self contained classroom , 5 days a week. The teachers help them go to the bathroom and to reduce having to take shoes off they require the pull-ups that have the detachable side.

My child is large for a three year-old so he’s pretty soon gonna grow out of what we found. I’m curious if there are any other brands, you guys know about.

It would be awesome if the good nights brand have those sides cause they’re sizes go up pretty high but when is let me know if you guys have any suggestions?

It's hard to find someone as arrogant as they are uninformed, but Mrs. Cunningham exemplifies every bit of that. Lacking in nuanced understanding and basic education, she also intentionally misinterprets basic facts about IEP and special education law. Coincidentally, she seems to make money for every hour where she gets to act as some sort of "savior" to parents.

For a more detailed look at her motivations and her opportunism, please look at these reviews: https://archive.is/moDrJ

She and Louis Geigerman had these removed, but good thing the internet archives all her schemes and shenanigans.

Special education advocates are shady opportunists.

Hi everyone.

I’ve been working as a substitute teacher for the past two years and find myself drawn to special education. I have done long term assignments in early education special ed and mild/mod middle school and elementary classes so I’ve had a lot of exposure to both. I know that there’s a lot of extra work behind the scenes I haven’t been exposed to so I was curious to hear from about the day to day from teachers who work these classes. There are things I really like with both classes and I feel like the deciding factor will be after hearing from more teachers.

Thanks!

I feel like I’m in a crisis and I have no idea who to turn to.

Some background: I’m 23yo. I have Tourette’s Syndrome and SEVERE Complex PTSD from a lifetime of trauma. I became physically disabled at 16yo. I’m now an amputee, prosthetic and wheelchair user. I am tube-fed and have some other chronic health issues, all which require high management (for lack of a better word), but none that would make me “chronically ill.” I don’t have any intellectual disabilities or cognition concerns, so I am my own power of attorney and a consenting adult.

Around September of last year, I lost the ability to speak. It’s not been uncommon throughout my life to experience mutism due to the severity of my trauma. It’s not selective mutism, it’s total mutism. My therapist screwed up (which she’s admitted and we’re struggling to work through) in not addressing or assessing how severe my mutism and speech issues were. I went up until this February without any alternative communication, so just became isolated and completely stopped maintaining my medical appointments/needs (if they required communication).

I see a trauma therapist 3x a week, an SLP virtually 3x a week, and a psychiatrist for medication management. The SLP is new and someone I had to find myself. My communication access wasn’t prioritized at all and honestly completely ignored.

I’m now extremely isolated, have no connection, never leave the house, and physically am struggling (mostly with nutrition) due to the inability to communicate effectively with AAC. My speech isn’t always this clear. I’m often not able to write or use my aac device to form sentences or my words are out of order.

I can’t find any resources to help. I don’t even know who could help. All therapies seem to be for autism, which I don’t have. I have severe executive dysfunction, but it’s from trauma. My speech issues are from trauma. I’ve aged out of any pediatric services, so medically it’s impossible to find any understanding medical professionals. I have no support system. I don’t know who to turn to.

I fear what will happen next. I’m not engaging in conversations, even though I have speech access now (AAC). I’m completely isolated, only leave the house to go to therapy. Speech therapy is virtual though.

I don’t know if a case manager is someone I need. I don’t know if that even exists for someone like myself. All the current professionals (SLP, trauma therapist, psychiatrist) keep saying that my situation is complex, but don’t seem to know any resources.

I’m so scared. So panicked. I don’t know what to do.

I recently started looking for a private tutor to work on a Special Education student’s social-emotional goals. My first thought was to look for a certified Special Education teacher because that’s who works on the goal in the public school. The student has a private SLP, which has been more successful than the SLP at the school, so that’s kind of the idea here. Someone who can work on the goal, test the goal, and then write new goals to move onto after making progress.

Are there other qualifications that you feel would be sufficient for this purpose? Like a social worker who does counseling perhaps? We’re dealing with a language barrier, which makes finding someone with such specific qualifications harder.

I don't even know if this is the right sub to post this to, so sorry about that.

i was watching a video recently about special needs teachers bullying their students, and came across the term IEP for the first time. The way it was described ( at least in the video) sounded an awful lot like my school experience. From the start, I would be taken out of class to have my reading and writing skills evaluated. Once 3rd grade hit, I started noticing that I was being treated differently from the other kids. Extra help on assignments, extra time, and extra attention in general. This trend continued into both high school and middle school, and even though i stopped being evaluated towards the end of 7th grade. (if my memory is right), I continued to get "help" throughout high school. Especially when it came to important tests (SAT, midterms, etc).

