r/specialed

Looking for perspective on 1:1 support vs. ASD classroom placement

I’m looking for perspective from parents, advocates, teachers, or anyone familiar with the IEP process.
My child has significant safety and support needs at school, including elopement, unsafe running, difficulty with transitions, and a need for frequent/continuous adult intervention. I have been requesting individualized 1:1 support.
At her previous school, staff documented that she required continuous individualized adult proximity and assistance. During ESY, she was already in a small, highly supported classroom (about 10 or fewer students, one teacher and two paras, and a shortened day), and the daily documentation still showed that she required significant individualized adult support and continuous supervision.
She recently started at a new school, and their documentation is showing the same pattern again. The principal told me directly that, based on the current data and communication with the teacher, it is also her professional opinion that my child needs a 1:1, although she explained that the final determination is made through the district/IEP process.

The district is now proposing a temporary trial in an ASD classroom with fewer transitions, a smaller student-to-staff ratio, more structure, and additional safety measures. I agreed to the trial because I’m absolutely open to a setting that may better support her.

My concern is that the district may treat the ASD classroom as a replacement for the 1:1, when we already have data from a similarly small and supported setting showing that she still required individualized adult support.
I have made it clear in writing that I view these as two separate questions: What classroom setting is appropriate, and what level of individualized adult support does she require within that setting?
I also stated that if the district intends to deny the 1:1 despite the existing documentation, I am requesting Prior Written Notice explaining the basis for the denial and exactly what data they relied upon.

For those familiar with this process: What is your take on how the district is handling this? Would you agree to the ASD trial while continuing to push for the 1:1? Is there anything else you would make sure is documented or addressed before/during the trial?

I work with the “medically fragile” (although we have more mobile/behavioral kids nowadays) or the “mod/severe” population of students at the elementary level.

I’m supposed to have two instructional assistants, but they only have one available. I have a kid who needs close supervision because he’s constantly walking/running around the classroom, swiping items off of tables, and trying to grab things he can’t have (most things we have locked away for this reason). So, he needs supervision, but then what happens if another one of my students needs assistance? Also, three of my students need to be fed by a staff member, and I don’t have enough staff to feed all of them at the same time. My supervisor said to “embrace the chaos” while she tries to fix it. I’m cooked.

The teacher next door has no assistants, and she has 2-3 kids that I can think of who have significant behaviors that would require a similar level of supervision. They’re putting maybe one sub in her room for the first day. She is cooked.

Another teacher in the building is a sub. The person they were going to hire pulled out. So, they have two assistants and no permanent teacher. They are cooked.

The nurse that was going to float between our classes to help out is probably pulling out. We are all cooked.

Meanwhile, the middle and high school rooms are fully staffed, and my supervisor has been going around telling them that she might have to pull staff from their rooms to help us out.

Everyone is cooked.

Is anyone else cooked right now?

This is a bit of a rant. I teach students with level 3 autism so everyday is pretty wild tbf. Teachers don’t talk to me because they may have to interact with “my students.” Today was the day rosters came out and the face of fear that came on every teachers face when I walked into their classroom, afraid that they would have one of my students in their class. When I did have to go over and IEP with them having them ask questions about ensuring there’s a para with them at all times and telling me they reserve the right to remove them from the room.

We just relocated our room to a more central location instead of on the outskirts of the school and I’m already receiving “concerns” aka complaints about the noise, the violence, the fact that they need to keep their doors shut now because of elopers etc.

I’m just so sick of it. How can you look at these kids and see just a problem rather than a child? Where is the empathy? Some of my students have abuse in their background, we send home care packages of food and clothes, these are children just like the ones they treat but the teachers treat them as such a burden. I’m just sad.

I am an adapted curriculum special ed teacher in NC, and I hold a master’s in Special Ed. I have been teaching in an elementary self contained setting for going on 4 years now. I am considering a transition out of special ed and moving into an elementary general ed teaching position. I have about 10 years of experience of leading groups of gen ed kids in after school and summer settings (non-educational settings) and am very comfortable leading larger groups of kids and forming relationships with them, but have no experience teaching a gen ed classroom. I was wondering that if I did try to transition, would any principal even consider me for a gen ed teaching position?

The IEP says:

Adult support is REQUIRED daily, throughout his school day, across settings and people, specifically including safety due to elopement.

There ARE 1:1 services written into the IEP but they’re instructional, not continuous supervision.

Services section says that for several instructional areas, individual (1:1) sessions and/or small-group sessions will be utilized.

I am a concerned parent as IEP expressly identifies adult support as required. However, there's no quantifiable requirements.

The class ratio is 1 teacher, 3 paras:9-13 students.

I'm just wondering how to ask for required adult support to be more quantified so that if someone doesn't know my son at all and they read his IEP they will know the extremely high risk without supervision. He finds every opportunity unsupervised to bolt/elope/mouth.

I need help as to what to ask for, I realize it's difficult to get the full jest of requirements without reading the actual IEP.

