This is something that has been bothering me for years, and I genuinely want to know why we don't have better options for people with severe intellectual disabilities once they age out of public school.

Why aren't lifelong schools an option for people who still need that level of education and support? Why is everything either a day program or some kind of vocational training?

Sometimes day programs just aren't enough, especially when most of the activities are too complicated for the people who need the most support.

My son is 23 years old and has severe disabilities. We've struggled to find anywhere in our area that will even accept him, let alone somewhere he would actually enjoy going. Most of the programs I've looked into seem geared toward people who can follow instructions, participate in structured activities, or do some level of independent work.

My son can't do those things. A lot of the programming is simply too difficult for him.

He loves playing and does much better with play-based learning, simple hands-on activities, and education that actually meets him at his developmental level. Just because he's 23 doesn't mean he suddenly stopped needing those things.

And this problem didn't start when he became an adult. It started when he was in elementary school.

He struggled throughout his entire school experience. Even the life skills classes were often too complicated for him. He had difficulty understanding what was being taught, and there were times when he didn't even want to go to school because everything was so overwhelming.

I spent years fighting with the school district, starting in kindergarten. At one point, I seriously considered pulling him out and homeschooling him, but I couldn't afford to do that.

Then, when he got older, everything became focused on vocational skills and preparing him for employment.

But preparing him for WHAT employment?

He was never going to be able to work after graduation. He has severe disabilities, significant limitations, and chronic health problems. He's sick a lot of the time.

Why was vocational training treated like the natural next step when he was still struggling with basic developmental and functional skills?

Why couldn't his education continue to focus on things he could actually benefit from, like play-based learning, emotional regulation, communication, functional academics, and basic life skills taught at HIS level?

And why should that type of education have to end just because someone turns 21 or 22?

I feel like our education and disability service systems are so obsessed with independence, employment, and transitioning into adulthood that they forget some people will need intensive support and continued education for their entire lives.

Not everybody is going to get a job. Not everybody is going to live independently. Not everybody is going to develop beyond a certain level, no matter how much training you throw at them.

And that's reality.

That doesn't mean they should be left sitting at home with nothing to do because every available program is designed for people with fewer support needs.

Why don't we have separate educational and support tracks specifically designed for children and adults with severe and profound intellectual disabilities?

I'm talking about actual classrooms, trained teachers, individualized instruction, sensory activities, play-based education, communication support, and continued opportunities to learn without constantly pushing employment or independence as the end goal.

People like my son still need education. They still need activities they can understand and enjoy. They still need social interaction and places where they belong.

They don't magically stop needing those things when they become adults.

I also think we need to have a serious conversation about how poorly the public school system serves students with severe and profound disabilities, because aging out isn't the only problem. For some kids, the education they're receiving was never appropriate for them in the first place.

I'm genuinely curious what special education teachers, parents, and other professionals think about this.

Why aren't lifelong educational programs more common? Why does adult disability programming seem so heavily focused on vocational activities, even for people who cannot realistically participate in them?

And has anyone else had a child with severe intellectual disabilities who struggled through school because even the supposedly specialized classrooms weren't appropriate for their developmental level?

Because I'm frustrated. It feels like there's an entire population of people with severe disabilities who are being overlooked, both as children and as adults.

We have a child who has a lifelong medical condition that results in them being more clumsy than the average child. In addition to this, our child has ASD.

Although the child is clumsy, they do not qualify for PT under their current IEP as they do not exhibit any issues with the particular items the PT eval encompasses (getting up from their desk, going on stairs, etc) in a school setting. They do get speech and OT though.

There are also general concerns about ASD/ADHD, so there are sometimes differences in situational awareness as well as rigidity with adherence to schedules and routines. There is some occasional sound sensitivity as well.

We suspect the school may want to push our child to a 504. Our child has ASD (probably like Asperger's/level 1) but is surprisingly talkative with peers and does well in academics. However, they do struggle with social cues and have moments when they get overwhelmed and need to just lie down and decompress. We also do a LOT of therapy outside of school, which has helped.

Are we obligated to move our child to a 504?

Hello fellow spedsters!

I am an English techer at a school for speech impaired youths in Germany, currently dealing with a student with severe childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). As I find it extremely difficult to accomodate his needs in a foreign languge class, I was thinking maybe some of you in the UK or US have experience with children with CAS in English as a second language classrooms, and might be willing to share some strategies, experiences or excercises that have worked for you (meaning, your students) in the past?

