December 28th, 2022

This is simply some thoughts taken from my experience as a self contained classroom teacher in a low socio economic area.  As with everything I am sure there are agreements and disagreements.  One hope is to advocate getting more special educators out there.  Personally I feel like a genie in a bottle at times, only allowed to be released from the field if I can find a proper replacement.  The other hope is to encourage reflection on the greatness of our society that has such a hard time finding such important workers for our most disadvantaged.  We can do better yes?

​WHY SELF-CONTAINED SPECIAL EDUCATORS LEAVE
-the day to day demands are exhausting
-the paperwork and teaming needs are impossible to do within the defined work times
-the classroom teacher is pulled apart by team members who may not understand the demands of being the classroom manager/instruction planner/parent communicator/behavior data collector
-the work is dangerous if the students are aggressive
-when asked for help it is not unheard of that several people, who themselves will not do what the teacher does, come in and suggest a plethora of ideas to do (while they are currently doing the rest of the tasks they need to do mind you), judge the teacher (and at the same time perhaps demoralizing them). I am aware of two teachers out there who quit in the last few years due to this.
-the risk of being sued is higher than regular educators (another one quit this year due to this)
-the knowledge base needed to fulfill what is ‘written’ is much higher than the general educator (self-contained teachers are expected to collect data on behaviors, plan for a diverse range of abilities, communicate plans with classroom staff and team members, understand effective teaching of all subject areas, understand how to differentiate for classroom and school routines, attend to functional deficits such as toilet training or toileting schedules and assistance.  And there is sooooo much more. 
 
WHY SELF-CONTAINED SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS STAY
-they have the adequate resources (time, human, curriculum)
-their school board supports a wage which brings capable human resources (paraprofessionals).  In my own experience I have had several admin tell me ‘at least they are a body’, which is ridiculous.  A body that makes your job harder because of skill deficits or bad attitude exacerbates the difficulty of an already hard position.
-they have a manageable caseload and adequate time to plan.  In my experience it is not unheard of that teaching professional’s plan time might be chunked in small increments and spread thinly across the week.  It is a ‘duh’ in that focused time to plan leads to better outcomes.
-they are able to make progress and not just feel like a babysitter
-they are not expected to make the job their life (if it is someone’s passion then more power to them but many educators have interests and families outside of the job). I have been told in the past that I should be making materials at home and it is ‘easy to do while watching tv’.  Welp, I don’t watch so much have kids of my own and had other goals.  I have in the past gone way over because I felt it was necessary, but mindfulness and self-care (thank you to the Great Reset) has helped reduce this drastically.
 
HEAR THE SELF CONTAINED SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER
-if an educator has expressed needs, try to get those supports to them
-and from personal experience, for the love of all things caring, when a self-contained teacher seeks a different position, hear them.  In my career, after 12 years teaching a self contained program for students with emotional behavioral challenges (very challenging in the low socio economic arena) I sought for an ‘easier’ position.  That landed me in a role of working with students with communication AND behavioral challenges.  I felt I could not leave this position, as any postion out of the particular district would be a huge financial hit.  This led to burn out, depression, resentment, frustration and disenchantment with the entire public educational institution which I had once been ‘all in’ with.  Currently I am trying to regain my love of supporting one of the biggest indicators of a great society, but it is hard.  This year I have needed to take over the teacher role for a self-contained teacher who has quit and with The Great Reset stress, as well as the bombardment of ‘the great resignation’ in our media, I hope I make it through the year without prolonged resentment for the public education system which currently puts our most fragile, energy intensive students (complex needs in low socio economic areas) at a risk for failure.  As a teacher, I always imagine what the student in front of me will be like in 18 years due to my current actions.  I wish more leadership would do the same.  It seems like a ‘duh’ situation in that beyond simply wanting the best for each child because we care about them as humans, these students (whose population is growing steadily each year) will be a heftier cost to society in the future if we do not get them better education now.