Also, quick question last year on the bus my son was riding without a secure safety seatbelt and they had many issues with him getting out of seat and trying to open doors or unsafe behavior. It's required in his IEP but I guess not every bus has access to seat belts? Should they be taking this more seriously and if they can't provide a bus with a seat belt, should they provide alternative transportation?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some help as this discussion took me by surprise. I don’t know anyone else with an autistic kid or has experience with IEPs. Before I start, I’m obviously summarizing the details of my daughter’s IEP here as to protect any sensitive information.

My daughter (we’ll call her N) is an autistic level 1. She has an IEP from her preschool teacher that placed her in Gen Ed Kindergarten, which they deemed is the least restrictive. We’ll call the teacher Ms. G.

This morning, at drop off, Ms. G spoke to us (mom and dad) about her IEP that there were no academic goals in it. However, her preschool teacher (Ms. C) noted in my daughter’s IEP that she excels at writing, reading, has an amazing memory, and fine motor skills. N is hyperlexic. Us (Mom and Dad) agreed that our main concern with N is her Social and Communication skills.

The IEP stated that with verbal prompts, and visual schedule N would be able to function in a Gen Ed class. The IEP was dated 05/2026 with goals set for 05/2027. However, Ms. G mentions that all of the goals she saw was for 05/2026 (which Mom and Dad thinks she’s misunderstanding). 05/2026 was when the IEP meeting occurred with Ms. C. Going further down the IEP, Mom and Dad found goals that clearly states for 05/2027.

Ms. G said she’s having their Special Ed team look at N’s IEP.

We want to have a discussion with Ms. G, but we don’t know how to approach it. Is this a case of “your daughter is too much work and I don’t have an aide to have one on ones with her all day”, or “We think your preschool teacher placed her in the wrong place.”

Pleass keep in mind that IEP is completed with a team and the IEP assessments are not done completely by Ms. C.

Any insights from both parents, teachers, assistants, and/or therapists would be appreciated. Thank you for your time if you’ve read this far.

I want to start off by saying that I love my job. I love seeing hard work pay off when I successfully taught a student to read and when they meet their goals.

I teach at a title 1 school in a rural area (mostly white, uneducated, and many students live in poverty). I sometimes feel guilty for saying that but I have been feeling overwhelmed at how many special ed students our school has. It seems like every classroom on a particular grade level has 6-7 kids with IEPs. I love all my kids but sometimes I wish there was more teachers, resources and funding to help these kids. We are short a sped teacher and everyone is feeling overwhelmed.

We also have many students who are severely disabled being mainstreamed. This affects the resource classes because resource isn’t just small group anymore. It often feels like managing screaming autistic meltdowns while trying to teach the other students. There is also an important increase in students who are not potty trained. Resource classes have replaced self-contained classrooms and LD students often get overshadowed due to the needs of more severe students. It isn’t fair. When the severely disabled children don’t get what they need, it affects all the other children. (Obviously no fault of the children). I don’t know why such a small town would have so many of these children. I seriously wonder if there is something toxic in the soil.

I’m trying to see how crazy 5% of all 6th graders being in self-contained is?

Hello I am a first year teacher in a self contained room. I have 8 students. 3 IEPS due in September. 2 of those are due the second weed of September and we don’t go back until August 27th. Then I have 2 due in the beginning of October and 1 in November. How do I manage this?? I have never written an IEP other than in college. I am so afraid already. Please any advice would be awesome.

New Jersey. My son is going into 3rd grade. He is in self-contained and pushes into Gen Ed for specials. 2nd grade was a nightmare. My son is on the spectrum and struggles with social cues and although fully verbal struggles with receptive and expressive language. Last year there was a girl that he wanted to be friends with and approached it by teasing her saying things like “x makes farts” (he finds farts numerous) instead of recognizing a teaching opportunity, he was reprimanded for the behavior. I had no idea this had happened and when I got looped in, was told that he was making inappropriate comments to another student. I asked why they couldn’t just teach him how to interact and a BIP was recommended.

The BIP included a token board, but no teaching of the appropriate behavior. The token board was implemented and for several months I fought to get language added to actually teach him appropriate behavior. In the meantime he was removed from pushing into Gen Ed - I was led to believe that this was because student x was in the class he was pushing into, but later found out at a subsequent IEP meeting the student was not in the class. I found this out at an IEP meeting that I called to get an update to the BIP to include teaching, this was in March. His Present levels were updated for this meeting. The comments were deplorable and included the statement “to date he has only improved 1 reading level.”

Our annual IEP meeting was scheduled for late April, I asked for the latest IEP and was given the same IEP. The meeting was then rescheduled to June, 2 days before school ended. I asked for the latest IEP and was given the same with comments from March. A week after school ended I received an IEP with comments from April and it was in DRAFT status and I was offered two meetings over the Summer. I responded asking why we needed to meet and got no further response until August 3rd and was told I had two weeks to review the IEP before it went into effect. I responded and asked that a parent statement be included in its entirety. No response despite the Director being included in the email.

Fast forward, school starts 9/1 and the portal is now open. The IEP is the one from March and my parent statement has not been included.

