Are you a SPED inclusion teacher (or SPED resource teacher) and wondering what are SPED teacher must haves for a successful school year?! Our jobs go beyond planning and creating teaching materials! We need resources to help gather present levels from gen ed teachers, tools to help keep us organized with all the paperwork, and ways to stay afloat with all the IEP caseload management tasks. I hope to provide you with a list of essential SPED teacher items for a great school year ahead.
Hold up one sec—IEP forms and checklist to do lists are all wonderful things, but the key to truly staying organized and being and feeling your best comes down to one thing–being nourished. Are you a nourished teacher? Taking care of yourself and filing your cup up is the key to staying motivated, healthy, and thriving all school year long. If you’d like to get the Nourished Daily Planner sent directly to your inbox, click here. It allows your to write down what your are grateful for, your prayers or hopes for the day, what book or podcast you’ll listen to for personal development, your workout plan, water intake, meal planning, and of course a spot for your to-do list and schedule. The Nourished Daily Planner is a printable PDF that you can print daily to reflect on and stay nourished with!
What I’ve Learned
My hope with this blog post is to share what I’ve learned over my past 11 years of being a SPED Resource Teacher for elementary and middle school students. It’s taken me that long to fill my toolbox and create systems that help keep me organized and use my time efficiently. The first tool I created for myself was the General Education IEP Input Form. With all the IEPs I had to write, that was a gap I needed filled immediately!
After that was created, I focused on making IEP Checklists for different types of IEP meetings–Annual, Initial, Triennial, and Interim. Each type of meeting required a few different steps along the process. And with holding IEP meetings for over 40 students, I needed a way to keep track where I was along the process for each student. This really helped me maximize my time!
The next IEP management tools I created were based on a need that I found while working in the middle school setting. I needed an efficient way to track student attendance for SPED services, a student interest inventory, a student transition questionnaire, and an IEP summary sheet to share important IEP info with gen ed teachers.
I realized along the way that always having a printable PDF version and Google Form version allowed me to get all the pertinent info I needed in a timely manner. Hey, some teachers like to fill out forms with a pen and others prefer to fill them out on the computer. Give the gen ed teacher what they want!
Must Have #1-General Education IEP Input Form
I’ve already written a whole blog post on the importance of an IEP Input Form for GE Teachers in all grade levels linked here. IEP Input Forms are going to vary on need between Elementary School and Middle School/High School. Since elementary school students with IEP’s typically have one main teacher, the IEP Input Form should include all areas, so you just need to give them one to fill out. The areas should include: strengths, learning preferences, interests, present levels in all academic areas, communication skills, behavior, vocational skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, supports that are working in the classroom, recommendations moving forward, modifications that might be needed, and of course areas of concern, so you can help address that in the future IEP.
Elementary SPED Teachers–you have it easy! Typically elementary students just have one main GE teacher that you need to get all academic and behavior info from. This is the easiest GE IEP Input Form to send their way–either PDF or Google Form!
Middle School and High School SPED Teachers–I’m talking to you now! You guys have way more teachers that you need to gather info from. So work harder not smarter. Here’s my game plan for you:
-Send or give to each students’ ELA teacher– Reading and Writing IEP Input Form
-Send or give to each students’ Math teacher– Math IEP Input Form
-Send or give to all of their teachers– Pre-Vocational Communication, and Behavior IEP Input Form
Even if all the teachers don’t respond to you (sigh–it always happens), you will have so much more info than you did before!
Always ask for it back by a certain date and send reminders again a day or two before you want it back. You have permission to be a little bit annoying!
Must Have #2-Attendance Log
Taking attendance of your SPED services is a must! You never know when the SPED Department might be audited or a parent will ask about services. Keeping a quick log will make it easy for you to know how many sessions need to be made up. Or it will help you know why a certain sutdent isn’t making progress–maybe they have been absent for 20 SAI sessions this semester (it’s happened to me!).
I love a simple attendance log that each student can have a page front and back for the whole school year. I like using simple letter codes to explain why a service was missed–weather related, statewide testing, assembly, etc.
Keeping attendance is easy and simple with this PDF Attendance Service Log.
Must Have #3– Student Interest Inventory
Why is having a student interest inventory important? First, you get to know your students quicker! It’s also a great way to gear simple lessons towards their interests to hopefully improve student engagement. You can also add the information from the student interest inventory in their annual IEP in the Strenghts, Preferences, and Interests section!
The Student Interest Inventory in the Sped Teacher Must Haves is geared for students 3rd and up to fill out independently (depending on their reading skills). But it can still be used with Kinder-2nd in a one-on-one setting. Teachers can verbally ask the younger students the same questions and fill in the answers for their reference at a later time. It’s super easy!
I also like having a Google Form and PDF printable Interest Inventory–having options allows for more opportunities of it getting filled out!
Must Have #4– IEP Checklists for the IEP Process
IEP Checklists were a game changer for me! I literally hd over 40 students each school year on my caseload that needed their IEP meeting held. Some were annuals, some were triennials, the beginning of the year was always filled with Interims, and of course there were many Initials sprinkled in. Annuals, Triennials, Initials, and Interim IEP meetings have many things in common that are required. However, there are significant differences to each as well.
I don’t know about you, but before using an IEP Checklists, I was getting lost in the sea of IEPs and which tasks were required. I had sent a Meeting Notice home for the Billy’s annual, but still hadn’t sent the GE IEP Input Form for Ann’s Triennial.
Pro tip–Print out a checklist for each student. Write their IEP Meeting date down, their GE teacher(s), and any other important notes you need to remember. Then staple it to a folder, file it on your desk, and check off when each step is done! Your brain will thank you 🙂
Must Have #5– Editable IEP Summary Sheet
An editable IEP Summary Sheet for after the meeting was something I came up with while working in the middle school setting. Not all of the student’s GE teachers could come to their IEP meeting and I didn’t see them all time to communicate what happened at the meeting. So once the IEP was affirmed. I typed up a summary sheet and stapled it to the IEP or IEP at a Glance.
You’re probably wondering why the IEP or IEP at a Glance doesn’t work? Sometimes information on full IEPs is hard to find for a Gen Ed Teacher who doesn’t read IEPs on a normal basis. On the other hand, some IEP’s at-a-glance share too much or too little pertinent information about the student. You can use this simple summary sheet to bullet point key information in a clear, concise, and organized way. Simply staple it the IEP or IEP at-a-glance, so that GE teachers still receive the official document!
I hope what I have learned over the years has been helpful for you. These are tried and true consistent must-haves that I used in both the Elementary and Middle School settings. If you desire a cohesive set of resources to help you with your IEP writing, visit my TPT store where you can find Elementary School SPED TEACHER MUST HAVES Bundle and Middle School and High School SPED TEACHER MUST HAVES Bundle. Investing the time to make or investing the money for a one time purchase of resources that you will use many times each school is well worth the invesment, in my opinion! I encourage you to start making systems within your IEP writing to ease stress, worry, and frustration.
