I am at a loss with my current classroom staff. Just some background…I am at a private school specifically for students with disabilities. We are in a 7:1:4, elementary to middle school age, high behavior needs, special class. All of my students are nonverbal and at varying degrees of communicating. Some using PECS symbols, some solely using gestures and vocalizations. My students cannot go home and tell their families how their day was or if anyone hurt them.

Here is a list of issues I’ve had: 1. Screaming at students, to the point where principal has threatened to call the state but not doing anything about it. 2. Instigating students, not respecting their boundaries…resulting in severe behavior in students 3. Grabbing and pulling students around, instead of gentle physical redirection or prompting…resulting in severe behavior behavior 4. Swearing multiple times a day in front of students 5. Coming in smelling like weed and asking “do I look high?” 6. Coming in 15-20 minutes late daily 7. Trying to take away gross motor spaces, as a punishment, without consulting me 8. Telling students they are going to call the police on them and pointing finger guns at them (as a joke 😒) 9. Falling asleep in class 10. Refusing to do work and disappearing

There is more. I have talked to my staff, I have made it clear to my principal what is going on and NOTHING! The excuse is always “they didn’t have a good role model as a teacher last year”. This is not just one problematic staff but ALL!! I am no longer teaching the kids but protecting them from my STAFF!!!

I just received an email from my AP, saying she has feedback from some aides supporting in my class about needing answer keys before class begins.

I teach high school (10-12th) science, and most of my classwork assignments aren't 'fill in the blank with the right answer" assignments. They are predominantly about what the student thinks and observes. For example, they may play with an interactive simulation, then answer questions about it based on what they saw.

I assume literate adults can read the prompts, and help the students read and understand what the assignment is asking for. I appreciate having aides that can help clarify instructions for students, and keep them focused. I don't want to create "keys" because 1. Most of the questions are open ended, observations, etc and 2. If I did go through the effort to write out possible responses to each prompt for the aides to look at, I predict I'd just see a whole class full of identical responses, and no thinking going on at all. I know this from experience, when I made the mistake of showing my aides an example for a project assignment. I then had every resource kid in all of my periods handing in an identical copied project.

I don't want to come across as difficult or resistant to my AP, but I don't want to undermine the educational benefits of my assignments. I understand aides aren't content experts and receive very little pay and training, but the kids just need them to help with reading and clarifying instructions, not giving them the "right answer".

Advice for how to approach this issue?

I had an interesting week. How about you all?

My son is 8 years old. He’s developmentally delayed. He has a speech delay. He’s behind in math. He does okay with reading but struggles with comprehension. His handwriting needs work. He struggles with spelling. He gets speech, OT, and PT at school and speech outside of school as well. I try to do some work with him each night, read a book, do a page of his handwriting without tears book, or do some math. Not always all 3 because of time. But it’s overwhelming for both of us. He also gets extra help with math at school and has an IEP. But I need to find a way to do more at home with him

I just thought I would come on here & share this because I see a lot of people on here posting how they’re trying to leave teaching at a public school for a private school or private services. I am in my fourth year teaching special education to students with intellectual & developmental disabilities at a private high school. The high school is not a special education school, it is a large private school that has a small special education program. There are a few schools in my area with programs like this, & I am close with a few of the teachers at the other schools, who have had similar experiences to mine. I am leaving next year to teach special education at a local public high school & just thought I would share my experiences teaching special education at a private school, as well as the experiences of my teacher friends.

1. At most special education private schools, there is no set curriculum or resources. When I began four years ago I was given NOTHING. No curriculum, no sort of outline, no workbooks, no worksheets, no online resources or subscriptions, nothing. We do not follow state standards or do state testing, so there is no sort of outline. I was expected to come up with curriculum from scratch & find resources. I was reimbursed for a few of the resources I paid for but not the majority. After four years at this school, we finally received some grant money to buy some curriculum & books for next year.

