r/specialed

EDIT: I’m not calling the kids abusive!!! I’m calling the system abusive!!!

I’m sure this isn’t ground breaking and Google would return many results, but I want to talk to other speducators.

I’m currently getting out of a toxic/manipulative personal relationship, and I’m in my 4th year of teaching self contained. As I’m getting more space from my abuser, I’m realizing how toxic and manipulative the special education system is, and how administrators are trained and paid to uphold that system. And I know this is absolutely not just an issue in special education, but the education system at large, however, special educators and paraprofessionals are expected to be subjected to violence and abuse everyday as part of their job. Im obviously having a not so great time as a teacher lol

I’m just looking for other opinions and to have a nice respectful conversation.

Parents with kids with learning disabilities- what ended up working better for your child ? Public school or microschooling / homeschooling?? My 9 year old son had been going to a private school since kindergarten. He's always kinda struggled in school and in fact the suggested holding him back in kindergarten. We decided to keep going and get him some tutoring help. Fast forward to 3 rd grade and he started failing tremendously. We got him evaluated for learning disabilities and come to find out he has dyscalculia and dysgraphia. The private school he was in did not have resources to support him and it was recommended that he go to a public school where he would have more support. We decided to take him out of private school and homeschool him for 4 th grade .. it lasted about a month and a half with me because he does NOT cooperate with me at all . It started driving me nuts so I put him in a Microschool . He loves it . However, I feel skeptical of micro schools. I'm also still very new so I know only time will tell. But I fear if I put him in public school and get him on an IEP and in general ed classes will they actually help him ? I always hear horror stories about public school . This has seriously been keeping me up at night and I'd love to learn from other's experiences

Hi all! First time poster here looking for answers. I am a husband of a teacher for Special Needs (Kinder to grade 2). My wife has been working at this school for 3 years and this year is particularly worse than the others. She has two extreme cases where both elope, bite, punch, slap, and throw items at both teachers and students. Theres a total of 9 kids in that class but those two completely flip the entire class when they are present. I can’t tell you how many times I pick up my wife who has bruises and bite marks on her arms and legs, and even had to visit urgent care for two incidents. All that within just this first quarter of school. Today she called me crying because one of those two kids punched her and bit her, while the other kicked and ran out the classroom. She has an aid helping but its just two and they cannot handle them. I fear I now have to bring my wife to urgent care for a third time this quarter. As a husband with no real connection to the school district, I am extremely concerned and want to know what can be done to sort this out? Quitting is not an option for her cuz she is under a working visa for that school, and quitting would mean we pack up our things and move back to our country. Honestly the two kids are way too much for the class and causes and extreme incidents in the classroom where they can no longer teach. One of the kids has been suspended multiple times this semester cuz he is too much to handle. M

Hi all,

I just want someone to answer my question because I'm so anxious that I feel almost nothing but constant worry anymore.

With declining enrollment across the country and layoffs happening in almost every field, what is the job outlook like for my role? I am a first year adaptive sped teacher in Georgia, and my class is specifically for kids with autism. I don't service kids with anything else, just autism. And right now, I have 6 kids in my class in grades K-2. After grade 2, they go to a different school.

Questions I'm struggling with specifically:

If my school no longer needed my role, what would happen to me?

Should I be worried about enrollment?

Are there really enough kids to fill my class each year?

Please don't be super technical like people on here like to be. Obviously, I know that nobody can answer these questions with a 100% guarantee, but give me what you know. Don't comment about my anxiety. I'm an anxious person, always have been. I can do my job fine. Telling me to get therapy or to turn off my anxiety helps no one.

I have bad stress over layoffs every since I've gotten laid off before, and it ruined my life.

I just know that I could probably reach the level of happiness that I used to have years ago (before my layoff) if I wasn't strangled with this fear and anxiety. And I'm a question asker - I ask A LOT of questions. I've noticed that people tend to get upset by that.

So, please, give me something so I can live my life bc I feel like I'm dying more and more.

Looking for advice on how to advocate for a student. I’m a gen ed teacher in 4th grade. I have a very sweet student who has Autism and struggles very much with reading, writing, and math. This student struggles with counting and doesn’t have an goal for math. He gets 30 minutes a day to address the reading, which happens during during small groups intervention. No other support or minutes are given.

I try my best to scaffold, but it’s extremely difficult. Since they’re unable to read and spell their own words, I’m unsure how to help. 4th grade curriculum doesn’t even address phonics besides some morphology and multisyllabic words.

I spoke to his case manager about what we can do and she told me we can’t do anything else. According to her, he is “functional”, and she won’t consider a change of placement. I asked if he can receive additional minutes and was rebuffed. She did say she would add a math goal. She said the district does not have any Autism units for him and that he’s just low. When reminded of the continum of services she came back with having him watch kindergarten grade lessons.

I know this can’t be right so can I get some advice on what to say/advocate for?

GE teacher is a tyrant and refuses to accommodate or differentiate for students with an IEP. They deny the students access to anything and everything which includes food, fidgets, toys, etc.

Their classroom looks like a prison; there’s no art, anchor charts, nothing. Just desks, a laminated clip chart the length of the wall (I’m not exaggerating), and bins with worksheets, and a space for circle time.

They clip students down even if they whisper wrong.

They come into work everyday with the worst attitude. Saying things like “these are the worst behaved kids.” And “I’d be better if I wasn’t here.”

They refuse to even properly greet or acknowledge the kids. It’s always an order to get in line or go sit down.

My student is not receiving the help they need, so the student does nothing all day. Which is causing behaviors when the student comes to my class.

It is getting to a point where I feel I need to talk to admin, but I’m scared I won’t be taken seriously since I’m not licensed yet.

It’s exhausting having students in that classroom.

I am student teaching in a SPED classroom. I really like my cooperating teacher, but I'm sure, as you all know, she is very busy and is pulled out of the classroom all of the time. I feel like she hasn't been mentoring me at all! I know how to teach since I have been a para, but I really would like to know the legistics of SPED since I basically didn't learn anything in school. For example, how to write an IEP, how to run a meeting, how to take data, etc etc. I unfortunately have been googling/using AI for a lot of my questions, which I don't want to do since my mentor has over 20 years of experience.

Are there online tutors out there somewhere? Online mentors? I don't want to hold out in the hopes that I'll get a good mentor when I become a first-year teacher. The whole thing really stresses me out, especially since I have ADHD, so I have to be taught and told things multiple times.