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Center for Parent Information and Resources

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Disability & Special Education Acronyms - Center for Parent Information and Resources

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Your Central Hub for Parent Centers Serving Families of Children With Disabilities

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Inclusion - This setting is where an EC teacher is paired with a Regular Education teacher in a Regular Education classroom. Both the Regular Education Teacher and the EC Teacher can provide instruction on content, with the EC teacher implementing the goals/benchmarks of the IEP  for the EC student. Both Regular Education teacher and EC Teacher can provide modifications and accommodations - this should be defined as such in the IEP. The frequency and duration of inclusion services should be indicated on the IEP and documented regularly in some way.

Resource - This setting is where the EC student is removed from the regular classroom and receives direct instruction on his/her specific IEP goals/benchmarks in the special education classroom with the special education teacher.  This setting removes the EC student from non-disabled peers. The frequency and duration of EC services should be indicated on the IEP for each area where a student has a goal (reading, writing, math, social/emotional, behavioral, functional). There is no minimum or maximum amount of time required to receive instruction in this setting.

Self-Contained - This setting is where the EC student is removed from the regular classroom and receives direct instruction on his/her specific IEP goals/benchmarks in the special education classroom for the majority of the school day. This setting is very restrictive, in that the EC student has limited interactions with non-disabled peers - usually lunch, recess, and special/wheel/extension classes. This EC student may also be following a different course of study such as the Extended Content Standards, but not always.

Sometimes a school district will have specialized self-contained classrooms to support a specific type of learner. These could be classrooms that focus on the needs of students with specific behaviors, or students with autism.

Public Separate - This setting is where the EC student is removed from a traditional school setting, and is instead in a public school setting only for students with disabilities. An example of this type of setting would be the Metro School in CMS and Conover School in Catawba County. It is usually reserved  for students with the most severe disabilities who need specific support that may not be readily available at a traditional school (such as significant medical needs that require nursing staff, OT/PT supports for student independence, etc.).

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What types of goals are in an IEP?

The IEP should include both academic and functional goals (if needed). These goals should be based on data that indicates the students strengths and weaknesses. The academic goals for most students under general special education categories, are based on the most recent data of the student. However, some students may have academic goals based on the area of eligibility of the student (i.e. - specific learning disability in reading comprehension). If students demonstrate a functional skill weakness at school (based on data), then a functional goal for the student should also be included.  These measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals are designed to:

(A) Meet the child's needs that result from the child's disability to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum; and

(B) Meet each of the child's other educational needs that result from the child's disability.

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8 Special Education Sample Schedules - Simply Special Ed

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Take a peek inside 7 special education sample schedules to get some schedule ideas for your own special education classroom!

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Being a self-contained classroom special education teacher, I often get asked about what my classroom schedule looks like, how I lesson plan for all the different ability levels, and just what one single day in my classroom looks like.

I decided it may be time to share my classroom schedule, and give some pointers on how to make your classroom schedule work for you... no matter setting you work in.

I do want to preface this entire post by saying that every single classroom is different. What works for me, may or may not work for you... and I promise you that my class schedule wasn't a one time thing. It took me months to refine, and even some days it's a work in progress.

But hopefully with these tips and tricks, you'll be able to build a classroom schedule that works for you and meets the needs of all of your students.

Here's our daily classroom schedule:

7:45-8:00 Arrival / Potty / Breakfast

8:00 - 9:00 Morning Calendar

9:00 - 9:45 Specials (Teacher Planning)

9:45 - 10:20 English Language Arts

10:20 - 10:50 Student Lunch

10:50 - 11:00 Potty

11:00 - 11:45 Computers + iPads (Para Lunch Duty)

11:45 - 12:30 Motor Lab (Para Lunch Duty + Lunch)

12:30 - 12:45 Snack + Potty

12:45 - 1:00 Story Time

1:00 - 2:00 Mathematics

2:00 - 2:45 Inclusion / Science / Social Studies

2:45 - 3:00 Clean Up + Potty + Dismissal

Let's take a deeper look into each part of the day for a better explanation of what's going on during each part of our day:

Most of my students arrive on the school bus. Contract time for paras begins at 7:30 and teachers begin at 7:45, so my paras get all of the students off the bus and bring them to the classroom.

Students put their belongings away... backpacks in their cubbies, coats off, lunches out (so we can determine who packed and who will be eating school lunch), and students get their Daily Communication Logs out and put them on the back table.. Students If they had a Reading Toolkit to return, they place it on the back table. Or maybe signed paperwork, order forms, fundraiser packets... you know, all that fun stuff.

We ask each student if they need to use the restroom, as well as use this time to change any diapers or pull-ups.

If a student eats school breakfast, one of us will take the child down to the cafeteria to get breakfast. They eat breakfast in the classroom at their desk.

At 8AM, the school announcements begin. We stand for the Pledge of Allegiance (and the Star Spangled Banner on Friday's) and listen to the daily announcements. After that, we begin our morning calendar routine.

One special thing about the beginning 15 minutes of the day is I get a moment to say good morning to each child and ask about their night or weekend. It's our 1:1 time to start out on a positive day.

This hour is probably my favorite part of the entire school day. It's a section of our schedule that I planned for one time. Yep, once. And it works every single day, it's a routine the kids know, and it's something my para could run if I were out for the day.

To read a very in-depth blog post about the entire first hour of our school day, click here.

On Friday mornings, we also do Coffee Cart Friday. We do a modified morning calendar routine on Fridays 🙂

It's kind of crazy that our class is fortunate enough to all have specials around the same time. And if they don't (I mean... there are 4 grade levels in our classroom!) they are either in inclusion or in resource.