2. You will do the job of 5 people. Private schools do not have as much money as people think & cannot hire as much staff. The programs are also typically much smaller, so they use that to justify not needing to hire as much support. Currently, I teach five special education classes where I have to create the curriculum & find the resources myself. I teach two different subjects but in past years I have taught four different subjects. I was also pulled to help teach a general special education class where for one period, which I have no prior experience in. I teach the work awareness transition classes & am expected to also do the work of the transition coordinator/job coach. I plan & coordinate all of the off-site job experiences for the students. I have to find places where my students could go work & schedule times for my students to go. I also have to drive the bus to & from these places because my school has no bus drivers. I have to accommodate & modify curriculum for the general education teachers who have students in my caseload. We have no paras or even subs so I am often expected to help a student having a meltdown or cover lunch or sub a class during my off periods. If a student has a meltdown in my class I have no backup. We do not have a behavior intervention specialist, so I have to develop behavior intervention plans with my staff. This list could honestly go on, but I’ll stop here.

3. Parents are very entitled at private school. Because they are rich & paying all this money to send their kids there, they think they can bully you & tell you how to do their job. I understand this goes on in the public schools as well, but at private schools almost every parent I have is like this. I have a couple really good parents, but the majority are ungrateful. Since these parents are funding the school, the school usually takes the parents side. I recently had ONE parent complain about the job sites we were going to & said parents need to be more involved in the process of choosing job sites. So guess what? Next year what job sites we go to will have to be approved by the parents at the parent committees beforehand.

4. You will be expected to attend a lot of events outside of school hours. They are not explicitly listed in your contract but you will be expected to be there or else you will get in trouble. This includes parent committees, dances, fundraisers, sporting events, etc.

5. You will not get paid as well, your benefits are terrible, & there is no union to back you up.

6. Private schools do not have to hire licensed teachers & often do not because they can pay non-licensed teachers less & save money. The licensed teachers then take on the majority of the work because they know what they’re doing. I’ve had to help others on my staff write IEPs or BIPs because they didn’t know how to.

7. Just because we are a private school does not mean we only accept the “good” students, or students who are less violent & have less behavior issues. If their parents are willing to pay the school usually won’t turn them away. If we only accepted those students the parents could also turn around & sue for discrimination. A couple years ago we had a student in special education that the school tried to kick out & it went over like a lead balloon.

That’s all I can think of right now. I just thought I would share because I see a lot of people on Reddit dreaming of leaving teaching special education at a public school for a private school or service. I understand private schools or services definitely have their perks, but they’re not this magical place free from any problems like some seem to think they are. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side!

Good evening everyone, I have a question about the legalities of a predicament I am in. I am currently a permanent substitute teacher at a sped school where the students also have severe behavioral issues. In one of the classrooms, the main teacher has been suspended without pay due to accusations of child abuse. We have no idea when she will/if she will come back, so the paraprofessional has been left in charge of everything. We don't know the children's IEP's, we haven't been left with lessons, basically nothing. I definitely don't know anything, and I question the legalities of it all. We are in the dark. Any advice is much appreciated!

My mother is a special ed teacher in a class with about 13 moderately to severely disabled students. She has been in her position for only 2 years now. For those two years, I have seen her come home with bites down her arms and bruises all over her body. She's been hit, had chairs thrown at her, bitten countless times, and most recently a student threw a book straight into her eye and she had to go to the doctor for possible retina detachment. She is not allowed to defend herself. At most she can "redirect their hands" which clearly doesn't work based on her injuries. She is also not allowed to contain violent students as that is considered isolation. I do not understand how this is acceptable. No, this is not what you sign up for when choosing to be a special education teacher. No, this is not "part of the job". My mother and other special ed teachers and paras are not being protected how they need to be. Would it be acceptable for a gen ed teacher to come home looking like she'd been beaten? For two years straight? No. The treatment of disabled people in the past was so horrible that I feel we are terrified to see any part of it in modern society. But because of this, violent students are continuously harming teachers who are not allowed to retaliate. And it makes me feel horrible for saying this, but seeing my mom in this state has made me develop a resentment towards her students. It is incorrectly placed- the real reason why this is happening is because her school doesn't protect her (not enough paras, "redirection", etc). I know this, but it is a gut reaction.

