Lehigh University EDL 439

Final
Reflection
Supervisor of Special Education Internship

Carolyn Staffieri
 People have always said that teaching takes a special person, and that being
a special education teacher takes this and a whole lot of patience. As a former
emotional support teacher, I knew this to be fact. However, now that I have crossed
the bridge to school leadership, I think this adage also holds true; being an
administrator takes a special person. School leadership is an amazing, daunting,
fast-paced, time-crunched, rewarding, stressful, collaborative and isolating calling.
The juxtaposition of these adjectives shows that being an administrator, whether at
the building or district level, is a roller coaster of a ride. Again, I believe this rings
truer for being a special education administrator because of the nature of the work
we do. Upon entering my internship for supervision of special education, I was
excited, nervous, overwhelmed, and grateful to be there. Special education is a field
that I know and a field that I am good in. This field is not easy for some to
understand but it makes sense to me. This field and the work that I have done and
the work I will do/am doing, is my calling. Now, as I write my final reflection, those
feelings from the beginning may remain, but they come with different reasons and a
deeper understanding of what it takes to run a district department.

As I look back on my internship from the start of the school year until now, I
am extremely pleased with the growth I have made and proud of my
accomplishments. I can handle difficult meetings and can make difficult decisions
while feeling assured that I could be a valuable part of any students IEP team, no
matter the disability. I know what to do when parents are irate and yelling at me
with the threat of litigation. I have a greater understanding of the application of
special education law and have learned when to say no to parents based upon the
parameters of the law. I continue to be an influence for professional development
across all grade levels as is evidenced by the monthly special education meetings,
the knowledge I possess about supporting students with challenging behaviors, and
as a resource for teachers and administrators when they have questions about the
special education process. Additionally, a good leader is consistent, knowledgeable,
a good communicator, collaborative, student & person centered, should have skills
for team building, as well as have integrity and honesty. As I do a self-assessment
on all these qualities, I feel confident, and proud, that I either a) already have these
skills, or b) am well on my way to learning and refining these skills. I have been told,
and I believe, that I possess the soft skills that are difficult to learn. Abilities such as

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reading people, building relationships with teachers and parents, having respectful
discourse even when I dont see eye to eye with others, come naturally to me,
which helps create positive cultures. I can read people well and be knowledgeable
about their strengths and needs as well as the best approach for providing feedback
and guidance. I use this to help motivate others, properly staff special education
programs, build skill sets and improve practice, whether it be in supporting students
with challenging behaviors or providing instruction that targets cognitive and
social/emotional engagement. I have also grown in my comfort level in planning and
collaborating for students that have low-incidence disabilities, particularly students
that have multiple disabilities. I have reviewed transportation plans, medical plans,
and feeding plans and have been part of the teams that created them. I have grown
in my knowledge of the secondary world concerning credit earning, graduation
requirements, and overall planning for high school students (e.g., transition plans,
homebound instruction, completing attendance improvement plans, coordinating
community wrap-around services and recommending the SAP process). Finally,
while I am detail oriented and solution focused, I also know how to seek guidance
when appropriate. I have made a conscious effort to tell others when I am not sure
of an answer or how to do something. I believe this humanizes me rather than
making me look incompetent or incapable. These areas of strength help me to see
myself not as an intern trying to keep up, but rather as a Supervisor of Special
Education.

While I can certainly identify the strengths I have gained during this
experience, I would be remiss to think there are not skills and content knowledge
that need to be further developed. As I had reported in my Individual Learning Plan,
budget management and finance, human resource management, particularly in
regards to the hiring process, and knowledge of curricular materials outside of
grades K through 5, are areas where I have little to no experience. During my
internship, I participated in some of our budgetary activities, such as the Act 16
report, reviewing our spending for IU services and private providers, as well as
reviewing staffing requests from buildings against other necessary costs. While
these activities helped me to feel more capable in allocating resources and more
aware of how to be fiscally responsible, I do not have a macro understanding of
spending and could not create a budget on my own. Therefore, I would like to have

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further knowledge of and exposure to budget planning and processes. Additionally,
I would like more experience in working with building administrative teams to define
educational spaces for special education programs and ensure they are following
accessibility requirements. QCSD still has pockets of the your students/those
students versus the our students mentality that has plagued special education
since its inception. Some of our buildings have entire sections that house special
education classrooms rather than spreading them throughout the building. For
students at the secondary level, this is particularly stigmatizing and anxiety
provoking. I would also like to have further experience with the hiring process. For
too long, the hire of new special education teachers and staff has been left to
building administrators that may not examine a candidate through the same lens as
a special education administrator would. At times, this has led to new staff that
struggle with the district expectations for special education teachers and aides. I
enjoyed the interviews that I was a part of and feel like further experience in this
area would strengthen our special education team by making sure to have the right
people in the right positions. Finally, my knowledge of secondary content instruction
and curricula needs further development. I am still unfamiliar with our replacement
curricula and how students are recommended for and then placed in those classes. I
would also like to learn how to select and evaluate curricula at the secondary level
and learn more about how teachers implement the materials in co-taught and
replacement classes.