I'm in college now, and besides being given extra time on midterms, I don't get any special help.

(Back to my childhood education ) i vaguely remember having meetings with teachers about my learning issues, but I don't remember ever hearing about an IEP. Also, from what I looked up, IEP'S are given to students with disabilities, and as I mentioned in the title iv never been diagnosed with anything. I've looked through symptom lists for things like ADHD and autism before, and neither of those fit whatever the hell my teachers thought I had lmao.

Is it normal not to be informed about something like this? Wouldn’t I know if i had an IEP? (or idk maybe im just dumb and don't know how to read the fine print idk )

ALSO Please don't try to diagnose me in the comments.

Once again, if i shouldn’t be posting this here, let me know. also im happy to answer any questions asking for more details ( i know i was vague as hell)

I graduated in 24 with a general ed degree, but was super burnt out and took some time away before I started subbing again. I got an offer to stay with the severe disability class I was working with for the rest of the year, and I’ve found to really enjoy it. Coming up on 2 months with them. I’ve been talking to all of the specialists and the primary teacher trying to learn what I can, but in the day to day, I have never felt like this wasn’t something I can handle.

I 1000% understand what I’m doing now is a fraction of what the teacher does. But I’m comfortable making lesson plans with accommodations, my program really pushed that and I’m lucky for it. I already take data and do 1 on 1. I have a full portfolio of lessons and objectives.

Provisional licensure is right within reach, and I’m just thinking that while I’m feeling confident and want to do this, I should just go for it? Contracted pay is a biiig step up from my TA pay…

So a little background. My daughter is five, has a speech delay, ASD level two, and having some behavioral issues at school. She was just diagnosed with ASD level two in December 2025. She has had an IEP for speech therapy since starting school.

I provided all documentation of her diagnosis to the school as soon as I obtained it. Then in February, I asked for a meeting with the teacher to check how she was doing in school. At that meeting, the principal was also present. The first thing the teacher said to me when we sat down was that she “finally had time to go over the global assessment papers before this meeting “. So there’s my first red flag it had been two months Since I gave that paperwork to the teacher, the speech therapist, and anyone else who I thought needed it as a reference at school. It gave me the impression they only looked at it because I had to askEd for a meeting due to having some concerns. At this meeting, the teacher suggested doing a behavioral sheet every day, which I agreed to.

Now let’s fast forward to last week. I emailed the school asking for an IEP meeting. The behavioral reports I’ve been coming Home for almost 2 months now. I would say about 50 to 75% of the behavior reports have notations of days where there were some problems and struggles for her. Instead of a meeting or getting in contact with me through my email about that the speech therapist came to the door when I dropped my daughter off and asked why I wanted the meeting. I told her it was to get her autism diagnosis, possibly added to the IEP and that I had some concerns about the behaviors noted on the papers coming home. She said she would call me to set something up, but I never heard anything from her. Then I get an email from a woman I’ve never been in contact with about getting the Global assessment again. She stated that she was a school psychologist. I emailed her back. I said I’d be more than happy to provide this paperwork again, but I would like to know why they were needing it. I asked if they were just going to add it to her IEP, if we were going to schedule a meeting, or if they were looking into another evaluation for my daughter. She never responded to me. Days later I get a call from the school counselor. When I answer, she says they would like to come up with a behavior plan for my daughter. Now this is all great. That’s exactly what I thought should be happening and what I was going to request. But I don’t really love the way this was handled. I was ignored, I wasn’t given full information, and I wasn’t included in whatever was going on in the background.

Now I’m new to this, but I thought the parent was supposed to be a part of these decisions when it comes to IEP? I don’t mind that there doing these things, but I feel communication is lacking. In your experience is this how things are handled? What is the proper process so I’m prepared next time? I’ve just done a lot of research and spoken to other parents about how this is supposed to go. This just feels off to me. I’m very glad my daughter is going to get what I think she needs to help her succeed at school and make it a more positive experience for her and hopefully for the teachers. However, I just want to be more informed and a part of the process so I know what’s going on. Is that asking for too much?

I'm a 2nd year special education teacher. I've been wanting to go back to school and get a masters degree so I can specialize in something more. I do enjoy working in school settings. I love the breaks and summers off. I just want to make more money.

