A Vulnerable Role: The Work of District Special Education Leaders

Purpose: District central office leaders are responsible for implementing educational policies in their districts. Moreover, scholarship has consistently found that district leaders’ interpretations and actions shape what policy becomes in their school districts. District special education leaders (DSELs) are responsible for leading the implementation of special education in school districts. The purpose of this study is to better understand DSELs’ roles and responsibilities. Methods: In this in-depth interview study with 36 current or former DSELs, we bring together role vulnerability theory with institutional theory to understand DSELs’ responsibilities and daily work and how the broader external and organizational environments shape DSELs’ responsibilities and experiences. Findings: While prior literature on role vulnerability in educational leadership has found that administrators’ work is often shaped by their supervisors, we found that this was not the only or indeed the primary driver shaping DSELs’ work. Instead, special education policies shaped the broader categories of DSELs’ daily work. We also found that regulative aspects of DSELs’ environment created additional tasks. Finally, we found that ableist mindsets within their central offices shaped the ways that DSELs experienced their responsibilities and created structural and psychological vulnerabilities, including experiencing battle fatigue in their work. Implications: This paper has implications for research and for district central office leaders. Our findings suggest that superintendents could attend to ableist mindsets and elevate the voice of DSELs in central offices to make DSELs’ role less vulnerable and, in turn, better serve students with disabilities.