Teacher Tools Tuesday: What I Wish Every SPED Team Did Before the Last Day of School
The Truth About the End of the School Year in Special Education
By the time May hits, everyone is in survival mode.
Teachers are wrapping up progress reports.
Families are trying to understand next steps.
Teams are juggling ESY, transitions, and final meetings.
And in the middle of all that, important information gets lost--not because people don't care, but because there's no shared system holding it all together.
What Usually Goes Wrong
Every year, I see the same patterns:
Next year's teacher starts from scratch
Behavior strategies don't get passed along clearly
Accommodations get inconsistently implemented
Transition plans are rushed or unclear
Families leave meetings unsure of what happens next
It's not a lack of effort--it's a lack of structure.
What Makes the Biggest Difference
The most effective teams don't rely on memory or scattered notes.
They use a shared end-of-year system that answers one simple question:
What does the team need to know immediately?
When that question is guiding the conversation, everything changes.
3 Things Strong Teams Always Do Before Summer
Document what actually worked
Not just what's in the IEP--but what actually helped the student succeed day-to-day.
Clarify transition priorities
Whether it's ESY, grade-level change, or graduation, everyone leaves with the same understanding of next steps.
Leave a clear "starting point" for next year
So August isn't a rest--it's a continuation.
The Problem Isn't Effort--It's Organization
Most teams are already doing pieces of this.
The issue is that it's spread across:
emails
meeting notes
IEP documents
verbal conversations
Which means nothing feels complete.
This is Why I Created a System for It
To help bring all of this into one place, I created the:
Spesh End-of-Year Playbook
A structured, editable system that organizes:
Core end-of-year wrap-up tasks
Transition planning (all levels)
ESY and summer supports
Graduation and postsecondary planning
Team + family communication tools
Because the goal isn't just to "finish the year"
It's to make sure students don't have to start over in August.
Free Teacher Tool
Before you log off for summer…grab this free checklist. Your August self will thank you.
If your end-of-year to-do list feels longer than your summer break, I created something bigger to help. Head to yesterday’s post to learn more about the Spesh End-of-Year Playbook—a practical resource for transitions, ESY planning, graduation prep, and keeping everyone on the same page. Available now for $7.99 on Teachers Pay Teachers.
So Very Spesh
IEPs • Inclusion • Real classroom practice
Comments