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• Responsibilities and Roles of the Special Education Teacher

The special education teachers in today’s schools play a very critical role in the proper education of exceptional students. Teachers are unique in that they can play many different roles in the educational environment.
Special Education teacher can be assigned as:
1. A teacher in a self-contained special education classroom in a general education school.
* This role involves working with a certain number of disabled students in a special education setting. This type of setting allows for mainstreaming, the involvement of a disabled child in a general education classroom for a part of regular school day as an educational toll when a student is ready for this type of transitional technique.
* Teacher in a self-contained classroom is usually assisted by a teaching assistant.

Responsibilities:
• Curriculum development
• Parent conferences
• Pre and post testing using group standardized tests
• Involvement at the annual review – an annual meeting held by the IEP Committee to discuss the progress of each child with a disability and to plan the next year’s Individual Education Plan • Involvement in the triennial evaluation process – an evaluation that takes place every three years to determine if the conditions for the original classification are still present or need to be modified • Monitoring IEP (Individual Educational Plan – a list of goals, needs and objectives required for every disabled student), modifications and accommodations

2. A teacher in a self-contained special education classroom in a special school.
* This role involves working with a certain number of more seriously disabled students in a special education setting.
* The teacher in this setting is usually assisted by a teaching assistant as well as aides because of the seriousness of the disabilities exhibited by this population of students. Responsibilities:
• Curriculum development
• Parent conferences
• Pre and post testing using group standardized tests
• Involvement at the annual review – an annual meeting held by the IEP Committee to discuss the progress of each child with a disability and to plan the next year’s Individual Education Plan
• Involvement in the triennial evaluation process – an evaluation that takes place every three years to determine if the conditions for the original classification are still present or need to be modified
• Monitoring IEP, modifications and accommodations
• Working very closely with related service providers

3. A resource teacher in a categorical or non-categorical resource room.
* A resource room in a special school which deals with only one type of exceptionality is called a categorical resource room.
* A non-categorical resource room usually found in the regular mainstream school where children with varied exceptionalities are educated at one time. This type necessitates close involvement with each child’s homeroom teacher. Responsibilities:
• Curriculum modification, the resource teacher assists the classroom teacher in modifying the curriculum to meet the learning needs of the child with a disability • Parent conferences • Educational evaluator for initial evaluations, screening and triennial evaluations • Pre and post testing using group standardized tests
• Involvement at the annual review – an annual meeting held by the IEP Committee to discuss the progress of each child with a disability and to plan the next year’s Individual Education Plan
• Involvement in the triennial evaluation process – an evaluation that takes place every three years to determine if the conditions for the original classification are still present or need to be modified
• Monitoring IEP, modifications and accommodations 4. An educational evaluator on the Child Study Team or Pupil Personnel Team.
* A school based support team that discusses and makes recommendation on high-risk students.

Responsibilities:
• Educational evaluator for initial evaluations (evaluations performed on students being classified for the first time)
• Involvement in the triennial evaluation process – an evaluation that takes place every three years to determine if the conditions for the original classification are still present or need to be modified • Interpreting diagnostic results from outside evaluations

5. A member of the Committee on Special Education. * A district based committee mandated by the Federal law. Responsibilities:
• Interpreting educational test results
• Classification, placement and evaluation of all disabled children within the district
• Making recommendations and diagnosing strengths and weaknesses for the IEP 6. A member of multidisciplinary team. * Team members are responsible for educating secondary students in a departmentalized program. * This type of program is fairly new to secondary schools where the students with a disability follow a departmentalized program like other students but all their classes are taught by special education teachers.

Responsibilities:
• Curriculum development
• Parent conferences
• Involvement at the annual review – an annual meeting held by the IEP Committee to discuss the progress of each child with a disability and to plan the next year’s Individual Education Plan
• Involvement in the triennial evaluation process – an evaluation that takes place every three years to determine if the conditions for the original classification are still present or need to be modified
• Monitoring IEP, modifications and accommodations

7. A consultant teacher.
* This is a special education teacher assigned to work with a child with a disability right in the mainstreamed class.
* There are times when the IEP Committee may decide that it would be in the best interests of the child to receive services within his/her own classroom rather than to leave to go to a pull-out program like a resource room.

Responsibilities:
• Curriculum modification assists the classroom teacher in modifying the curriculum to meet the learning style and needs of the child with disability
• Parent conferences • Pre and post testing using group standardized tests
• Involvement at the annual review – an annual meeting held by the IEP Committee to discuss the progress of each child with a disability and to plan the next year’s Individual Education Plan
• Involvement in the triennial evaluation process – an evaluation that takes place every three years to determine if the conditions for the original classification are still present or need to be modified • Monitoring IEP, modifications and accommodations 8. An itinerant teacher. * In this type of arrangement, a special education teacher is hired to work with children who have disabilities in various schools in several districts.
* In this way, children are provided with the required auxiliary services and districts are able to meet requirements without having a program of their own.

Responsibilities:
• Curriculum modification, assists the classroom teacher in modifying the curriculum to meet the learning style and needs of the child with disability • Parent conferences • Educational evaluator, in some cases the itinerant room teacher is asked to do the educational evaluations. If this is the case the district will usually pay the agency a fee for this service • Pre and post testing using group standardized tests
• Involvement at the annual review – an annual meeting held by the IEP Committee to discuss the progress of each child with a disability and to plan the next year’s Individual Education Plan
• Involvement in the triennial evaluation process – an evaluation that takes place every three years to determine if the conditions for the original classification are still present or need to be modified
• Monitoring IEP, modifications and accommodations

9. A private practitioner. * Be involved with the evaluation and remediation of children as an auxiliary service after school. Responsibilities:
• Suggestions to the district on curriculum modification
• Initial evaluation requested by the parent
• Involvement at the annual review – an annual meeting held by the IEP Committee to discuss the progress of each child with a disability and to plan the next year’s Individual Education Plan
• Involvement in the triennial evaluation process – an evaluation that takes place every three years to determine if the conditions for the original classification are still present or need to be modified
10. An Inclusion Teacher in a partial inclusion program or full inclusion program. * An inclusion class is a mainstream class with a population of children with or without disabilities. This classroom will consist of a general education teacher and special education teacher working as a team. Responsibilities: • Curriculum development and modification, the special education teacher assists the classroom teacher in developing and modifying the curriculum to meet the learning style and needs of the children with disabilities • Student assistance, may circulate among the children with disabilities during a lesson to ensure that they understand the concepts being taught, help with note taking skill, answer questions, and reinforce concepts