Along with the goals that I did not accomplish came some pitfalls that led to
surprises, challenges and frustrations. The most notable of these was individual
building teams seeming to not understand, or be incapable of, applying special
education laws and regulations. Despite the special education administrative team
and I, along with our district attorney, providing professional development about
basic legal procedures, building teams were unable to implement these procedures
and employ their training when it was needed. I repeatedly helped principals and
teachers try to understand the process of pre-referral intervention, data collection,
implementing interventions with fidelity, calling in consultants and screening for
services, before evaluating for special education. This was a message that
sometimes feel on deaf ears, as principals and teachers were focused on special
education, particularly placement in another school, being the only solution. We also

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needed to help them understand that when our department asks their teams to
implement interventions with fidelity in the least restrictive environment (i.e., their
school), we are not just being difficult or trying to save money by not sending this
kid somewhere else. In fact, it is our department asking them to follow the law in
ensuring that every student receives FAPE and that we have tried all other
measures before considering a more restrictive placement. I was surprised at how
many district administrators had difficulty understanding these messages and it
opened my eyes to the unique challenges faced by special education
administrators. I was also surprised at how often principals and former colleagues
questioned my decision-making by either trying to convince me of their viewpoint,
or by asking the same questions of the Director of Pupil Services and Supervisor of
Special Education with the hopes of getting a different answer. While I am not one
that will try to exert my authority because of some title behind my name, it is
apparent that being an administrator/educational leader is synonymous with
decision-maker. I do know the importance of having others respect my position and
the decisions that I will make. While I do not proclaim to know everything there is to
know about education, others should see me as a reliable source of information and
someone who can answer their questions, particularly when my knowledge base
and experience with special education far exceeds theirs. Perhaps others see me as
a leader more than I think, and perhaps these few examples are not enough to
characterize how I am viewed moving forward. However, the pushback from
buildings was frustrating, and sometimes led to costly legal implications for the
district. The final surprise was how often principals and teachers (regular education
and special education teachers alike) used time spent with the special education
administrative team to jockey for resources. Every time we stepped foot in a
building, time was spent trying to convince us of how bad it really is with the
hopes that we would either throw more resources (i.e., people) at the problem or
move the problem to another building. They seemed to think that we do not
understand the needs of the district because we are not in their building every day.
However, it is not we that have a problem viewing the needs of the district; we see
the needs for all 10 buildings, every IU classroom, every out of district placement,
and all 800+ special education students quite clearly.

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 As I mentioned earlier, this experience has positively opened my eyes to the
unique challenges faced by special education administrators. I knew the role of
being a supervisor meant many meetings, a full email inbox every day, and a lot of
coordinating services with other professionals. However, I could have never
anticipated how much time all those responsibilities would take. In essence, the job
never turns off. I also could have never anticipated how many emergencies and
barriers would get in the way of completing my daily to do list. As one of the special
education administrators put it, Its like playing whack-a-mole every day!
Additionally, this experience has shown me the value of patience and planting seeds
to do what I know to be right, in the face of those that think it is wrong. The
disbelievers could be parents that want to challenge my expertise and push a
decision that is not in the best educational interest of their child. They could also be
building principals and teachers that are trying to do the same thing. An
oppositional force might also be a school board that makes financial and
programmatic decisions that restrict funding and tie my hands to make the
necessary changes. After this experience, I see three major forces at play: the law,
the budget and the politics. Therefore, while the job is about providing special
services and overseeing the quality of the programs, these forces often dictate
where your time as an administrator is spent. As illustrated in my cumulative log of
hours, the majority of my internship was spent engaged in special services (almost
238 hours) which entailed meetings and securing services as well as making
placement decisions and working to ease parent frustrations. Other responsibilities
included working with out of district placements as well as completing state
compliance activities. I was surprised at how little time I spent in classrooms, not
because I did not want to, but because I did not have the time to. With over 850
students in our district that receive some sort of special education, there is little
time left to give special education teachers feedback to ensure the quality of our
programs and services. I feel as though we are being somewhat reactive as we deal
with upset parents and due process complaints rather than having a classroom
presence to prevent problems from happening. I hope we as a department can
change our focus within the coming years, and serve our teachers as well as we
serve our students.

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 Despite all of the changed views, pitfalls, frustrations, unaccomplished goals
and challenges, my career goals have not changed one bit! Being a Supervisor of
Special Education is most certainly the job for me, and one that I cannot wait to
have. This internship has been of the utmost value and importance to my
educational career since I have grown in so many ways that I could have never
anticipated at the start of this journey. I am blessed to be a part of a wonderful
team, where I truly feel like a third voice who offers valuable input rather than a
third wheel who is scrambling to keep up. For this reason, I would like to be part of
an administrative team that engages in shared decision-making and supports each
other during times of frustration. At the beginning of my internship, I thought that
being an Elementary Supervisor of Special Education is where I wanted to go.
However, I questioned whether I knew enough about the secondary world to make
that decision. I still think I like the idea of being an elementary supervisor, since that
is where I am most comfortable and where my skill set is strongest, but the
secondary world is no longer an alien planet. I am more familiar and comfortable
with the facets of middle school and high school. I understand the importance of
earing credits and scheduling and have tracked seniors progress toward
graduation. I have grown tremendously in my capacity to participate in IEP
meetings for high school aged students and more completely understand the
components of a solid transition plan, something I had never even before seen. I
also see the parallels between both worlds. High school students need visual cues,
checks for understanding, prompts to remain focused, flexible grouping, clear
expectations and positive reinforcement just like an elementary-aged student.
However, high school students are sometimes more complicated. I believe in early
intervention. I believe we need to address/correct problems earlier before they
become engrained patterns of behavior and ways of thinking. With the countdown
to graduation, or reaching the maximum age of attendance, there does not seem to
be as many options at the high school level if students have not learned important
life skills. Therefore, we are sometimes forced to put Band-Aids on problems rather
than having the time for long-term fixes. I still question whether I would best serve a
school district, whether it be this one or not, by staying at the elementary level and
making improvements. Is it better to focus on one thing and make it a model
program, rather than be split among many buildings and many levels? While being
a K through 12 supervisor, or secondary supervisor, would not be my first choice, it

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is definitely on the table as a choice. I am thankful that this internship has given me
the knowledge base and experience to know that whatever choice I make will be the
right choice for my future as a special education administrator.

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