Roles and Responsibilities of the Special Education Teacher . The teacher is unique in that he/she can fit many different roles in the educational environment. However, each of these distinct roles involves a variety of responsibilities and functions. Understanding these responsibilities can only help the special educator become more familiar with the role and increase the chances for success. For instance, the special education teacher can be assigned as:

Roles 1-A teacher in a self contained special education classroom in a regular school.

2- The resource teacher in a categorical resource room, a resource room in a special school which deals with only one type of exceptionality, or a non categorical resource room, a resource room usually found in the regular mainstream school where children with varied exceptionalities are educated at one time .

Roles of the SET 3-A member of the IEP Committee (depending on the state may also for example be referred to as the Committee on Special Education or IEP Committee), a district based committee mandated by Federal law whose responsibilities include the classification, placement and evaluation of all disabled children within the district.

Roles of the SET 4-A member of a multidisciplinary team educating secondary students in a departmentalized program.

Roles of the SET 5-A consultant teacher, a special education teacher assigned to work with a child with a disability right in the mainstreamed class.

Roles of the SET 6- An itinerant teacher: a special education teacher employed by an agency hired to visit various schools in several districts and work with children with disabilities.

Roles of the SET 7-An Inclusion Teacher in a partial inclusion program or full inclusion program

Roles of the SET 8- As a private practitioner who deals with the evaluation and remediation of children as an auxiliary service after school

Roles of the SET 9- The special education teacher can also be an educational evaluator (educational diagnostician) on the Child Study Team (CST), a school based support team that discusses and makes recommendation on high-risk students.