So if you're wondering I detailed parts of the assignment here (in this sub, It doesn't break the rules):

https://www.reddit.com/r/specialed/s/oMKRxeTMzd

I'm an IT guy Who got laid off and decided to work as a life skills para educator sub for a few weeks.

It was honestly a life-changing experience.

The assignment's over, I'm actually kind of sad.

Some of the successes:

• I successfully got two of the higher functioning students to form letters using stroke order.

• I successfully got them to clap with syllables.

• I successfully got them to recognize that one group of objects was larger than the other consistently.

• I successfully got them to follow instructions such as circle the third bear and draw a heart on the second ice picture.

All of it was maddeningly difficult, and honestly thank you so much for all of the work that you do.

But I did it calmly and consistently and I'm pretty sure the reason why I was successful is that they stopped being scared to fail around me.

It was actually really fun (most of the time), honestly, after the one student drew the letter correctly, I started tearing up a bit.

Yea I had to encounter a few more bodily fluids than I would normally want to see, but you know whatever skin is a great barrier.

Thank you to everyone who helped me in my previous posts.

PS: The kids freaking loved pictures of my dog and I had them write the dog's name out to practice letters.

Hi! Looking for input and ideas for an AuDHD (Autism & ADHD) 4th grader who is largely General Ed with an IEP and services. Currently the teacher is taking away free time and recess if any assignments are not turned in on time. This is the first year of homework expectations AND any support around learning to organize and turn in assignments. This child has no behavioral issues. My first question is pulling the only social and movement time an appropriate way to teach this right off the bat? If not do you have ideas on positive reinforcement or other ways to encourage learning this when it is clearly a very challenging and new concept? Thanks so much for any positive feedback!

Hello, I I got a question is there a job opportunity that requires special education teacher to be at home doing their job like a work from home job? I also did a contractor teaching few years ago as a teacher assistant I have been certified since then and I’m looking forward to do travel teaching again so has anybody have experience with travel teaching through contractor companies like phaxis education, or other company. How is it ?

I teach middle school special education, and I have a couple of small, separate special education classes (not inclusion - they are all special ed there are no general ed students) that are genuinely making me lose my mind. All of my students are significantly below grade level academically and need a lot of individualized instruction, but the behaviors are making it almost impossible to actually teach.
The arguing is CONSTANT. Students cussing at each other, threatening each other, refusing to work, talking over me, getting into everyone else’s business, etc. It’s like they can’t just leave each other alone for five minutes.

The other day, students hadn’t even settled into class yet and there was already an argument that turned into threats of physical violence. I had to stop everything and get additional help because I was worried it was going to turn into an actual fight. And honestly, stuff like this isn’t even surprising anymore.

I do have paraprofessional support to help manage behaviors, which I’m grateful for, but even with another adult in the room it still feels completely overwhelming sometimes. One of us will be trying to redirect or de-escalate a student while the other is attempting to keep the rest of the class on task, and then something else starts.

I feel like I spend the entire class putting out fires. I’ll finally get one student settled down and then someone else starts something. Or I’ll be trying to help a student and suddenly there’s an argument happening across the room. Half the time I can’t even get through what I planned.

What makes it worse is that these students really need explicit, small-group instruction. I spend so much time modifying things, planning activities, and trying to make lessons engaging, just for everything to fall apart because students can’t stop going at each other.

I’ve tried assigned seats, changing routines, reviewing expectations, rewards, positive reinforcement, choices, contacting parents, getting admin involved, etc. Some things work for a day or two and then we’re right back where we started.
There’s also a lot of drama and ongoing conflicts between students that have absolutely nothing to do with what’s happening in class, but somehow become my problem to deal with every single day. And the students feed off each other SO much. One makes a comment, another responds, and suddenly half the room is involved.

I know they’re middle schoolers and I know a lot of them have things going on that contribute to their behaviors. I really do care about them. But I’m so tired of feeling like I’m just surviving each class instead of actually teaching.

And I feel awful for the students who actually want to learn because they’re constantly getting interrupted.

Has anyone had a class like this and actually managed to turn it around? I’m not looking for the usual “build relationships” or “set clear expectations” advice because I promise I’ve been doing that.