This is also the time when I take 45-minutes for teacher planning.

IEP meetings are scheduled during this time as well, as well as other team meetings with admin, etc.

ELA is such a short time, but we do SO. MUCH. STUFF. during this time. It's really all meat and potatoes.

Typically what is looks like is a whole group session at the back table. Whether that's reading a story together and using a differentiated book companion, or a full on accommodated Guided Reading lesson, we're all working.

Monday and Tuesday, we start new stories. I use the leveled readers from Reading A-Z. They're a life saver! To get student reading levels, at the beginning of the year, we conduct the Literacy Assessment to see what students know.

Wednesday and Thursday are used for ELA centers and adapted work binders, quick checks on the stories we read, IEP goal data on specific students, and/or end of the story assessments. It really depends on the student.

Through Monday-Thursday, students are also working on interactive sight word readers.

Friday is for Fun Food Friday.

Our students eat lunch at this time. They eat lunch in the cafeteria, and both myself and paras attend lunch with our students. We help them eat and monitor our student's lunch period.

In the past, a few of my higher level students would eat lunch with their inclusion classes.

We take this time to wash our hands and get cleaned up from lunch.

Some school years, our recess also overlaps this time and the beginning of computers in the classroom. But last year, students had recess with their inclusion classrooms, so we did not have a specific recess time.

This time is so important for our class because at this time each day, our paras have Lunch Duty. So it typically looks like just me in the classroom with all of the students. Technology is a great way to occupy all students at once, and have them working on something academic. Especially if a student did not finish their morning work, I can successfully pull that student to finish their work while all other students are occupied.

My second year in the self-contained setting, I won a grant to purchase 4 iPads for the classroom. We use them during this time.

In our classroom, we have 5 iPads and 4 desktop computers for students to use. The most students (so far) that I've had is 7 at once. We rotate who uses the desktop computers and iPads.

The first 30ish minutes are for academic purposes. Students need to work on something academic... whether that's an app or Keyboarding Without Tears ( which is phenomenal by the way!).

The remaining 15ish minutes are for students to "play games" or watching Daniel Tiger. This remaining time is each child's reward for completing their morning work and computer work. If a student doesn't successfully complete all of their morning and computer work, they finish it up during this time.

I guess you could say that this time also works as a huge incentive in our classroom. 🙂

You can see a list of general apps here, and a list of math apps here.

I think it is imperative that students have time in their day to be kids... and be kids outside of a 15 minute recess. I know some teachers do smaller increments of time spread throughout the school day for sensory integration, so it's something you make fit into your schedule.

Along with computers, motor lab also serves as a time when I am alone with my students in the classroom while my paras eat lunch or finish up duties.

A few examples of activities students can play with during this time: a sit and spinner, trampoline, dramatic play (dolls, kitchen, stuffed animals...), Legos and blocks, train set, sensory tubs ( water beads, MadMattr or kinetic sand, PlayDoh, etc.), indoor swing, sensory pods, body socks, sensory stepping stones ... we have a very wide range of activities students can interact with.

Snack and story time serve as teacher lunch time, so the paras are alone with students at this time.

They use this time for students to eat snack, as well as use the restroom and change any diapers/pull-ups.

Story time is pretty self explanatory. A para or a student will choose a book from the classroom library. I do have a tiered bookshelf for seasonal and monthly-related books that offer great recommendations for students to listen to.

Our math block is one hour, give or take a few minutes to wrap up story time or head to inclusion around 2.

In our classroom, it typically looks like all students at the back table working on individualized skills. A few days each week, we will do a whole group lesson on a targeted skill that a majority of my students are working on (like money, addition/subtraction, etc.).

Other than that, it's highly individualized based on grade level content that needs to be addressed and student IEP goals. Our Math Adapted Work Binder comes in huge handy here.

Read more about differentiating Guided Math here.

Many of my students attend inclusion for the social aspect of it and not necessarily for the academics, and myself or a para go to inclusion with our friends. My higher level students who can handle attending the regular ed setting on their own, go by themselves.

Adults document inclusion time using this data sheet on a clipboard. All of my students have a clipboard for this purpose, and you guessed correctly if you guessed color coded clipboards.

So far, it's worked out well that all of my students attend inclusion for science and social studies at this time. To implement the grade level content on my students' levels in our classroom, we utilize the Science and Social Studies Adapted Work Binders.

Just like any other classroom, students have to clean up after themselves. They pack their own backpacks, listen for their name to be called to get their Daily Communication Logs, push their chairs in, use the restroom (if needed), and then wait patiently to be dismissed.

We walk to dismissal together and at 3PM, students are dismissed (either to car rider or bus).

And that's pretty much it!
WHERE DO YOU SHOWCASE YOUR SCHEDULE IN THE CLASSROOM?
The classroom schedule is posted on the front board using a visual schedule. I print, laminate, and add magnets to the back so we can easily switch out parts of our day if needed.

Individualized student visual schedules are posted on their desks (specials only) and on the cabinet doors.
What questions do you still have about our schedule?
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Wondering how to fit everything into your schedule in a self contained special needs classroom? I'm sharing my self contained class schedule and specifics on what each part of our school day looks like. Blog post at Mrs. D's Corner.

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5 Schedule Examples From Special Education Classes With Free Download - Autism Classroom Resources

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Sometimes it just helps to have examples of special education class schedules like yours to use as examples. Grab some in this post.

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Testing Accommodations Charts The following charts are available for use in documenting students’ required testing accommodations in Section 504 Plans,

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This binder contains guidelines and resources for the NC Occupational Course of Study graduation pathway.