6 Steps to Setting Up A New Caseload for Special Education Teachers

Before school started my first year as a special education teacher, I was given a list of students that I would be responsible for that year. It was about 20 students that I would need to ensure their IEPs were being met, progress monitor their goals, and write a new IEP when their current one expired. I did my best to review and take notes on their IEPs, but my first few weeks were a disaster. I couldn’t keep up with progress monitoring. The teachers were coming to me with tons of questions. And suddenly I had to write an IEP for a student that I had just started teaching! I lacked the knowledge and tools to set myself up for a successful school year.

My goal here is to prevent other new special education teachers from experiencing my trainwreck. Below I lay out the 6 steps that I take at the beginning of each school year to assure all goes smoothly. I also include links to the tools and resources that I have developed to help you stay organized and maximize communication with your team.

1) Create a Meeting Calendar

Start by reviewing the annual IEP and re-evaluation due dates for all of your students. I like to put them into a printable spreadsheet so all of the information is in one place and I have it on hand.

Next, set tentative dates for all IEP and re-evaluation meetings. I pencil these in on my school year calendar planner so that I see them coming up when I review my planner. (I’ve also used Google Calendar but found that I prefer the visual monthly calendar.) When setting a tentative date for meetings, refer to your manager for guidance. When I taught in Chicago, I was expected to schedule the meetings about 30 days before the IEP was due. We were required to reschedule twice if a parent missed the meeting. However, in North Carolina, I only need to make sure to schedule at least 10 days before the IEP is due. As the meeting draws near, reach out to parents and the school team to schedule a definite time and date.

Note any special circumstances that may require an earlier meeting. For example, if a student is new to the school or district, you may need to have a meeting at the beginning of the year. This will address any parent concerns and to adjust minutes to your school’s bell schedule. The previous case manager may recommend a meeting. Or the student did not demonstrate sufficient progress toward IEP goals last school year – in which case, you will want to schedule a meeting as soon as possible to make appropriate changes to a student’s IEP.

If you are new to this, ask a (seasoned) colleague or your manager to look over your calendar and give you feedback. It is better to make changes at the beginning rather than find out in the middle of the year that you missed a meeting or a deadline.

2) Communicate with Families

Your relationship with your students’ families will be very important. They are a wealth of knowledge about your students and also provide a ton of support for them outside of school. Start cultivating this relationship as soon as possible. I like to send an email before school starts to each parent. When emailing isn’t an option, I send a letter home on the first day of school (with a return survey).

Key information to include in your first communication:

– Introduce yourself (where you are from, how long you have been teaching, what you are excited about, and a fun fact).

– Provide your preferred contact information.

– Annual IEP due dates and upcoming evaluations, if any (no need to schedule meeting way in advance, just give them a heads up).

Parent surveys can also be very useful – especially if parents are not super communicative. It allows you to gather some information and input at the beginning of the year.

3) Review Each IEP

This is the most time-consuming step, but it is absolutely vital. All the information that you will need about a student should be in their IEP. A few tips for this review:

– Pay special attention to goals, present levels, and progress reports. These sections will give you a really good idea about where the student excels, where they struggle, and what you will need to work with them on. 

– Write down any questions you have and communicate with their last case manager. There may be discrepancies or vague language that cause confusion. Most colleagues are more than happy to provide clarity.

– Break up this step over several sessions. If you have more than 5 students on your caseload, then sitting down and looking over all these IEPs in one sitting will be overwhelming. It will probably make all the students’ profiles run together. Give your brain a break and space out the reviews a little. Also, if the students are brand new to you, try to access pictures of the students to help with association.

4) Prepare Accommodation Sheets

Each student should have accommodations listed in their IEP to help them access content and learning. The school is legally obligated to provide those accommodations with fidelity. However, it is impractical to look up each IEP every time you (or your team) sit down to lesson plan. So, it is helpful to complete an accommodation sheet by class or subject area. This way all of the student’s information is on one page for quick reference.

If you teach a self-contained class, you will want to create a sheet for each specific class.

Some general education (gen. ed.) teachers will take it on themselves to review IEPs and create accommodation sheets on their own. This is awesome and amazing! I encourage all gen. ed. teachers to do this since it gives you a chance to really get to know your students. But, realistically, most gen. ed. teachers will not do this – either due to lack of time or lack of knowledge. And it is important that you, as a case manager, ensure that these teachers have this information. Since all the students I work with are in 8th grade, I create an accommodation sheet for each content area (reading, math, social studies, etc). Then, I share it with that teacher. Often, they will rearrange it so it fits their needs best.

It is also important to review the accommodations with teachers during collaboration meetings. This helps ensure that they understand the accommodations and are implementing them regularly and correctly.

5) Collaboration Schedule

Sometimes collaboration or consultation requirements are written into the IEP, but it is always a good idea to schedule a time to sit down and meet with teachers regularly throughout the school year. The frequency and duration can vary between teachers. For example, I meet with the reading teacher at least once a week for 45 minutes because we co-teach a class together. But I meet with the Spanish teacher about once a month for 30 minutes since she only has a few students from my caseload and few accommodations. I recommend scheduling a recurring day and time for the meeting and putting it on a shared calendar. This way, the meeting becomes a part of the routine from the beginning.

My first school got me into the habit of keeping collaboration logs and meeting notes. While this may not be a requirement at all schools, it is an excellent habit for record-keeping. They are also great sources of anecdotal records on student performance. Having an agenda with meeting notes helps to keep the discussions productive and focused. It can be very easy to spend 20 minutes telling stories about the funny things our students have done.

6) Plan & Scheduling Progress Monitoring

Progress monitoring is crucial in determining if students are learning and making progress toward their benchmarks. It is also one of the most overwhelming parts of teaching in special education. There is nothing worse than getting to the end of the first quarter and realizing that you forgot to address a goal. Or you have no data on a benchmark. The best way to avoid this is to create a plan and schedule for progress monitoring at the beginning of the school year. 

This is another time-consuming step. And, it tends to get pushed to the bottom of the “to do” list. However, making a plan will make your life so much easier in the first few weeks of school.

First, determine how to gather data for each goal. This should be included in the goal section of the IEP. Data gathering methods include curriculum-based assessments, running records, behavior sheets, teacher observation logs, and portfolios among many others. 

Next, determine how frequently the goal needs to be assessed. Some IEPs and goals will specify, but some will not. If the frequency is not specified, then reach out to their previous case manager for guidance or use your best judgment. Most goals should be assessed weekly, but others can be every other week. Remember, that you will need several data points to write an adequate report.

Once you have determined these two aspects, set time aside in your plans for progress monitoring. For example, if you have weekly assessments, have one day of the week that you devote time to those assessments. Also, if you are working with a co-teacher, make sure they are aware of the goals and assessment requirements. That way you can both ensure appropriate assessment is happening.

Bonus: At-A-Glance for Gen. Ed. teachers

If you have time (and energy), preparing a quick “IEP at-a-glance” or one-pager on each student is immensely helpful for general education teachers. Elementary school teachers can have 25-40 students in their classes. Middle and high school teachers may see over 100 students throughout the day. They spend a lot of time getting to know their students, but it is a daunting and overwhelming task that they undergo every year. By putting together a quick info sheet on each student on your caseload for the gen. ed. teachers, they can start the school year with the most important information without reading through every single IEP.