Director of Special Education & Student Services

JOB TITLE:
Director of Special Education & Student Services

LOCATION:
Administration Building

WORK YEAR: 260 Days

SCHEDULE: 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday.

WORK STATUS:
Full-Time Classified Exempt

REPORTS TO:
Chief Academic Officer

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Director of Special Education & Student Services provides district wide leadership for the design, implementation, monitoring, and continuous improvement of services for students with disabilities. The primary responsibility of this position is Special Education, with secondary leadership responsibilities for district wide student services, including Section 504, nursing services, mental health supports, and social-emotional learning (SEL).

The Director is expected to spend significant time alongside school leaders, special education teachers, related service providers, paraprofessionals, and other school-based staff to strengthen instructional practice and improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

While ensuring full compliance with federal and state special education requirements is an essential responsibility of the position, the Director is responsible for ensuring that legally compliant systems translate into high-quality instruction, effective interventions, meaningful access to grade-level learning, and measurable student growth.

The Director will create a culture in which adults regularly examine student work, analyze student progress, identify instructional gaps, adjust practice, and take collective responsibility for accelerating outcomes for students with disabilities.

Serve as the district's lead instructional coach and thought partner for special education.

The Director will:

• Provide frequent, side-by-side coaching to special education teachers, related service providers, paraprofessionals, instructional coaches, and school leaders.
• Spend consistent time in classrooms observing instruction and student learning.
• Model effective instructional practices for serving students with disabilities in both general education and specialized settings.
• Provide timely, actionable feedback to staff following classroom observations and coaching cycles.
• Support teachers in designing instruction that maintains high expectations while providing appropriate scaffolds, accommodations, modifications, and specially designed instruction.
• Coach staff to move beyond task completion and compliance toward instruction that produces measurable student learning.
• Support effective co-teaching and collaboration between general and special educators.
• Help school teams distinguish between accommodations, interventions, modifications, and specially designed instruction.
• Build the instructional capacity of school-based staff rather than creating dependence on district-level problem-solving.
• Identify patterns across schools and develop coaching responses that address recurring instructional needs.

Lead and strengthen district and school-based PLC structures for special education.

The Director will:

• Develop, facilitate, and participate in effective cross-functional PLCs focused on teaching and learning.
• Ensure PLC conversations are grounded in student work, assessment data, IEP progress monitoring, and evidence of student learning rather than primarily operational or compliance topics.
• Implement established protocols for examining student work and determining instructional next steps.
• Support staff in identifying skill gaps and developing targeted responses.
• Monitor whether students are making sufficient progress toward IEP goals and grade-level expectations.
• Help teams identify students who are not progressing and determine when instruction or intervention needs to change.
• Ensure PLCs result in clear actions, responsible individuals, timelines, and follow-up.
• Develop systems for sharing effective practices across schools.

Design and lead high-quality professional learning that results in changes in adult practice and student outcomes.

The Director will:

• Assess staff learning needs through classroom observations, student work, achievement data, compliance reviews, staff feedback, and school leader input.
• Develop an annual special education professional learning plan aligned with district instructional priorities.
• Facilitate professional development for special education staff, general education staff, paraprofessionals, related service providers, and…