Job Description
Summary Position Description The Behavioral and Special Education Support Specialist will be responsible for developing a cohesive partnership with educators, to effectively deliver lesson plans that include all children, individualize for children based on their needs in alignment with Creative Curriculum & TS-GOLD Assessment and will provide support to manage the day-to-day operational activities of the classroom. S/he must understand children?s cognitive, social, emotional and physical development in order to ensure a safe and stimulating classroom environment where children are actively engaged and encouraged to succeed. S/he will incorporate the Conscious Discipline approach within daily routines as behavioral guidance. S/he will be able to adapt lessons to include IFSP and IEP goals as well as provide strategies to educators for specific children that will need additional support to help children overcome barriers and reach their full potential. S/he must provide a safe and secure environment where children feel comfortable and have a sense of belonging that aligns with Olive Tree Values, Policies & Procedures and TNDHS regulations. S/he must be skilled in communicating with both children and adults in order to meet the needs of the children, effectively work with the teaching team, and to communicate with parents. S/he will participate in the professional development plan to maintain continuing education as required for Olive Tree and TNDHS.
This position reports to Olive Tree Early Learning Academy?s Director of Curriculum & Learning.
Duties Job Responsibilities:
- Effectively teach and work with infants, toddlers, and/or preschoolers.
- Effectively collaborate with parents, Olive Tree team members and other professionals to address individual student needs.
- Develop and Implement individualized behavior support plans aligned with Conscious Discipline approach in collaboration with the director of curriculum and learning.
- Provide training and guidance to educators and families on how to implement behavioral plans and provide support strategies.
- Collect and analyze data to monitor children?s progress, document the effectiveness of the implementation of the plans and use the data to inform adjustments to behavior support plans with educators support.
- Provide behavioral crisis intervention in classrooms and de-escalate situations.
- Assist in the implementation of Individual Family Service Plan (IFSPs) and Individual Education Plans (IEPs).
- Integrate children with special needs in a positive, supporting, and respectful manner
- Maintain accurate records of children?s progress, interventions, and communication with families, educators and other professionals.
- Incorporate developmentally appropriate and effective teaching methods to ensure kindergarten readiness .
- Effectively help teachers adapt the lesson to meet the needs of individual children.
- Regularly utilize positive communication methods with parents regarding children?s progress and development
- Tend to children?s personal hygiene needs, including but not limited to changing diapers, assisting with toilet training, assisting hand washing, etc when supporting in classrooms.
- Respond quickly to the needs of children who display distress or discomfort.
- Document and verify that each child has been signed in/out for the day and maintain daily attendance records.
- Maintain a positive, calm attitude & tone of voice, and model this attitude and voice to parents and others working at Olive Tree.
- Attend professional development and staff meetings as required by Olive Tree
- Attend annual Open House & parent/teacher conferences and provide parents of each child with results from student assessments/evaluations, overall development, and classwork samples
Requirements Education and Experience Requirements
- Associate?s degree in child development, early childhood education, special education or related fields is required.
- Experience working in a childcare or other educational setting with children with disabilities.
Essential Functions
- Able to observe, see, hear, and respond to children?s and staff?s needs, emergencies, and conflicts that might occur in a classroom, on the playground, in the restroom, or in common areas.
- Able to lift 30-40 lbs from the floor to a waist high table 10-15 times a day.
- Able to crouch, bend or stoop to a child?s height, maintain eye contact at a child?s level, sit on the floor, and stand tall enough to reach children on the highest piece of equipment.
- Able to effectively handle the stress, tension, and exasperation that contact with children/parents from diverse backgrounds may bring.
- Able to work in-person
Nice To Haves Education and Experience Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in child development, early childhood education, special education or related fields.
- Experience working in a similar field or educational setting with children with disabilities.
Benefits Benefits include
- Paid time off including vacation, sick days, paid holidays, self-care days
- Paid individual professional development up to $600 per year
- Reimbursement for individual therapy sessions up to $500 per year
- Monthly micro-bonuses
About Us The Restoration House helps restore single mothers and their children back to God?s good intent for their lives. Through supportive transitional housing, ally teams, family advocacy, and youth development, TRH walks alongside low-income, single-parent families, helping them break harmful cycles and regain hope and a future.
In September 2023, The Restoration House launched the Olive Tree Early Learning Academy. Olive Tree partners families together with exceptional educators in a whole child approach to high-quality early education to provide a creative, safe, and inclusive environment where children grow to love learning. Olive Tree is licensed for 83 children, ages 6 weeks to 5 years old.
Olive Tree Early Learning Academy follows a trauma-responsive approach with high-quality early learning environments that will promote children?s social-emotional, physical, language and brain development. Olive Tree will utilize Conscious Discipline� along with Teaching Strategies Creative Curriculum� and its suite of tools, including Tadpoles�, and ReadyRosie�.
Job Tags
Holiday work, Full time,