Special educators can have many roles and responsibilities in any given school setting.
Their activities each day will be determined by the children they are teaching, the kinds and severity of disabilities those students have, the children's ages, and the setting in which the teachers are working. Juggling the many demands on their time is a challenging and sometimes frustrating endeavor. Direct Teaching One of the primary responsibilities of the special education teacher is to provide instruction and adapt and develop materials to match the learning styles, strengths, and special needs of each of their students. This does not include the time they spend beyond the regular school day preparing lesson plans, grading papers, and meeting with other professionals. The methods they use, and the learning goals they develop, will be determined by the students' abilities, age, setting, and many other variables.