Why Statesmen Exists
With an ecosystem full of innovative options, Washington DC has become a laboratory for the newest iteration of education equity and reform. Still, 20 years in full swing with untold billions in full investment, the group needing the most out of that movement is now even further behind. The achievement gap for Black and Brown males continues to be largely unresponsive to many well-intended and well-designed innovations. At Statesmen College Preparatory Academy for Boys PCS, we believe that this can and must change. Statesmen is founded on the core belief that high levels of achievement for male scholars experiencing urban poverty is not just possible — it is what we are here for.
More than 30% of our scholars carry an IEP. They are not our most challenging population — they are our most important one. They have been misread, mislabeled, underestimated, and pushed to the margins by systems that met their differences with low expectations and bureaucratic compliance instead of genuine instruction. At Statesmen, we see brilliance first — and we have built a special education program designed to unlock it. The Special Education Coordinator is the leader who makes sure that program runs with legal precision, instructional integrity, and relentless advocacy for every scholar we serve.
What Statesmen Does
The recipe engaged to accomplish this task may seem complex but has two primary ingredients — high expectations combined with warm, caring, and trusting relationships. Given a tight-knit crew and a worthy cause, our boys are unstoppable. The vision of Statesmen is that the young male scholars who attend the academy one day lead in communities that they redesign. Always working in pursuit of the values of Relationships, Rigor, Relevance, and Resilience, the mission is to create a boy-friendly, pedagogy-informed academic environment within which young male scholars are equipped with the academic skills, social competencies, and personal development necessary to navigate life challenges, attend and complete the college of their choice, and return to become the premier agents of social change within and for the communities they serve.
For our scholars with disabilities, that vision is not aspirational — it is a legal right and a moral obligation. The Special Education Coordinator holds both with equal seriousness, building a program that is simultaneously compliant and excellent, structured and human, data-driven and deeply relational.
What Makes This Work
Passionate, committed, resilient, focused, self-aware, mature, mission-aligned adults who embody personal and professional efficacy are necessary to carry this work forward. Statesmen is not a place to work. More than that, it is a place to live out a mission, a calling, a design for impact, and a desire for legacy. Consider these internal drivers:
- You Do People! You are an advocate first — for the boys on your caseload, for the families navigating a system that has rarely been on their side, and for the teachers who need your guidance to serve these scholars well. You see the whole child before you see the disability classification.
- You Do Results! You know that compliance without quality is not good enough. An IEP that is filed on time but does not drive meaningful growth has failed. You hold yourself and your team to a standard where paperwork and outcomes rise together.
- You Do Focus! You hold the tension between legal obligation and instructional excellence without letting either one slide. You know IDEA, you know DC regs, and you know that knowing the law is only the beginning of doing right by these boys.
- You Do Not Quit! IEP timelines are relentless. Compliance is non-negotiable. Families are sometimes frustrated and sometimes afraid. You show up anyway — organized, calm, and committed — because these boys cannot afford for anyone in this role to be anything less.
If that sounds like you, welcome to Statesmen. Welcome home.
Who We Need Now
Statesmen is seeking a Special Education Coordinator who will lead our special education program with equal command of instructional best practice and legal compliance. This is a senior leadership role — not a caseload management position. The Special Education Coordinator supervises our Student Support Specialists, Dedicated Aides, and Behavior Technicians; owns our IEP compliance infrastructure; partners with the Literacy Coach on structured literacy integration for scholars with disabilities; and serves as the primary liaison to families, OSSE, and external service providers.
This role requires someone who can manage a compliance-heavy operation with precision while simultaneously building the instructional and relational culture that makes special education at Statesmen genuinely excellent — not just legally defensible. If you are a special educator who has outgrown the classroom and is ready to lead a program, build a team, and drive outcomes for the boys who need it most, this is your role.
What You Will Do
IEP Compliance & Case Management Oversight
- Own the school's IEP compliance calendar — tracking all timelines for annual reviews, triennial evaluations, eligibility determinations, and initial IEP development across the full student caseload.
- Review all IEPs for legal sufficiency, instructional quality, and alignment to present levels of performance, ensuring documents reflect each scholar's actual needs and are not template-driven.
- Supervise the IEP caseloads of all Student Support Specialists, providing coaching, feedback, and quality assurance on documents, meeting facilitation, and family communication.
- Ensure all special education records, evaluations, consent forms, and prior written notices are completed accurately and maintained in compliance with IDEA, FERPA, and DC OSSE requirements.
- Manage the school's response to any OSSE complaints, dispute resolution requests, or due process matters in coordination with school leadership and legal counsel as needed.
