Teacher Self-Advocacy for the Shared Responsibility of Classroom and Behavior Management

Special education teachers who work with students with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges spend much of their time advocating for students, but often forget to advocate for themselves. Supporting students with behavioral needs across school settings requires teachers to attend to countless details about multiple students. Because of complex circumstances, teachers often feel that they are the only one who can provide the support that a student requires, so they do not seek assistance from other stakeholders. Navigating relationships with administrators, general education teachers, families, and paraprofessionals can be challenging, but successful collaboration is critical for student success and special education teacher self-care. The purpose of this article is to provide teachers with strategies for advocating for collaborative relationships with all school professionals in order to adequately support themselves as they support their students with classroom and behavior management. The authors will discuss the tenets of IDEA as it relates to behavior management and outline ways to advocate for collaboration among colleagues.