Special Education for Administrators: A Do’s and Don’ts Guide
Special education for administrators comes down to five duties: placement decisions, collaboration between staff, behavior support, inclusion in school events, and knowing the law. Some administrators enter the role with limited preparation in special education law. The IEP team determines placement, and school and district personnel are responsible for implementing the IEP.
My friend Elise was recently promoted to the role of school principal in her large urban district on the West Coast.
During her 18 year tenure in the same district, she spent nearly a decade teaching third grade, a couple of years as a Literacy Coach, and then was reluctantly cast into the role of Interim Assistant Principal when the former assistant principal was let go.
My friend was also a cheerleader coach, E.L.L. Coordinator, and an unofficial ambassador to the parents of her school's community. She was a favorite mentor teacher to new staff members and had been in the same building since joining the district.
It would seem the right person has been placed in the right seat of the right bus, and it is headed in the right direction down the proverbial highway.
Elise and I recently talked on the phone, catching up on all the family matters that friends of two decades have to share. Then she opened her heart and asked her big question: "Will you please help me to know more about Special Education so I can make it better for ALL of our students and families?"
My response? "Well….ch'a!"
So What Are the Basics Administrators Need to Be Aware Of?
Principals and assistant principals have an important role in implementing IEP placement decisions
Keep in mind that Individualized Education Programs drive the program of learning for students with special needs. The IEP identifies the student's individualized goals, services, accommodations, supports, and other requirements that school personnel must implement. That said, students who receive appropriate support from educators, administrators, and home can be placed in the general education setting IF they have appropriate support.
Under IDEA, the starting presumption is that a student is educated alongside non-disabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate. That standard is the Least Restrictive Environment, and it governs how the placement decision gets made rather than naming one of the options. It is the responsibility of the IEP Team, comprised of parents, educators, special educators, etc., to decide whether a more restrictive setting is warranted based on the specific needs of the student.
Building administrators are responsible for fostering collaboration between special educators and general educators
Service minutes only work if the schedule protects them. Students have to move between classes and programs across the building, and the release times that make that possible are agreed to by teachers and, in practice, managed by teachers. Administrators own it the moment it stops working, which is also the moment nobody wants to raise it.
Ensuring peer-to-peer conflicts between teachers are appropriately resolved - now that is most certainly the job of the administrator. Everyone should feel as though their perspectives have been heard and considered carefully.
The same goes for the conditions that make collaboration possible at all. Special educators need planning time that survives contact with the calendar, clarity on who is responsible for what during co-teaching and testing, and IEP timelines that everyone reads the same way. When a special educator has to chase down answers to those questions, the time comes out of instruction.
Building administrators are responsible for providing support when behavior issues arise
Many special education and general education teachers have confided that their administrators tend to turn a "blind eye" toward assisting in the calming or cooling down process of students who are in a serious melt-down mode. In my own conversations with teachers, the same complaint comes up again and again: their administrators seem to be in meetings or otherwise unavailable during times of crisis.
Several administrators have shared with me that they are not given enough budget money to provide dedicated personnel to hire and train aides to act as intercessors.
One brave administrator shared that when a student's IEP indicates a 1:1 is to be with a particular student, oftentimes the district simply will not hire the required personnel. It is their position that they don't have the funds to allocate. If a student's IEP states the need for a 1:1, that service is owed, and budget pressure is not a lawful reason to leave it unimplemented. Parents who hear ‘no' can pursue due process under IDEA. If the TEAM concludes an aide is no longer necessary, the route is to revise or amend the IEP through the required process, not to quietly stop providing the service.
Special needs students are part of the school's population, so they belong in all programming
Too many times, special ed teachers are told that a particular assembly would be "Just too much for your class." Um, no. Special ed students belong at the events their school runs.
Granted, there may be too much noise or other sensory-related issues which may trigger a particular child. In cases like these, a decision is made appropriate to that specific child. The standard is equal opportunity to take part in nonacademic and extracurricular activities with individualized supports as appropriate, which still leaves room for legitimate, nondiscriminatory requirements that would apply to any student.
However, to exclude all special needs students from the OPTION of attendance is not the right thing to do by anybody. More than once, I have witnessed administrators telling special education teachers that their classes are not eligible to attend a field trip. Nope. To flat out say no is just not acceptable.
Many administrators have had little training in special education law
In some cases, principals have not attended IEP meetings nor do they understand the legal implications of not following the IEP.
The obligation to implement an IEP belongs to the school and the district, not to one person. What the building administrator controls is whether staffing, scheduling, and resources make implementation possible, which is most of what determines the outcome. If a plan calls for a 1:1 aide, a specific accommodation, or a set number of service minutes and the student doesn't get them, that is a failure the school has to account for. Which is a good argument for keeping a record that every teacher working with a student has actually read that student's IEP. "I didn't know what was in his plan" is not a defense anybody wants to offer.
Principals need to dig in, get their hands dirty. They should start engaging with special education teachers, the district special education directors, and seek out training opportunities.
Need a place to start? Read the Procedural Safeguards section of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.
Administrators could also connect with a special education teacher in their building and ask to walk through an IEP. Becoming familiar with the document, understanding that goals are specific for each student and that they drive instruction, could be very eye-opening for uninformed administrators.
If you're a teacher looking to engage your principal in the process, ask for administrative input while writing a student's Behavior Intervention Plan.
When administration sees exactly how much time goes into addressing behavioral goals, tracking progress, and what all goes into writing a Behavior Intervention Plan, everyone involved is more fully empowered to create a supportive environment for meeting academic and behavior goals.
