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EC teachers are burdened by administrators' demands for test scores and parents’ needs for real support.

EC teachers burn out quickly due to overwhelming demands and lack of resources.

Teachers want to collaborate with parents, but the system can make it dificult for them to do so.

Recently, I wrote a post here titled, “6 Things I Wish I Knew Before My Kid's First IEP Meeting.” Although I am also an educator, I wanted to get the perspective of an Exceptional Children (EC) teacher.

EC teachers specialize in teaching neurodiverse children, attend many IEP meetings, and are often in charge of implementing IEPs.

I interviewed Lisa Cooper Ellison, a former EC teacher with a degree in clinical mental health counseling. She is now a trauma-informed writing coach.

Here are three things Lisa wants parents to know about IEP meetings and the work of EC teachers with our neurodiverse kids.

1. EC Teachers Face Immense Pressure From Administrators

In our interview, the first thing Lisa told me was that EC teachers “feel like they are being crushed by competing demands and constraints.” These demands and constraints, she told me, “come from both above and from below.”

From above, EC teachers face immense pressure from the school administration. For example, they must worry about standardized test scores. As an EC teacher, Lisa not only had to make sure her students had equal access to education, but also that “the accommodations and modifications that I provided somehow would lead to equal results in the overall school test scores.”

Why? Administrators did not want their EC students to drag down a school’s........

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