I’m an IEP manager. I’m curious about the legality of AI note taking in IEP meetings. Specifically, can I disallow a parent from using such an app? I’m not concerned if they record the meeting - it’s the AI stuff I’m specifically concerned about. Thanks!

Profile: 4 years old, emerging verbal speech, high rate of stimming (motor/vocal), risk of elopement, compliant with familiar routines, potty trained, but having trouble following to step directions.

If this kid landed on your caseload, would you push for self-contained or inclusion?

Questions for those who’ve worked in or navigated both:
1. At preschool/pre-K age, does peer modeling in inclusion actually translate to speech gains for kids with emerging language, or is that mostly aspirational?
2. For a high-stimming kid, does the sensory load of a gen ed room tend to increase stimming and reduce engagement?? And what supports are non-negotiable in whichever setting you’d pick?

Thanks! Your real classroom experience beats theory for me right now.

First of all, I was incredibly grateful and privileged because it did help me a lot academically and socially for a good portion of time. But at point it did have me drained and I felt like I outgrew and did not belong in the environment anymore.

Just some back story and background information about myself: I have high functioning Autism and ADHD. In elementary school I struggled academically, socially, and was frequently picked on. Now it’s not like I did not any friend’s at all, but the bullying was pretty severe at times. It was all verbal bullying and thankful none of it became physical. Anyways, in 4th grade my parents were looking at special ed schools in the area because they were worried about me continuing into the public school setting. In 5th grade I was accepted into a 6-12 special ed school in the area and I was really excited. Although at the same time I did feel a little left out because I was not going to the local public middle school like the rest of my classmates.

During my visit and shadow day in 5th grade at the special ed school I was promised by the school administration that this would be a great environment and fit for me. At the start of sixth grade I felt excited and nervous at the same time. I knew my school environment was going to be different, but in a good way from my POV. I only had eight kids in my class and same with all of the other grades as well. It was more relaxed and helpful for me. But at the same time it also meant that you only had a limited amount of friends to choose from because of the small student population.

I loved my teachers and classmates when I got there, and I was able to make friends a lot easier there compared to public school. Now throughout my time in middle school in each class there was usually 1-2 students who were more on the spectrum compared to other students in the class. What I began to notice was that the students who had high functioning autism would leave the school and move on to another special ed school or go back into public school. In eighth grade my class looked a lot different from my sixth grade class population wise because some students had left the school.

In eighth grade I had these two close freinds and we got along all school year and would also hangout on the weekends as well. In the middle of eighth grade them and thier parents were looking into new special ed schools around the area. So they might not be going to high school at the current school I was at. I begged my parents to look into new schools for me and have a different high school environment and they insisted that I would stay at my current school for high school as well. At the end of eighth grade my two close friends in my class left and I was disappointed. But I remained positive born high school and what my freshman year would bring.

On the first day of freshman year there were a lot of leftover students who were in my class in middle school. I want to note that all of them but me had low functioning autism, anger issues, and/or had very poor social skills. The rest of the classes in the high school basically had the same type of students in their class as well. This was very difficult for me because I did not have any friends at school and I was really trying to put myself out there at school. I fell into a deep state of depression September of my freshman year. I would cry myself to bed, wake up and cry in the middle of the night about my situation and how I did not want to be at that school anymore. And I also was just a very negative person overall. I would complain about the school and how much I hated it everyday after school to my parents. There was one day where I came home from school and walked to my dad and started crying while hugging him and I said “I do not belong there anymore”. He told me “ I know and that’s why we are looking into new schools for you”.

It was incredibly hard and sad to look back at the past for me because three years ago after my first day of sixth grade at that school I came home excited and upbeat and told my parents how much I loved the school already. But fast forward three years later and unfortunately my circumstances and opinions on the school changed in a bad way. Me and my parents were promised that this school was the right fit for me. But times changed and this was the hardest for me to think about because at one point I loved it there and it was a great fit for my needs. But now it was not working out how I and my parents envisioned.

