Rose started working in special education in 2003. Every year, it seemed like things would get easier, and then a new challenge appeared from global financial crises to changes in district policies that upended everything. Paperwork was a nightmare. Her IEPs were consistently late and poorly written– and took over her life. Then, with the help of colleagues, the paperwork slowly started to make sense. She started to build out documents with her favorite goals, assemble assessment packets, and to share them with student teachers and new teachers.

In 2016, she decided to plop what she had created up online and then totally forgot about it. Then, in 2022 her sister asked if anyone went to the website. Turns out, a lot of people had– thousands and thousands every year. So she sat down and started working on it, adding all of the new things she had created and learned in the last 6 years.

Today, Spedhelper is one of the top resource sites on the internet for special educators, providing free and paid resources for teachers and districts that make it easier for special educators to thrive. 

Rose continues to teach special education– and about special education at universities– as well as research and write about teaching. To learn more about her, visit rosesebastian.com. 

Have questions? Reach out to rose@spedhelper.org.