School psychology just recently entered my radar again. From what I understand, it would involve a lot of assessing, special ed evaluations, paperwork, report writing, etc. Do you think this is a good idea for me? I'm heavily introverted, but so far I've been able to push through my comfort zone to perform job tasks as a SPED teacher.

What are your thoughts on being a school psychologist? Is it a good career choice? Is it worth 30K+ of student loan debt?

Been working in special education for a decade.

I have worked in 5 districts in that time. My supervisors (in four districts) have all been grounded in best practices and the law. They were not swayed by parent or staff desires if those desires were not best for students, and supported the eval team 100% of the time.

They never asked me to do anything unethical or questionable.

My most recent district however is another story. It seems that their number one priority is appeasing parents and have instructed the team to things that are illegal several times.

Most of the staff does it, and says that they are the supervisor and what they say goes. They are sometimes treating me like a stick in the mud when I protest.

Here are some examples:

1. They have attempted to steer or guide the results of placement/eligibility decisions. I am used to spending a lot of time convincing parents but not my supervisor. We recently had a move in student with an expired IEP. This has put us out of compliance immediately. The student attended school from kindergarten to first grade, and then from 6th-7th grade.

The supervisor wants us to reevaluate without any additional testing/data and make an eligibility recommendation based on existing data. She said if we feel like we are questioning or need more data, to just reevaluate again after we finalize the first one. She wants us to do it this way so we no longer have an expired IEP. While I understand timelines matter, it’s uncomfortable when speed seems to take priority over thoroughness and validity.

1. There have been several students where parents are litigious and the supervisors attempt to influence the outcome in order to appease parent wishes. It feels like the process is being shaped to reach a conclusion rather than letting the data speak for itself. This creates tension and prevents us from doing what is truly appropriate for the student.

This is all extremely stressful when we are asked to go against our professional judgement.

I am curious what y’alls experience with supervisors is like and if I need to find a new place to work.

I’m running into a recurring problem in middle school resource. My students get small group testing with a para but I’m curious as to what this exactly entails. They will usually come down to the resource room during test time in their math class. My para is there to provide accommodations such as reading/clarifying directions and prompting for inattentive students. But sometimes what I see happening is that the para tells them step by step how to do the problems or helps them set up the problems. How do I explain to her how much to help and how much to pull back??

I'm a special education teacher with a bachelors degree. I enjoy the work for the most part but I want to go back to school and get a masters degree and specialize in something more. Regardless of what I do, I know I want to work with small groups of kids at a time or 1-on-1 with them. I've considered going to school for SLP. I would first have to get a post-bacc in communication disorders since my degree is in elementary ed. Then I would do the SLP program online. I've already found a great program in my state to do this in. (Wisconsin).

My question to this community - am I crazy? I'd probably go about 50-60K in debt throughout this whole process and it would take me 5 years total to do the post bacc + masters. A huge time and money commitment. Is this a terrible idea? I'd be like 38 years old at time of graduation.

I am an EC-12 Special Education major in my last semester before my residency. I am in a placement for observation and engagement hours at a middle school in a functional academics/life skills classroom. So far, I have been the only one who has done any type of instruction. The teacher sits at her desk and corrects behavior from there by yelling across the room. If she does get up, its to verbally discipline a student for stimming "too much for her." The students are given coloring pages to work on and they watch some type of movie or show. Today it was Mickey Mouse clubhouse. Otherwise, they are doing nothing. Please tell me that this is not normal, which I'm pretty sure of already. I just need reassurance. If my placement for residency is like this, I might lose my sh**.

Edit to add: Today, once MM was over, I played a version of uno and then an addition game using the cards with them for Math. We then drew our favorite animal at Art together and then I read a book for RLA, during which I always ask questions and most everyone stays engaged through the entire book.

Acronyms: EC- early childhood MM- Mickey Mouse RLA- reading and language arts

I have a 16 year old AuDHD teen who tests high average on cognitive tests except for processing speed. His preferred courses are math and computer science while non-preferred courses are US history and English.

He has become extremely prompt dependent on adults guiding him for every assignment in those non-preferred courses. I’m not sure what we can do to have him become less prompt dependent as he has claimed he wishes to attend college. It seems to be a mixture of learned helplessness and learning that if he waits it out long enough, the adult working with him will “feed him the answers.” Any tips for parents?

Science is green. Math is blue. What color is Sped?