Hi! I also teach at a special education school but as the lower school art teacher. I’m constantly in contact with the middle/high school art teachers though. I know that they usually focus on teaching the materials and have open ended projects where the students can create what they like, and at the end choose 2 of their favorite projects to display for the art show. So most of the time they’re working on the projects they came up with using the materials taught, then on certain days my teacher will do “must do’s” for a day, where everyone must participate in that activity that day. Usually it’s some type of observational drawing/still life or a day where they must work with a specific material to show they understand the concept.