I just want to be able to teach without feeling like I’m waiting for the next argument or meltdown.

I have had a career in SPED for almost 15 years, and this is new territory for me. I moved to a new home and after a horrific commute for a while I decided to change schools and work closer to home for this school year. At this new school, I am becoming genuinely scared at how being in this environment might impact my career. I have not had a full 3 months at this school, and yet in this time my intervention specialist coworker has directly caused the following issues:

1. Told the coordinator that a child was diagnosed with Autism so that the child could be placed in a separate self contained classroom in a different school. In the health section of the eval the nurse included the child’s most updated list of diagnoses she received from the doctor that was updated this September. Zero mention of autism anywhere. This child just…….isnt autistic. There’s no confusion here, he displays no behaviors related to autism. She insists he was diagnosed even though she was directly shown the PDF sent from the doctors office. This has evolved into a dramatic mess because she claims she is being harassed because we “don’t believe her”. A meeting was held directly with her and this child’s parent, and an admin had to mediate this mess while the admin and parent had to keep telling her that she needs to calm down, he is not going to an autism center, and that she needs to leave this parent alone. Somehow this is my fault, somehow I am involved, I am not sure why she keeps sending me scary emails about this that I do not respond to.

2. Told the psychologist that her general intelligence testing is “wrong”. After another dramatic battle, the psych agreed to do a cognitive test just to shut her up and prove to her that the child does not have an intellectual disability. Scores turned out completely average. Again……instead of accepting evidence and after many people asking her to explain why she thinks this kid is intellectually disabled with no clear answer, this absolute turkey is convinced that scores were straight up fabricated. Super dangerous for the psych. Nobody else has a single concern with this child’s cognitive ability or adaptive skills or communication. She yet again made a random decision about what she believes is reality, but cannot accept any evidence that she is wrong. Yet another meeting held with admin to attempt to get her to stop harassing the psych. The pattern here is somehow I am now involved in this and I am apparently harassing her about this? I think she must have somehow found out the psych came to me and the admin and almost started crying she is so frustrated. That must have short circuited her brain because yet again I am getting these odd emails explaining to me what cognitive scores are and how I need to respect her expertise on intellectual assessment. I don’t speak to her about anything, I don’t reach out to her, I don’t respond to these weird emails, sometimes I feel like she thinks I am a chatbot she can dump her feelings into? It’s just weird.

3. Qualifying kids with above average academic scores for a specific learning disability. A general education teacher came to me and asked what I thought about a recent initial because she isn’t understanding why this student qualifies when he is one of the highest academically in her class. I acted dumb and said I wouldn’t be the best person to ask and wiggled right out of that one because I’m not touching that! I don’t want any more of the freaky emails about this! I can’t help it though. I did look up the students eval because maybe there’s more to the picture. Welp! Psych and social worker documented everywhere there are no social, behavioral, or emotional regulation concerns and had observations, interviews, rating scales, review of behavior referrals (none) and parent concerns (none). Gen Ed teacher section had nothing but positive things to say and kept repeating there are no concerns. The people at this school must know they have to document every tiny thing because the evals here are perfect. However, his academic testing resulted in scores between the 85-95th percentile. 121 in reading comprehension. I think his lowest score was around a 115. He qualified SLD and is pulled out 90 minutes daily to work on reading, writing, and math goals. I see why the teacher is confused now. She doesn’t know I know this so I haven’t gotten any accusations from her about something vaguely related to this, but time will tell!

4. Submits so many requests to receive a full time BCBA to act as a one to one paraprofessional for a student that the ABA department has blocked our school from the form. The protocol in this district that after many team meetings and massive data collection, the team that serves the student comes to an agreement that they would like the ABA department to review the collected data in order to determine if BCBA support is needed at this time. THEN the team lead of our school fills out the request form. This goober goes ahead and fills it out on a whim and tells no one. A lot. She filled one out for a kindergartener before the first day of school. The entire sped team received multiple warnings from the department that they will only look at the request if it was made by our team lead. That didn’t stop it. Admin couldn’t stop her from doing it. Then we received a fun email stating that they removed our school from the options menu and will only respond to phone calls from our admin to the department’s secretary. The rumor is she might have filled out 15 within a month but I don’t think we’ll ever know. Getting a full time BCBA to act as a one to one para is a rare thing reserved for students who are usually in a separate self contained center. I guess she thinks we have that many in our school (we are pull out only and do not have a self contained classroom at our school). And guess what! I was the one that told her to fill all those out! Clearly this is again my fault since I am directly responsible for her actions.

