For those of you who have been teaching for 15+ years, how did you manage it? I’m in my first year and I’m loving it more than I thought I would and would like to make this my lifelong career. I need all the tips of tricks I can get to make it longterm 😆.

Throwaway account for privacy reasons, but I've been working at a school with a very high limited-verbal population and behavior issues for multiple years. It can be very chaotic and demanding. We are understaffed and I understand you arent supposed to take away a students AAC device under any circumstances but lots of these kids are K/1st grade and even lower cognitively, so it can feel almost impossible to manage the classroom, let alone implement them with fidelity when none of the paras have any training on them and non SLP staff have very limited training/knowledge.

Im not saying students shouldn't be allowed to stim on them or anything like that, but there are times where you would remove a student from class for being disruptive and inappropriate with their voice the way some students use their AAC devices. I feel like having similar expectations for limited verbal students makes you evil or something.

I'm just looking for some guidance other than "model on the device" and "talk to your SLP staff" because I am and have tried those things but they dont really feel like they are not always practical or working. Kind of a vent but any help would be appreciated

So its half October and as days go by I feel more tired. I have a class of three severely impaired children and I talk to their parents intensively,and although we have good relationships so far,it is really starting to drain my energy,bc I feel their expectations and I am worried I may let them down.

My question is: how do you relax,what activities help you get your energy back, how to stay resilient in this job,what are your hobbies.

I’m a TA (I’m based in the UK, I’m not sure what terms are used in other countries) working in a classroom with children with limited to no verbal ability and severe learning difficulties. This year we have a child in my class who’s really struggling at the moment and when he’s unsettled, he will snatch things and sometimes put them on the floor and jump up and down on top of them. Recently, my glasses have become a target for this behaviour. My work glasses got broken last week due to this and my only remaining pair nearly were broken this week (I was able to bend the arms back into place, one of the lenses popped out but I’ve managed to pop it back in - and unlike my other pair, the lenses aren’t scratched beyond repair so they’re still wearable). The school have said they’ll compensate me if I bring them the receipt for the replacement glasses - which is great but I don’t know how they’ll feel about it if this becomes a weekly thing. I went in and ordered a new pair of glasses the day my last pair were broken - but if my second pair had been broken this week I’d have been without glasses for several days before my new pair have even had a chance to arrive.

I need my glasses to be able to drive to and from work, my prescription isn’t a mild one. Today, I ended up taking my glasses off and putting them away in the afternoon to avoid this problem - the child in question has also become quite physical in his behaviour and if I’m worried about making sure he can’t snatch my glasses off my face, I can’t really properly ensure that I’m protecting myself and the other children, as well as supporting him effectively. This meant my glasses survived the day obviously but it’s not really practical as a long-term solution. My vision is very poor without them, I can’t properly see facial expression or gestures that aren’t at very close range - even things like personal care, where I just can’t see very well to tell if a child needs their pad changing whilst they’re in the toilet. I’ve tried contact lenses in the past but wasn’t able to get along with them and my eyes got really irritated. I’m left at a bit of a loss to a solution here. Has anyone else had trouble with this sort of thing? And what was your solution?

Hello!

I am a current freshman in college, and I have always dreamed of being a special education teacher. I worked with disabled students for two years during high school, and I genuinely feel that it is both my calling and drive to work with these folks.

I do plan to major in Special Education/Inclusive Education, but I also heavily struggle with math. I am afraid this is going to prevent me from becoming a teacher, and I am not sure if anyone has any advice for my specific issue? I will do anything to be better, though I do suspect I have some form of dyscalculia (and I am also autistic, though not at a stage where I need/have needed specialized help in my academic career). I will take any advice, and deeply appreciate it and all the work special education teachers do! You guys do some of the most important work out there, and I deeply appreciate all of you for giving both a voice and support to those who unfortunately receive so little of it in schools.

I am open to hearing about other career options as well, so long as they still work with students with special needs; I have previously considered becoming an Occupational Therapist, or doing something with therapy! :)

Hi everyone! I’m a new SPED resource teacher and would love some advice from more experienced teachers!

I have a student who really does not want to be pulled out of the general education classroom for services. When it’s time to leave the room, the response is a straight-up “no.” I’ve been trying to acknowledge the student’s feelings and avoid turning it into a power struggle, so I’ve tried providing support inside the gen ed classroom instead.

