So, again, prefacing this with the fact that I’m NOT by any means an expert in Special Ed.

I don’t think your character would have an IEP simply because qualifications for an IEP are very narrow as specified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Here’s a list of them and some explanation from Understood.org:

Services Under IDEA: Who’s Eligible

Not every child with learning and attention issues is eligible for special education services under IDEA. First, a child must be found to have one of the 13 kinds of disabilities that IDEA covers. They are:

Now IDEA does get updated occasionally although it is a bigish deal (yay Congress) so perhaps in your universe there’s been legislation to add “powers” to it.

In the current framework I think a 504 might be more appropriate. It has a much more malleable definition of disabilities and falls under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) rather than IDEA.

Now, this is where it really depends on your plot? If your character is the only telepath ever and there aren’t people with powers everywhere then your character is probably going to be misdiagnosed up to wazoo. At which point, the accommodations for whatever particular disability they’re misdiagnosed with would apply and maybe they’d have an IEP at that point. A quick Google search should bring up many reputable parent sites out there that give examples of accommodations for many learning disabilities.

Here’s the thing though with accommodations, the plan can use some, it can use all, or it can use none. It really is a case by case basis. Keep in mind the idea of least restrictive environment and mainstreaming. Essentially, students should be kept with their peers and learn with non-special ed students as much as possible. Having a kid in regular math, but they get notes ahead of time, or an aide, or guided notes (notes that are pre-written with blanks to fill in or perhaps subject headings to write under) is preferable to pulling them out into a separate classroom.

If there has been enough time and powers are common, I think that at least at a state level they’d have forms specific to powers. There might be a process similar to how it’s done with special ed. Here’s a link to an article that explains how this is done. (Evaluation Process)

So, accommodations specific to telepathy? Whatever gets it done to be honesr I’d imagine there’d be some sort of sensory room (shielded maybe? If that exists in your universe) would be available if it got to be too much. We already do this for autistic kids in sensory overload. Maybe extra time on tests or assignments since the kid would always be fighting to concentrate with all the voices in their brain. Maybe a telepath center? A regional school to send telepaths maybe If there’s enough for that. Maybe extra telepath lessons, that would be paid for by the school,  if there are other older experienced telepaths in your universe.

Another option? If the student just couldn’t even be in the same building as that many students the school system would hire a private tutor. This tutor would liaise with all the different content teachers and basically teach one to one. Many systems hire one or two teachers that just float around to all the homebound and hospitalized students.

It boils down to the fact that as a public school, you HAVE to teach whatever walks in the proverbial door. Even if they can’t leave their house.

Hey!

Ok, first things first, you probably know this already but there really isn’t such a thing as ‘childhood learning disorders’ they don’t just go away. There are some that tend to present in childhood but the character will have this disorder for the rest of their lives. People learn to cope with their disorder and some are amazingly successful at it. That’s why you sometimes hear about people going off of ADHD meds or managing to be voracious readers despite having dyslexia. They’ve learned to cope.

In any case included links to a couple of good resources I found explaining the common disabilities and disorders. The main ones that come to mind are ADHD, dyscalculia, dyslexia and processing disorders. Also at this age, if not earlier, autistic traits begin to be identifiable in children. From my experience, ADHD is the most common, or at least, the most diagnosed.

ADHD=Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Used to be there was a difference between ADD and ADHD. Now the medical people combine them into one big bucket and call it ADHD with various types.) @scriptshrink did a nice post about ADHD and one about how it tends to get diagnosed in schools.

Dyscalculia=is difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic, such as difficulty in understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, and learning facts in mathematics.

Dyslexia=a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence.

Processing Disorders= A general term for disorders involving difficulty with processing or slow processing. Processing doesn’t affect intelligence. This includes difficulty processing the written word. As in, you can read it just fine but it doesn’t compute which is different than dyslexia. It also includes auditory processing difficulties, difficulty understanding spoken language.

A few websites to get you started, parent websites are your friends when writing this sort of thing. Many take big complicated diagnoses and symptoms and boil them down for the laymen very well.

