Special Education Teacher Interview

Special Education Teacher from Parkview Elementary School. Cudahy, WI 

I interviewed a teacher back in my home town in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Kalie is a special education teacher for Cudahy School District. We were emailing back and forth all week having a conversation about special education and made me even more interested in special education. This interview made me realize how much goes into the process of special education. It gave me a lot more respect for special education teachers and it really takes a special person to be a special education teacher.

A student is identified based on their needs. At the beginning, teachers bring up students that they have concerns about at a Student Services Team meeting. At these meetings, the classroom teacher, principal, school psychologist, and math & reading specialists discuss the academic, social and behavioral concerns of the student. If there are academic concerns or if student is suspected to have a Specific Learning Disability (SLD), the student begins going through RTI (Response To Intervention). They will begin in a Tier 2 intervention, if the student is not making sufficient progress, they will be moved to a Tier 3/ individualized intervention. If the student is still not making gains, they will be referred for special education. The evaluation team (special education teacher, general education teacher, principal, school psychologist, and school social worker) does related assessments and will use this data to determine if the student qualifies, based on a SLD checklist.

If the team believes that the child has an Emotional/ Behavioral Disability (EBD) they will try behavioral interventions (ex. check in/check out sheet, peer mentor). Again, if the behaviors are not improving after these interventions, the evaluation team will complete related assessments, and will use this data to determine if the student qualifies, based on a EBD checklist.

Before a child qualifies for special education, the Student Services Team is responsible for the progress of the child. As mentioned before, if students are not making sufficient gains during the intervention process, then the team makes a referral for special education.
Once a student qualifies for special education services, it is the IEP team’s responsibility for the progress of the child. An IEP team is made up of a general education teacher, special education teacher, the child’s parents, an LEA Representative (usually the principal, but the spec. ed teacher can take this role too), and team members of related services (Ex. Speech & Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist). Communication is key between all the members of the team.

The school needs to work closely with parents, teachers and the students. Each person has a role and a responsibility to helping and contributing to providing a safe, healthy and productive learning environment.

The provisions that are made are specific for each student and their needs. A few examples include: pull-out, small group instruction, in-class support, testing accommodations (extended time, alternate environment, having the test read aloud), behavior sheets, visual schedules, and scheduled sensory breaks.

During this whole process, the parent is an active team member. The parent’s data and information that they provide, is just as important. Also, during this process, the parent is updated with what kind of assessments will be done with their child. They have the choice to decline the assessments if they choose.

Counselor from American International School of Kuwait

• What are some signs that a student may have a disability?

• Concerns with literacy, math, working memory (long or short term), processing (input and output), reluctance to write, speech/articulation concerns, reading assessments, attention difficulties, inability to follow routine or structures, inconsistency in demonstrating learning and/or growth, a plateau in demonstrating learning and/or growth
• With younger students (3-5 years, 6 yrs) we watch for age appropriate and developmental milestones, and for growth in the areas of social/emotional learlning, following structures and routines, independence, communication, fine and gross motor skills

• Who is involved in the process of identifying student and creating a plan to fit their needs?

• This is a collaborative, team approach.  For new students of concern, homeroom teachers are the point people for identifying concerns through the Counselor Referral process.  This initiates next steps which may include a teacher-counselor meeting, in class observations, looking at the student’s academic and/or behavioral concerns, meeting with parents, meeting with the Literacy Coach, and in the end a meeting with Principal, counselor, and teacher.  At that meeting it will be a team decision if the student will enter into the Student Support Team process.  This is the next level of intervention and tracking of growth, learning, behavior for students.  This may result in a meeting between parents, counselor, and Principal to outline our concerns and make recommendations to parents.  A support plan is developed and it may include support to the teacher from the counselor, AP, and/or Literacy Coach.
• We do not have a Direct Student Support model here at AIS.  No one to one except what can be provided in the classrooms.  We have no Special Education Resource Teachers or a designated room for pull out.  While we support individual student’s needs we do not have IEPs for students as we think of from an American or Canadian lense.   We support the teacher as best we can in terms of providing accommodations and D.I. and D.A.

• What accommodations and modifications can you make in the classroom to help struggling students?

• Our school policy does not allow for modifications.  We can support through accommodations as long as they can be provided within the classroom by the homeroom or subject teacher.  Accommodations vary according to individual students needs and the teacher’s knowledge/understanding/ability to accommodate.  This may include extra time, chunking of work or assessments, graphic organizers, highlighting/bolding important text, colored paper, tinted dry erase boards, verbal assessments when writing is not being assessed, etc.  Depending on the teacher and student we are also able to use technology, and assistive technology to support.  We also are able to provide some environmental accommodations and considerations including proximity seating, seating with natural light, flexible groupings, paired/small groups, wearing hats to block lighting, etc.

• How do handle parents who may not be willing to participate in the process?

• The counselors and administration work to build relationships with our parents and to build trust.  We can only make recommendations for outside education assessments, tutoring, extra support, medical consultations (physical, health, or social/emotional), summer school for literacy programs.  If we make recommendations we do so in person and via a written letter which we ask parents to sign in recognition of our concerns and recommendations.  Many sign, some do not.  We provide a timeline within the first letter regarding when we hope to hear back from them in terms of setting appointments and when they have results from our recommendations.  We have follow up meetings as needed to reiterate our concerns and recommendations, and to seek further information from parents.  If, eventually, it is determined we cannot meet the needs of the students (no matter parent willingness) then we recommend that parents seek a different school for their child.

Reflection

From interviewing teachers and educators from all over the world, I looked at special education in a different light and have a lot more respect for special education teachers. It takes a distinct person to support these children to live a “normal” life. I also realized that every child is different and special in their own way. In order to support each child individually is a challenging task.  Interviewing and talking with other teachers that work at my school in Kuwait, it is a whole other ball game. Not having the support in the schools puts more stress on the teacher and trying to do it by yourself with limited help is very difficult.

In Finland school systems, going to school for three – four hours a day gives the children more opportunity to be focused for longer period of time. People in general are only able to focus for a certain amount of time. In my opinion, having a child at school for 8 hours and expecting them to be focused and have the teacher be instructing the entire time is unreasonable.  I feel if more schools took the Finland approach, the scores would improve and students would be more engaged.  It was very interesting to take the different perspectives and compare them to diverse areas of the world.