The tricky part is that even with push-in support, the student doesn’t seem to want help.

Interestingly, the student does come with me during reading groups without much of an issue. The refusal seems to happen specifically during ELA time.

I’m also new to the school, so I know that building rapport and trust may be part of the process.

For those of you who have been doing resource for a while:

How do you build rapport with students who resist services?

Would you continue with push-in support for now or gradually work toward pull-out services again?

How do you respect a student’s feelings while still ensuring IEP services are provided?

Has anyone experienced something similar, especially when a student is willing to attend reading groups but refuses to leave during ELA?

I want to handle the situation in a way that supports the student and builds trust without making services feel like a constant battle.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I switched from a separate school for kids with autism to a regular education school in inclusion. The job feels impossible. I don’t want to get out of bed. I’ve been a special Ed teacher for 14 years.

Hi everyone! I’m a first-year special education teacher working in an ICT classroom, and I’m honestly feeling so overwhelmed and lost.
This is my first year teaching, and I feel like there are so many things I’m expected to know that I was never really taught how to do. I’m struggling with collecting data, understanding IEP goals, writing IEPs, and figuring out how to manage all my responsibilities as a special education teacher.
I feel like I’m constantly trying to figure everything out on my own, and it’s exhausting. I genuinely want to be a good teacher and do what’s best for my students, but I feel like I’m not doing enough or that I’m always missing something.
Lately, I’ve been questioning whether this career is even for me. I worked so hard to become a teacher, but now that I’m actually doing the job, I feel so unprepared. I’ve even started thinking about resigning because of how overwhelmed and anxious I feel every day.
I guess I’m just wondering if any other special education teachers felt this way during their first year. Does it actually get better? How did you learn to collect data, manage IEPs, and feel confident in your role?
I really don’t want to give up, but I’m starting to feel like maybe I’m not cut out for this.

Hey all,

I am a preservice teacher studying at uni. I also have adult diagnosed ADHD — a lot of my shitty experiences at school were a direct result of non-inclusion, which is why I want to become a teacher.

This inclusive education subject I am in has sucked the life out of me. I get it; not everyone holds the same views as mine, and many are lucky to come out of school relatively unscathed. However, I feel like I am being punished for understanding the concept of inclusion better than any other PST who hasn't experienced ableism.

This last assignment is asking us to justify and connect our understanding to however many frameworks there are, and I'm sitting here thinking the basis of my best inclusion strategies are to: treat everyone with humanity because its the right thing to do.

I feel annoyed because I have to link everything to the 5FC's and evidence-based strategies and justify how I would meaningfully engage with parents and students, when in my mind, inclusion itself is a philosophy.

For me, inclusion is 'important' because non-inclusion is inhumane, but that answer will never be enough.

Anyway. I would love to know if any inclusion teachers had any words of wisdom to help me get through this assignment.

I teach a middle school program for students with moderate to severe emotional disabilities. I attended an IEP meeting this past week in order to determine a change of placement for a student. We were warned that one of the guardians was going to be “coming in hot“ because there was a good chance, the student would not qualify for the change of placement.
My boss who facilitated the meeting gave the whole spiel about being collaborative and everything being in the best interest of student at the beginning of the meeting.
The student did not qualify and the guardian became very upset and began chewing me out. Keep in mind I was one of a several people who had contributed to all of the data in the reports that were shared at the meeting. Also, I am honestly doing the best I can with this student but with the high-level of demands the guardians have placed on me it is very challenging. I ended up having to go outside for a break so they wouldn’t see me have a panic attack and I came back a few minutes later.
I once attended a meeting and when the parent became escalated, the facilitator paused the meeting, sent the staff outside for a break, and had a private conversation with the parent before everyone returned. I understand that it’s important to hear the parent out but at the same time it just seems wrong to just let them rip into people on the IPE team.
I’m just curious to know what other people have done in situations like this.