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities

http://www.webmd.com/children/guide/detecting-learning-disabilities#1

https://ldaamerica.org/types-of-learning-disabilities/

So, I’ll be honest Nonnie, I had a really hard time figuring out my tack on this one. It’s an incredibly broad question. So, I’m gonna focus in on the big issue. One type of school is a government entity, one is not.

But I knew that already? You say.

Yes, but it’s actually far more to it than just where the money comes from. Much of this will apply to the difference between private non-religious schools and public schools as well.

State funded public schools have a whole ton of federal and state mandates that they HAVE to fill. They also have far more regulations of the sort of education and certifications their teachers have to have. I’m not that familiar with the Catholic Archdiocese’s requirements? But from the job postings I see they generally require the same sort of education in their employees that public schools do. However, they’re not REQUIRED by law. So like any other private enterprise the requirements are self set and self policed by the organization. This can be a good thing or a bad thing.

Catholic schools also tend to pay less, and not have as good insurance. Do I have citable evidence for that? No, but it’s one of those things everybody in the industry just kinda knows. There may very well be cases out there where it isn’t true. Why do teachers still go teach there if they can be paid more elsewhere? There are a few reasons. Often they are Catholic themselves and truly believe in the mission of the schools, sometimes they’re less experienced so the lower pay is a stepping stone to a higher paid job or, they like the smaller classes where they don’t have to do as much classroom management.

What’s classroom management you ask? Classroom management is the art of keeping the class on task and interested in learning while dealing with the ‘extras’ By extras I mean the kid in the back that likes to call out, while at the same time the counseling office keeps sending aides up with notes, and this class tends to be talkative so you always have to keep the attention on you.

Catholic schools have far more power over their student population than public schools do. They can kick out and accept anyone for any reason. Now, do they abuse this? Generally no, because then no one would want to go to Catholic schools. But it does mean that the kid who is a constant discipline problem and disrupts class will be kicked out far sooner than in the public schools. Some teachers like this, it makes their jobs easier. Some parents like this as well they feel it makes the learning environment better.

Catholic schools aren’t the best as special education, they don’t have the same system setup that the public schools do. Public schools get some federal money to help defray the costs of extra teachers and resources needed for special ed. Catholic schools don’t.

I can’t really go into class periods, times, lunches etc because that varies school to school even in the public school realm. Catholic schools will have a religious component and you generally have to go to mass.

Sorry if this was really general. If you’d like something more specific feel free to send another ask..

Oooo, this is fun. So, I’ll preface this with this is me spitballing? Much of this might change based on politics, etc, of your story. I’m assuming US Public schools with this answer… WARNING, LOTS OF INFORMED OPINION AHEAD

OK, First question, what kind of powers would teachers have? I’d think they’d have all kinds, you’ve got all sorts of different sorts of people that end up as teachers. Now useful skills? Besides the always funny Eyes in the back of your head or Ability to slow down time so you can get your frikking grading done. I’d think some sort of empathy/mind reading would be nice.

For some kids, teachers end up being the most positive adult figure in their life.  Also teachers tend to be the person that sees a change in behavior before anyone else does. The ability to pick those kids out would be invaluable. For example to be able to tell that the boy in the corner is not doing his homework because grandma is close to dying and not because he’s being lazy. Or that the girl up front has stopped answering questions in class is because she is being made fun of for speaking up.. As it is right now? We have to guess and make phone calls to parents or surreptitiously question other students and hope someone has a flipping clue about what is going on when we see behavior changes.

Or super hearing, or telekinesis to be able to grab kids cell phones when they pull them out…

Now, how would they deal with super powered kids? Whew. OK, at first? If the superpowers were sudden onset I think each school would pretty much come up with their own way and deal with it on a case by case basis. Kid gets angry and turns into the human torch? Teachers would arrange some sort of small hand signal that meant “I need to get the hell out of here now.” That’s actually something teachers do already for kids with emotional issues or special needs. They’ll arrange some hand signals that can be used between the two parties so as not to embarrass the student in front of peers, but still get the job done. Someone has to lay an egg once a month? They get to use the teacher’s single bathroom, etc.