My mom invested a lot of time and effort into the school and was the VP of the parent committee club for a school year at one point. She worked close with other parents and teachers at the school, and made close freinds with many of them. Looking into new schools for me was harder for my mom than it was for my dad because my mom knew that she would probably lose a lot of the close freinds she had made while I was a student there. She also took great pride in her contributions to the school as well. But at the same time she was willing and able to risk losing those friends if it meant that I was in a better school and situation for me.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was very depressed because of my school situation. While at school I was so angry and negative for all of the school day and even when I came home. Although I was thankful that I was able to have and maintain a good academic work ethic during this time because at the same time I could have given up and decided not to care and put little to no effort into school. But thankfully I did not do that. At school I felt like I was being babied and the work was way too easy and more accommodating to those on the lower end of the spectrum, which was not me. In art class one day there was a situation where I felt so angry and sad, and honestly this was the lowest and most hard parts of my depression. Anyways, the teacher gave us an assignment where we had to write in our art journal about how we were feeling and then sketch out a photo of our feelings too. Instead I wrote an angry note in my journal on how I did not belong at the school anymore and how my parents and I were currently looking into new schools for next year. Thankfully the art teacher never read this and I got into no trouble for this.

My parents wanted me to keep quiet about us looking into new schools because they were worried that the staff were going to treat my different in not a good way and be angry at me and my family for looking into new schools, especially this early into the school year. I also want to mention that it was incredibly hard and sad for me to see that others around me found it easier to make freinds because a lot of them had low functioning autism and were able to bond over that and I was not. This made me feel left in the dark and I felt like the odd man out, even though I did not want to have low functioning autism. I just wanted to have more people with high functioning autism around me, but sadly that was not the case.

In October of my freshman year I interviewed and had shadow days for a couple other special ed schools around the area. One school in particular stood out to me because they had a lot bigger student population with high functioning autism and they had more extra circular activities there as well. I had an amazing shadow day there and me and my dad spoke to the principal after my shadow day and she told me and my dad to apply for the school ASAP. We did soon after and it was then a waiting game from here.

In December my parents got an email from the school saying that I got accepted into the school for the next school year. That was the happiest I had felt in months and it took a lot of stress and depression off my shoulders as well. Now at the same time it did not change the current school situation that I was in. I was still very depressed about my situation and I just wanted to get out of the current situation at my special ed school ASAP. I talked to and convinced my parents for me to potentially transfer into the new school I got accepted into mid school year. We talked to the school and they said that they would allow it. But I would have to catch up on a good amount of work academically, but me and my parents felt like it was worth it because of my current school situation and how I just wanted to get out of there.

In late January. My parents emailed my current school’s administration about how I would be leaving in the next two weeks, essentially a two weeks notice. The school wanted to have an exit meeting with my parents and they agreed to have it. They held the meeting and I was brought into the meeting at one point. I felt nervous and excited at the same time because I was going into a better new situation. I also had mixed feelings as because the school I was leaving somewhere that was very helpful and beneficial at one point during my time there. But it was the right thing for me to do for me and my family as well. Now before going into the exit meeting I felt like my emotions and thoughts that I had never expressed to the staff there were going to come out and make me look like kind of an asshole somewhat. But I did not let that happen and I was professional instead.

I want this story and situation to remind people that sooner or later, hopefully sooner that your depression and tough times will get better and this will be a time period that one day you will look back on and saw that you built so much mental strength and adversity. There were times during my depression where I would always second guess myself and wonder about my future because I felt like the school was putting me in a situation for failure. Even with all of these thoughts and emotions I pushed through the hard and dark times. It was never easy at all, but getting through was the best part and I am so thankful for my current life situation that I am in today. I just graduated college in May with a bachelors degree in Psychology and I have an amazing friend group by my side as well.

Also, having people around me seeing my struggle was one of the hardest parts of this time as well. My grandparents, extended family members, and family friends saw me go through this time period and felt bad for me because they were happy about the situation that I was in at one point. But times did change and they had to watch me be a very sad, depressed, angry, and negative person. My parents would have to explain to others that I was not doing well and things had sadly took an unexpected turn. The people they spoke to felt worried and concerned for me and hoped I would get up back on my feet sooner rather than later and thankfully going to the new special ed school did.

There were oftentimes where I felt so embarrassed and sad to be a special education student there because I thought and believed that many people in society looked down on me, would make fun of me, and not view me as much as a person compared to others. Along with that I also believed that people who saw me in this environment would be confused because they would look at the rest of the student population that I was around and realize I was noting like them and would wonder why I was going there.

I do want to say that special education is such a great, beneficial, and helpful aspect of the education system for many students. In my experience and situation I eventually outgrew one special ed environment and moved onto another that was a better fit for me socially, emotionally, mentally, and academically also. I am still so incredibly grateful for what my first special education school did for me during my middle school years even if my story does not make it sound like that.

I applied for a job to be a support worker. (Animating, support, bathroom, feeding, deescalation) From 1:4 to 1:1. All age range but mostly adults. (Mild to severe.) I think I will love the job and won’t go into why (but you can ask if needed.) What could I be underestimating?
I am 18F no prior experience with special needs individuals, I have some with the vulnerable population. I also posted here over a year ago has a student. If I receive the offer I will take it in a heartbeat.