I value the opinion of professionals so I’m coming for help. My son 8 (global developmental delay both cognitive and physical) has made excellent gains in public school. They have went above and beyond for us and we have been thrilled, until this year. My son’s new teacher is very different, much more strict and very heavily academically focused (understandable) to the point where there is no what my son might consider “fun” learning. He has an IEP and needs a lot of modifications that hes always received. He has a 1:1 and a 1:1 nurse (gtube). He tells me he HATES school, and begs me not to go. He is mainstream for homeroom, lunch, recess, special and end of the day flex (science/social studies) and in an LLD room for the additional subjects. This is the first year this has been this way with his behavior. The teacher has sent him to the principals office everyday last week, for things like “work avoidance”, “saying bad words- like damn”, “crumpling up his paper”. I have asked for a behaviorist consult and for them to go back to the basics “first,then” language, heavy praise, lots of breaks. I am doing my best to carry over the info at home but I am struggling to see if any of this is truly principal office worthy? The uptick in poor behavior is not seen at home, and I am deeply concerned that this is going to continue and would impact his and obviously everyone else’s learning. I’m asking for any suggestions on strategies that I can carry over at home, or things I can begin working on to help him understand that sometimes we have to do things we don’t like. I am just a normal mom who is trying to do my best and I really value people who just frankly know more than I do. I have spoken with the teacher and she says “he’s tests me” and “he is too loud” things like that. She seems responsive to my concerns about sending him out of the classroom so much but it’s still happening. Thank you so much in advance all info welcome.

Hello everyone!
I hope you are all doing well! I am a certified teacher in NJ and PA and having a hard time finding a full time position in my certification area

I am substitute teaching currently and some of my favorite assignments are Title 1 or Resource rooms.

But overall I would be terrified of life skills/ inclusion rooms as although I love working with those students- it is not something that I have a personality match for and burnout effects me even after a few days of self contained classrooms.

I don’t feel too comfortable asking this question to people I know in the education field - mostly because I don’t know how to word it best - but if you get certified in sped - do you have any control if you get put in resource vs self contained.

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Para posting on behalf of a SpEd Resource middle school ELA teacher.

We have a middle schooler who came to us completely unable to read, not even with phonics or sight words. He is in resource (not self-contained) classes.

We have attempted using the curriculum we have (Read Naturally) to start working with him, but being 12 he is very very very embarrassed to be using "work for babies". Stuff like 'The cat sat on the mat." and other CVC words feel baby to him. He refuses to do them due to the shame he feels.

Are there any resources we can utilize, books, readings, worksheets, that wouldn't feel infantalizing to a new reader that is nearing his teens? Most of the stuff we have on hand, like books, are too high level for him yet.

I have a first grade student who struggles to add/subtract without a visual. However, he thrives when using a ten frame and also likes using a number line. Of course I want to eventually fade that support out so he is able to add/subtract without the visual support, especially since eventually we get into adding/subtracting within 120 without regrouping.

Is it okay if I draw a ten frame for him on math assessments? Some teachers in my building don't agree with that but as he's still building number sense, I feel like it's important that he's able to use a ten frame or number line. Just wondering what other teachers on here feel about that, thanks!

How do you do it when teaching single subjects and still exposing students to grade level standards ?
Currently experiencing an influx of lower ability students

Hello everyone,

As the title says, I have a 6 year old with Level 2 autism. Monday last week, he started school at a nonpublic school that's quite a distance from our house. The ride is about 40 minutes to get him there. The first day I got him on the bus, no problem. He had a great first day. There was a little bit of an issue getting him on the bus at the end of the day, but nothing major. BUT since then, he has refused to ride the bus. I am tried everything to convince him, but he said he is scared and wants to ride in a regular car. When we tried to get him to go on Tuesday and Wednesday, he showed signs of extreme anxiety. (He went pale, started shaking and crying. Pulled off all his cloths and began kicking us), all of which is extremely abnormal. He says that the harness choked him and the bus was shaking really bad. He even had marks on his shoulders from the harness. I'm at a loss at what to do. Spoke with the lady from the district office(she arranged his placement), and she said that there was nothing she could do. She arranged for me to take him on the bus and help settle him in, but im not sure it will work. Does anyone have any advice on helping with his bus anxiety? He rode the bus all last year, and we never had this issue. Granted his school last year was much closer. I fear that once I get him on the bus, he will want me to ride with him, and if don't he will become escalated. I want him to overcome his fear, but I don't want him to be traumatized and make the situation worse. Even putting the harness now is an issue that was never there before. I hate him missing school, but the school is unable to help because they are a private school in a different district. His home district will have to arrange any other type of transport. We have offered every type of reward imaginable for riding the bus, and nothing works. We even offered to allow him to take his phone, which is something he has wanted for a long time. The bus drive even offered to allow him to use her hotspot. But still no good. He said he would rather walk. I would drive him but I don't have transportation during the day.

