K-8 Special Education Teacher

Position

Position to begin in January 2026

First Line Schools:
Special Education Lead Teacher

Reports to: Principal/Assistant Principal

FLSA Status: Exempt

Position Type: Full-Time

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

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

We develop teachers at First Line by focusing on excellence in teaching. 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)

• Design lessons that lead to standards mastery and are aligned to grade level expectations for students with disabilities and end-of-year assessments
• Provide feedback to scholars by asking pertinent, scaffolded follow-up questions that affirm correctly understood content, clarify misunderstandings, or extend thinking
• Establish effective classroom routines and manage students effectively without disruptions (redirect inappropriate behavior)
• Inspire and invest students in achieving their goals and in believing that goals are achieved through effort, not innate abilities
• Prepare scholars to solve complex problems with no obvious answer
• Seek out and constructively respond to feedback from and engage in problem-solving with others
• Provide IEP minutes; ensure 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)

• 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 out-of-state applicants) in the specific disability/grade levels served, as necessary

• 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 First Line Commitments:
  We Keep Learning, We Work Together, We Are Helpful, We Are the Safe keepers of our Community, We Share Joy, We Show Results!

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.

No supervision details provided.

In 1998, First Line Schools started the first charter school in New Orleans. First Line 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. First Line Schools offers a comprehensive benefits package including a 403b plan. First Line Schools is an equal employment opportunities (EEO) organization.