Re: Curious about caseloads and working conditions…(long!)

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Special Education Teachers Chatboard

Curious about caseloads and working conditions...(long!)

by KAS

Mar 9, 2016

I work as a special education teacher in a multicategorical state. In our district we used to have a formula to determine how many caseload hours equaled a full time position. Recently, the formula was eliminated because of a new way of serving students. Previously we primarily pulled students to our resource room for services. We are now told that services for students in K-1 should all be pushed into the classrooms. In the building I work in we are struggling with this because K-1 alone has 12 classrooms. Next year they are adding 2nd grade to this new plan so it will be 18 classrooms. In addition, caseloads have become higher and planning time is nearly non existent. Our building has 5 resource teachers and our caseloads range from 22-30. We are in a high poverty area and many of our students qualify under OHI, ED, Autism or Cog. Impairment. I personally have a group of high need students who have many hours on their IEPS. I also have students in grades K, 1, 2, and 5. I have at lea...See More

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LN I work in a small community and our caseloads are based on a formula. I don't think a formula takes into account all that you do and very often is guess and check based on input. They don't always listen to teachers and have their own idea of what is appropriate as a number. I am currently teaching 4 students that are level 3 (severe disabilities) ...See More

Mar 15, 2016

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sped I worked at a district two years ago that had several sped vacancies that they could not fill. We were one of the lowest paid in the state, with all the problems bad schools have. The district really should have been taken over by the state, but the state didn't want to do it because... then they have to run that crap hole, and they didn't want to ...See MoreI worked at a district two years ago that had several sped vacancies that they could not fill. We were one of the lowest paid in the state, with all the problems bad schools have. The district really should have been taken over by the state, but the state didn't want to do it because... then they have to run that crap hole, and they didn't want to do that.

Anyway, they tried to give each high school teacher 25-30 case loads. I told them I would do 20, and that was it. If they gave me more, I would do the first 20 on my list, and the kids at the end of the alphabet would not see any case management from me. I told them they could fire me, and then they would be down 4 sped teacher instead of 3, and that they wouldn't replace me that year as that there weren't any sped math people willing to work for them. I just didn't care. They were shocked, but I double-dog dared them to fire me. They gave me 20. I don't know or care about what they did with the others.

I really don't have any advice for you other than treat admin like crap and don't care about the job. They don't care about you and treat you like garbage. Teachers are treated worse than Walmart workers, so treat the job like a job at Walmart. Then, work towards getting a job doing something else.

On 3/09/16, KAS wrote: > I work as a special education teacher in a > multicategorical state. In our district we used to have > a formula to determine how many caseload hours equaled a > full time position. Recently, the formula was eliminated > because of a new way of serving students. Previously we > primarily pulled students to our resource room for > services. We are now told that services for students in > K-1 should all be pushed into the classrooms. In the > building I work in we are struggling with this because > K-1 alone has 12 classrooms. Next year they are adding > 2nd grade to this new plan so it will be 18 classrooms. > In addition, caseloads have become higher and planning > time is nearly non existent. Our building has 5 resource > teachers and our caseloads range from 22-30. We are in a > high poverty area and many of our students qualify under > OHI, ED, Autism or Cog. Impairment. I personally have a > group of high need students who have many hours on their > IEPS. I also have students in grades K, 1, 2, and 5. I > have at least 13 groups to prep for each day and only 30 > minutes a day of planning/testing time. So during my > "planning" time I am usually testing students for their 3 > year or initial evals. Then if I don't have meetings > after school I write reports, IEPS and maybe lesson plans > if I can get to them. To add insult to injury, those of > us with the most education/experience have not had a > raise in 2 years plus they added an extra 30 minutes to > our day. > Anyway...my questions are: > 1. Do you have a formula to determine caseloads? > or > Do you have a cap on caseloads? > 2. How much planning/testing/prep time do you get each > day? > 3. What does your program look like? Multicategorical? > push in vs pull out or both? How many grades do you > serve? > > I am just wondering if this is typical or if we are being > taken advantage of. Morale is at a low and we are > struggling as a district to find people to fill SPED > jobs. (It doesn't help we are the lowest paid state in > the nation) > > TIA

Mar 19, 2016

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