In this instructional video, Jen—a former K‑12 self‑contained autism teacher, former paraprofessional, and parent of a child with special needs—shares practical, step‑by‑step strategies for special education teachers (and parents) to build effective collaboration with specialist teachers such as music, art, and PE instructors. She emphasizes the importance of proactive communication and outlines five core actions: (1) initiate contact and introduce yourself to specialists; (2) act as the student’s “publicist” by documenting and sharing each student’s strengths; (3) provide printed accommodations and, when possible, a data‑tracking sheet so specialists can implement and monitor supports; (4) make yourself regularly available for brief check‑ins, using calendar time to pop into specialist classrooms; and (5) maintain an open feedback loop, soliciting and acting on specialist input to prevent problems before they arise. Throughout, Jen stresses that these modest upfront efforts lead to stronger student outcomes and smoother interdisciplinary teamwork.
Chapters
When I was in the classroom, one of the hardest things that I had to do was collaborate with specialists. Let's talk about it. I am Jen and I am a former K-12 self-contained autism teacher, and not only that, but I am a parent of a special needs child. And so I know the system pretty well. I know it from the teacher's side and I know it from the parent side. I also know it from the paraprofessional side because I did serve as a paraprofessional for 2 years. In a very high-needs classroom as well. So one of the hardest things that I have come across in my teaching career is having to collaborate with so many specialists. You can make this work. It takes a little bit of effort up front, but I promise the outcome is always worth it. So let's talk about some strategies that you can use to help bridge that gap between specialists and special ed. My first tip for you is going to be to reach out and start the conversation. Oftentimes our specials teachers— I'm talking about things like music, art, and PE— they only get to interact with your students for a very short amount of time, and they see you at drop-off and pick-up, and sometimes not even then. Sometimes special ed lives on their own little island, and your students might be going with their general education peers, or they might be going with assistants, and you don't actually get to see that specials teacher very often. So I want you to start the conversation. Take a minute, just email them, make sure you introduce yourself if you don't know them very well, and just let them know that if any questions arise during the school year, you are more than happy to help them problem solve or help answer any questions or concerns they might have moving forward. So now you've set the stage. You've set the stage for open communication with that specials teacher. They're going to remember that in the future when they start thinking about your students and your shared students, and they're gonna remember that they can contact you if needed. The second thing is I want you to be your student's publicist. Now, I know this seems silly because it's not part of the job. Even if you're a parent, this is a great tip. I want you to think about all of your student's special qualities that make their strengths, and I want you to write 'em down on a sheet of paper, and I want you to hand that paper to those specials teachers. Now, your specials teachers get to see that student in this teeny tiny little hole of a subject, be it re— um, art or PE or music or a special like that. That's a very unique skill set. They may not know what your student can do, so I want you to broadcast it. I want you to tell them all of the positive things those students can do. Now you're kind of shifting the conversation. Instead of that, that teacher focusing on what that child can't do, they're now going to focus on what that child can do. That's also going to help them when they're instructing the class because they'll know that student's strengths. Remember, we always want to lean to the student's strengths, so let's broadcast them. Let's let every teacher know. The other thing I need you to do is print off accommodations. Make sure that those special teachers have them. These are my son's accommodations. I always keep a copy in his file so I can reference them. But if we want teachers to implement accommodations, they have to know what the accommodations are. So if you're a parent, email the teacher and ask that those accommodations be sent to any teacher that interacts with your child. And if you're a teacher, give a copy of those accommodations to those specialist teachers. That way you can make sure that those are being implemented. Additionally, if you're a teacher, something you could do is give a data sheet to help those teachers track what accommodations that child used in their classroom and how successful it was. Because really, we should be tracking accommodations. We should be taking data on that, but that's a whole other conversation. So now that you've done this, now that you have set the stage, you have introduced yourself, they know that they can come to you as the teacher or you as the parent to help problem solve. You have told them their strengths and you have given a copy of those accommodations. I want you to do one last thing. I want you to make yourself available. Like I said, so often we just drop our students off with an assistant and they go and we don't get to interact. Put on your calendar, put on your plan time somewhere to go pop in and talk to that teacher and say, "Hey, I just have a minute or two. I just wanted to check in. How are things going?" Open the door to conversation and communication. And by doing that, you will help facilitate and lead that discussion in a really positive and proactive way. You can help stop any problems before they even start because if you go and seek information, those teachers are more likely to tell you if something's not going well. They may not even think about it because they've got another class right on their heels. You know, those specialist teachers, they are scheduled back to back to back. So we want to make the time to be able to pop in and just ask them how things are going and how we can better support them. Ask those questions, work with them as they give you answers, be open to feedback that they're giving you, and work together because that's what our students deserve.