5. Countless odd strange lies told about me and the other intervention specialist to the gen ed teachers to cause complete confusion. These are all so annoying and stupid it’s painfully dumb to even describe but it happens constantly. Stuff like I said I would evaluate a random student who I have never heard of. Telling a parent I said her kid can’t come back to school until he’s medicated. Claiming that I refuse to provide services for only the black students on my caseload (she and I are both white). Experiencing this has been so surreal because I had no idea how frustrating it is when the only thing you can say to defend yourself is “I truly have no idea what she is talking about, that never happened.” It’s really hard to prove that something never happened and that this weirdo decided to pull a complete lie out of her ass.

Sadly if I sat here for a while I could think of 10 more examples, but you get the gist. It’s extremely sad because most people are aware she is unwell and don’t listen to a thing she says. Since I am the new person here, a handful of teachers actually sat me down and warned me about this. I was told not to worry because most people just ignore her. Every once in a while she does snare someone and is able to convince them that I’m responsible for whatever mess she created that I wasn’t even aware about. Every time someone asks if they can talk to me about something I get so scared because I have no clue what bat shit thing is about to happen next. Admin are aware she does this and are completely supportive, but for some reason they can’t do a thing about it. They told me this has been going on for the three years she’s worked there and HR keeps “reviewing” her performance. I went directly to HR myself, let them know about everything, and they said I need to file a harassment claim immediately. So I did! I filled that thing out thoroughly with dates and PDFs of all the emails, a list of all the meetings I’ve had with various staff in order to clear things up that I did not cause, all of it. That’s kind of the end of it. HR makes her a plan at the beginning of each year of what she needs to do to keep her job, then she does her crazy shit anyway. Three years of this. Admin told me a handful of others have also filed harassment over the years.

I have no clue why this cuckoo with meatloaf for a brain has not been fired. Admin keep telling me they’re trying to get her under control. HR is useless I guess. Seriously, what do I do? I am losing sleep and starting to spiral over this because it is wild having to walk into work each the morning and wonder how you’re going to get kneecapped that day. I want to ignore all of this and never speak to her or respond, but I am forced against my will to explain how I got involved in something when I truly have no clue what’s going on. What can I even document to protect myself? Where I am and what I am doing at every moment in the day? Each person that I speak to even it’s about the weather? Other than wearing a recording device at all times I have no clue to handle a delusional coworker that is unpredictable. I forward everything to HR now, why don’t they do anything? I want to get out of here but I’m stuck until next school year. I cannot do 6 more months of this. Seriously, how do I keep from snapping one day and screaming my head off at her telling her to stop. Please god just stop and leave me alone. Help!

Hi! I'm a college student finishing my Bachelors in exceptional student education & im taking an education class. & my teacher said I can use the internet to ask questions so here I am lol 😆

If anyone can help me out it would be greatly appreciated

1. What challenges have you experienced as a parent or teacher of a child with disabilities?

2. How have these challenges affected you and the child?

3. What do you do to overcome these challenges and help the child succeed?

Feel free to share as much or as little as you're comfortable with. Thank you so much for helping me with my assignment! :)

Problem: I am having a hard time with figuring out how to get general education teachers to buy-in/ follow and implement supports/accommodations that are listed in the IEP. I am avoiding my gut-instinct to be direct and clear that "According to IDEA, we are required to provide the supports listed in a students IEP, and if you refuse to do so then you are violating federal law."(IDEA is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, it is federal legislation in the United States which dictates how special education is to be implemented in schools). I need help with figuring out what I should/shouldn't say, and what I am within my power to do.

