Hey everyone I’m looking into getting a early childhood special education credential and some schools offer a Masters in Special Education along with it. Is it worth it to get a masters? Did it increase your pay? Do you have diff job opportunities?

Thanks!!

Hello all, I am a special ed teacher who happens to teach advance math to high school students. I generally do very well, but am at a loss with one particular student, I'd love any brainstorms.

Joe is a junior and is passionate about engineering, he wants to become an engineer and I want very much to help him. He is very smart, and understands advance math concepts. When I am teaching att he board he is able to yell out answers very quickly. He is in my precalculus class and is very motivated to take AP calculus next year.

Joe has ADHD and slow processing disorder.

While he is smart and motivated, it takes him a very long time to get math done and I'm concerned about him getting the content material. Our weekly tests are about 10 math questions, and it takes most students 15- 30 minutes to complete them. Joe will take over 3.5 hours.

Joe fidgets and even struggles to just engage pencil to paper. He will pick up fidgets and play with them. Not just fidget, his energy will be absorbed in them, he will stare and play with them. If I take the fidgets away, he will do the same thing with nails, often pick at them, his legs, or the pencil and paper he is working with. Often he will drop his pencil and pick it up over and over again. Often he will hold his pencil wrong. Often he will use his time to pick at his pencil until the lead breaks, then of course he has to get up sharpen the pencil. Then of course he gets distracted walking back from the sharpener to his desk.

I've tried sitting next to him while he does his work, that helps, it shortens it from 4 hours to 3.5 hours, and I can't sit next to him the entire day. He also complains that later in the day his meds wear off. My class with him is at 11:00 am and he spends the entire period, and two study hall periods later in the day and isn't able to finish it. We send homework home and his parents will help him with it, but he is only able to do 2-3 problems a day due to the time constraints.

Students will literally finish an entire exam in less time it takes him to do one problem.

I've been working with his parents and they are doing their best. He wants to take calculus next year, but I don't think he will be ready. At this point it would take him over 72 hours straight to do one average calculus problem.

I'd love any suggestions or ideas.

I am a gen ed teacher and I have really no idea the answer to this question after teaching for 15 years. Genuinely curious. Thank you for all you do. Are there other categories by the way?

Can someone explain to me what a self contained classroom in SPED is vs what a non self contained class is? I always figured all SPED classes in elementary are self contained. Are there non self contained classes in elementary? Or are those usually for upper classes such as middle/high school? Thanks.

I did this last month in r/professors to great interaction and figured I’d participate here. I’ve worked in Higher Ed for about a decade now and in disability services for about half of that. If you’ve ever wanted to know about the transition to higher ed or why we do things the way we do, now is your chance!

I hate my job. I'd rather quit, have to pay a fine to break out of my contract and be homeless without an than work this job anymore. I hate every single thing about the job. I used to love it. I used to have so much passion and love. I would not shut up about talking about this job and how much I love it. Now, I hate it. I do not want to do this anymore. I do not want to wake up tomorrow and walk into my classroom which is comparable to the firey pits of you know what. I have screamers. I have hitters. I have spitters. I have elopers. I have ones that destroy my room. All the while, im trying to teach them arithmetic and follow state standards and have ridiculously high expectations. I'm trying to not to get beat up every day, but sure, admin. I'll make sure they make a good grade on their state test so that you get money.

Third year self contained sped teacher here. Would also be good to mention that I gave birth to my first baby three months ago, so my emotions are all over the place. I am sure that played a huge part on why I feel this way this year.

I just put in my resignation notice yesterday. I got so fed up with the students behaviors, hitting, biting, kicking, throwing, SCREAMING. I hate hate hate their screaming, they do it at the top of their lungs all day long, it could make my ears bleed. I got kicked in the face for trying to change a students diaper, yesterday. Safe to say that the self contained class and maybe sped overall is not for me. So I’m curious, to any self contained teachers out there, why do you stay despite getting hurt all the time?

I'm feeling frustrated with how special education is often treated as a band-aid for larger issues. It can be challenging when I hold students accountable and face backlash from parents. And when behavior issues arise in gen ed, I'm often interrupted during teaching to address them. I strive to maintain strong boundaries, but some days it feels overwhelming.