I have been taken off of work due to a concussion that happened during a student behavior. While I’ve been gone the building coaches have completely rearranged my classroom, removed my items from the room, and given my desk to a student. I have since been out in light duty (not back in my own classroom yet) and when I went in to grab my work laptop, I could not find any of the materials I bought for the classroom or my personal items from my desk. I am at a loss as to what to do. I’m currently waiting to hear back from HR if going into the classroom to grab the rest of the items I bought counts towards my light duty hours or not. I am honestly very worried that materials I have bought will be thrown away or discarded without my knowledge. All of this was done with zero communication. Apparently one of the coaches has been asking the paraprofessionals in my room what she can throw away or not.

Has anyone experienced something similar to this? Is there anything I can do to stop this?

My child is in first grade and is in the reading group right below the highest. They know letter sounds well and can often spell simple words correctly when a picture is provided, but independent spelling is mostly phonetic.
Reading seems harder than spelling. They often need to sound words out, sometimes guess, and may not recognize the same word consistently. DIBELS also showed weaknesses in word reading, oral reading fluency, and accuracy.

Writing is another concern. My child usually writes without spaces unless reminded, mixes uppercase and lowercase letters, and some independent writing is difficult to decipher.

Her teacher (long term sub) is not particularly concerned at this point and suggested monitoring. I completely understand that first graders are still developing these skills, and I don’t want to mistake normal development for a disability.

There is also a strong family history of dyslexia/reading disabilities, written-expression difficulties, and ADHD. I already suspect ADHD and in the very beginning stages of getting an eval through insurance.
Would you request an evaluation now or continue monitoring?

I must apologize because many of my responses were igorant to the fact that most states and counties in the US do not have these agencies. I thought that IDEA and other laws that pertain to students with special needs were implemented similarly state to state. I just learned that these two agencies are unique to my state. I understood that funds can vary wildly from place to place, but I thought each state had agencies in place to ensure resources were distributed appropriately to districts and their students.

For those unfamilar, a SELPA is a regional special education cooperative with massive legal teeth and dedicated funding. In most states, special education money flows straight into a district's general fund, where it can get tangled up in local politics. In California, all state and federal special education funding is sent directly to the SELPA first. The SELPA then distributes those funds based on a strict, region-wide funding allocation plan. This prevents local school boards from skimming special education dollars to patch up general education deficits. Instead of a tiny district trying to afford its own full-time Assistive Technology (AT) specialist, Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), or expensive low-incidence equipment , the SELPA owns and employs them. When a student in a small member district has an extreme, low-incidence need, the district doesn't have to hire a private contractor or third-party agency.They simply pull a specialized provider or piece of equipment directly from the shared SELPA regional pool. Every SELPA creates a comprehensive, state-approved Local Plan. This document mandates that every single school district within that geographic region must follow identical policies, use the same IEP software, and implement the same procedural safeguards. If a small district faces a massive due process lawsuit, the SELPA provides centralized legal support and expert testimony, meaning a single high-needs case won't bankrupt a small school's budget. A SELPA is a statutory safety net. It ensures that whether a student lives in an affluent suburb or a tiny rural town, their school has immediate, structural access to high-tier funding, expert staff, and specialized training without ever needing to rely on a third-party corporate vendor.