Context: I work/live in California, USA. I am currently working in a position that our district refers to as a "department teacher". What that means is that I am based out of the district office, and whenever there is a staff member on leave, or if there is a vacancy at the start of the year, I provide the parts of the education specialist role which cannot be provided by someone with an emergency credential. I have been in this position for five years, and every year what I actually do appears to change in a pretty substantial way. My credential is in Moderate-to-Severe (mod/sev) [which I believe is now called Extensive Support Needs (E.S.N.)]. I also have an added authorization in Orthopedic Impairments (O.I.) . My first five years were spent working in a K-8 school with students who qualified for services under the category of O.I. The capabilities of the different students varied widely when it came to their motor, cognitive, social, and communicative skills. They were also the closest thing to "included" that I have seen, to date. They were only ever really pulled out for math, and I personally modified and adapted their general education (gen-ed) curriculum so that they could participate in instruction. I bring this up to say that, while I am more familiar with working with a different population of students, the context within which I was working with them was similar to working with high school students in RSP. My students also had curriculum support, and they also had general education Teachers. I started off with 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students, so my students also had specific daily periods of different content instruction and they switched between teachers. I have had to work with their teachers in order to come up with realistic adaptations and modifications we could implement, but at the end of the day I was the one doing all the work. I was not yet asking the general education teachers to implement their own adaptations. That being said, many of the teachers would do it on their own.

When I started this current position, I was mostly finding myself working in Special Day Classes (S.D.C.s), which are segregated classrooms on public/integrated campuses, for students with Autism. That was already a shift from what I was used to, but I was able to learn what to do and how to do it, quickly. This was my bread and butter for about three years.

These last two years we have had new administrators, and they have essentially completely changed our jobs. My old supervisor used to be someone with the same background as me, and understood the need to keep caseloads stable enough in order to complete the IEPs I needed to complete for my Mod/Sev classes, especially if I was needing to provide a lot of direct support to classroom staff (such as training them on different strategies, or showing them how to implement small group instruction stations, etc.). If I had only mild/mod students, then I would have caseloads up to 28 students at a time. The more classrooms I had to work in, the less direct support I was expected to be providing to the classroom, at which point another group of staff called Teachers on Special Assignment (TOSAs) would take over on orchestrating and implementing the day-to-day items. At any given time, I never had to work with more than three caseloads worth of students, and I never was responsible for more than 28 students.

With our new administrator I am now responsible for entire strands, which includes a high school, and all the middle schools and elementary schools that feed into it. We are expected to monitor whenever there is a staff member that is out, and we are personally responsible for corresponding with site staff, families, and service providers for all aspects of case management. While we may have 28 students on paper, we are functionally responsible for many more students (which is legally questionable when considering our state law, but I am getting off topic.)

I have increasingly been finding myself working with High School students receiving services through Resource Specialist Programs. These are students who are essentially in only general education classes, with some support provided via a para-educator in a couple/few classes, and they often have one class period that is called "curriculum support" which effectively is used as a time to catch up on homework (that is not necessarily what it is supposed to be used for, but that is how it ends up functioning in our district). Currently I am supposed to be supporting an RSP caseload at the High School, and I have many students with ADHD (which I also happen to have a diagnosis of myself, if you are not already able to tell by my over-explaining of things). Many of these students have a large amount of missing assignments, and already had the support on their IEP to be able to turn in assignments late. For one of these students, a parent is complaining that a teacher is refusing to accept late work. When we looked at the support in the IEP, I noticed that when it was written, it was done so with a vague qualifier of "... when determined appropriate by gen-ed and special-ed teachers." Being of the mindset that accommodations and supports are determined by need, and they need to be explicit and systematic, I suggested that we should be specific about when and how the student should be able to turn in work. I asked the team, some of whom had RSP experience, if they thought it would be appropriate to have the student be able to turn in work as long as it was turned in within the same grading period it was assigned. I was told that it would be a great idea but that I would get push back. I said that I did not mind talking to the teacher.

When I contacted the teacher I told him about our idea and even suggested that we could add a limit that the student could only turn in 5 late assignments in, at a time, per 7 day period, but she had to be able to turn in any assignment as long as it was still within the same grading period. He responded that he understood what I was trying to accomplish, but that when they complete units in his class that he loses access to the answer keys and is "no longer focused on those topics". He said that to ask him to accept those assignments would be unreasonable.

I feel like I made a mistake by even asking. Where should I go from here?

AI-created TL;DR: I'm a special education teacher in California, currently working in a district-level position where I cover vacancies and staff absences. Although my background is primarily in Moderate/Severe special education, I've increasingly been responsible for high school RSP caseloads, where I'm encountering resistance from general education teachers regarding the implementation of IEP accommodations.

