Two Jobs, One Title: What Special Education Teachers Really Do

I didn’t come to this realization from theory.

I came to it from lived experience.

Over the last decade, I’ve taught and case managed in three different states. I completed my own credential programs believing—like many of us do—that I was being prepared for the realities of the role.

I wasn’t.

Neither my credential program nor any of the districts I’ve worked for invested in meaningful tools, systems, or training for case management. Teaching? Yes. Curriculum? Yes. Compliance expectations? Absolutely.

But how to actually manage a caseload of students with IEPs—proactively, compliantly, and sustainably? That part was left to chance.

And when I talk with special education teachers across the country, including many close friends in the field, I hear the same story again and again.

In all three states, I was responsible for both full-time teaching and full-time case management. In most roles, I taught the same number of classes as my general education colleagues—while also carrying the legal, organizational, and coordination responsibilities that came with managing IEPs.

(And yes—there are some states and districts that treat teaching and case management as separate roles. For those educators: you are incredibly lucky.)

Everything I know now has been learned by trial and fire—by making mistakes, by fixing them, by diving deep into IDEA and state-specific policies on my own time, and by being deeply grateful for the strong relationships I had with families who extended grace when things weren’t perfect.

Those experiences shaped how I see this work.

We Train Teachers—Not Case Managers

In most preparation programs, special education teachers complete the same core coursework as general education teachers. We become content-area experts. We learn lesson planning, classroom management, instructional strategies, and assessment basics.

Then, almost as an aside, we’re introduced to special education law. We might learn how to administer or interpret a standardized assessment. We skim the surface of IDEA. Maybe we write a mock IEP or two.

What we don’t learn—at least not in any meaningful, practical way—is how to effectively and compliantly manage a caseload of students with IEPs.

No one teaches us how to:

• Manage timelines across multiple students and grade levels

• Coordinate service delivery across providers

• Ensure accommodations are implemented with fidelity

• Collect, organize, and use data in a way that actually supports students and teachers

• Lead an IEP team when you don’t supervise most of the people at the table

• Document implementation in a way that stands up to scrutiny

And yet, that’s the job.

Your First Year Reality Check

You land your first job. You’re excited. You’re ready.

And then you realize that being a special education teacher often means doing everything a general education teacher does plus full-scale case management.

It’s two jobs in one.

Teaching is visible. Case management is invisible—until something goes wrong.

So what happens? The thing no one went into teaching to do—the paperwork, the tracking, the documentation—becomes the weak link. Not because teachers don’t care, but because no one showed them how to do it well, efficiently, and within the realities of a school day.

The Hard Truth No One Says Out Loud

After years in the classroom, I stepped into advocacy work, alongside teaching, supporting families across several more states. I expected differences in systems, paperwork, and processes.

What I didn’t expect was how familiar the patterns would feel.

Across districts and states, I see the same issues surface again and again:

• Teams coming into meetings without hard data

• Case managers unable to clearly explain how programming was being implemented

• IEP drafts with limited, vague, or generic information

• Goals written without meaningful progress monitoring

• Parent questions met with uncertainty—not because staff didn’t care, but because they didn’t have the information in front of them

And here’s what stood out most:

It wasn’t the day-to-day teaching that led families to seek my support as an advocate.

It was almost always the breakdowns in case management.

Here’s the part we need to be honest about:

It’s not usually instruction that lands educators, schools and districts in a courtroom.

It’s case management.

• IEPs that are poorly written

• Meetings held late—or not at all

• Services documented inconsistently

• Goals without data

• Accommodations listed but not implemented

• Parent concerns acknowledged verbally but never documented

When there’s no paper trail, no data, and no evidence of implementation, good intentions don’t matter.

Compliance becomes the issue—not because teachers are careless, but because they were never trained to manage this side of the role.

Case Management Is Not “Extra”—It Is the Job

Case management isn’t busywork. It isn’t administrative fluff. It is the structure that holds a student’s program together.

Strong case management:

• Protects students’ access to services

• Ensures continuity across staff and settings

• Builds trust with families

• Gives teams clarity about who is responsible for what

• Protects educators when questions are raised

When case management is weak, programming suffers—even when instruction is strong.

This Is a Systems Problem, Not a Teacher Problem

We cannot keep pretending this is an individual failure.

Special education teachers are being asked to perform a complex legal, organizational, and leadership role with minimal preparation and even less ongoing support.

Then we wonder why burnout is high.

We wonder why IEPs feel reactive instead of intentional.

We wonder why talented teachers leave.

What If We Did This Differently?

What if we treated case management as a professional skill set—one that deserves explicit training, practical tools, and mentorship?

What if new special education teachers were taught:

• How to manage a caseload proactively

• How to write IEPs that are clear, defensible, and student-centered

• How to document in ways that support implementation, not just compliance

• How to lead teams without carrying everything alone

What if we stopped expecting teachers to figure this out through mistakes that carry real consequences?

Walking With Teachers—Not Just Holding Them Accountable

Special education teachers don’t need more judgment. They need better preparation and ongoing support.

When we strengthen case management, we strengthen outcomes for students and sustainability for educators.

And maybe—just maybe—we stop asking people to do two full-time jobs under one title and calling it normal.

If you’re a special education teacher who feels this tension, you’re not failing. You’re seeing the gap.

And that awareness is the first step toward doing this work differently.

If This Sounds Familiar

If you’re a special education teacher or case manager reading this and quietly nodding along, I want to pause here.

What you’re experiencing isn’t a personal shortcoming. It’s not a lack of care, skill, or commitment. Many capable, dedicated educators are learning the case management side of this role the same way—through trial and error, pressure, and responsibility that far exceeds the preparation they were given.

If parts of this resonated, it’s because this experience is shared far more widely than anyone admits out loud.

If it feels helpful, you’re welcome to reach out by email and share what this role has required of you. There’s no expectation and nothing to prove. Sometimes being witnessed is enough.

And if you’d like to stay connected, my mailing list is simply a place where these realities are named honestly and where practical insight is shared with respect for how complex this work really is.

You are not behind. You are not failing.

You are doing a hard job that was never meant to be done alone.