K-8 Special Education Teacher | 2026-27 School Year

firstlineschools; New Orleans (LA); On-site; USD 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

403b plan

Job summary

FirstLine Schools is seeking a Special Education Lead Teacher to start January 2026. The role focuses on SPED instruction, collaboration with a school team, and supporting students with IEPs to meet learning goals.

Qualified candidates will hold a BA/BS and Louisiana SPED certification (or be pursuing it). The position emphasizes high standards, professional development, and commitment to FirstLine's Vision of Teaching Excellence.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of lead teaching experience.
• Demonstrated success in urban, open-admissions settings.
• BA or BS required; SPED certification in progress or eligible.

Responsibilities

• Design lessons aligned to standards and IEP goals.
• Provide scaffolded feedback and assess understanding.
• Establish routines and manage classroom behavior.
• Inspire students to pursue goals beyond innate ability.
• Help students solve complex problems and think critically.
• Receive and respond to feedback with colleagues.
• Provide IEP minutes and maintain required documentation.
• Ensure compliant IEP documentation and transition planning.

Skills

Lead teaching

Collaboration

Communication

AI in education

Education

BA/BS

Louisiana SPED Certification (in progress)

Job description

Position to begin in January 2026

FirstLine Schools: Special Education Lead Teacher

Reports to: Principal/Assistant Principal

FLSA Status: Exempt

Position Type: Full-Time

Position Summary:

FirstLine Schools is currently seeking talented, passionate Special Education Teachers. At FirstLine Schools, we know that it is the effectiveness of our teachers that matters the most when it comes to impacting the success of our students. To ensure that we are an organization of excellent teachers, we expect our teachers to demonstrate effectiveness through our Vision of Teaching Excellence. Teachers will be responsible for implementing the teaching curriculum, ensuring the success of our students, and working with a team of teachers within the school and network community.

SPED teachers are critical to helping our students who have IEPs meet their learning goals. SPED teachers regularly collaborate with a variety of student support staff members, leaders, and teachers/staff members to make sure that students' needs are being met in and out of the classroom. Our SPED teachers must be certified or working towards certification and work to ensure that our students have the necessary skills to prepare them for life, college, and beyond.

FirstLine's Vision Of Teaching Excellence:

We develop teachers at FirstLine by focusing on excellence in teaching. To do so, we coach teachers and center professional development on our Vision of Excellence in Teaching rubric the components of which include:

• On Task (Maintaining high expectations and maximizing instructional time)
• Essential Content (Planning effectively)
• Cognitive Engagement (Maintaining High Academic Expectations and Building Thinking Skills)
• Demonstration of Learning (Leading Instruction, Checking for Understanding, Responding to Student Misunderstanding)
• Community of Learners (Establishing Expectations and Responding to Student Behaviors)

Position Responsibilities:

• Designs lessons that lead to standards mastery and are aligned to grade level expectations/learning connectors for students with disabilities and end-of-year assessments
• Provides feedback to scholars by asking pertinent, scaffolded follow-up questions that affirm correctly understood content, clarify misunderstood content or extend scholars’ thinking
• Establishes effective classroom routines and manages students effectively without disruptions (redirect inappropriate behavior)
• Inspires and invests students in achieving their goals and in believing that goals are achieved through effort and not innate abilities
• Prepares scholars to solve complex problems with no obvious answer
• Seeks out and constructively responds to feedback from and engages in problem-solving with others
• Provides IEP minutes
• Ensures compliant IEP documentation for all students on caseload by facilitating IEP development, FBA/BIPs development and implementation, transition planning, and maintaining other supporting documentation related to service delivery (logs, progress reports, Extended School Year, etc)

Education & Experience:

• 2 or more years of lead teaching (as the teacher of record)
• Demonstrated success working with students in an urban, open admissions school
• A BA or BS
• A strong background in and command of content area
• Louisiana Teacher Certification (SPED) Completed or in progress (or be eligible to hold for our out-of-state applicants) in the specific disability/grade levels served, as necessary

Desired Qualities & Characteristics:

• Believe in every student's ability to achieve in a rigorous college or career prep curriculum
• Achieve results based on agreed-upon expectations
• Take personal responsibility
• Highly detail-oriented
• Open to learning and evolving with AI as a tool at work
• Collaborate effectively with a range of stakeholders
• Share a commitment to creating great schools in New Orleans
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to embed and model the FirstLine Commitments: We Keep Learning, We Work Together, We Are Helpful, We Are the Safekeepers of our Community, We Share Joy, We Show Results!

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here represent those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. Occasional physical exertion is required, including exerting up to 20 pounds of force as needed to move objects.

Supervises: No

About FirstLine Schools:

In 1998, FirstLine Schools started the first charter school in New Orleans. FirstLine now operates several (Pre)K-8th grade schools.

Our mission is to create and inspire great, open-admissions public schools in New Orleans.

Our staff is a diverse and talented group dedicated to our students' success and to their own growth. Our schools are led by leaders who hold themselves accountable for student achievement and teacher development.

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. FirstLine Schools offers a comprehensive benefits package including a 403b plan.

FirstLine Schools is an equal employment opportunities (EEO) organization.