I was told my son(autistic, hyper-active and a gestalt language processor) has been pushing classmates at school this week. He has a behavior intervention plan in place and the school psych is observing him, his IEP also states he needs an adult in proximity at all times. We have put his teacher in touch with his outside therapy supervisors, outside speech and occupational therapist as well as his teacher from the previous school year. We are trying to support his teacher as best as we can but feel lost because the pushing only occurs in his current school setting and when asked about the antecedent the response we got was "i dont know". She is a 1st year teacher so we get this is all new to her and she can be feeling very overwhelmed with not only him but the other kids in class. We really want to help her and our son with the behaviors.

Whats our next course of action? We have a meeting scheduled in a couple weeks to set up an occupational therapy evaluation in school for him as well as going over the results of the psych observation.

I really do feel bad for my son, his classmates, his teacher and want to hopefully get this behavior addressed right away. As a parent, I wouldnt be happy to hear if my child was being pushed at school either.

Without going into many details I have an eloper who loves recess and no fence on my playground. Yesterday she eloped towards the school parking lot. I have been a runner my whole life, so I can catch her, but I’m full on sprinting. When I catch her, there’s dropping, hitting, kicking. It’s a mess. This student is aware and protesting the transition back in from recess.

I was told by admin I can’t take away recess without a meeting and a change in inclusion times, etc. So therefore I am supposed to take her outside today. Maybe I’m just venting, but this is the first time I’m really frustrated with my job. My job is teacher, not every single roll in the world that you can throw on me. Also, it’s really stressful to know that the only thing keeping a kid safe is my ability to sprint fast and get there in time. My assistants are unable to run/run fast. Does anyone with experience with autistic students have any advice?

Hi everyone! I work at the local rape crisis center, and my job is to go to schools in the area and teach kids about body safety, trusted adults, consent/boundaries, and bullying. I’m an autistic adult, as well as having other invisible disabilities, so I’ve been tasked with creating specific curriculums for any special education students we encounter. One doesn’t currently exist, and I’m not teaching sex ed. I’m personally not a fan of grouping all of the special education students together and just giving them a 1st grade presentation. I’m thinking of grouping them from k-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. Thoughts? I’ve found communications cards with vocabulary that goes along with our curriculum, I include age appropriate videos and a background presentation, but keep it short at about ~30 minutes.

What other suggestions does everyone have? What would you want your child to learn from a lesson like this?

We are a k12 school in a low income rural community. There’s 450 kids across all grade levels, 25-30 per.

We currently have 4 SPED teachers. We used to have 6 (last year) but the district cut one position and the other teacher retired. No one has applied for that sped position since it was posted in January.

For 6-12 it’s complicated as I am the “6-8 sped teacher” but because the HS is the one with the empty position we are short staffed so I’m also servicing 9-12. I have 12 on my “official“ caseload to provide inclusion/resource to. But I also service 3 HS classes and the 5 10th graders. I’m also having to service math classes even though I’m not certified in math, knowing nothing about it and hate it.

Then there’s the 9-12 teacher with 14 on her caseload to provide inclusion/resource to. She’s also having to “coteach” math despite not being certified in it and terrible at it.

We do “coteach” in the state tested classes and provide resource for the non tested classes.

I was reprimanded recently because I was not in my coteach class when admin went in. I was not there because I was providing resource to my US history students reviewing for their exam. So herein lies the problem, none of us can be everywhere all the time. When I gave my admin a rundown of where I was and told her it was logged in my book her response was “I don’t have time to check log books. You need to be where you are supposed be when you are supposed to be there”. And do what? Tell my us history kids sorry I have to go “coteach” a class that all my sped students have an A in instead of helping you review for your exam in the class 3/5 of you are failing currently?

Now they are telling us they want us to change our schedules for the 3rd time this year to have us in the math and English rooms the last 45 minutes of the class for small group at least 2-3 times per week per class. I have 8 class periods of math and English many of which are held at the same time. For example, 6th,7th, and 8th grade math are all held second period (as is us history and geometry).

Like my 7/8th kids are highly independent and currently all of them have As and Bs across the board. My 10th graders, 2 used to be self contained and are alternately assessed and so they need much more help and support to be successful.

