Leadership In Special Education

What are the various populations within my institution/arena that should consider themselves as leaders?

In my work supporting schools that provide services to students with disabilities, I see three distinct populations of professionals who I consider leaders. These include direct service providers, middle managers, and senior leaders.

Direct service providers include special education teachers, speech, physical, and occupational therapists, and school psychologists. They provide leadership on a daily basis. Sometimes they lead by interacting with their peer groups, professional to professional, and other times they lead meetings regarding services to individual students. During an individualized education plan (IEP) meeting,

Special education networks are everywhere, in and out of the school system, and the superintendent, assistant superintendent, chief operations officer, and chief financial officer must take note of how these networks function, who is part of the network and how they can use the networks to move their agenda forward. Ignoring to do so will delay or sabotage a leader’s ability to develop the skills necessary to do the work. Next, informing the governing board challenges their abilities to report the state of the school systems which simultaneously supports their employees. Doing this expands their leadership potential. Without Governing Board support, senior administrators will struggle to balance Board mandates with special education needs, which vary among schools. Anything less than support is like “building the plane while it’s in the

Each population requires empowerment. That begins by offering opportunities for leaders to demonstrate their potential. First steps like creating shared documents, developing training materials, providing training to other providers, taking on supervisory responsibilities, and designing and participating in program evaluations open opportunities. Focusing and identifying the strengths in individuals and matching their talent to opportunities boosts confidence and builds leadership capacity in team members. Nurturing staff members as they take on leadership activities gives me the opportunity to mentor and coach. In doing so, I am growing as a leader, and so is the staff member. My role demands that I provide knowledge and skills when needed to fill any gaps that exist among developing leaders. At all levels of leadership, individualized and relevant training builds confidence. When training is dynamic, it requires continual monitoring to adjust to current needs. My leadership position gives me the opportunity to offer feedback and support to senior administrators during change initiatives so that they can tailor their leadership work in a way that supports the initiative, as well as the development of the leaders in their