The First 30 Days: Back-to-School Survival Guide for Special Education Teachers

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The First 30 Days: 
A Special Educator’s Back-to-School Survival Guide


Back-to-school in special education can feel like juggling IEP meetings, behavior plans, scheduling nightmares, and paperwork… while balancing on a moving school bus.

But here’s the truth: the first month doesn’t have to leave you running on coffee fumes by September 15th. With the right plan, you can set up your year for success — without burning out before fall even begins.

This survival guide gives you a week-by-week checklist, quick win routines, and a “what can wait” reality check so you can focus on what matters most: your students.

Week 1: Build the Foundation

Main goal: Get organized and get to know your students.

Checklist:

  • Review all student IEPs — focus on accommodations, modifications, and service minutes. An IEP at a Glance would be helpful for this!

  • Create a master caseload tracker (grab my editable Special Education Teacher Binder to save hours).

  • Introduce yourself to general ed teachers and paras — share your contact info and how you can support them.

  • Set up a positive first contact with families (quick email or phone call). Use a welcome letter to do this!

Quick Win Routine: Start a 5-Minute Daily IEP Review — each morning, scan two IEPs so you’ve reviewed your caseload within two weeks.

Week 2: Routines, Routines, Routines

Main goal: Establish classroom and small group procedures.

Checklist:

  • Teach and practice transitions for pull-out, push-in, and independent work.

  • Implement a simple data collection system from Day 1 (this Progress Monitoring Toolkit is my go-to).

  • Begin baseline assessments for academics and behavior. Use my go-to free assessments!

  • Share schedules with staff and post visuals where students can see them.

Quick Win Routine: End each day with a 2-Minute Data Check — jot quick notes before you forget, so progress reports write themselves later.

Week 3: Fine-Tune and Collaborate

Main goal: Strengthen relationships and adjust supports.

Checklist:

  • Check in with general ed teachers to see how accommodations are going.

  • Hold mini-meetings with paras to troubleshoot challenges.

  • Review baseline data and adjust small group placement if needed.

  • Organize a shared folder of accommodations/modifications for each student so all staff are on the same page.

Quick Win Routine: Weekly Teacher Touch Base — send a short Friday email to each gen ed teacher summarizing wins, concerns, and next steps.

Week 4: Plan for the Long Haul

Main goal: Get ahead on paperwork and avoid October overwhelm.

Checklist:

  • Schedule all IEP meetings for the semester. My Special Education Binder has everything you need for this.

  • Draft upcoming IEPs early — even just the Present Levels section — so you’re not starting from scratch. Use my DIBELS aligned goal templates and my IEP goal bank for aligned IEP goals.

  • Review and update any behavior intervention plans with your team.

  • Organize a central binder or digital hub for all progress monitoring data.

Quick Win Routine: 15-Minute Friday Filing — tidy paperwork before you leave so Monday doesn’t hit like a freight train.

What Can Wait (And Save Your Sanity)

Not everything needs to be perfect in the first month. These can wait until October:

  • Elaborate bulletin boards

  • Deep data analysis

  • Full-blown curriculum overhauls

  • Major room reorganization

Give yourself permission to focus on relationships, routines, and compliance first. Everything else will fall into place.

Your Next Step

The first 30 days set the tone for your entire year. With a plan, you can go from survival mode to confident and in control.

To save yourself hours, grab these ready-to-use tools from Miss Rae’s Room:

Pin it for later so you can revisit these tips when mid-year burnout tries to creep in!

Happy Teaching!

Miss Rae


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