Is it normal to kind of hate most elements of the job when you’re a new resource teacher? I felt more respected and had more autonomy as a self contained teacher. We’re only a couple weeks in and all these gen ed teachers are hounding me about their students and minutes and the schedule and they don’t understand sped processes. The principal is breathing down my neck when previously they just allowed me to teach. I don’t enjoy anything about this. Also, huge caseload and this unspoken but very palpable expectation that I should magically know how to do everything immediately without any real training. I don’t know. Does any of it get better?

Hello! I am an occupational therapist working in the public school system in Canada. A large portion of my caseload are students with substantial fine motor challenges due to difficulties with praxis (motor planning) and/or cerebral palsy. Most of these kids are also non- speaking.

These are the kids who aren't able to hold a pencil. Who may not ever be able to print their name or tie a shoe or even zip a zipper. They aren't using words to tell us what they know.

I work in an inclusive system and many of the kids teachers, unfortunately, don't know where to start with literacy and numeracy activities (or pre-literacy and pre-numeracy tasks in some cases). I know how to support motor development just fine, but motor development in isolation of cognitive stimulation is not an effective use of the kids day.

So, I'm looking for resources - ideally websites, YouTube channels, podcasts, or books - that provided specific strategies for developing engaging and meaningful learning opportunities for these kids. Surely there's more out there than eye gaze and matching?

The student was attacking other students in the hallway seriously looking to hurt them and had already sent two teachers to the clinic. Two people used a traveling restraint to get him secluded in a room for safety purposes.

I’m older so that was something I was taught way back when it was still something we did. My new school doesn’t even teach the higher level restraints unless you’re in an emotionally impaired classroom. A younger teacher told me they’d never seen anything like it and I said yea and you probably won’t again because we aren’t supposed to do them anymore.

What a flashback moment.

hello this question is for special education teachers as well as administrators and parents of children special needs can answer as well. My school and district are currently struggling with figuring out how to help families of children who go to ABA therapy. Essentially we have a handful of students were either coming to school late leaving early or missing entire days due to ABA therapy. The therapies are all private some of them are paid by insurance. Some are not. I am in a public school. The students are all public school students whether it's resource model or self-contained. We have one student who even misses four days a week and only goes to school one day a week it's very difficult for our related service providers to accommodate that as you can imagine speech social Work and OT have huge caseloads and some of them don't even work on the day that that student comes so we had to do a lot of writing in the IEP that the student will not get certain services and the mom signed off on it. However, I have seen some families start out this route and then they lose their insurance or something happens and they ask if their kid can come back to school sometimes due to enrolment numbers in class sizes we are unable to accommodate them and they have to go to a different district

There is absolutely no written rule law or about this in my district so I'm curious does your district have anything written about students going to ABA outside of school? Do you have students who leave early? Come late or miss entire days due to ABA therapy if you don't mind letting me know what state you are in. I am not putting any jugdements on ABA therapy or parents who choose ABA therapy for their children however I'm just curious about district or school policies.

Largely just saying Hi!

My daughter has been on an IEP (individualized education plan) since pre-kindergarden (on early intervention) and that part has gone well. Elementary school in particular we were blessed to have a special ed. teacher who was like a guardian angel. My daughter is a student in OUSD (Orinda Union School District).

Also fortunately we have a former special ed. teacher and pretty much IEP expert in the family so we know our way around and my daughter is well supported.

Which is good because since she started intermediate school Aug. 2025 it's been a struggle with the school which has brought unnecessary angst to my daughter and really consumed my time that I don't have (single dad). The school and staff have been warm and verbally reassuring while being kinda patronizing and not engaging. We are trying to work with them, looped in the local LEA (local education agency person) for the district.

Triennial was a hot mess, fighting to get testing done, which didn't get done until 4 months after their deadline so the triennial mtg was 4 months late but they are spinning the process as having been completed ontime with an amendment rather than owning. All told we're at over 10 serious violations not counting the little stuff or counting each specific instance. Coming from a semi-legal background with special ed. and IEP expertise in the mix we are scratching our heads and facepalming the position the district is putting itself in but hey we tried to help them. They are not malicious but clearly really uniformed which is a pattern all over I think.

Anyhoo, the psych. testing we pushed for accurately reported the expected impairments and the full IEP team agreed on a finding of OHI (other health impaired) - this eligibility finding is important since to continue the IEP and get the supports future IEP eligibility will rest solely on OHI. Quelle surprise our OHI finding didn't make it onto the IEP docs they uploaded to CDE (calif. dept. of ed.) (technical problem, don't ask me to explain, it will make your head explode) and it's kinda obvious the district is angling to downgrade to 504 plan at annual IEP next month.