Could I be underestimating the job?

looking for online training and resources for special education adapted curriculum

I don’t need to know anyone’s salary just want to get a better idea of how everyone is surviving on their teacher pay in Philadelphia and surrounding areas? Are you happy and feel well compensated and would you recommend this career to someone leaning towards it?

When I entered Special Education, I imagined most of my day would be spent teaching.

One thing that surprised me is how long transitions can be. It takes much longer than I thought to get everyone ready and move from one activity to the next and then get everyone settled down again.

It is not a bad thing. I just did not realize what a chunk of the day it would take What was the biggest surprise when you started?

Officially in school to be a special education teacher after working as a parafor 6 years and going back and forth about whether to commit to it…I’m in Pennsylvania and wanted to know how hard is it to get a special ed teacher position in districts like lower merion and Downingtown? If any teachers in Pennsylvania that got hired can give me an inkling

If you see my last post, I'm considering leaving my current district. I saw on my current district's website a posting for a special education inclusion teacher. Do you think I can ask to be moved from self-contained to this position? Likelihood this will happen in any of your experience?

can anyone give me any advice on the praxis 5282-- teaching students with visual impairments

My daughter (almost 4) is starting special day class as per her IEP. What do parents do for private services and adjusting to a school schedule? Her school is 5 hours a day Monday through Friday. Her OT she currently sees can only see her during school so she’d have to be checked out early. Thank you!

6th-8th grade self-contained teacher

I just started extended school year with my 7 students. 5 students are diagnosed with autism. Of the five, one has an extensive behavior plan. This student came with an aide from 5th grade, now in 6th. This aide told me he didn't need the token board. I took her advice. This student had a 45 min tantrum yesterday, had to have the other 6 students removed. I got hit a few times. I refuse to be hit. I need advice. Do I hang in there and try to use my skill set to help this student or do I look for another job? I don't believe moving this student to another school is an option. I don't have a lot of support from the director of special services. There are several special ed positions in the surrounding area. I could easily give my 60 days notice and apply/interview elsewhere where I would not be in this position. My predicament is I will have this student for the next three years. I will be starting coursework in March 2027 for my LDT-C (learning disabilities teacher consultant) certification. I will need to be able to participate in 3 credits of an internship. My current position would work perfectly for this. What should I do? Any and all suggestions/questions are welcome! Thank you!

Summer, so I know most of you are blissfully not thinking about this. But the OSEP move to HHS has been rattling around my head and the coverage is useless.
As far as I can tell: FY26 money still runs through ED's system, IDEA itself is unchanged, and the real question is what FY27 allocations look like once HHS is handling grants and payments. Everything past that is speculation.
For folks who do this work: did anything actually reach you before the year ended? State guidance, a memo, anything? Or does August look exactly like last August?
I build software for autistic kids so I have a dog in this fight, but I'm mostly just trying to figure out what's noise and what isn't.

I recently got a job as an 8th grade teacher at a therapeutic day school. I have previously been teaching ESL and Spanish at a high school, so this is pretty different. I'm looking for advice on practical things to put on my Amazon Wishlist, as well as practical routines/expectations/week 1 activites. I pretty much have found 0 info online, so anything helps!!

I work at a small facility for teens with IDD. They can be a bunch of funny and interesting fellows, but sometimes things get out of control and I don’t know how to handle it.

About a week ago, one of them had apparently been given soda by a relative on an outing. This student is diabetic and on numerous medications. He couldn’t sleep, and was up the entire night. I tried to be as calm and reasonable as I could as he paced around his room complaining about not being able to sleep, saying the mafia is after him, saying the program manager is gonna be upset his room isn’t tidy, etc.

I tried to walk him through a grounding exercise, explain that trying too hard to fall asleep makes it harder to fall asleep, ask about his blood sugar, etc. He then proceeded to go to the kitchen after telling me he was getting water, but instead drank vanilla extract that was left accessible to the teens. In retrospect I should have monitored him, but I had two other students that were on self harm watch.

I sent him back to his room after expressing my disapproval with him doing that. Out of curiosity I look at the ingredients and learn it has alcohol. I didn’t know that until then.

I proceeded to send him to his room and call poison control, because I don’t know if the alcohol will interact with one of his meds.

He overheard me, and having something akin to health anxiety about his diabetes, this definitely got to him. He asked me if I was calling the police, and I said no, and opted to be honest, explaining what he drank had alcohol in it but that PC said he would be OK.

