Leveraging AI to help special education teachers

Key points:

technology has long been seen as holding the promise of making schools more effective and educators more efficient. In the late 1990s, the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) recognized school districts that used technology effectively and efficiently. artificial intelligence (ai) has elevated the promise of that decades-old goal to new heights.

The number of students we are focusing on is significant. More than 15 percent of students nationwide and more than one in five students in some areas are diagnosed as needing an individualized special education program. Districts have reported a shortage of special education teachers since the late 1990s. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures37 states identified special education as an area of ​​teacher shortage during the 2023-2024 school year.

As special education educators consistently identify high levels of paperwork as a common source of burnout and job dissatisfaction, educational leaders need to turn to generative ai tools to streamline special education processes.

There are several simple ways to use generative ai tools to streamline special education paperwork. One simple tool has already been designed specifically to assist in the development of individual education plans (IEPs) for students. ai/tools/iep-suggestion” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>MagicSchool.ai includes an IEP generator who will write an initial IEP taking into account the child's grade, disabilities, strengths, needs, and behaviors. ai/templates/iep-goal-generator” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Easy and simple.ai has an IEP generator that quickly and easily allows an IEP team to develop a goal for a student, rather than the old model of having to maintain banks of goals for reference. IEP Co-Pilot is another ai support option that can help teams develop SMART IEP goals and be incorporated into the pre-referral process for Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) goal setting.

While ai resources for IEP development have been revolutionary in helping with paperwork overload, the benefits of ai related to special education workload don’t end there. Genius of the goalNot only does ai help develop IEP goals, but it can also offer personalized accommodation recommendations, sample lesson plans, create quarterly goals, and generate progress reports for data tracking. This can also be supported by data tracking and goal progress monitoring to help teams determine if adequate progress is being made. ai” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Magic School.ai has a specific Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) generator that can help teachers with additional, objective ideas when behavior plans naturally need multiple revisions. For both new and veteran teachers, Poe.com provides access to a behavioral intervention bot in real time to assist with questions that may arise with paperwork or strategies for student behavior. In this case, ai can essentially serve as an on-demand instructional coach for special education teachers.

Creating texts appropriate for the reading level can be another tedious task for special education teachers. There are several text leveling tools that allow a teacher to input text and have the ai ​​return it at the requested level. This can be used for students with higher or lower level reading needs. ai/tools/text-leveler” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>MagicSchool.ai has a text graderlike Rewordify.comwhich allows a teacher to modify a passage of text to make it easier to read by removing difficult vocabulary with more common terms. A third option is Text Compactor.com which also allows for translation in some languages. All of these ai supports come together to provide special education staff with strategies that help support the science of reading while also differentiating content for students.

Planning and facilitating multiple meetings per year can be time-consuming for special education teachers, but ai has become a very useful resource for this planning. Many bots can write customized agendas for IEP meetings, staff meetings, or team meetings. This allows the special educator to take on more of an editing role to ensure that the content is tailored to the student’s specific needs. Taking detailed notes at a meeting can also become a thing of the past. ai-assistant/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Zoom ai Meeting Assistant You can provide an ai-generated summary of IEP meetings or other meetings to avoid staff having to take notes during the meeting. One consideration with Zoom is to remember that the ai ​​assistant generates a summary of the meeting, not just the portion of the meeting that is recorded. ai/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>Nutria.ai is another ai tool for taking meeting notes. The team should always ensure that there is consent for the confidentiality of notes taken in this way, and that they can be added as a starting point for the meeting agenda.

During the assessment process, a multidisciplinary team will meet to provide information as part of an evaluation to determine eligibility for services. Traditionally, the special education teacher oversees the collection and helps organize all of these specific reports. ai can help organize and explain more complicated issues/reports that might be provided to the school. For example, teams could consult with ai on specific medical reports to learn more about how the school could best support a student’s individual needs and assist with program planning ideas. ai allows individual team members to be better informed about medical issues during meetings.

While there may still be some questions about ai and the ways it can be integrated into special education, there is overwhelming evidence of resources and websites that are now being commonly used by teams to help reduce the workload and pressure on special education staff. ai provides the opportunity for special education teachers working in a rural district or in a solitary role in their building to have on-demand collaboration and support for questions that may arise, when before this might have seemed like a need to schedule a meeting with a mentor or instructional coach. Additionally, ai can help support the writing of IEP goals, accommodations/modifications, behavior/safety plans, development of notes for medical documents, transition planning, and data tracking. The opportunities are limitless and new resources are constantly emerging. Helping special education teachers see themselves as facilitators of learning and resources is a great way to continue to embrace new technologies with ai and support efficiency as part of their work to support student learning.