Teachers and parents tell Charles County board special‑education resources and staff workload are at a breaking point

During the meeting’s public forum on Nov. 4, multiple educators and parents urged the Charles County Board of Education to address special‑education resourcing, student behavior supports and the growing workload on teachers.

Jennifer Everett, a special‑education teacher, described how time spent managing severe behaviors and documentation limits direct instruction and said the result is a reactive, not proactive, environment for students who require intensive interventions. "When educators are mentally and emotionally exhausted, it affects their ability to teach effectively," she said.

Several teachers noted a shortage of substitutes and special‑education instructional assistants; one fifth‑grade teacher said her school had more than a dozen unfilled positions that day, forcing internal reassignments and lost program time. Another kindergarten teacher warned that inclusion placements without adequate supports are harming both students with IEPs and their peers and asked the district to reexamine placement decisions and kindergarten curriculum pacing.

A parent of a medically complex child called for an audit of special‑education delivery for medically fragile students, saying family input is sometimes excluded from policy decisions and that delays or gaps in services can force children to miss weeks of instruction.

Board members took the comments as a call to action; staff said a work group on workload is forming to gather teacher input and that district leaders will follow up with targeted data and potential policy responses.

Next steps: district staff will convene work‑group sessions on workload and special‑education delivery, follow up on substitute availability, and provide the board with responses and recommended actions in upcoming board communications.