Job Description of a Special Education Case Manager

Ensure Legal Compliance

• Students who are identified as having a special need are legally entitled to receive special services. If a school fails to provide these services, it can be found to be out of compliance. Failure to comply with special education requirements can have serious ramifications. To ensure that the school doesn't fall out of compliance, the special education case manager must monitor the students' files and report any issues to school officials so that they can resolve these problems in a timely fashion.

Maintain IEPs

• Every student who is identified as special needs receives an Individualized Education Plan. The special education case manager must create these IEPs when students are first identified as having a special need and modify them each time the students' file comes up for review.

Schedule Testing

• When students who have not been previously identified as having a special need appear to need services, the special education case manager must arrange for the necessary testing to prove or disprove their need. The case manager may also have to arrange for additional testing for students who are already identified as having a special need if it does not appear that that student's needs are being met by the current plan.

Maintain Student Files

• Because special education students have specialized needs, they must be monitored more closely than general education pupils. To ensure that this monitoring takes place, the special education case manager must create and maintain detailed files on each student. These files include, along with the student's IEP, student work samples that demonstrate student skill as well as anecdotal information from teachers regarding the student's abilities.

Communicate With General Education Teachers

• When a student has an IEP that entitles him to special education services, the special education case manager must communicate this information with the general education teachers responsible for educating this student in the classroom setting. The case manager generally accomplishes this duty by providing all teachers with a copy of the student's IEP and holding a meeting at which he can go over the specifics of the IEP with these teachers.