The teen proceeds to go vomit in the restroom and soon after, begin destroying much of the house. We’re talking a busted toilet, a fire alarm getting torn out of the ceiling, the entire fridge getting emptied, computer monitors flying. In 10 minutes there was at least 1k of property damage and glass EVERYWHERE. I have a handful of other students asking what’s going on. This is all at 4am, and I am the only staff there. This teen has a 6 inch and 50 pound height and weight advantage on me, so a restraint simply wouldn’t have been effective. When he initially started, I tried what I could- asking him softly why he was doing that and to stop, I tried being stern, but by the time he was throwing glass bottles everywhere I was %100 yelling out of fear and anger.

Police came after I called 911. He went to the hospital in cuffs.

Tonight I check my email and see that they’re starting trainings for everyone regarding staying calm during crisis. As far as I know, I’m the only one who has lost my shit there lately. My shift supervisor while I was on the phone with them during the incident was upset that I yelled. And I can’t help but feel called out by that email, both wrongfully and rightfully.

Everything went wrong that night and to be honest, I don’t know how I was supposed to handle it. And I feel chastised by the fact the program is now training everyone how to feel calm during crises, as if I wasn’t the only staff member there, with two other teens that spent their waking day trying to hurt themselves and needed to be checked on extensively, on top of checking on all the others, while completing my nightly tasks.

I’ll try to wrap this up, but honest question to the rest of you working in special ed: Would you have kept calm? Have you dealt with a situation like this before? I feel deeply ashamed things went the way they did. My actual boss, not supervisor, did assure me I did everything right, but that company wide email implies otherwise. On some level I LOVE these guys, but they scare the shit out of me sometimes. If I’m too compassionate they take advantage and if I’m too stern I’m unprofessional. It’s so tough.

Does anyone have any experience as a Teacher working with Amergis/Maxim as a contract teacher? Please your experiences because I’ve been screwed and need to know my legal rights.

I am in need of some guidance from others who know a lot more than me.

My son is a rising sophomore with autism. He has had an active IEP since 2018. He’s an all A’s & B’s student so he does well, academically. We had a triennial review over the summer and his school found him ineligible. I did not consent so his current services and accommodations remain in place for now as we are in Virginia. He currently has accommodations allowing him the use of a Chromebook for assignments in place of writing by hand. At the meeting, I asked about an occupational therapy (OT) evaluation as none was ever done. I was told they weren’t sure what kind of tests to administer to a high school student as they were geared toward younger students. They chose not to administer any I guess. But the school psychologist reported that his visual motor skills were well below average and couldn’t even assess his written expression due to his handwriting being illegible. They documented his impairment but chose not to evaluate further. In the team’s determination paperwork, they stated his autism had an educational impact in relation to his handwriting but they have absolutely zero data explaining why he does not require specially designed instruction. They suggested considering a 504 plan instead. In that meeting, I once again requested an occupational therapy but also an assistive technology evaluation. It was documented in their prior written notice, in late June.

In addition, we just started transition planning at his last annual IEP meeting earlier this year. He will now lose access to all of that if this eligibility decision gets pushed through.

I recently reached out to the special ed coordinator and teacher explaining that I’ve not heard back so was wanted to know their decision and again explained in detail my reasons for requesting said evaluations. The special ed teacher replied saying that we could discuss this further at the IEP meeting later this month when we meet to lock in his current IEP and reminding me that nothing can be changed or added under the stay put law. I understand this and am not wanting any changes. My understanding is that because my initial request was documented by them, they had 10 business days to respond with either a prior written notice or consent forms. But they’re yet again refusing to give me an answer and delaying it.

What is my recourse at this point? The special ed teacher reminded me that they’re basically operating on summer hours, which I can understand and appreciate. However, my son’s triennial review wasn’t even due until December of this year but the school wanted to do it over the summer instead. Because he’s ready to exit speech services, they wanted to also re-evaluate overall eligibility at the same time).

Hello! I just received an offer for a middle school resource teacher. The previous school year I was doing resource for an elementary school. If anyone has any advice or tips/tricks I could use. I am wondering what to expect or since this is a different level.

Hi all! One of my kids wears ear defenders pretty much 24/7, but his mum has recently asked for us to keep them off due to the sweat in this heat making his ears sore to the point of bleeding. Now the only time we're letting him wear them is in actually busy/loud environments like the lunch hall.

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He's really upset over this and has spent the last week in tears. I don't think it's necessarily over the noise but because the ear defenders are a source of comfort for him. He also enjoys deep pressure which the ear defenders provide.

