5 Ways for Parents to Help Out a Special Education Teacher

Being a special education teacher is one of the hardest jobs you can think of. While it may not be physically demanding, the emotional and mental toll it takes on teachers can be incredibly difficult to bear. Often times special education teachers can become jaded after years of dealing with difficult parents, and even more difficult children.

The amount of parent participation in special education classrooms is typically pretty low because there just aren’t that many parents to pool from. In addition to this, special education classrooms are often small and disconnected from the rest of the school’s supply of materials. This means special education teachers are left to supply their own materials out of their own pockets in many cases.

One of the best ways you can ensure your special education child is receiving the best possible care he or she can, is to help support their teachers in any way possible. Here are 5 ways you can help out your child’s special education teacher and let them know you are grateful for their service.

1. Volunteer to be a Room Parent

This basically means you would volunteer to help oversee the classroom for the teacher when they need someone to do so. This allows the teacher to bring children to school wide events and other functions that they can’t attend if they don’t have someone back in the classroom to oversee the other children. Oftentimes the parents of special education children are already stretched thin and unable to volunteer so any effort to volunteer is greatly appreciated by teachers.

2. Help Out With Supplies

For whatever reason, special education children tend to go through your typical classroom supplies like tissues, hand sanitizer, and wipes much faster than other children. These things are not provided by the school usually and teachers have to pay out of pocket for them. It could help out more than you know if you just ask your child’s teacher if they are running low on anything, and volunteer to drop off some stuff every once in awhile. The morale boosts provided by this is often worth more than the supplies themselves.

3. Join the PTA

This is one of the biggest ways you can help out your special education teacher. By joining a parent teacher organization, you can actively volley for extra funds and activities to be provided for your special education child.

4. Don’t Forget to Communicate

Over communication can be frustrating, but special education teachers rarely suffer from this problem. Make it a point to get in touch with your child’s teacher whenever you can and ask how things are going in the classroom. It helps them to know that people care about what they do, and the better they feel, the better they will teach your child.

5. Go the Extra Mile

Let them know they are appreciated. Say thank you to all the special education teachers at your child’s school. National teacher appreciation week occurs every year in May but most special education teachers are left out. Send your child’s teacher a thank you card or other gift once a year to let them know they are greatly appreciated.

In Conclusion

Being a special education teacher is hard, if you want to make sure your child is receiving the best care possible from his or her teachers, you should make it a point to reach out to them and thank them for their services as well as assist them in any way you can. You will see a difference in the quality of care your child receives as a result.