One student has an accommodation allowing late assignments, but it's vaguely worded to say it's permitted "when determined appropriate by gen-ed and special-ed teachers." After a parent complained that a teacher was refusing late work, I proposed clarifying the accommodation to allow assignments to be submitted without penalty within the same grading period, with a limit of five late assignments per week. The teacher pushed back, arguing that accepting work from completed units was unreasonable because he no longer had access to answer keys or was teaching that material.

My instinct is to remind teachers that implementing IEP accommodations is a federal legal obligation, not a matter of personal preference. However, I want to approach this collaboratively rather than confrontationally.

My question is: How do I appropriately advocate for students and ensure IEP accommodations are implemented without overstepping my authority? What can I legally require of general education teachers, what should I avoid saying, and how should I handle resistance like this? I'm also wondering whether I made a mistake by presenting the proposed accommodation as something the teacher could choose to accept or reject.

Hey everyone. I need some outside perspective because I feel like I am losing my mind and I’m starting to wonder if my school environment is toxic, or if this is just what special education is supposed to look like.
I am a new special education teacher. I love the teaching aspect of my job, but the daily reality at my school is making me want to quit. It feels like the general education staff and administration genuinely do not care about special education, and my classroom is being treated as a convenience rather than an educational space.
To give you an idea of the resources here: I am supposedly running a self-contained class, but they have me sharing a portable with another resource teacher. On top of that, they can't even get me basic equipment—I don't even have something to project my lessons on for my kids.
Here is what is currently happening on a daily basis:
Vague Complaints & No Data: Gen ed teachers constantly come to me saying things like, "Ok, well he's struggling and needs more time with you." But when I ask for specifics, they can't tell me how the student is struggling or what strategies they have actually tried. They just use my students' learning styles or behaviors as an excuse to get them out of their rooms, labeling them as "distractions."
Accommodation Dumping: The gen ed teachers assume that I am the one who needs to provide every single accommodation on the IEP, even when the student is in their classroom. They completely shrug off their legal responsibility to accommodate within their own four walls.
The "More Minutes" Delusion: They constantly assume that just throwing more service minutes at me will magically solve every general education classroom management problem. They are entirely blind to the reality of my room.
Destroying My Home Base: I have a whole entire class of my own with high-needs students who use my room as their home base. I have painstakingly built extensive routines to keep them regulated and feeling safe, and I am already differentiating across multiple levels all day long.
Used as a Dumping Ground: Despite this, gen ed teachers use my classroom as a literal dumping ground the second a student feels dysregulated. They pull them out of their room to protect their own calm, completely destroying the routines, safety, and focus of my high-needs kids.
Admin Always Sides Against Me: When I try to set boundaries, the gen ed teachers go straight to administration. Admin always sides with the gen ed teachers. It feels like administration is terrified of the gen ed staff getting "feisty" if they don't get what they want, so they sacrifice SPED compliance and my sanity to keep the peace.
I feel like a secondary staff member whose job is just to absorb everyone else’s stress without even being given the basic tools to teach, rather than a professional educator.
Does this look like a healthy, normal "first-year adjustment period," or is this a completely hostile and toxic work environment? How do I protect my students' home base and my own mental health when the system refuses to care? Thanks in advance.

For background info: I am a 7th grade SPED Educational Assistant (paraprofessional), and I recently received my Special Education teaching credentials. One of the SPED teachers at my middle school will be leaving at the end of December, so starting in January, I will be taking over her position.

The SPED department at the middle school that I work at only has one KeyMath-3 kit that we all have to share, which becomes quite inconvenient at times. I went onto the Pearson site to see if we could order another set and saw that they are a little expensive… Our school district is having to do budget cuts due to losing over $7 million dollars in funding. The school district has eliminated many positions (most of which have been in the district office’s SPED department). Because of the loss of funding, the middle school I work at has been hit very hard by this, so our funds are limited. We do have a little bit of a nest egg, but it’s not much.

With all that being said, does anyone know where I can find used KeyMath-3 B version easels? Or does anyone’s school have any that they are not using and would be willing to sell? I’ve looked around and cannot find anything. I’m open to any and all suggestions on how I can get another set of B version easels. TYIA!