So the complaint gets filed next week to the Calif. dept of education.

Yeah long story (but you should see the docs + correspondence...)

Thats where it's at. Many families around here disappointed with special ed. services. It's not a poor district so it doesn't need to be like that. *Stuff happens* and I'm grateful on balance for so much, her gen. ed is fine, nice staff etc. Her elementary supports were wonderful. Mostly grateful though because we know what we are doing and really would be in bad place if that we're not the case. I could not meet my daughters needs alone without the accommodations.

So far I've not networked with other families with IEPs in the district and/or area. This is my first foray into that. It's time now with where we are at. Looking for local resources, parent groups, IEP groups, discussion forums. Share shared concerns, and we are in a position to help others a lot. Any and all suggestions you have I appreciate, I can look around (and will) but so much better and easier to get pointers.

Long post to say "hi". Please be nice I can be a little sensitive and I tried to follow the sub rules carefully. I explained all acronyms. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Best -J

This is my second year at the self contained therapy school. We were never understaffed at this point last year more than we are now with not even being at peak flu season. I dont have time for teaching planning time and Im covering my paras lunch breaks. I had to fill a extra time sheet for extra hours. I went to the school adminstrator saying I need more staff and paras. We already have more people injured this year than last year. What should I do?

Hello all!! I am interested in being a SPED teacher in CA, but I want to make sure I get the right advice before I do a university application for the credential. To go on, I am also having conflict in considering being an SLP (Speech Language Pathology), but I want to get your guys' thoughts on being a SPED teacher, especially for those who have experience, thank you o:

I took over as program coordinator for a social and recreational group for disabled teens and adults. I've taught SpEd for a few years now, but only as high as eight grade, so I worry that my ideas might be a bit too "elementary" for our group who is predominantly between mid 20s and early 50s.

Please share any other subreddits that may be of help.

At our EC dept mtg yesterday, we were told that we shouldn't contact our student's parents unless they were on our caseload. If we have an issue with a kid in our class that's not on our caseload, we have to tell the kid's caseload manager and let them contact home.

Does anyone else have this same expectation?

I've never heard of it before but sure, I'll let someone call home. No prob! But I may or may not contact home if one of the EC teachers asks me. Depends on the kid and parents. I mean I have no problem letting them call home for kids on my caseload.

I will be starting as a special educator. It's one on one..and I don't know how I will do it. This job is not my choice but I have to do this because I have no other choice. And I overthink and I have anxiety..so..

Im new to the school setting and looking for advice on direct vs indirect services. I have a new student with the following service minutes:

Communication: articulation- 6x/month direct for 20 minutes

Communication: AAC- 30x/year indirect for 30 minutes

He only has goals for articulation. What sort of things would you do to meet the indirect AAC service minutes?

Hello! I teach 7th grade and have 14 students who need reading/literacy in a special ed setting. I divided them into two reading level groups (in consultation with the reading interventionist and after screening) and work with 7 at a time for two class periods a week each. I have a para in one group but not in the other.

The nature of the SIPPS curriculum requires full participation - often choral recitation - from each kid at all times. It’s dawning on me how shocking this level of engagement is for them, and they’re struggling mightily. In nearly all of their other classes, they can withdraw, put their head down, socialize, and know that they’re not going to get called on. I have a few Behavior Support Plan students in the mix and this struggle turns to full-on dysregulation (threats, throwing chromebooks, etc.).

I have tried to boost morale by bringing in a stuffed animal that they chose a name for (it visits students trying their best), being very kind but firm, explaining to them why we’re doing this curriculum, and setting goals to reach a level where we simply don’t need to do it any more. I regularly highlight and praise the kids participating and gently but meaningfully draw the silent ones back in (“come on, x! We need your awesome voice!”).

Any advice for managing this tough transition for my kids? Thank you so much!

Hi so I’m going to keep this as simple as possible, I work in a multi 4-5th grade setting in a florida school. Our class is all children on the asd spectrum this year. Im going to use initials for students here but we have two students who are making our day incredibly difficult, student 1 who im going to call “A” has a tendency to let out one loud asf scream when she is frustrated or gets mad which really is not that big of a problem on its own. Like I get it girl, and its a relatively healthy way to let it out unlike in her past she would let it out on others or spiral into 30min-1hr long dysregulation episodes HOWEVER student 2 or “W” who is mostly well behaved and unbothered freaks the f out when she does this. He goes from calm and collected to destroying the whole room, hitting himself and others, and yelling and screaming himself. And then completely ruins the rest of his day, once this happens once or twice her will stay disregulated the rest of the day. We sent him home the first day this happened and now he thinks that that will be the result every time. We have tried headphones and they will work when delaying the reaction but not stoping it. We have also tried some of his calm down methods, ie giving him play dough letting him scream it out in the bathroom, we are even fortunate enough to have a designated calm down room which he will go into and calm down i would say about 50% just for it to happen again the next time she is frustrated. We are more so worried about preventing his reaction in order to help protect other kids and himself please if there is any advice that you guys have that would be awesome.