Any opinions from teachers or parents are welcome. This post makes it sound like I'm angry at disabled students- but it's more the situation teachers and students are placed in that hurts both parties. Thx

I’m a second year gen Ed middle school ELA teacher. I’m also low support needs autistic. I’d love to hear if I’m in the wrong here and what I should do from ESE teachers.

Last year I had two classes that had an extra ESE teacher. She was amazing, we bounced off of each other, it was great. My principal was even shocked because my ESE students had some of the biggest learning gains in the district for my grade level.

Part of that I attribute to my classroom management style which is around treating everyone with respect. I’m not bubbly, but I say please and thank you and I’m sorry to students. If they say sorry I tell them it’s okay things happen. I allow some okay as long as they aren’t being mean or dangerous (and the work is getting done.)

Then comes this year. I have a different and new ESE teacher with zero experience in ESE, zero experience in middle school but enough years in education she thinks she knows how to do everything better than me. Which, at first I was open to, because hey it’s only my second year.

But it’s been horrible.

She constantly berates the kids. She’s always talking when I’m trying to give whole group instruction, and from my perspective it always seems stupid. I’ll be explaining the reading and she’ll be whisper-yelling at a kid because the kid doesn’t have a pencil — but I don’t even need them writing at that moment!

We will be working on a question and she’ll be like oh this is easy you guys should have this answered by now.

I watch as every other ESE kid except one is essentially bullied by her. The exception is hard to describe, he’s very sweet and always has this compliant deer in headlights thing going on that nearly everyone at the school rushes to help him before any other ESE kid. (Even other staff members are always like “oh poor him” and buy him snacks and stuff. He used to do the pitiful baby deer thing with me, but doesn’t anymore.) She spends most of her time on him and not the other 8 kids she’s supposed to serve in the class.

It’s hard to watch because she will baby him to the point of giving him half of the multiple choice answers with barely anything from his side, but she’ll tear down a kid with fetal alcohol poisoning with a brother who’s in jail for trying to kill him.

Anyways. I don’t know what to do. Maybe being aggressive with ESE kids is a strategy that works and I’m being too soft. But I hate it.

Thanks for reading.

Nothing like last minute procrastination to get me moving! Going to a rally today. What would be a good sign to make about special education? I can always do “Hands Off Education” but I’d love to make it more specific to what we do. Something with First, Then or other phrases we say every day? I’m not creative.

am in charge of a 13 year old non verbal autistic girls aggressive stimming behaviours on a bus. She bites and hits, mostly herself but sometimes others. I am concerned about both. Any insights into why her stims would be self harming? I think maybe she is shamed for them at her school and these are a sign of self hatred but I can't be sure. Self love all the way man. If you can wear colourful clothes to express your moods in public and stim at home you will be more socially accepted. Using fidgets out etc. just don't hate yourself, everyone's got weird shit dude!

Former special ed teacher turned parent advocate here!

What questions do you wish someone had answered at the start of your special education journey? What felt confusing, overwhelming, or totally unclear? What questions do you still have?

I'm putting together short, easy-to-understand resources and social media posts to help parents better navigate the special ed process. I want to make sure they're actually useful—so your input means a lot!

Drop your questions or frustrations below, and I’ll do my best to answer as well as use them to shape future content.

Edit: I’m on Instagram and TikTok @kelleyadvocacy if you want to follow along for more info and resources

I just wanted to give you all a message, if I’m not allowed to do so please let me know and I’ll take it down.

If it wasn’t for the infinite patience and understanding of many different Special Education professionals, I would probably not have graduated high school. Or at least not with a GPA over 2.5. Because of people just like you, I finished with a 3.4 (roughly) and I had the confidence to go to college.

I earned my Associates degree and two certificates last May. I passed the AAPC certification test last July.

I am 100% certain that without the support of people like you guys I would not have been able to get through college. I would not have known how to keep track of my homework, how to study, or even how to effectively interact with other people.

So as this year’s graduation draws closer, I thought I’d say thank you. You are so much more important than you think, to so many people.

Thank you so much.

What advice do you wish someone would’ve told you about this field before becoming a sped teacher?