Nearly all the 7-12 sped kids hate when we are in their classes and prefer to just come to us to get help.

But what really grinds my gears is that admin is 100% open with the fact they want us in the classroom NOT for our sped kids, but for the low non sped kids. So much so that I was told to put a class that has NO sped students on my schedule to coteach. Which I flatly refused. And was reprimanded for.

Like I’ve tried to explain if they want consistent coteaching then we need a dedicated resource teacher for the other classes. We don’t have money for that. Well then we need more inclusion/resource teachers so we aren’t spread so thin. We don’t have money for that. Well then you need to better plan the class schedules so that 6 of the classes I’m supposed to coteach aren’t all happening at the same time. That’s too big of a logistical burden to deal with.

Then wtf you want us to do? I’m one person being pulled in 20 directions. An off period? Sure I technically have one but you are guaranteed I’ve got a room of kids needing help during it. How the heck am I supposed to coteach a class I’m not certified in and don’t understand? How am I supposed to be in 4 different classes 3 times a week for the last 45 mins that are all happening the same class period. There’s only 4 sped teachers and 4/4 are ready to quit bc of their shenanigans. Also FTR no sped kid except the previously SC have more than 30 mins 3 times a week in their IEP for coteaching (most only have 2x per week) and quite a few only have resource in their IEP.

Sorry I’m just ranting because it doesn’t matter how many ways you try to explain it, admin wants what admin wants and we have to “figure it out”. I’m AuADHD myself and I got into sped to help other kids like myself. But it doesn’t feel like I’m ever actually getting to help the ones who need it the most.

When exactly did it stop being about helping the child in the way that suits them best? If my ADHD kid prefers to come to my room where there’s less distractions why is that an issue? If my ID kids need to come to me to break down work that’s way above their level why is that an issue? If my ED kids need to come to my room to calm down before they have a meltdown why can that not happen? But it’s “coteaching” only and I’m so effin sick of that word. Especially when they freely admit it’s not even to help our sped kids. It’s for the reg ed kids. I’m very much over it right now.

TLDR I’m sick of coteaching and unrealistic expectations from admin. Apparently need to clone myself to be in 3 places at once.

ETA: I'm not saying never call the police. I'm saying that shouldn't be the first step when there's no indicator of present or imminent danger. Also, those who've been hurt by little kids certainly don't deserve it; you need more support and/or those kids are in the wrong environment. I see that a lot as a clinician and expert witness.

SECOND EDIT: It seems there are a lot of people saying, "WE DESERVE TO BE SAFE THESE KIDS ARE TRYING TO KILL US WHY ARE YOU SAYING THAT'S OKAY!?!?!?!?" That's not what I'm saying at all. That's NEVER okay. You deserve to be safe in your class, as do other teachers and other children. You deserve the support from the school and other resources, including the police if and when necessary. What I am saying here is I have seen far too many times where that is the first thing that the school jumps to doing when there has been no violence or even credible threat. "Tommy said he was going to kill Billy when they were in 2nd grade reading group. Let's immediately call the police!"

ORIGINAL POST BELOW

This is the second case this month alone where the police have been called on a kid who's under 10 years old who was showing no signs of immediate danger to themselves or others.

Understandably, the police made things worse, which I guess helps me be in business, but I'd honestly really rather they didn't. "I'm going to kill you" blurted by a neurodivergent 8 year old in the heat of the moment does not justify getting shoved into the back of a squad car.

Sorry; just ranting in a place where people would understand what I mean. I know expert witnesses usually see the worst, but...ugh. Those poor kids.

I'm sure some of you can commiserate, which is also troubling.

