Intervention teacher vs. Special Education teacher

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Special Education Teachers Chatboard

Intervention teacher vs. Special Education teacher

by Susan

Apr 7, 2015

I have been a SPED teacher for many years in the public school sector. Now, I am an intervention teacher in a private school. The teachers cannot understand why I cannot do more for the students who qualify for SPED services. The school district I am in only provides us with 1/2 hour a week or 52 hours a year. So, if a student qualifies across the board in reading, writing and math, then the student would only get one subject (like Reading and if could be reading skills/fluency or reading comprehension). Even though I am a certified SPED teacher, I am here as an intervention teacher. Since I have been here, I have held some meetings where I told the parents that their child would be best serviced in a public school setting at this time to get the help they need and that they are welcome to come back here later. This is very hard on some of the teachers that have worked here for a very long time and also belongs to the same parish, as the families. It is hard for them to separate them b...See More

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Elizabeth You are completely right, Susan. I was in a job with a county-wide school district and was placed in the "parochial" teacher consultant position. I got put there as the newbie, and later heard that no one ever wanted that position. I quickly found out why, for the reasons you mentioned. We got 1/2 hour a week to "see" the kids. ...See MoreYou are completely right, Susan. I was in a job with a county-wide school district and was placed in the "parochial" teacher consultant position. I got put there as the newbie, and later heard that no one ever wanted that position. I quickly found out why, for the reasons you mentioned. We got 1/2 hour a week to "see" the kids. In that time, I was basically a tutor for a kid, helping him or her with homework. I would try to cram in basic skills, but it was very hard to do in the limited time that we had. (Since the first few minutes were getting the student focused, explaining what was going to happen, etc.) It was a complete joke.

When I suggested better services might be offered at a public school, I got reprimanded (not officially, but I got a nasty email). One of the principals even said to me that he had no idea "where all of these special ed kids are coming from", but that he had to take them because they needed tuition money. Most of the time, the kids just got passed along with very modified assignments (e.g. the girl in 3rd grade with a 60ish IQ who just colored while the rest of the class did 3rd grade stuff...parents didn't care so there you go).

I found myself in a lose-lose situation. I was told to not offer any more "service time" than 30 minutes per week, but what can any one person really do in half hour?! Not to mention that I never got to use any actual teaching methods or skills...it was ridiculous.

On 4/07/15, Susan wrote: > I have been a SPED teacher for many years in the public > school sector. Now, I am an intervention teacher in a > private school. The teachers cannot understand why I > cannot do more for the students who qualify for SPED > services. The school district I am in only provides us > with 1/2 hour a week or 52 hours a year. So, if a > student qualifies across the board in reading, writing > and math, then the student would only get one subject > (like Reading and if could be reading skills/fluency or > reading comprehension). Even though I am a certified > SPED teacher, I am here as an intervention teacher. Since > I have been here, I have held some meetings where I told > the parents that their child would be best serviced in a > public school setting at this time to get the help they > need and that they are welcome to come back here later. > This is very hard on some of the teachers that have > worked here for a very long time and also belongs to the > same parish, as the families. It is hard for them to > separate them being professionals vs. being friends in > the parish. That is why I have never worked in a school > close to my house! The teachers cannot understand why I > am not providing the other services the student qualifies > for. I have told them why and told them that if I open > those flood gates, it will never stop. I told them that > an intervention teacher (like RTI) is different than a > SPED teacher. An intervention teacher in a > private/catholic school works with the teachers to > provide strategies to those students that needs to get > over the hump and to help those teachers with the > students. It is an ongoing struggle and I am at my wits > end. I have only been here for a short period of time. > The other intervention teacher left last year after a few > months. > > Am I wrong in thinking this way?

Apr 8, 2015

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