Going back to school for Special Education

[Anonymous]

I have two kids and a job with good flexibility but I don't feel challenged and don't think there's much room for advancement. I'm thinking of going back to school to become a special education teacher.

Are there any special education teachers on here that can speak to whether this is a career choice they would recommend?

I understand there is a lot of paperwork involved and that doesn't concern me. I'm actually a former attorney so perhaps those skills will come in handy.

[Anonymous]

I'm a special education teacher. I love what I do and wouldn't turn someone away from the profession because it truly is rewarding, but I do think you need to realize that you'd be giving up a huge amount of flexibility. I have a job where I can't be 5 minutes late because I needed to help drop off a project or accommodate a tantrum in the a.m.. Where I can't step out to take a phone call from the pediatrician. I will never make it to my kid's first day of school, or a Halloween Party or a field trip. I also bring a lot of work home, even relative to the general education teachers in my building.

On the other hand, as I said, I love what I do. Not everyone can say that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a special education teacher. I love what I do and wouldn't turn someone away from the profession because it truly is rewarding, but I do think you need to realize that you'd be giving up a huge amount of flexibility. I have a job where I can't be 5 minutes late because I needed to help drop off a project or accommodate a tantrum in the a.m.. Where I can't step out to take a phone call from the pediatrician. I will never make it to my kid's first day of school, or a Halloween Party or a field trip. I also bring a lot of work home, even relative to the general education teachers in my building.

On the other hand, as I said, I love what I do. Not everyone can say that.

Thank you so much for your response. That is something I will definitely have to think long and hard about. I would ideally like to work in a high school, which would mean I would get out in time to be home for my elementary age kids. And then there would be summers off. When you think of the inflexibility, does having summers off help it feel worth it to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a special education teacher. I love what I do and wouldn't turn someone away from the profession because it truly is rewarding, but I do think you need to realize that you'd be giving up a huge amount of flexibility. I have a job where I can't be 5 minutes late because I needed to help drop off a project or accommodate a tantrum in the a.m.. Where I can't step out to take a phone call from the pediatrician. I will never make it to my kid's first day of school, or a Halloween Party or a field trip. I also bring a lot of work home, even relative to the general education teachers in my building.

On the other hand, as I said, I love what I do. Not everyone can say that.

Thank you so much for your response. That is something I will definitely have to think long and hard about. I would ideally like to work in a high school, which would mean I would get out in time to be home for my elementary age kids. And then there would be summers off. When you think of the inflexibility, does having summers off help it feel worth it to you?

My husband, former government attorney, now elementary school teacher, has this same lament. Loves the job change, hates that he misses most school events, including first day, and this year, he'll miss back to school night.

[Anonymous]

15:24 here. My big lament is that when I have to travel for work, I have to scrounge for morning care for my kids at an unreasonable hour (before 7am) so that DH can still get to work on time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a special education teacher. I love what I do and wouldn't turn someone away from the profession because it truly is rewarding, but I do think you need to realize that you'd be giving up a huge amount of flexibility. I have a job where I can't be 5 minutes late because I needed to help drop off a project or accommodate a tantrum in the a.m.. Where I can't step out to take a phone call from the pediatrician. I will never make it to my kid's first day of school, or a Halloween Party or a field trip. I also bring a lot of work home, even relative to the general education teachers in my building.

On the other hand, as I said, I love what I do. Not everyone can say that.

Thank you so much for your response. That is something I will definitely have to think long and hard about. I would ideally like to work in a high school, which would mean I would get out in time to be home for my elementary age kids. And then there would be summers off. When you think of the inflexibility, does having summers off help it feel worth it to you?

I'm a single parent, so I need to work summers to make close to what I'd make in another profession that has similar educational requirements. Given the choice, I'd rather not have the headache of worrying about finding a summer job. If I had a spouse and a second income that allowed me to afford to only work and get paid for 80% of the year, I think that my first choice would probably be either shorter days, or 4 days a week, although that would probably depend on the age of my kids.

As far as picking up from elementary school, I think you need to think about whether the trade off of having your kids at home with a parent who can do some supervision and shuttling to activities, but also has probably brought a couple hours of grading, planning, and paperwork home, vs. being in aftercare. To me, that really depends on personality.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP above (both the first reply, and the single parent reply). I feel like I'm being really negative, and so I'll say again, that there are huge rewards to my job. I love my students, I love seeing them grown and learn. I love teaching them to self advocate and watch them developing into adulthood. I wouldn't want to be anything else.