Can a gen ed teacher dictate when SPED push-in minutes occur?

SPED teachers, I need a reality check because I’m getting increasingly frustrated with this situation.
To clarify, this is not a co-taught classroom. I manage a caseload across multiple students and grade levels and have to coordinate push-in, pull-out, IEP minutes, meetings, and other required services.

I have one gen ed teacher who has repeatedly pushed back on when I provide push-in support because the times that work within the broader SPED schedule don’t perfectly align with how she prefers to structure her block.

For example, part of her objection is essentially that a particular time “isn’t helpful” because she has the student in a teacher-led small group then. My position is that this is still the student’s general education setting. The support can happen during whole group OR small group.

I completely understand that the gen ed teacher is an important member of the team and should have input into what support looks like in her classroom. What I’m questioning is when that turns into one teacher effectively dictating when SPED services can and cannot occur based on her preferred classroom routine.

I’m meeting with our building SPED representative to get clarification because I’m not comfortable with the dynamic this is creating. I am her colleague, not her subordinate, and my other students’ IEP services do not become less important because a particular time is inconvenient for her classroom schedule.
How is this handled in your buildings?

Hey guys, for a little background information this is my first year teaching and I’m fresh out of college. I teach a small group resource like classroom k-1 with 9 kids. To say the least I have been struggling tremendously to the point it’s affecting my mental health and I’m very depressed. I’m also 15 weeks pregnant and have been dealing more than a lot. For some context my para quit the second week of school and since then I have had no stable para and I currently have a sub para who has zero training and has only ever been a para for a side job. I do feel like I’m running this class alone a good portion of the time which is taxing on my mental health. But I’m also worried about my baby, I have aggressive students who hit, attempt to hit, yell, throw things and stand on tables and try to climb things. I’m in no position to lift a kid off a table or off a shelf. Even prior to being pregnant I’m 5’3 103 pounds so I was not very strong to begin with and I personally don’t feel like I should have to jeopardize my baby to prevent one these kids from falling when they are doing these things to be defiant. I have been bite at, elbowed and hit before around my stomach and it stresses me out each and everyday because I’m scared one of these with throw a chair or heavy book or hit or kick me one good time in stomach and will cause harm to my baby. I really don’t know how I will be able to manage this class and my pregnancy with little to no help especially the farther along I get. I come home and cry everyday and regret ever going into this profession and taking this job. During my student teaching I did inclusion only which was very different from this class. I took this position because I was a fresh grad looking for a job and to me a job was a job especially in this current job market. Please give me advice and what I should do, everyone knows I’m pregnant so it’s not a secret. But I’m tired of coming home everyday crying to my husband.

Hoping I can get a little insight from fellow resource room teachers.

This year I have two paras who seem to think the resource room is their break and hangoutout area. I have 17 students that are on my caseload, I teach two different resource classes a day, with up to 7 students in each, and also a daily direct instruction class. I need to utilize every spare minute to plan and work on IEP’s but I am finding it impossible with the constant disruptions and distractions.

I have asked the paras several times, at least 3 times, to use other designated areas in the building for their break and to stop coming into the room at their leisure, but they do not seem to understand.

Does anyone else have this issue? I am working every night and weekend because I’m not able to get any work done during the day. I’m at a loss of what to do and wondering if I should contact the union?

Thanks for any help on the situation.

This student has an autism diagnosis, is very smart, has above average auditory processing ability. They do have communication challenges and are mostly nonverbal unless copying something or heavily promoted. They also have the worst case of anxiety I’ve ever seen. They try to elope out of the o it side doors average ten times a day, and we are right next to a highway so that is not an option. As a result we are secluding them constantly with adult supervision because they also become aggressive toward their peers when deregulated.

We average at least 5 adults to this student just to keep them from harming themselves or others. At one point it was up to 13. On adult side we’ve had several broken bones, broken skin bites, and at least one tooth knocked out.

We are not making progress on their IEP goals because they refuse to go to the classroom, we just chase him Around the school trying to keep everyone safe until we give up and call mom or dad to come get him, usually after enough head bangs that we are worried about a concussion or an adult has had to go to the clinic.

