I have never seen more poorly designed IEPs and 504 plans.

[Anonymous]

ES Special Educators, I am not blaming you. based on these accommodations, it looks like y’all were fighting for your lives last year. However, these are so poorly designed that they cannot be executed. I counted six contradictions in just one student’s IEP. If accommodation A is done, accommodations B and C cannot be done.

Pray for us.

[Anonymous]

You should blame them, they are the ones half-a55ing it. Put your concerns in writing to the SpEd coordinator and principal. Document everything.

[Anonymous]

When one teacher is doing the work of 2-3 people, I don’t think you can expect perfection.

I just ran into a friend of mine recently. She’s a Special Ed Teacher. Her department is understaffed by 3 people, so they combined two jobs and gave them both to her. She’ll be teaching 7 of 8 periods, 3 of which are self-contained and 3 are co-taught. She is responsible for all of the IEPs in those classes, as well as an additional caseload of IEPs of students in other classes. So, to put this out there for the non-educators, she has about 70-75 hours of work to do in a work week.

She’s miserable and the year hasn’t started.

So I’m not surprised if things aren’t great. Teachers aren’t robots. Sometimes they need to eat, sleep, relax.

[Anonymous]

I teach HS special education. This summer, I taught ES ESY. When I say my mouth dropped at reading the majority of the IEPs. From the goals (no IEP should have 10 goals), to the accommodations, to the very informal languages used in the PLOP and strengths and needs. I was embarrassed.

[Anonymous]

This is what happens when you don't pay enough to attract or retain competent workers, overwork the ones who are still standing, and attempt to cover the gaps by hiring people who aren't qualified.

[Anonymous]

I am an SLP who is at a new school this year. The previous SLP set the most unrealistic goals/ service times. I have 8 students who are supposed to be each getting 5 hours of services a week. When am I supposed to fit in the other 100 I have? I dread the fight with the parents when I want to reduce services.

[Anonymous]

How can accomodations contradict?

[Anonymous]

It probably has something to do with the explosion of special needs in kids these days. The old systems just can’t cope with it.

We need to move to self contained special ed schools, at least in the urban areas where they can fill those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When one teacher is doing the work of 2-3 people, I don’t think you can expect perfection.

I just ran into a friend of mine recently. She’s a Special Ed Teacher. Her department is understaffed by 3 people, so they combined two jobs and gave them both to her. She’ll be teaching 7 of 8 periods, 3 of which are self-contained and 3 are co-taught. She is responsible for all of the IEPs in those classes, as well as an additional caseload of IEPs of students in other classes. So, to put this out there for the non-educators, she has about 70-75 hours of work to do in a work week.

She’s miserable and the year hasn’t started.

So I’m not surprised if things aren’t great. Teachers aren’t robots. Sometimes they need to eat, sleep, relax.

This happened to me. The school took complete advantage of me and I had the job of 3 people. I saw the year through for my students but did not go back to SPED or that school. I had 20 years in SPED-sad because I loved it. Now I'm doing a resource teacher position....so much better. I feel for SPED teachers and students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach HS special education. This summer, I taught ES ESY. When I say my mouth dropped at reading the majority of the IEPs. From the goals (no IEP should have 10 goals), to the accommodations, to the very informal languages used in the PLOP and strengths and needs. I was embarrassed.

Often this comes from parents and advocates fighting just to fight. 3 hour IEP meetings and admin afraid to say no. Enjoy the shortage-it will get worse in SPED. SPED teachers can barely eat lunch-it's not good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should blame them, they are the ones half-a55ing it. Put your concerns in writing to the SpEd coordinator and principal. Document everything.

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It probably has something to do with the explosion of special needs in kids these days. The old systems just can’t cope with it.

We need to move to self contained special ed schools, at least in the urban areas where they can fill those schools.

My DD just started teaching ES SPED and also helping other students and only a few weeks in....her complaints are not about salary or days off...but rather how behind some of these kids are...not just SPED kids but many non-SPED as well.

From not knowing how to even hold a pencil to not knowing how to draw basic alphabet letters....she ended up printing all letters, laminating and taping to the wall.

[Anonymous]

My child's first few IEPS were terrible. They were clearly recycled due to the mistakes, even wrong name.

[Anonymous]

Administrators don't stick up for general ed or special education teachers. The easiest thing for them to do is to go along with what the parents and advocates want for accommodation if it isn't going to cost them anything. But it makes it miserable for teachers.

For example, one advocate loves to tell parents they should be getting a daily note home telling all about the students day. This isn't for someone who is nonverbal, this is for high functioning kids who certainly could tell their parents what happened that day. No teacher has the time to write that up each and everyday. Then the parents email back about what was in the note, which sucks up more of the teacher's time.

Another accommodation was that the student could have his food brought from home heated up. Why? No idea, the student could get hot food from the cafeteria but just doesn't like it. The parents could warm up food and send it in a thermos or wrapped in something, but nope a teacher is supposed to do it.

All of the accommodation demands mean less time for a special education teacher to actually deliver direct instruction. So in the end the students who need services miss out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Administrators don't stick up for general ed or special education teachers. The easiest thing for them to do is to go along with what the parents and advocates want for accommodation if it isn't going to cost them anything. But it makes it miserable for teachers.

For example, one advocate loves to tell parents they should be getting a daily note home telling all about the students day. This isn't for someone who is nonverbal, this is for high functioning kids who certainly could tell their parents what happened that day. No teacher has the time to write that up each and everyday. Then the parents email back about what was in the note, which sucks up more of the teacher's time.

Another accommodation was that the student could have his food brought from home heated up. Why? No idea, the student could get hot food from the cafeteria but just doesn't like it. The parents could warm up food and send it in a thermos or wrapped in something, but nope a teacher is supposed to do it.

All of the accommodation demands mean less time for a special education teacher to actually deliver direct instruction. So in the end the students who need services miss out.

the food one is ridiculous.

when my kid was having big self regulation problems, home-school communication was really important, as was 1:1 daily check ins. But overall, I agree that accommodations are generally poorly thought out. And having been a parent whose kid was a legitimate user of services the last thing I want is services he doesn’t need.

one thing I wish was that there was a school-wide focus on teaching organization and executive function skills. All kids could benefit.