What are some questions you would anticipate for an interview to become a process coordinator?

Hi everyone,

You can see it from the title- I am tasked with writing an IEP for a student with physical tics (body jolts) and using swear words.

The student tends to use swear words as part of his tics and sometimes will swear when prompted (potential masking to show others he has control over it?)

The tics do impact his academics as he often is not able to maintain control and focus in class. They impact others as well as they are distracting.

We will definitely do inclusion and testing accommodations. What should goals look like? I don’t want to gear his goals towards something he truly can’t control. I’m asking for any input and perspectives with this case. I really appreciate any advice you may have!!

I'll try to keep this as brief as possible to not give too much identifying info. A middle school kid in his teens has been having difficulty in school since last year. I'll call this child David for simplicity's sake. David has a lot of maladaptive behaviors and a very sad home life. He spent a lot of time in DAEP last and this year. His AP and counselor have only just found that he was supposed to be on a 504 plan due to mental health disorders diagnosed by outside psychologists. The 504 plan was missed completely last year, and was only discovered in his cumulative file in January 2025. He should have been under MDR protections this whole time. None of that is necessarily my problem since he is gen ed. But his counselor and AP came to me in November 2024 asking for advice. I told them it sounded like he had mental health problems and they should look into a possible outside diagnosis and get him on a 504 plan ASAP. Obviously, they did not do this or they would have found the expired 504 plan in his cumulative file.

David has (finally) been referred for a sped evaluation. In the referral meeting with the parent, who is a working class single parent, something was said that sounds almost not legal. The AP was going over all of the behavior problems seen at school this year and last year, and the parent was getting upset. It was obvious the parent didn't know that David was supposed to be on a 504 plan, and no one brought it up. The AP was snippy and completely inflexible. His body language was awful. He barely gave the parent eye contact, he turned his back to the parent multiple times, and he had his arms crossed for most of the meeting. Then at one point, he says to this parent, "You know, school is not for everyone. Maybe David would be happier doing a homeschool program." Besides this being a truly AWFUL thing to say to a parent, I'm wondering if it's even legal. The parent pays taxes like everyone else, and of course public school is for everyone. I was horrified. And this is not the first time this AP has said something like this, although I didn't witness it. Colleagues have told me that he told the parent of a sped/ED student that we couldn't provide the kind of program she needed because she was too disruptive to the learning environment. I've heard that the parent of that child pulled her out of school to "homeschool" her, but we all understand that to mean she's basically a middle school drop out. Also, that sped/ED child is coded as homeless.

To be clear, these students are VERY difficult to work with and disrespectful. I get it, I really do, but saying things like this to parents could get us into a lot of legal trouble, right? Any advice for me? This AP is a boss, so I don't know if I should contact someone over his head for what I witnessed. I'm afraid if doing that though, because this AP is well-to-do in my district. He has the right friends, goes to the right church, and is very well educated. I think nothing will come of me saying something, but my conscience is getting to me.

I just had such a fun time with my student and I wanted to share the story because it’s kind of funny and why I love my job as an EA.

So basically me and my student ‘Agent L’ where playing outside after doing some spring planting with his class, and as part of that he came up with the idea that the Principal was secretly plotting. And I was like “what is she plotting?” And as seriously as can be he told me that she was plotting to trick students into doing work. Crazy right?! So when we went inside we decided to go on an evidence hunt- cause you need evidence for such a plot. We strolled down the hallway as casual as can be. We crept down around corners, and whenever we saw something suspicious- a picture of broken pumpkins from a science experiment, the secretary putting away files, a sticker on one of the door numbers- he would point it out and I would snap a picture. After we went back to class we made an evidence log- and he told me what to write in highlighter for each picture which he went over in pencil. “The Principal has secret files on her computer.” “The Principal left rotting pumpkins on school grounds.” He got so into it that instead of centres we just kept going. All told he probably wrote about eight to ten complete sentences, which is twice what he usually does, and had so much fun. It was really funny too, cause we would snap a picture of something in the office then duck down so the secretary didn’t see. And our log was on the back of a coloring page and we would flip it over to the coloring side whenever the teacher walked by. It was so silly and fun I couldn’t help but get into it. Both Agent L and I had a great time.