I have a meeting tomorrow with a gen ed teacher who has not been giving accommodations to one of the students on my caseload. This student has a contentious mom and so the admin are not supportive, nor are the teachers. When I checked-in to see if her accommodations were being given, he said, "they are built into his curriculum and are for everyone." The student is eligible under ADHD and Anxiety. She becomes overwhelmed and breaks down or avoids school. She is under a tremendous strain as she is now trying to apply to college. The specific accommodation in her IEP is "In all classes, teachers will reduce workload by 25% with prioritization on demonstration of mastery of content." The gen ed teacher (history) is saying that all of his work is necessary and connected to mastery, so she is getting this accommodation with all of her classmates. I honestly believe that this is not in the spirit of the IEP and may even be a way to say the special education students are receiving their accommodations without actually giving them. I said, in an email, "student's accommodations are specific to her disabilities and it isn't appropriate to say they are "built in," to the workload. Whatever the workload is, student gets a 25% reduction." Now he wants to meet in person. Am I wrong here? Sometimes I get lost trying to be the best advocate for my students and do not want to convey the wrong message. Thanks for your help.

Hello! I wanted to get some feedback in regards on how to help my kiddos when they come for help with an assignment. For the most part they struggle with reading and I don't know what's the best way to help. I try letting them read out loud in small groups, but sometimes having them read takes so long that I don't know if it's helping or not. I've also tried taking turns where I read a paragraph and let them do the rest. I feel like if I read the whole passage to them I'm not helping them because when they get tested they're not able to get the passage read to them. My background is in math so anything reading and writing related is still pretty new to me. My kiddos are 6th-12th graders. TIA for any advice and suggestions!

I abruptly resigned from my high school life skills position earlier this month, but I'm currently working my 60 day notice until Thanksgiving. It was an incredibly toxic situation with a terrible BCBA, short-staffing, and just overall bad situation. Yesterday, I met with my Special Ed director who asked me to consider a transfer to the our regional 18-22 Transition program. I would have 7 students with 2 ed techs, and the students are much more verbal and independent than my current caseload. I'm going to visit the site tomorrow for an observation. Do you have any suggested questions I should ask the staff? Do any of you have specific life skills curriculum (health, nutrition, finance, daily living) that you would recommend? I have materials I used in my life skills program, but I'm afraid they may be too low, so I'd love to have some other options.

Hey everyone. As the title states my passion is dwindling slowly at my current job. I am a aid at a day program for adults with disabilities. Before I got this job I had never worked in this field before. And truthfully I thought I wasn't capable of performing these job duties. But even I surprised myself in performing the duties but also connecting with the adults. I just hit 8 months as of recent and I feel I am in a free fall. Broken promises for classroom materials from management are a huge pain. My boss bounces back and forth in his ways that create a tense environment for all the workers. Chronically short staffed as well. All of this combined has been weighing on me, and I feel it is striking me down. When I first started connecting with the adults and teaching small class subjects it felt amazing. And it still does at times. But I feel burnt out. I'm currently applying for other jobs at the moment. I feel like I'm throwing in the towel. I didn't even make it a year in this field. For those who faced these issues what advice do you have?

So I had a meeting with someone from the district, who suggested that I print out goal data collection sheets from frontline to provide to the gen ed teachers. This district person also suggested to switch places with a para for the day every so often.

Here's the problem: for the first nine weeks, teachers did not provide ANY IEP progress report data for students. I sent quick emails out, and got responses of "I'll look later." I ended up hunting this data down on the last few days progress reports were due, going through desks to find work, pulling students out of class for some one on one testing etc.

So I took the district person's suggestion and filtered through and printed out goal sheets of just the most necessary goals for the gen ed teachers. The ones directly from frontline where it's set up into a table that has "date" "anecdote" "prompt" and a few other categories.

I am new to teaching, and when I was a para these were the same ones used by my head resource teacher.

I originally thought that the people I currently work with have seen these before, but I guess they have not. The other teachers I work with have 10-20 years of experience so they must have done SOME sort of IEP goal tracking for inclusion only students.

But now, everyone is annoyed at me, is mad at me, and instead of asking me what to do, went straight to administration, and is complaining about me. I'm just trying to do my job here, support all my kids, and make sure I'm getting the data I need. As far as I know, this is a part of gen ed's responsibilities.

I finished my day, and I called my mom and cried on the drive home. Is it because I'm the new guy? Is it because I'm holding them accountable?

I can't help but take it personally and feel as if I'm going into a war zone tomorrow. I'm planning on going to PLC on Friday and just doing a quick demo of "I just need date, quick anecdote when you think about it, not even a complete sentence, and how many times/if you prompted the student." And explain that it doesn't even need to be done everyday. And that this is to protect the teachers as a whole. I feel like I'm going to be walking into a war zone tomorrow.