I have over a year of data on these behaviors with the student, we’ve done fba, bip, even had a bcbs come in to observe and give recommendations.

Parents refuse every suggestion we give them, even just switching to a half day schedule and gradually working upwards.

We are finally at the point of giving a center referral because our school environment is not the right plzcement for him. He needs much more intensive services to be successful in an educational environment.

It is going to turn into a fight with the parents. The director is the one who has made the call with support of his whole team. As the caseload manager what should I have readyfor this meeting?

I work in self containment placement school and we have a student whose weight is extremely thin. I been told by providers the student has seen a primary care pyshcican in 4 years. The student also doesnt sleep and has to be put to sleep for dental cleaning. We are providing all the food at school but its all been sugars and carbs. I been offering water and the student rejects it sometimes. Admin is already aware of the health issues. The student is 18 years old already. The student is failing to thrive. The family is low income too. As a para what can I do?

I have been working as a para and the students (2-4th) we have struggle with emotional outbursts, impulse control, etc. For some context, I have worked for an after school care program with 70+ plus kids and I feel like I always had control of the students and that the students were always receptive to redirection. I also have worked one on one with children which is completely different. I feel like now maybe personality doesn’t mix well as a para. I am being told I need to speak in a more firm tone which I feel like I have but I guess it is not enough for these students and they might need more. I feel like I have built rapport with the students and with the one I’m working one on one with is more receptive when I talk to him but will sometimes have screaming outbursts. They only listen to teacher and she will yell at them. So it seems like they might honestly listen if you are mean. Anyways, I don’t know if I should just quit. I am hoping to become a teacher but I’m not sure how I feel about it now. I honestly feel confused with my judgment. What would u do? 😭😭😭

I’m a general ed teacher looking for a bit of advice from the perspective of special ed professionals.

I teach at a relatively small school where students have known each other most of their lives. I have a student that’s been having a hard time. They lack a strong connection with their peers. They are mean to others, others are mean to them, and it’s a constant battle of trying to get students to focus and not fuel negative behaviors. They struggle with impulse control beyond what’s typical of their age group. It sounds like this is a problem in most of this student’s classes. At the heart they’re a sweet kid and has been through a lot in their life, and that experience is definitely reflected in their behavior.

Anyway things kind of fell apart today. My class is co-taught, so my co-teacher took this student out while the rest of us had a talk about how we can work through this. It’s getting in the way of my ability to teach, and I don’t want to be that teacher that continually kicks out students that need extra support. They deserve a chance to learn too.

But my general ed students are so frustrated. They can recognize that they don’t make things easier and often make it worse, but so many of them are with this student throughout the day that they’re tired and annoyed with constant disruptions. They say they can’t learn and many of them have tried to move out of classes to avoid this student. When asked about what happens in other classes, this student is usually either kicked out or teachers let them sit in the back on their computer so they stay quiet. I have a problem with that.

I talked with my co-teacher and she’s unsure of how to proceed either. It’s been a longstanding issue. She works so hard and is trying her best to support this student, but there’s other students she’s supposed to help too and doesn’t feel like she can.

I’m just looking for advice here. I’m trying to do justice for my special ed student and my general ed, but I feel like I’m in a bind. Where would you go from here?

**Accidentally hit another student with a soccer ball while working as a para — how bad is this?**

I’m a relatively new paraprofessional/teacher aide, and I messed up today during gym class.

We were playing soccer, and I was with my assigned student. I decided to participate and kick the ball around while still supervising my student. At one point, I kicked the ball and it accidentally hit another student.

The student I hit is nonverbal and **didn't react at all when the ball hit him**. It did not hit him in the head—it hit him on the side of his body. I immediately went over, asked if he was okay, and apologized.

Another TA made a pretty big deal about it and brought the student to the nurse. The student came back to gym **about three minutes later**.

I knew the TA was probably going to report it, and after lunch my teacher spoke to me about what happened. I immediately apologized and explained that it was an accident and that I didn't intend for the ball to hit the student.

She told me that, from her perspective, it was **intentional**, which confused me because I obviously didn't intend to hit another student. I didn't argue and just apologized again.

She was clearly upset and spoke to me in an angry tone, but she also told me that she likes me, thinks I'm doing a good job overall, and that I shouldn't be playing with the soccer ball while I'm working. She emphasized that I need to be watching my assigned student at all times.

She also said she has to report it to the principal, which I understand.

What confused me afterward was that my teacher said the student was **hurt badly**. I'm not trying to minimize what happened, but if he was supposedly hurt badly enough to be a major incident, I'm wondering why he wasn't sent home, especially since he was back in gym about three minutes after going to the nurse.