I’m tired. If anyone has any insight, I would appreciate it. I was looking forward to wrapping up the IEP and starting the new year fresh.

Thank you in advance!

I have a long term sub aide in my class (moderate/severe self contained). She's very nice and agreeable and tries with the kids but some things are really taking me by surprise.

One day we were playing music instruments. We finish and go to put them all back in the tub. She goes to put cymbals inside the music tub then says "oh you might want to disinfect these, Johnny (fake name) had them in his mouth". I asked her to just grab a disinfectant wipe and wipe them down real quick *before* putting them in the tub with everything else. Another day a student was trying to get into someone else's water bottle. She was standing in front blocking it and saying "no, not your water". I checked that student's water bottle and it was completely empty, so clearly he was thirsty and just saw water and wanted it. I told her his is empty, he's just thirsty, can you fill it up please. I have so many examples like this...and it's still only the second week of school!

I don't mind training people but I'm at a loss here of where to even start.

EDIT: This person is NOT new to the role or new to my classroom/my students. Hence the frustration. Last year I asked for her to be removed because she was on her phone all day every day and neglecting caring for students because she was too busy on her phone. She's at least not doing that this year so I do appreciate the effort!

Long story short- I taught art for 7 years and credit recovery for one. Upon moving states, I took a job at a non profit private school specifically for students with disabilities. My (12) kids start Wednesday, and the past two months I've been working there helping with summer camp, so I've had no work hours to dedicate to planning.

I'll be teaching the "more academic" group of high students. (High school kids are split into 2 or 3 classes) (by academic they mean I have more of the readers)

Does anyone have words of wisdom they can share about SpecialEd for a newbie in general? I don't expect admin to hold my hand, but the lack of time to plan and lack of training or guidance of any sort is getting to me.

In a similar vein to introducing breathing techniques to some kids with bubbles, I’m trying to introduce some heavy work into some of my elementary routines! Without screens, what are some ways you can gameify/trick them into starting some heavy work regulation techniques in small group or 1:1 settings? Bonus points if they can do it without leaving the room they are in.

My brother finished high school and the teachers said he should come to school because he is under the IEP program and they can't transfer him to transition school right now. Only option they gave was that he could go to community college or come to school for one more year but there will be no focus on academics only career job wise. But he feels overwhelmed and doesn't want to go back to school again. He wanted to go community college but with his weakness he doesn't seem ready because in college you are on own your own. There is no one to advocate you or motivate you or help with assignments. You have to be responsible and accountable. I wish there were resources outside of school that falls under the IEP program maybe helps students with life skills or developmental skills that helps them for the real world and focusing on job training something.

For context I am a first year EXED/SPED teacher (we call special ed exceptional ed where I am. It’s the same thing just different term)

Had our first EXED/SPED department meeting of the year and…..it was rough and made me more stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed.

For context, I’m an EXED/SPED middle school teacher working with kiddos with moderate-severe disabilities. My IEP caseload is already a lot given that of course. However we had other teachers today mention we all have **16** students on our caseload (of course including myself) and they mentioned how last year they felt stretched thin to the point of breaking and mentioned how they **already** feel stretched thin this year. They also mentioned the IAs are unreliable (I met my two today and they seem nice but I can’t make any judgments till next week) but this made me anxious and stressed. Did I join the wrong school community? Did I not ask the right questions in my interview to get a true feel? How am I handling 16 kids on my caseload?

Also the list of never ending shit is overwhelming and stressing me out. I’m struggling to get shit done. Idk how it will get done or if it will get done

Hello!

I am a high school special education teacher and it is expected that we create a one page document that gives me and the general education teacher a quick look at student SDI's. I can never seem to create one that stays on one page or that covers all of the SDIs we have to work with. Does anyone have a really good template they use?

hi!!

this semester i am starting my student teaching in a 6-8th grade emotional support classroom w/ students with behaviors. i am VERY excited but ..

any advice on how to feel confident in taking over the classroom when it's my time to start teaching? i'm nervous about holding back because i don't want to overstep my cooperating teacher and her classroom. also if anyone has any pieces of advice in general i'm all ears (: i.e organization, important materials, social skills lesson ideas, how to manage the tough behaviors, etc etc

THANK YOU!

Important context: this is not in the US and support is inadequate. I have previous experience working with autistic adults, but not with kids, especially not one who has been violent in the past.

I have a boy in one of my 10th grade classes who is currently being quite mean to one of the girls. I'm not sure if he thinks he's being funny or is actually trying to insult her, but it isn't okay. I've been attempting to redirect or shut down the "jokes" when they happen in front of me, but they keep happening, so I know this is at least targeted and not a misunderstanding of classroom banter. I want to handle this in a way that will make him understand that the overall behavior is unacceptable, rather than just that specific manifestation, and I don't want to just tell him to STOP with no explanation. I also don't want to trigger an outburst, make the girl feel like she has done something wrong, or cause a situation that might subject him to bullying. What's the best way to handle this?

Edit to add: I called him a "bully" in the title because this is not the first time situations like this have happened, but it is the first time one has happened in my class.