- Maintain real-time tracking of compliance metrics and report status to the Head of School and Chief of Staff on a regular basis.
Instructional Leadership & Program Quality
- Lead the development and continuous improvement of Statesmen's special education instructional model — ensuring that specially designed instruction (SDI) is evidence-based, rigorous, and aligned to grade-level standards.
- Partner with the Director of Literacy and Literacy Coach to align SDI with the school's structured literacy plan, ensuring scholars with disabilities receive explicit, science-of-reading-aligned instruction integrated into their IEP goals.
- Lead professional development for special education staff on IEP quality, SDI implementation, co-teaching models, and evidence-based intervention strategies.
- Collaborate with Deans of Instruction to ensure co-teaching partnerships are functioning effectively and that general education classrooms are implementing accommodations and modifications with fidelity.
- Lead or co-lead the MTSS team, ensuring the school's tiered support system is responsive to the needs of scholars with and without disabilities and that transitions between tiers are data-driven and timely.
Evaluation, Eligibility & Related Services
- Coordinate and manage all initial evaluations and reevaluations, including scheduling, consent, report review, and eligibility determination in compliance with IDEA timelines.
- Serve as the school's primary coordinator for related services — including speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychological services, and counseling — ensuring providers are scheduled, documented, and communicating with the IEP team.
- Maintain accurate records of related service delivery and flag missed services to providers and school leadership immediately.
- Coordinate extended school year (ESY) eligibility determination and services for qualifying scholars.
Family Partnership & Advocacy
- Serve as the school's primary point of contact for families of students with disabilities — accessible, responsive, and genuinely committed to partnership, not just compliance.
- Facilitate or co-facilitate IEP meetings, ensuring families understand their rights, the contents of the IEP, and the services their child will receive — in plain language, with cultural humility, and without condescension.
- Build proactive family communication systems so that families of scholars with disabilities are never surprised by a compliance action, a service change, or a concern about their child's progress.
- Connect families to external advocacy resources, parent training and information centers, and community supports as appropriate.
- Support family participation in the IEP process by creating conditions — including scheduling flexibility, translation support, and accessible materials — that make meaningful engagement possible.
OSSE Reporting & External Coordination
- Manage all OSSE special education reporting requirements, including child count, State Performance Plan indicators, and any required corrective action plan submissions.
- Serve as the primary liaison to OSSE's Office of the State Superintendent for special education matters, maintaining productive and transparent communication with assigned program specialists.
- Coordinate with DC Public Schools, neighboring LEAs, and nonpublic schools for students placed in out-of-school settings, ensuring proper service agreements, billing, and oversight.
- Manage Medicaid billing and reimbursement processes for eligible special education services in coordination with the Director of Operations.
Who Must You Be
Required
- Master's degree in Special Education, Educational Leadership, or a closely related field.
- Valid DC special education teaching license or administrator license, or eligibility for licensure.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in special education, with at least 2 years in a leadership, coordination, or supervisory role.
- Deep working knowledge of IDEA, DC special education regulations, and compliant IEP development and implementation.
- Demonstrated experience managing IEP compliance systems across a caseload of 30+ students.
- Experience supervising, coaching, and developing special education teachers and paraprofessionals.
- Strong organizational, documentation, and systems-management skills.
- Excellent communication and family engagement skills — particularly with families who have had negative experiences with special education systems.
- Commitment to high-expectation, inclusive special education practice and to Statesmen's mission.
Preferred
- Experience as a special education coordinator or program director in a DC charter school or DCPS setting.
- Familiarity with DC OSSE reporting systems, State Performance Plan indicators, and due process procedures.
- Training in structured literacy, Orton-Gillingham, or science-of-reading-aligned intervention — or demonstrated commitment to building that knowledge.
- Experience with Medicaid billing, related service coordination, and nonpublic school placement management.
- Familiarity with MTSS frameworks and experience integrating special education and general education systems within a tiered support model.
- Experience in single-gender education or working specifically with Black and Brown male students with disabilities.
What Will You Get
A home. A family. A place to carry out your personal mission. You will get challenged and you will grow. You will get to rest your head each night knowing that what you did today — mattered.
You will also receive a competitive salary commensurate with credentials and experience, with Statesmen's full benefits package. You will get access to some of the best professional development being offered, access to local, regional, and national cohorts of contemporaries doing this work at high levels, and the opportunity to build a special education program that is genuinely excellent — not just compliant — for the boys who need it most.
What You Must Do Now
We are deeply committed to equity and diversity and will not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other personal or professional status. If Statesmen College Preparatory Academy for Boys PCS sounds like your next home, please reach out to express your interest. We want to know that you are out there.