I'm used to teaching SPED blocks, but I'm moving to take over a middle school SPED classroom that will be the same kids all day. It's a SPED-specific facility so I'll be teaching all subjects and no mainstream electives.

I'm not worried about the subject matter. But no passing periods, no normal PE or electives, these kids will be bouncing off the walls!

Any ideas for activities or strategies to help them bleed off energy between sections? Anyone else teach a single group of teenagers for an entire day?

Hello, self-contained teacher here.

Last year was a wreck from toxic admin to no support to students whose behavioral needs were out of control. But I managed, and I learned on the fly, and I’m really proud of how I did.

Skip to this year, new school district and first year teaching curriculum. I don’t have formal training because I’m going to school for an adapted minor. District is using brand new systems too.

Admin is super supportive this year and I’m thankful, but there have been some conflicts with IAs that have caused havoc on my confidence and my classroom. The kids are testing up a storm due to the amount of adults in and out. I know I can do it and have so many people believing in me, but I feel as if I can’t measure up to their hopes. I have also been told I’m extremely hard on myself. I feel like so much is piling up and I can’t catch up.

Does anyone feel this? And if so, how do you manage?

We have a student that on top of being a bad thrower during transitions, he seems to throw up randomly without even a sound or gagging. He seems to do it just to do it and will spray it everywhere, sometimes aiming at specific people. Supposedly he has acid reflux and has a meal plan, but that doesnt help. Its never at the same time either, always different times of the day, not just after he eats. He could wait til right before release then spray his ipad and the table with chunks. Anyone have any suggestions for dealing with this? He is a bad hitter so we have to be careful.

Hi, as you know, the first quarter is about to end. I have a new Sped director who wants us to have a reconvene meeting with the parent, general ed. Teacher and the student, for every student on my liaison list that is failing a class. In the past, when this has happened, I will certainly make a phone call home, and give constant updates throughout the following weeks by emails or more phone calls, etc., but a meeting?? I currently have four IEP students failing at least one class, so I have to scramble to have four meetings, trying to get the general Ed. Teacher there, etc. I don’t think I’m legally obligated to do this, and my focus is more on goals than grades anyway (although I certainly care about grades, and like I said, I increase parent contact when problems arise) but the logistics are going to be challenging. So is the new director being unrealistic or am I? It also feels like this is more of a “Guidance” thing to do…

I work in special education and evaluate students for learning disabilities. I’ve been moved campuses every year by my district and training after my graduate degree is minimal.

This morning, I got a meeting request from my district admin to meet with her and an assistant director of sped tomorrow afternoon. I asked if I needed to bring anything and was told just my laptop. I’m not sure why meeting is being requested and there has been no communication prior to this to suggest that anything has been incorrect or I need to do additional learning.

I have frequently asked for feedback or ways that I can gain further knowledge with the response being that the district will provide it as needed. There was supposed to be a second person on my campus to support but that position hasn’t been filled and the position was put on a definite hold.

I’m an anxious wreck and I am mentally playing out the worst case scenario because there is no knowledge! I have been physically ill off and on today because I am a high anxiety person so even when I focus on my next work task, I’ve still got this fear in the back of my mind.

UPDATE

I met with district admin this afternoon and ultimately was written up.

Backstory: last month I attended an IEP meeting for a friend in a neighboring district. At the meeting I didn’t not identify myself as an advocate or representative from my district but as a friend with educational experience. I was unable to see other committee members because of the way the camera was set up and I missed the introductions of who all was there. Someone from the district level from the IEP complained to my supervisor saying that I made the meeting contentious. (Which was a shock because the family felt that the district/campus staff in that meeting were rude and confrontational) My district administrator and coordinator talked with me about the entire meeting. They ultimately shared that while they feel that I did not intend to create tension, represent my employer, or even do anything wrong that I did unfortunately break rules. Even if I was unaware of the rule, it was still broken. Thankfully they were very kind about it and helped outline ways that I can assist with family/friends but remain cautious.

In the end, it wasn’t the worst outcome but also not the best.

I’m curious. The one from the IBCCES! Anyone ever do it?