Long term? I’d think some sort of legislation would get passed that would basically declare that schools have to accommodate the kids with powers PERIOD, like the IDEA act. Or something would get up to the supreme court ala “Brown v. Board of Education”. Most teachers and schools I’ve been to and worked at really do want to help and be accommodating. But sometimes, you run into situations (and assholes) where you have to pull out the lawyers as a parent and force compliance. It would probably happen eventually.

Someday I’ll make the Special Ed post but I honestly think they’d pattern how they handle powers after what we already do for special needs kids. Since the structure is already there and the teachers and administration is familiar with it. Assuming of course, everyone is being ‘sane’ here and there isn’t full blown discrimination like Jim Crow style segregation or something. Short version of the special ed post is that we try to keep kids in the ‘least restrictive’ environment that is appropriate for their needs. It runs the gamut from say, most restrictive being an off site center that deals with that specific disability or a separate all day classroom, to least restrictive, being in regular mainstream classes with maybe extra time on tests, or an extra study hall.

I could see them do something like that with powers. Most restrictive, the kid gets sent off to a center that handles the really crazy dangerous powers. Least restrictive, providing special chairs or a standing desk for the kid that now has digitigrade legs. I think you get the point. I could also see a specialty eventually evolving. Instead of the Special Ed teacher, you’d have the Powers teacher or administrator that manages the care and logistics of those kids.

There’d be paperwork and meetings with teachers, social workers, parents, administrators, and as the student gets older, the student themselves. They’d come up with some sort of plan, write it down, and make sure it’s followed. There will probably be an acronym for the official form, education loves acronyms.

But here’s the important part about public schools they HAVE to take the student at the level they are. So, they will have pay to have the kid shipped off to the special center on the bus. This is where some of that legislation would come in. Much of that money for special needs currently comes from the federal government. So, money for power education? Hit up the feds.  School districts are also responsible for students until they’re 21. In the real world, this usually applies to special education until they become part of the adult system. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had graduated high school, but was still going to, say, a school district funded center that worked with powers until 21.

Awesome question and thanks for the ask!

So I’m going to preface this with the fact that I’m mostly experienced with K-12 public schools, so… I’m sure I might miss something, hell a lot of somethings, with this answer. However, I do have my Masters in Education from a large state school. I’ve seen some of what I’m about to say in action from the student side. If anyone has stuff to add, please do. (Anyone with professorial experience wanna jump in and mod this blog with me? Pretty please?)

Colleges don’t necessarily have the same government-mandated requirements for the education of their employees as public schools do. So their requirements tend to be a way more fluid than K-12 schools. In general, professors need to have at least a Masters in their chosen subject. This, however, is considered the ‘low’ end. So, think more community college and less Harvard with that. Bigger universities want their full-time professors to at least have a Doctorate and be active in research or writing papers. As always, there are exceptions to that rule. (Note I preface this whole thing with full-time professors, I’ll get to that in a second.)

I’ve seen professors in a major university with only a master’s degree BUT they had a TON of outside experience in their field. For example, I had education professors that weren’t doctors, but they’d taught in K-12 schools for years and had pretty much seen it all. One of my professors had been a principal of a school. He was teaching a class that taught teachers how to handle diverse classrooms. The population of his elementary school had gone from majority white to majority minority with significant ELL challenges in a very short period of time. ELL is short for English Language Learners, the newer term for students previously known as ESL students, English as a Second Language. You can see why he was tapped to teach a class about dealing with diversity: he’d been living it. So again, a shitton of real world experience relevant to the subject matter can sometimes make up for the lack of a doctorate.