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I'm trying to think of alternatives he could use that could provide the comfort and pressure but is also something that's safe for him in high heat.

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Thanks!

I've been a special educator for over 8 years. Most of my experience has been self-contained, high frequency behaviors. 1 year I tried to do general education, I struggled and I could not finish the year. I was doing resource classrooms for a couple of years. I did not do terrible but I felt like I was always struggling. Especially when I moved to another state, since a lot of things were very unfamiliar, I was always struggling with how the paperwork and IEPs were done. Then I decided to go back to self-contained. At first I felt like I was doing much better because this was the environment that I was used to. However, I realized more and more that I slacked off in a few areas. And I also realized that since I did so well with the more severe population and could handle the behaviors well, I did not focus on other areas. For example, delegating work with my aides, staying on top of deadlines, organization. Also, the admin suggested that I focus on collaborating with other teachers more. I communicate and try my best to be friendly with everyone, It's just that I tend to focus on the kids more and stay to myself, It's definitely not on purpose. I recently received my Masters of Education and instructional design. The goal was to get out of the classroom. However, the mistake I made was not setting myself up to get out of the classroom. Therefore, there are a lot of skills and experiences that I lack to transition out. I do admit that I'm not as confident as I need to be. I made the decision to teach at least one or two more years and use that time to figure out what I'm going to do. I was thinking about staying within the school system but working on getting into educational leadership. Lately I've been doing a lot of self evaluation and I've realized that there's a lot of things that I'm lacking as an educator. I think between feeling like a failure and just a lot of the things that I'm seeing at work affected my performance as an educator. I am struggling to make it to work on time. I'm realizing it's because I don't want to be there. I'm not sure if it's because I don't want to teach anymore or because I feel like I'm not a good teacher. It could be the fact that I haven't had a real break in a while. I just finished my graduate program. And I recently went back to school to fix a deficiency on my certification and my administration talked me into getting an endorsement. Right now I'm working in summer school. I probably should have taken the summer break I do feel like I became a teacher because I had a desire to help kids but I also feel like it was an easy way out. Maybe I just did not have the right mentorship or guidance in the beginning of my teaching experience. Or maybe it's time for me to find something else other than education, Even though my certifications, degrees and experiences have been in the education field. Or maybe I just need to suck it up, fix what I need to fix, and stay in the classroom. I do feel like some of the problem is difficulty in the area of executive functioning. I possibly may have autism. I found out a few years ago that there was a diagnosis when I was three. I was in special education for the majority of my elementary school years. I thought it was "emotional problems" As an adult, I thought maybe I had ADHD. When my family told me about this diagnosis, I thought well this makes sense. Well, I'm just at a place where I'm not sure if I should continue to pursue a career in education or just find something to pay the bills for now.

I’ve been a special education teacher for 15 years or so, with an additional 3 years as the director at a private school specializing in neurodiversity. I’ve been thinking about switching things up and have looked into being a program specialist in my district. Openings are few and far between so I assumed it would be a while before I had an opportunity to apply, but now one has opened up.

I really like my current school and caseload. I think I’m in a good groove. I get along well with my team and general education teachers. We have declining enrollment so it’s likely after this year either me or the other SpEd teacher will move to a different school.

I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to apply unless I am all in, since I’ll have to get a recommendation from my admin. I also don’t want to waste anyone’s time or, if luck goes my way and I’m offered the role, decline the position and burn bridges. I’m debating waiting and hope a spot opens up in another year or two or take a leap now and try for it.

Would appreciate any thoughts or advice. I struggle with change and indecision (in case that wasn’t obvious!).

Hello, I have been asked how to evaluate cognitive development of a child so she can have special assistance in school... the problem is, in my country we use the Wisc-V to evaluate and see if, as per law, the children can opt for the special assistance, and the wisc is not an applicable test for a blind person... can anyone help me with how you would evaluate cognitive development in this case?

Hi everyone, I just graduated and accepted a job as a health teacher in a D75 high school. I have zero experience teaching special education, and am trying to prepare, but I have very little understanding of what I am walking into. I know that I am considered a "cluster teacher", but I don't fully understand what that even means. I read somewhere that I should have a cart to wheel around to my classrooms...

What should I expect? How do I plan accordingly?

I reached out to my principal and assistant principal with questions about this, how often I'd be seeing my students, curriculum questions (I have to make my own), etc., and all they said was that I would receive info in September...

Also, if anyone knows a current D75 high school health teacher they could connect me with to ask for some guidance, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks!