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One of the biggest challenges for special educators is figuring out how to support students outside of the classroom.
For example, maybe a student works diligently in your classroom but then does nothing when they go home.
The parents are upset, you are tired of the endless emails, and something needs to change.
In this post, you’ll learn practical strategies to bridge the gap between school and home, empowering your students to stay organized and complete tasks even in unstructured environments.
Why does it matter that students learn to work from home?
As special educators, you’ve seen students who show promise in the classroom but falter when working independently at home. This drop in productivity leads to:
Piles of missing assignments.
Stressed parents unsure how to help.
Students falling further behind, eroding their confidence.
Executive function skills, like organization, task initiation, and follow-through, are key predictors of academic (and quality of life) outcomes.
By addressing the home-school productivity gap, you can help students succeed in your classroom and throughout their lives.
What prevents students from doing homework at home?
A Lack of Structure at Home
At school, students have clear schedules and teacher oversight. At home, distractions like gaming, social media, or a disorganized environment make it hard to focus.
Most parents do not post clear routines or schedules for their children to view, unlike the classroom environment with many external cues.
Inconsistent Follow-Through
Even with tools like tracking sheets or calendars, students often abandon these systems at home without someone to guide them.
Overwhelmed Parents
Parents juggling work, other children, and household tasks may struggle to provide the structured support their students need.
A step-by-step process to help students work from home
Step One: Assess the Situation
Meet with parents to discuss the student’s productivity at home. Identify challenges like distractions, workspace issues, or a lack of accountability.
Step Two: Host a Family Team Meeting
Collaborate with the family to develop a plan. For example, suggest moving the student’s workspace to a common area with adult supervision and assigning clear roles (e.g., parents tracking progress, students using a planner).
Step Three: Come up with an action plan
During this meeting, come up with action steps that everyone can play a role in.
Maybe Dad will sit with the student for 30 minutes each night.
Maybe Mom will help the student reorganize their study space.
Instead of putting all the responsibility on the student, everyone should pitch in to support the growth and development of the student. This is called collective efficacy.
Step Four: Provide accountability and support
Work with the student to reinforce habits like updating their planner daily and celebrating small wins.
Gradually shift responsibility to the student, empowering them to take ownership of their progress.
Introduce strategies like:
The "Swallowing the Frog Method," tackling the hardest task first.
Using timers to create focused work intervals with built-in breaks.
Digital tools like shared calendars for better communication.
Step 5: Repeat
Set up a monthly meeting to evaluate if the plan worked or ratchet back the action steps if they were too overwhelming the first time around.
This repetition process will allow you to iterate on the plan and adjust until it works.
Summary & Actionable Steps
Supporting students’ executive function skills beyond the classroom requires teamwork and consistency. Here’s how you can start:
Meet with parents to identify challenges and create a plan.
Hold a Family Team Meeting that involves the student
Assign everyone an action step
Schedule FTM follow-ups to evaluate progress.
Repeat the process until it is no longer needed
Hope this helps! 🤙🏻
P.S. These are skills that executive function coaches work on with their students. If you want to try working on them with your students, consider joining hundreds of other educators and parents who have completed my Semester Success Blueprint Course. In less than 2 hours, this comprehensive course will teach you and your student the system I developed to help hundreds of students learn how to manage school effectively and raise their self-awareness and engagement with school.
About Me
Hey! I'm Sean 👋
I'm a former public school special education teacher who realized that executive function skills are more important than knowing when George Washington crossed the Potomac.
Since then, I've made it my mission to teach anyone who will listen about how to develop these key life skills.
In 2020, I founded Executive Function Specialists to ensure all students with ADHD and Autism have access to high-quality online executive function coaching services. We offer online EF coaching and courses to help students and families.
Realizing I could only reach so many people through coaching, in 2021 I started the Executive Function Coaching Academy which trains schools, educators, and individuals to learn the key strategies to improve executive function skills for students.
In 2023, I co-founded of UpSkill Specialists, to provide neurodivergent adults with high-quality executive function coaching services.
When not pursuing my passions through work, I love spending time with my family, getting exercise, and growing my brain through reading. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.