Now, colleges lately have begun to do something that I feel is frankly a bit evil: Personal opinion time, take with a grain of salt. That is, they’ve begun to depend on adjunct professors instead of hiring people for full blown professorships. Adjuncts are cheaper and replaceable. The powers that be don’t have to worry about health insurance and that pesky thing called tenure. So it’s begun to be REALLY REALLY hard to get a full professorship. It’s even harder to get tenure. You can Google this for more details, there have been several good articles on the subject. (Here’s a great one from The Atlantic to get you started. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/higher-education-college-adjunct-professor-salary/404461/).

So, bringing all this back. What does this have to do with your character? If your character is young and up and coming, unless they are an accomplished genius in their field, or have connections, they’re unlikely to land a full-time professorship right away. It’s far more likely they’ll be one of those adjunct professors stringing together classes at three or four universities. If they’re older, there’s a chance they’re a full-time professor, after a ton of research or time as an adjunct. There’s also the whole “Publish or Perish” paradigm. If you are a full-time professor, the university expects you to be productive with papers or activities. So if your character is a full-time prof, they’d better be thinking about papers or getting something published to a journal, etc.

Please, people currently TAing in colleges (I know we have a few scriptx family members who are Teaching Assistants or Graduate Assistants) jump in here and add to this. I’d love to hear from people with current experience.

Keep the questions coming! I plan to do some basic information posts in the next week or so. If anyone is interested in something specific let me know in an ASK. I’m also working on finding a layout  for this blog that I like so, your patience is appreciated!

So, I’ve been in the educational job seeking game in two different states, neither were east coast. But in my experience yes, there is a definite rhythm to when you’re the most likely to be employed in a school district. In my current district, this is how it tends to go.

The first “bump” in open positions tends to be around spring break, which is generally the end of March/early April in most US school districts. At this point, the employees that are retiring or quitting at the end of the school year have informed the administration of their intent. So, jobs begin to be posted to the public. HOWEVER, many of these positions are what would be considered senior type position:. AP US History, Advanced Biology, Secretary to the Superintendent, etc. So often they get filled internally despite being listed publicly. Sometimes they get filled externally, though it’s not a guarantee. As government entities most public schools are required to list jobs publicly despite the fact that often the administration already has someone in mind for the position. That part-time science teacher that’s been trying to go full-time? That’s when the department head that really likes them but just couldn’t get them to full-time makes the move and get them added to the department full time. Then the ‘cushy’ classes tend to get picked up by existing teachers with either the specialization or seniority. When a teacher retires, there’s generally a few other teachers that have always wanted to teach their subject. So they jump at the chance. On the support staff side, it’s also when people start angling for the higher paying all year jobs instead of the jobs that only pay when the students are there. For your character it’s always worth it to apply at this stage anyway. You might get some facetime with people you want facetime with or you might just stay on their radar to fill the position the internal candidate is vacating. Also, if it’s something REALLY specific, like Band teacher, or Sculptor, or the shop teacher… etc. There isn’t going to BE an internal candidate so it’s doubly worth your time to apply.

Now, all this shuffling and chicanery causes different positions to open up. These tend to be posted toward the end of the school year or the summer months. End of May, June-ish, since depending on your HR department, it takes that long to get all the internal shuffling for next year done. This is also the time when schools finally get a final feel for the size of next incoming class.. Freshmen for HS, 6th graders…etc. It’s a bit easier to gauge on the admin side for K-5 schools because the administration mostly just looks at the year’s class size, breaks them up into appropriate classroom sized groups, and then makes sure they have the teachers to cover them. Elementary teachers are often licensed for more than one grade level so sometimes you’ll teach 2nd grade one year, and then find yourself with Kindergarteners the next. Some states let you get a licence for K-5. Others split it up into two early and late elementary.They try not to make massive changes often (2nd to K  for example iis a massive shift) but it happens. From the middle school and high school side, they look at what students registered for and try and make it all happen. Sometimes they need another English teacher because of a huge group of freshmen coming in. Sometimes it’s that there are a few spare classes left over in each department so they need a part timer.

