Back to School: A SPED Resource Teacher's To-Do List

   I am one of two lab teachers in a school with almost 900 kids, 50-plus teachers, and a large SPED population.  It is VERY important to be organized for the beginning of the year.  Today I am going to list some of the things I do during pre-school week (teacher in-service) and the first week of school.

#1: Get an up-to-date list of students that you will be servicing for this year. Review their files and write down the due date for their IEP and 3-year re-evaluation. I know there will always be move-in students. You just add students to your list as they come along.

#2: If you have another SPED teacher that you work with, make sure you divide up the caseload appropriately considering service areas, behavior management, etc.

#3: I always create a SPED binder to organize all of my forms for the year (caseload tracking, meeting notifications, homeroom teacher communications, etc.) You can find some of the forms that I use here: Special Education Tracking Forms

#4:  Make folders for all of the homeroom teachers that will have lab students.  Print off the accommodation and modification page as well as the service page for all of your students. You will put these forms in a two-pocket folder.  I would also add a copy of the BIP for students that have one on their IEP. Once your schedule is completed, you can add this to the folder, too. This keeps all of the important forms in one place for the homeroom teachers to access easily.  Once you give the teachers their folder, they will sign off (name and date) on a checklist. 

This form can be found here: Special Education Tracking Forms 

 #5: Write down contact information for all of your students. I keep a separate binder for this form and a log for parent communications. 

   Well folks, that’s all for now. I will add another post about this topic in a couple of weeks and go over data folders, data walls, and my assessment binder. To be continued…..