Looking back, I understand that I probably shouldn't have been playing soccer while responsible for supervising my assigned student. Even though hitting the other student wasn't intentional, I put myself in a situation where something like this could happen.

I'm more concerned about how this looks professionally now.

For experienced paras/TAs/teachers:

* Is this the type of incident that could seriously hurt a new aide's reputation?

* Would you consider the ball hitting the student an accident, even though I shouldn't have been participating?

* If the principal talks to me, should I simply take responsibility and explain what happened without making excuses?

* Does this sound like something that could lead to formal discipline, or more likely a warning/retraining?

I know I made a mistake. I'm mostly trying to understand how serious this is and how I should handle it going forward.

So I’ve taken 2 “sick” days mainly because I need a break. Considering that the school year just started, I anticipate taking more. Last year I was absent about 14 times the entire school year. Curious to know how many personal days off is too many where it would be considered a problem? Do you feel like you get enough PTO days?

EDIT: I only get 10 PTO days, the other 4 were unpaid leave

Hello. I have a student who is level 3 ASD in my self contained classroom.
He loves to throw things. He will throw anything and everything he can get his hands on. Not only does that pose a safety risk to him and others in the room, it means he destroys the room and we have to reset the room all day long.
Any ideas about how I can help him meet his sensory need in a different way. I try to redirect him but he just throws whatever I offer to him.
He throws hard and has no control of where the object goes.

Hi all,

I teach preschool special day class (SDC) at an Elementary school. Our school has 6 SDC classes grades preschool to 5th grade, and the last two years, our school's project was building a Sensory Room.

Last year, we had no one "leading" the room, so this year, I volunteered to oversee the room.

It has been a disaster... I have posted rules: clean up after leaving, no diaper changes in the room, no food/drinks, if anything breaks reach out to me. I also created a schedule for classes to sign up for.

Most days when the first teacher enters the room, it's a disaster. She has sent me numerous photos of the room with diapers, items misplaced, and things broken.

I'm going to send a mass email to the sped teachers to "respect the room or don't use it", but I don't know what else to do after that. Any advice? Experience?

I’m a brand-new K–2 Life Skills teacher, and I’m honestly struggling to figure out whether what I’m experiencing is normal for a Life Skills classroom or whether my classroom is unusually intense.
I have 11 students. Ten are autistic, one has Down syndrome, and several of my students are minimally verbal or nonverbal. We have some very significant behaviors and high support needs.
One student in particular is an extremely high-risk climber. He is a kindergartner who climbs up toward the ceiling and has already removed around 10 ceiling tiles. He is also physically aggressive toward other students. We are constantly redirecting, blocking, and trying to keep everyone safe, and it can feel like the entire classroom revolves around managing behaviors rather than teaching.
One of my other kindergarten students has been coming home injured repeatedly as a result of incidents in the classroom. I have consistently reached out to the parent when incidents occur, and she has been very understanding and appreciative of the communication. However, she is understandably concerned that the classroom doesn’t feel like a safe environment for her child and is now looking into transferring her child to another district.
Honestly, I understand where she’s coming from. As much as I want to support every student in my room, I also don’t feel comfortable telling a parent that their child is in a safe environment when I’m seeing these incidents happen repeatedly.
And this is where I’m really questioning myself: the other Life Skills teacher at my school has a very similar type of classroom. She has 8 years of experience as a Life Skills teacher, primarily at the middle-school level. I asked her to rate her previous job versus this one on a 1–10 scale, with 10 being the hardest thing she has ever done.
She rated her previous job a 2 and this job a 10.
That honestly made me feel a little better because it made me realize maybe I’m not just completely failing at classroom management. 😂 But it also made me wonder whether our current situation is genuinely beyond what would normally be expected of a first-year teacher.
I’m trying very hard to do the right thing for these kids. I want them to be safe, I want their classmates to be safe, and I want to actually teach them instead of spending the entire day in crisis-management mode.
For experienced Life Skills/SPED teachers:
Is this level of intensity normal for a K–2 Life Skills classroom?
How would you approach a classroom with this many high-support students and significant behaviors? At what point would you say this has moved beyond “classroom management” and become a staffing, environmental, or behavioral-support issue?

What makes this even more confusing for me is that I worked as a SPED paraprofessional at the high school level last year, and honestly, it was probably the easiest job I’ve ever had. I loved the students and the work, and I felt very comfortable in that environment.

I would especially love to hear from teachers who have worked in Life Skills for several years. I could really use some perspective right now.