Becoming an Integral Part of your Special Education Team
If you’re a school-based SLP, then you will work closely with the special education teachers in your school. Today, I’m sharing my tips for becoming an integral part of this team. I’m nearing the end of my 6th year at my school, but there have been different special education teachers pretty much each year.
I feel that it’s important to collaborate often with your special education teachers, so you need to make yourself visible. I’ve been at my school long enough that people come to me with concerns about students or to chat about goals, but in the beginning of the year at a new school it can be tough to establish these patterns.
Here are my tips:
- Go to the special education meetings if you can: My team meets before school, so I’m able to attend these meetings. While they don’t always pertain to me, I feel that it’s important that I’m there.
- Become a core member of the team that meets for initial meetings: It’s called something different everywhere, but this team meets whenever there is a new student that is being brought up for possible testing. In my school, it consists of a special education teacher, psychologist, social worker, administrator, general education teacher, and usually me. If a meeting is about something not having to do with speech/language, I don’t go, but in general I make it a habit to be at most initial meetings.
- Discuss goals ahead of IEP meetings: I always email both the special education and general education teacher to share what I’m thinking for speech/language goals and to get input from them.
- At meetings, talk with parents about how your goals work with the special education teacher’s goals: When we collaborate about goals, I make sure I’m focusing on something different than the sped teacher. At the meeting, we talk together about how our goals work together to meet the needs of the student.
- Chat, and chat often: It doesn’t always have to be about work! I consider a lot of my sped teachers very good friends, so we chat about life in general.
I’m lucky to be part of an awesome special education team. If you’re starting at a new school, try to make yourself a part of this team because in the long run, it will benefit you greatly!