This is clearly a massive issue. Prompting/outright giving the kids the correct answers or doing it for them is NOT helping. Sped children deserve an education and not babying.

Children need to learn as they won't have a para throughout adulthood to do the thinking for them.

Have you ever seen this or done it yourself?

Please call it out when you see it.

Looking for recs to help with encouraging quiet voices, personal space, and quiet hands. My students are so very loud even when they are making simple requests for computer help. They pretty much yell across the classroom for anything to the point where I wear loops all day.

They are also very handsy with each other which leads to conflict even when it starts out playful. I'm specifically looking for books or games to help with this. I tried My Mouth is a Volcano which was slightly too long so I modified it a little to be shorter.

They are as yet unable to understand imaginary situations (i.e. if you had no friends how would you feel? Response: Bob is my friend/says own name/points to picture and describes it without responding to question).

I am using other methods to address these issues too, but looking for additional help using these tools.

Thanks!

I work in a self-contained class for mod-severe intellectual disabilities with students who also have severe behavior issues ranging from aggression to SIB to property destruction. This week has been hard, nearly every student has had above average levels of problem behaviors, resulting in my co-worker and I being the target of many hits, some that seemingly came out of nowhere. Today was by far the worst day, with some students esclating to the point of needing holds to prevent them from severely hurting themselves or others. We are under-staffed in the school and have a hard time getting extra help when we need it. We get no breaks, can barely even use the bathroom when we need it some days. I want to help these kids, but I'm also tired of being their punching bag. I hope next week is better.

For more context: I teach in Arkansas and currently teach on SPED license, not a math license. My schedule currently has me rotating between 3 general education math classes during each 1.5 hour period for inclusion. One of my 3 general education counterparts is going out on FMLA for the remainder of the year. I’m afraid my school is going to force me to take over her classes until the end of the year. Is this legal? Most of my student IEPs say I will provide 40-60 minutes of inclusion each week and some have it listed as 1x a day.

I am currently researching the law but I am hopeful someone else might have some advice to offer or know how to point me in the right direction.

so i am a para educator and am in a class for students who are considered to be emotionally disturbed, high school. i find my self very frustrated and bored often because i have now worked under a teacher who does not do a THING! there is never any lesson for the day, they are expected to complete the same format of worksheets everyday(reading a few paragraphs and answer questions) as well as self guided math program for an hour on the computer (most students just do 1st grade level math even though they are capable of doing higher levels, it’s just that nobody is teaching them how or assigning it), they are expected to stay pretty much silent for the whole day. this is unless she decides she wants to go on a tangent. the teacher stays behind her desk for the entirety of the day, on her computer. she inappropriately talks about other members on our team so much so that i refuse to be alone with her because i don’t want to gossip. she often gaslights the students by telling them she said things she never said or over exaggerating things that the students are doing in class. once a week a psychologist visits our classroom and because she’s decided she doesn’t like the lady, she’s super rude and condescending to her!

i just want to know how should i deal with this situation? is this something that can be brought to admin or do i just mind my business !? is this level of engagement normal ? i know that this is special education but sheesh it’s still supposed to be education and these kids aren’t being engaged to learn a thing

Hello this post is especially for center based teachers.

Do you ever feel like you are just getting through the day every day?

I am a middle school center based teacher with 8 students. I realize I am so lucky because my class is relatively small, I have 6 paras, and I have no really significant behaviors in my classroom. This is my 5th year teaching, but my first as a certified sped teacher working with this population (last 3 years has been primarily ED students). Between collecting data, restrooming needs, delivering alternative assessments, supporting students, trying to stay on top of meetings and day to day needs most of the time it just feels like a win to make it through the day.

I can be really hard on myself, so I am trying to take perspective, but I really don’t feel like I’m making much of a difference. I have my offer on the table for next year and right now there is just so much dread around saying yes to another year of this work.

I really am curious if the getting through the day feeling is normal or if other center based speds feel like you are running a real classroom with long term objectives.

Thanks for any thoughts you are willing to share.