I will also say that first year teaching is one of the hardest things you'll ever do. One of the weird things about special education is that generally the first year teachers get the hardest caseloads and the most unworkable schedules. I can't think of another profession where the more seasoned professionals are doing the same thing as the beginners, and of course everything takes the beginners twice as long to do half as well. After a few years you get to "cruising altitude" and things get much more manageable. I am very very glad that I had my first child in my 7th year of teaching. When I see people who enter the profession with young kids, I always worry about this.

[Anonymous]

My DD is just starting college and plans to major in special education. This weekend I saw on, I think, NBC Nightly News, that there is a teacher shortage in three primary areas: science, math and special ed.

When were were looking at schools last year, the director of the program where she is now going said the same thing and that every special ed graduate at the college the year before had gotten a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP above (both the first reply, and the single parent reply). I feel like I'm being really negative, and so I'll say again, that there are huge rewards to my job. I love my students, I love seeing them grown and learn. I love teaching them to self advocate and watch them developing into adulthood. I wouldn't want to be anything else.

I will also say that first year teaching is one of the hardest things you'll ever do. One of the weird things about special education is that generally the first year teachers get the hardest caseloads and the most unworkable schedules. I can't think of another profession where the more seasoned professionals are doing the same thing as the beginners, and of course everything takes the beginners twice as long to do half as well. After a few years you get to "cruising altitude" and things get much more manageable. I am very very glad that I had my first child in my 7th year of teaching. When I see people who enter the profession with young kids, I always worry about this.

OP here. Just wanted to thank you so much for your honest responses.

[Anonymous]

Do you have any experience working with the population?

[Anonymous]

Do you have a passion for working with children, particularly special needs children or does it seem like a good fit for you based on hours and the summer? If you don't have experience in the area I'd recommend getting a job as a para or doing some volunteer work first. In most of the districts I've worked in first year teachers tend to get difficult/hard to staff assignments (like severe needs classrooms) How comfortable are you with feeding tubes, diapers etc?

[Anonymous]

In some ways the high school level can be easier because you are working more on functional life skills. However, there are still students that may be in diapers which you may be responsible in helping to change even if you have paraprofessional support in the classroom. There can also be challenging behaviors and definitely challenging parents (though I don't think it is as bad compared to elementary and middle school). Because Special Education is a high need, I would look into grants and scholarships. For example, if you work in a title 1 school you can get your student loans forgiven. And many districts will cover the cost of your masters if you are already working for them. You could also try starting out as a para educator - which will help you see if you like the job and will get your foot in the door as well as have the potential to have the district cover your schooling costs.
Keep in mind that the paperwork can be very daunting. That being said, it is a very great and noble job.

[Anonymous]

I am not a teacher, but I am a parent of a severely disabled child. I just wanted to throw out there that as a special ed teacher you have a lot of options beyond being a teacher in a local school. There are a lot of private special ed only schools, special ed teachers work in residential care facilities and in therapeutic environments and most of those cater to the high school age group.

You can also move up into admin-FCPS seems to have a million people who specialize in special ed administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is just starting college and plans to major in special education. This weekend I saw on, I think, NBC Nightly News, that there is a teacher shortage in three primary areas: science, math and special ed.

When were were looking at schools last year, the director of the program where she is now going said the same thing and that every special ed graduate at the college the year before had gotten a job.

I am the single parent sped teacher here, and I think this is a totally different situation. Going into special ed while you are young, and you have years to go before your first kid is great. Sure your first year will be incredibly hard, but that's what the energy of youth is for. As a veteran special ed teacher with 5+ years under your belt when you have kids you can choose to stay in the classroom, which will feel more manageable at that point or move into admin,or do something related like becoming a BCBA or a tutor or a consultant.

I wouldn't change my career choice if I had a time machine, except maybe to SLP, but I also wouldn't choose to start a career in this field with elementary school aged kids.

[Anonymous]

I am a school psychologist and would caution you to really think about it. I think it is an impossible task to be really good at all the paperwork that is required and be really good at teaching. There just aren't enough hours in a day. I have met many special education teachers who are amazing at paperwork and presenting at IEP meetings yet are really weak teachers when I see them in the classroom or they are great teachers but their paperwork often doesn't reflect that (because they are so busy teaching). I wish my district could pair up these teachers. Some teachers are mediocre at both and some wonderful teachers can somehow manage to be fantastic at both. These teachers are rare and as a reward are often give the most challenging students and /or students with difficult parents. It really is luck of the draw sometimes what students you will have. Some years things are calm then the next year there are several cases where parents have advocates and/or attorneys (some cases I really feel the parents are justified; other cases not so much). Sometimes you want to do the right thing but you are told from a supervisor that it must be a certain way. At some schools IEP's are after school so you need to stay after school and can't leave.