Special education teacher

[Anonymous]

Anyone teach special education? Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I do, what do you want to know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone teach special education? Any thoughts?

Don’t do it. Way too much paperwork and way too many parents who are really difficult. A small percentage will bring advocates and lawyers to meetings and be ruthless, and there is nothing you can do to defend yourself because you have to follow district policies. So you are caught in the middle and these parents will want meeting after meeting, daily reports, will send email after email and cc multiple people each time.

Then there are students with behavior issues who should be in more restrictive settings but the district and/or parent will not support moving them. So there us a chance you will be hit, kicked, bit, and/or have to chase after a student who runs out if class. So two to three students on your caseload will suck up so much of your time. Meanwhile other students won’t get what they need because you will be dealing with theses students.

Look into becoming another type of teacher like a reading teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone teach special education? Any thoughts?

Don’t do it. Way too much paperwork and way too many parents who are really difficult. A small percentage will bring advocates and lawyers to meetings and be ruthless, and there is nothing you can do to defend yourself because you have to follow district policies. So you are caught in the middle and these parents will want meeting after meeting, daily reports, will send email after email and cc multiple people each time.

Then there are students with behavior issues who should be in more restrictive settings but the district and/or parent will not support moving them. So there us a chance you will be hit, kicked, bit, and/or have to chase after a student who runs out if class. So two to three students on your caseload will suck up so much of your time. Meanwhile other students won’t get what they need because you will be dealing with theses students.

Look into becoming another type of teacher like a reading teacher.

Ok, Thanks! Sounds like a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

My kid has moved from gen ed to self contained to non public placement.

The special education teacher that pushed in for gen ed was overwhelmed. There was no realistic way she could meet all the requirements on her case load.

The self contained special ed teachers were happier. The room had 2 paras in it. There was always coverage and support. When she went out for maternity leave, a gen ed teacher took over the class. In reality, the paras ran the class as they had been in that environment with the sp ed teacher for 10 years.

The non public placement teachers seem the happiest. Everyone in the building is a spec ed teacher, para, or admin. The paperwork that is supposed to be the anomaly in gen ed is the norm in NPP. Schedules are designed with this in mind and time is allotted accordingly ie, there are only certain slots for IEP meetings, there's an admin person whose job it is to make sure the IEPs get sent to parents within the proper advance notice, the school is so small that the principal knows each kid---she may not know the specifics of the IEP but she has a general idea and can discuss issues immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone teach special education? Any thoughts?

Don’t do it. Way too much paperwork and way too many parents who are really difficult. A small percentage will bring advocates and lawyers to meetings and be ruthless, and there is nothing you can do to defend yourself because you have to follow district policies. So you are caught in the middle and these parents will want meeting after meeting, daily reports, will send email after email and cc multiple people each time.

Then there are students with behavior issues who should be in more restrictive settings but the district and/or parent will not support moving them. So there us a chance you will be hit, kicked, bit, and/or have to chase after a student who runs out if class. So two to three students on your caseload will suck up so much of your time. Meanwhile other students won’t get what they need because you will be dealing with theses students.

Look into becoming another type of teacher like a reading teacher.

Ok, Thanks! Sounds like a nightmare.

It is unfortunate to be so negative because some placements are really good and it ends up being a good job.

However, so many special ed teachers are so stressed. I felt so bad for a new special education teacher and a new speech therapist at a school I worked at. A parent was really angry and not in a good place. The parent made life horrendously bad for the teacher and speech therapist. The parent found out the speech therapist used a doll with a high school student and went ballistic. Emailed every admin at the school, every special ed admin in the district that the speech therapist was treating her teen like a toddler and how inappropriate it was. She framed it as if the speech therapist was a callous and had poor judgement. The speech therapist got hauled into meetings with admin who wanted her to apologize to the parent and student. Turns out the student had goal that was something about learning the names of body parts in case they had pain they could tell someone. The speech therapist didn't want to touch the student so was using the doll to teach body parts because pictures didn't work as well. No one apologized to the speech therapist for alluding to her being an awful person. It was one thing like that after another all year. By the end of the year she quit. Similar issues with the special ed. teacher who wasn't rehired since all admin heard was multiple complaints from this family.

A special ed parent has a right to call IEP meeting after IEP meeting without end. So that involves the special ed teacher trying to get everyone together - admin, general ed teacher, parent, advocate, OT, speech, and whatever other service. Then doing all the paperwork that the meeting requires. Advocates and lawyers have requested daily communication logs, daily tracking logs, etc. So the teacher is trying to scramble to write up information by the time the student goes home. Then the parent gets the log and emails back and will start emailing if the teacher doesn't immediately respond. It is just so overwhelming and never ending. Most parents are NOT like this but it only takes one to make your life miserable and potentially get it so you are not rehired the next year.