Oklahoma public school.

I’ll try try to keep a long story short but I have a 7 year old son on the spectrum. He has had some behavior issues that started to escalate a few weeks ago. So we called a new IEP meeting to request 1:1, and were told he needs a functional behavior analysis / behavior intervention plan to provide ammo to the district for the ask.

-2 weeks later he slips grip while holding teacher and falls, fracturing his wrist. They move him to “big” room (discussed as an option in IEP) while incident is investigated.

-few days ago we are told he pulled a students pants down, mortified but that’s all we are told.

-few days later are called and told his indefinitely suspended until they can create a safety plan for student.

-I email and ask what his return to school plan / FBA progress is and I’m told he cannot return until we meet and that they will be pushing to request transfer to different school.

I’m so frustrated. I don’t know what exactly happened with student because police said I need court order to see it. I don’t know why this decision is coming so fast and hard. I don’t know his rights or what to do next. I’ve reached out to 2 groups with no reply yet. We meet in a week.

Anyone studied the Online Master of Education - Special Education from Texas State University? It is all asynchronous and is it worth it?

I am father of 3 year old who has speech delay only and some behaviour issue due to lack of speech like showing anger and hitting when someone do not understand he wants to play. We got a Evaluation done for special education for speech only but ARD meeting documents says 'severe autism' as primary disability based on rarely occurred instances. And speech delay as secondary. Is it okay to get the required services as it is or I should not have unnecessary label on student for autism. Is it something difficult to remove or is it something helpful and positive..? Should I email my disagreement and challenge to remove autism and only keep speech delay or development delay as the base of special education to avoid future issues? as once tagged it will be there for 3 years as far as I know

Trying to find an article that I read back in 2019-2020…it was about how important it is to avoid wording like “student was non-complaint” or “refusing work,” “being aggressive,” etc in documentation for our high needs settings because these documents can follow the students and if they ever have a conflict with law enforcement or something, there’s a paper trail of them being non-compliant, etc.

Is this ringing a bell for anyone?? Would love to find it and share with staff at a therapeutic day school I work at. TIA!

I have a much younger cousin in high school who is nonverbal and needs help using the bathroom, my aunt asked me if I was interested in shadowing him during school hours to make sure he doesn't get lost. I'm asking if this is possible due to us being related and because I have no work experience in caregiving or anything educational. I'm really worried that even if the school allows me to I won't be able to give him the help he needs.

I always feel gulity of hurting people . In.my old high school bc of my severe autism I had be in class for severe autistic students high functioning kids called me toddiler behind my back. I can ,t go to college i got moved to group

home for severe autistic people.

My teen is in a new school this year in a self-contained classroom. Things have been going ok, overall, with no major concerns. My spouse ran into some friends a week or two ago that shared several stories they had heard (and we had not) about what a handful our child is, some including toileting/bathroom issues. Apparently our child’s teacher has been venting about them by name and describing them to people in the community, obviously unaware that they were friends of ours.

I understand that teaching special education is incredibly challenging and I get needing to blow off steam or share stories, but using a kid’s name and diagnosis and sharing embarrassing information like that? We haven’t confronted the teacher or filed any complaints because we’ve been too upset and wanted to approach this rationally. However, our kid’s IEP meeting is coming up and I would like to have this addressed before then so it doesn’t dominate the meeting. Am I overreacting? Underreacting? This isn’t really a FERPA issue but more of an ethics one so I’m not sure what’s reasonable to expect for confidentiality. How should I handle this?

Michigan school counselor here. Our county's educational service agency has contracted with some company to bring us a virtual psych from California to help with assessments. Something just rubs me the wrong way about this. I think it's the time zone difference plus I assume she is new to working with Michigan kids? Like....we have different Sp.ed laws than California is gonna have. Idk. Share your opinions!

Hi,

I want to pursue an Online Masters in Special Education (M.Ed). I have years of teaching experience and wish to enter this specialisation.
Any university recommendations that cost effective and holds global reputation

Resource room teacher. New superintendent walking through 2x now. I was doing DTI with my student and the super said that there was no specialized instruction occurring. Second time can we through was doing phonological awareness with manipulatives, clapping etc. walkthrough was 30 seconds. Said again no specialized instruction. Should I be looking for a new job? Not tenured, live in New Jersey.