This is where the Franken-positions (my term, not industry wide as you’d say) come in. Schools start floating truly weird pie in the sky combinations, like “Math/English teacher” “Music/Science” “Computer/History” Sometimes it’ll be a full time gig spread out over two different buildings so you have to drive. School districts are perpetually underfunded, so any chance to save on the cost of insurance or professional development gets tried. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. There have been times when I’ve looked at a combination they’re looking for, smirk and comment to my colleagues “Good luck finding that.” and often they don’t. That’s when they either hire a couple of part timers, or ask other teachers to take on another class. (Most districts want to avoid this at all costs because the teachers basically get overtime pay for teaching more classes than what is spelled out in their contracts. They have to agree to do it, which doesn’t always happen because that extra class often takes their one planning period. So teachers have to go all year with no extra time for copies, student meetings, etc.) Your character might apply for a part time something, and then hear back that they decided to fill it by paying existing teachers a little extra.

So, If your character is coming right out of Ed school, this is their best bet. If they can get certified in more than one subject they are way way way more marketable. Also, trying to get certified for more than one age group is a really good idea. Especially when getting their foot in the door. Also, the last gasp hiring which I’m going to talk about next.

There’s generally one last “bump” of open year long positions right before the start of school. Someone quits last minute, or the admins realize that the English classes are just a bit too full and really they should hire one more person to lighten that up. All sorts of last minute things come up and they need to hire. In general though most schools really want their faculty roster filled out and ready to go a few weeks before the start date. I have heard stories though of people not knowing if they genuinely had the job they interviewed for until two days to start, or currently employed teachers having to wait until the last minute to find out if they even get to keep their job. (This is where the teacher’s union usually swoops in and makes a fuss, but teachers unions are a topic for another post.) Until you have tenure, you really are at the mercy of class sizes and cost cutting measures.

Once school starts, what you tend to find posted for the districts are long term substitute gigs (Maternity leaves, leaves of absence, FMLA absences, etc.) or just plain old subs and various support staff positions, which depending upon the position, tend to be a little less driven by the school calendar then teaching positions. It’s still worth a weekly look at the various districts your char is interested in because people get sick, quit, go on year long leaves, etc at any time. If you’re char is subbing in that district, they can find out when HR posts new jobs and make sure they check that day.

So, what does all that mean for your character? If they’re coming straight out from Ed school and student teaching there is a very real possibility they aren’t going to land a full time gig right out of school. The chances go up exponentially if they have a rare subject matter or one of those oddball combos. (I know someone who got his first break because he was a science/band combination, they do indeed exist.) Also, Math and Science teachers are harder to find and therefore you’re more likely to land a gig. It’s REALLY hard to land History or English gigs at times. It’s very common to see new education grads stringing together maternity leaves, doing random subbing in many districts or working as a paraprofessional. (By stringing together maternity leaves I mean actively looking for them and working one after the other if you can manage it.)  

While technically not a teaching job, paras do a lot in the classroom and it’s a good way to get your feet wet and get the attention of the people you want the attention of. The position (at least from what I’ve seen) is shifting from being a glorified room mom to needing licensure of it’s own and it’s starting to become a place lots of newbie teachers land while trying to make connections to get that teaching gig. It actually wouldn’t be out of place for your character to be a paraprofessional while GOING to school for education. I’ve known a few doing that and depending on the school culture, you might get hired as a teacher because you’re already working there.

There’s also a position in many schools called the “permanent sub" or the "Long Term Sub” which is different than a long term sub for a leave despite the similar name. This person doesn’t take over a teacher’s schedule, but basically ‘lives’ at the school. They are the prime sub. They take any last minute classes that come up. They also know the school culture so they tend to get the ‘challenging’ classes. They are that extra pair of hands you need sometimes when things get crazy. When there isn’t a sub gig, they tend to help in the office with whatever clerical work needs to get done.  It’s a thankless job but it’s a great stepping stone to a real gig.

So, TL;DR to your question. Yes, there are prime hiring seasons, usually from about spring break to summerish, and then some panic hiring right before the year starts. Everything but long term subbing tends to dry up in between but emergencies happen. Also, if your character is a newbie teacher, there’s a very good chance they aren’t going to get a full time gig right off the bat.