I am serving as an assistant principal at an elementary and middle school grades K-8. My duties include overseeing the special education and counseling departments. My staff in each department consists of 4 full time and 1 part time counselor, four special education teachers, and 79 regular education teachers and two educators assigned to the special education department. The school has a total of 2,400 students, 180 of which are 504 students with accommodations and 180 have IEP’s with various testing accommodations. At the end of last year, one of our Special Education support staff was cut due to funding. The other education staff members are having a hard time coping since they are understaffed. Managing the 504 students’ accommodation has also become difficult. Our education staff is responsible for English Lesson Learners, IEP’s for inclusion, and the gifted and talented population, and this does not include testing for our504 students. My teachers are adversely affected as a result of being overburdened.
The administration is struggling to balance the needs of special education and regular education as a result of teacher shortages, overcrowded school, reduced budget, and high education standards. Teachers feel that it is almost impossible to meet the needs of students, which are of different levels having a shortage. Teachers are questioning me why the special education post was cut. Students are also troubled since their routines have been altered. I am therefore tasked with the duty to explain why our staff as reduced by one, and how I will come up with a mechanism to rehire the person within the institution’s budget. I am also considering pulling additional support staff to help in the testing and small group instruction of our students. My decisions on this matter must, however, be in line with IEP’s, ELL, and 504 laws. Another consideration in my decision-making process is the exact testing modifications and classroom modification for each student, and also the required teacher to student ratio for these students.
Rules state that the amount of time to be committed to each of the various services to be provided must be appropriate to the specific service, and clearly stated in the IEP in a manner that can be understood by all involved in the development and implementation of the IEP.
Students must be attended to according to their 504 plans, IEP’s and ELL documentation. If a student misses services and the school is at fault, compensatory services must be offered. The stakeholders involved in decision making are; the EC director, the principal, the assistant principal, and the special and general educators.
Another possible solution, in this case, is having the students divided into groups and having them tested on different days. Teachers who are not taking part during a test can take the group of students, which is doing the test for additional instruction in their classrooms. I would involve all teachers that is ELL, EC, and Gifted teachers in planning, whereby they all meet and plan so that they feel that they are meeting the needs of every student.
My priority lies in meeting the needs of our students. I will work hand in hand with the principal to see the best way we can meet the needs of our students until we can rehire the staff member whose position was scrapped. I will commit myself to gather information on each student’s services and accommodations and finding resources within the school to hire another support staff and communicate to the board and superintendent.
The mission of our school is to educate all students and prepare them to be productive members of society and to prepare them to be able to succeed in the 21st century. By abiding by service delivery and classroom accommodations for students with 504 plans, IEPs, and ELL students, we are providing them with the foundation to be successful. We as educators need to do all we can to meet the needs of these students by offering their services.
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