A Regional Center is a private, state funded non-profit that acts as a lifelong, personal concierge and funding source for an individual with disabilities. While school districts are legally responsible for a child's education from ages 3 to 22, the Regional Center is legally responsible for that person's entire life outside of school—from birth until death. Regional Centers do not typically provide direct therapy themselves; instead, they purchase services from thousands of approved private vendors. They fund things like Respite Care, Crisis Intervention, and Housing and Independence. Because the Regional Center handles the home and the school handles education, the two systems are designed to lock together. The Service Coordinator legally can—and often does—attend IEP meetings to ensure that the behavior plans used in the classroom match the behavior plans being funded in the student's home at night. Regional Center is picking up where the school leaves off. It prevents parental burnout and ensures that an intensive student is supported 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I was concerned when I found out that many states do not have a dedicated network to support people with special needs. I knew that the quality of such systems would vary greatly, but I did not think some states did not have them at all and many of my responses came from a perspective that these were at least being handled in a rudimentary way state to state.

hey everyone, I have a quick question. My mainstream student who is now in grade 8, has is trying to become more independent, which i like but I noticed that he doesn’t want to follow how the work should be done and just get it done quick without even checking it or listening to my advice to help him get that work on on the right track. When I offer him help, he just goes back to what he did before which is take shortcuts. He has a laptop and when I tried to edit his work, he goes back to what he writes. I tried to tell him how he could write it better but he refuses to listen and thinks he’s right. I ask him if there’s anything wrong and he doesn’t answer me even though he tries to be independent I can’t force him to do his work correctly if he does not want to acknowledge what i say. I thought that if he follows the rules and tries his best and also with his behavior we could always bake on fridays because that is what he is interested in? If anyone’s ever been in this situation, please share your advice and opinion thanks a lot.

Hi everyone,

I am currently looking for English language materials and/or any speech-therapy help in English language. I currently teach at a school for speech impaired youths (grades 5-10) in Germany, and most of the materials familiar to me for learning how to read and write and speech therapy concepts are, obviously, aimed at German language.

While one of the children in my class is unable to read or write even simple texts in German, he can read English well. However, he is very much struggling to write in English. Me and my colleagues are suspecting a phonolgical impairment in that he is unable to productively connect sounds to letters or combinations of letters (a task that should theoretically be considerably easier in German than in English). After more than a year of intesive one-on-one therapy sessions, progress is still scarce. Since he does speak English (his L2, German being his L3) as good or better than German and is able to read in English, I had the idea of first trying to teach him how to write in English, then transition to German reading and writing.

I have absolutely no clue where to look for materials and/or therapy concepts in English language, tho. Most English language materials I am familiar with are for learning the English languge with a German background and usually take for granted that the student can read/write German. I have looked into synthetic phonetics, but most of what I found online seems to be more focussed about reading than writing? Are there any materials you might have used and could recommend, or any speech and language therapy concepts I might want to look into?

Thank you for your help!

We been understaffed at our behavior school for 4 weeks now. This week was the worse. I had to sub in and was only able to teach in the morning and after lunch I was doing one to one direct with students with high magnitude aggressive behaviors and covering paras breaks. Friday was the worst day ever in education that I experienced. Emergency calls every hours and students just hanging out in the hallways misbehaving. Administrators doing direct one to ones for coverage. We have 3 students who need need two to ones support because of their aggressive behavior. That is pending via IEP meetings needing approval next week. I been told by staff who been here longer this is the "worst understaffing I ever seen we need to be shutdown"

Weve had several people quit and fired. We have an injury liste now to. We dont even have a clinical school psychologist because he was fired and social worker is out with a broken leg from work. This week one of our special ed teachers put his two week notice. I am gonna communicate that I am not taking anymore substitute teaching responsibilities for my mental health. They also mandated for us to get our bus drivers license and if we dont they have to deduct our pay. If we dont drive the bus we get the floaters position with a dollar pay deduction. If you are a floater, you can never work directly one to one with a student for a whole day. But they have floaters now doing direct one to one the whole day because they cant find people so its wage theft. We dont have a union till next year August.

I just want to say its not really the adminstrators faults but the policy makers at the top. I think if our schooled advertised if we were giving fieldworkhours on becoming BCBAs that would fix the staffing issues but this current board and administration hasnt approved that.

I got a job offer to start in November and its close to where my sister lives out of state. Im hoping to get more job offers.

Think turning down sub assignments, accepting the job offer, and putting two weeks notice is a good idea?

Hello! I am a new Behavior Intervention Classroom Teacher and I need help. I took this position after district cuts and some time working as a paraprofessional, but the change happened very suddenly. Even though I passed my Special Education Certification, I am at a loss for what to expect and what my responsibilities are. I'm coming in late into the semester and my supervisors have been a pain to get information from on my position. Anything would be helpful! Thanks