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behavior, and social interaction (Park et al., 2018; Turnbull et al., 2020; Vaughn &
Bos, 2020).
Miller et al. (2020) asserted that collaboration is essential, and lack of
collaboration is a barrier to inclusive instruction as both teachers need ownership
of the instruction (King-Sears & Strogilos, 2020). Billingsley and Bettini (2019)
and Vaughn and Bos (2020) asserted most general education and special education
teachers do not have a common planning period; therefore, they do not plan daily
together (Vaughn & Bos, 2020). Although Blanton et al. (2018) found master
schedules, program requirements, and use of
classroom space often separate general education
and special education teachers, Vaughn and Bos The lack of certified, qualified
(2020) stressed that time is the most significant
factor that hinders successful collaboration. With teachers harms students,
few meaningful collaboration opportunities,
general education teachers are often unprepared inservice teachers, and the
to serve all students’ learning needs, while special
education educators may lack the background in whole educational system.
specific disciplinary content, concepts, and skills
necessary to support students with significant
support needs (Blanton et al., 2018).
When pairs of educators plan together, they can create the proper curricular
adaptations based on the strengths of students with significant support needs (Miller
et al., 2020; Vaughn & Bos, 2020). They can share ideas, support one another, and
solve problems (Miller et al., 2020). Prioritizing collaboration in the school’s master
schedule would be one solution to promoting collaboration. School administrators
could create a master schedule to include collaboration time for as many general and
special education educators as possible. As federal and state funding increases and
more educators are in the pipeline, the master schedule could include a collaboration
period for all educators.

Summary
Teacher attrition is at an all-time high (Kurtz, 2022). Teachers report that their
working conditions are a mitigating factor in their decisions to leave the profession
(TEA, 2022). Making collaboration between general and special education teachers
a priority would increase the sharing of responsibilities for instruction, assessments,
goal setting, and data collection between and among these professionals. The
workloads of both general and special education teachers would decrease. Students’
academic success would increase because students with significant support needs
would stay in the inclusion classroom.

References
Agran, M., Jackson, L., Kurth, J. A., Ryndak, D., Burnette, K., Jameson, M., Zagona, A.,
Fizpatrick, H., & Wehmeyer, M. (2020). Why aren’t students with severe disabilities
being placed in general education classrooms: Examining the relations among classroom
placement, learner outcomes, and other factors. Research and Practice for Persons with
Severe Disabilities, 45(1), 4–13.
Association of Texas Professional Educators. (n.d.). Let us teach: ATPE members provide input
to teacher vacancy task force. https://www.atpe.org/ATPE/media/Assets/PDF/22_gr
_TeacherVacancyTaskForce-Survey-Results.pdf

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