Families of students with disabilities know the principal, not the district
Parents rarely meet the district special education director. They meet the principal, and they read that person as the school's answer on whether their child is welcome. A principal who has met a family before the first difficult IEP meeting is starting that meeting from a different place than one who hasn't.
What a Teacher Can Do to Bring an Administrator Up to Speed
Invite your administrator to shadow you for a day. Yes, for a day
Encourage your administrator to engage with your classroom for an entire day. While this could be a scheduling challenge for them, their eyes will be opened to the many intricacies a day brings to the average special education classroom.
Set up a teaching station/small group scenario that allows the administrator to be a guest teacher in your class. What a great way to build team spirit and understanding between staff and administration!
Be the Researcher
Prepare a packet of basic information you believe would be helpful to an administrator. On more than one occasion, I have done this. DO be sure that the articles you present are informative, interesting, and when you present them, do so from a perspective of, "I found this interesting and insightful. I thought maybe you might, too."
If you have a student with a disability that is uncommon or new to you, present the administration with information so you're both in the know.
Taking the job means taking responsibility. Taking responsibility means taking action. That is also a fair description of what it means to be a good teacher-leader, whatever your job title happens to be.
The Question Elise Keeps Coming Back To
My friend Elise openly admits that she works with a limited thread of information. She owns that she relies on the knowledge of the special education teachers, but questions whether they always know the right answer.
The issue of not being familiar with handling issues related to kids with IEPs goes both ways…
One of Elise's biggest concerns is that she takes the appropriate action for kids with IEPs in the event there is a discipline issue. Say, for example, she needs to suspend a child for vandalism. The district Code of Conduct indicates a five-day suspension is an appropriate punishment for this behavior. But she ends up feeling conflicted if she isn't able to enforce the rule, wondering if she's making the best decision for a middle school-aged student who has been given repeated opportunities to correct the behavior, and whose IEP is for speech/language only, and who shows no remorse for their actions.
Here is the part Elise needed, and it is more tangled than a single number. IDEA's discipline provisions turn on whether a removal amounts to a change of placement. That includes a removal of more than 10 consecutive school days, and it can also include a pattern of shorter removals, which is why cumulative days across a school year matter and not just the length of any one suspension. Once a student has been removed for more than 10 school days in the same school year, the district also picks up obligations to keep providing services.
Where a removal does constitute a change of placement, the IEP team must conduct a manifestation determination review. The question is whether the conduct was caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the student's disability, or whether it resulted from the school's failure to implement the IEP. That is an individualized determination made on the facts of the situation, and a student's disability category does not answer it in advance. If the answer is yes, the response moves toward a behavior plan rather than punishment.
None of which tells Elise whether her five-day suspension is the right call. IDEA is one layer. State discipline law, her district's policy, and this particular student's circumstances all sit on top of it. What she needed was not permission but a clear view of which questions get answered first, and who has to answer them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a principal decide a student's placement?
No. Placement is an IEP team decision, and the team includes the parents. A principal or assistant principal is responsible for carrying out that decision, for making sure the schedule and staffing support it, and for answering when it isn't followed. Overriding the team unilaterally is not one of the options.
How much special education law does a building administrator actually need to know?
Enough to recognize when a decision has legal weight. The Procedural Safeguards section of IDEA is the practical starting point, along with the discipline provisions and the basics of the Least Restrictive Environment standard. Administrator preparation and licensure standards differ by state, and some administrators enter the role with limited preparation in special education law. That is the gap this article is about.
Can a student with an IEP be suspended?
Yes, though the analysis runs deeper than a day count. Under IDEA, what matters is whether a removal constitutes a change of placement, which includes removals of more than 10 consecutive school days and can include patterns of shorter removals. Where it does, the IEP team must conduct a manifestation determination review. Cumulative removals across a school year, state discipline law, and district policy all bear on the decision.
What happens if the district won't fund a 1:1 aide the IEP requires?
An IEP is a legally binding document, so a service written into it is owed to the student regardless of the budget conversation happening above the building. Parents who are told no can pursue due process under IDEA. If the IEP team concludes the aide is no longer necessary, that is a different situation, and it gets handled by revising or amending the IEP through the required process rather than by dropping the service.
What is the fastest way for a teacher to bring a principal up to speed?
Ask for their input on a Behavior Intervention Plan, or invite them to spend a full day in the classroom. Both put the administrator inside the work rather than adjacent to it, and both tend to change how the next IEP meeting goes.
- Placement belongs to the team - The IEP team determines placement against IDEA's Least Restrictive Environment standard, and school and district personnel are responsible for implementing it.
- Discipline turns on change of placement - A manifestation determination review is required where a removal constitutes a change of placement, and cumulative removals, patterns of shorter removals, and state and district discipline rules all factor in.
- Exclusion is not a scheduling decision - Students with disabilities must have equal opportunity to take part in nonacademic and extracurricular activities, with individualized supports, rather than being ruled out as a class.
- Implementation is a school and district obligation - The school and district are responsible for implementing an IEP, and the administrator's role is making sure staffing, scheduling, and resources allow it.
- Preparation varies by state - Some administrators enter the role with limited preparation in special education law, and reading IDEA's Procedural Safeguards or walking a real IEP with a special educator closes part of that gap.
Administrators who want to stop learning special education law by accident usually need something more structured than a walkthrough with a colleague. The sponsored programs on this page include educational leadership and special education degrees built for people already working in schools, several of them online and part-time.
- The Pros and Cons of Being a Principal: An Honest Look - July 29, 2021
- Special Needs Prom: How One Student Led His School’s Grand March - April 20, 2021
- Behavior Management Training for Teachers: What to Ask For - October 9, 2020
