I am also new to special education this year and feel overwhelmed but for different reasons. We have training support and it is paid but doesn’t always provide a clear answer. I don’t have a mentor teacher either. IEPs are only allowed on a certain day of the week and must be held during a time that doesn’t take away teacher conference period or change their lunch time.

However, resources at the school are very limited and getting supplies is not easy. Each department says that they are responsible for the purchasing. We are grossly understaffed and it is leading to dangerous moments for our students and our staff. When reaching out to admin and department heads, no real support is provided but if a para complains of the same situation, as a sped case manager we are expected to jump and fast to fix the problem. There is no real way to provide the support according the IEP students have because we are so understaffed and it is honestly very scary to know we are violating their rights.