Back to School Forms

Hi everyone! Glad to have you back for week 3 of our Special Education Summer Blog Hop. If you’re just stumbling across this blog hop, you can catch up by reading my previous posts:

Week 1: Scheduling
Week 2: Classroom Set-Up

This week it’s all about back to school forms! In the coming weeks I will be starting to get my welcome forms and letters together so that I am not scrambling to get them done when the calendar turns to August.

Although my school sends home a letter to inform the families of teacher assignments, I always send home a welcome letter from me. It puts the families at ease to learn a little bit more about the teacher and to feel as if they’ve been reached out to before the school year begins. Here is a look at what I send home!

My welcome letter includes:

A brief biography and background of me
A brief overview of my philosophy of teaching and parent communication
A request for a letter back from the parents (this wonderful portion of the letter comes from Beth Newingham’s opening letter)
A supply list
One sheet of Avery labels with the student’s name on them (I like everything labeled and this way I know it is labeled to my liking and it also helps the parents out!)
An invitation to Meet the Teacher Day (This is optional, but since I teach a K-1 self-contained room, it is helpful for the families and students to be able to come visit the classroom and meet me before the first day of school. This is also a good idea if you have students who have recently began receiving special education services or are transitioning to a new building or special education setting.)
A to-do list for the parents to complete before the school year begins. This includes:

Joining my Remind text notifications
Checking out my classroom website (TONS of information here)
Choosing a family photo to send in for our classroom (I ask my families to send a photo in each year and I keep them framed on our windowsill throughout the year)

Here are some samples of the letters in my welcome packet: