Director of Special Education ARD Facilitation
KIPP Foundation
Company Description
About KIPP Texas Public Schools
KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 54 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 32,000 students across Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose - college, career, and beyond - so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more fair world.
Founded in Houston in 1994 and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, we are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join a Team and Family with an unwavering commitment to creating classrooms, offices, and communities rooted in belongingness, academic success and joy. If you are passionate about joining a mission and values-driven community who wants every child to want to run to school, the KIPP Texas Team and Family is for you!
KIPP Public Schools is a national network of public charter schools that prepares students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 278 schools with nearly 16,500 educators and 190,000 students and alumni.
Job Description
The Director of ARD Facilitators is responsible for leading, coaching, and developing a team of ARD Facilitators to ensure high-quality ARD (Admission, Review, and Dismissal) processes across KIPP Texas. This leader will build systems of training and ongoing coaching to drive compliance to 100% and strengthen IEP quality to support improved student outcomes. The Director ensures that ARD meetings are legally compliant, student-centered, and aligned with best practices for inclusive education.
Key Responsibilities
Leadership & Coaching
Provide direct supervision and coaching to ARD Facilitators across regions to ensure consistency, compliance, and quality.
Develop and implement professional learning and capacity-building structures for ARD Facilitators to improve facilitation skills, compliance knowledge, and instructional alignment.
Model and coach best practices for managing complex ARD meetings, including those involving disputes or high-stakes decision-making.
Compliance & Quality Assurance
Monitor ARD processes to ensure compliance with federal, state, and district special education regulations, including timelines, properly constituted ARDs, and documentation requirements.
Establish systems to audit and track ARD compliance data, providing ongoing feedback and corrective action plans where needed.
Partner with the Compliance and Assessment teams to align ARD practices with Child Find, evaluation timelines, and IEP development standards.
Capacity Building & Collaboration
Lead training and calibration sessions to ensure ARD Facilitators maintain deep knowledge of FAPE, LRE, accommodations, modifications, graduation planning, BIPs, and transition planning.
Collaborate with School Leaders, Special Education staff, and General Education teams to ensure ARD decisions are grounded in instructional quality and student outcomes.
Provide targeted support to campuses with high compliance risk or low-quality IEPs, including direct coaching, modeling, and corrective action planning.
Data & Continuous Improvement
Analyze ARD compliance and IEP quality data to identify trends and guide strategic improvement efforts.
Develop and report progress-monitoring systems to ensure compliance and quality goals are met or exceeded.
Contribute to the development of tools, resources, and systems that standardize ARD processes statewide.
Qualifications
Key Competencies
Deep knowledge of IDEA, state special education regulations, and ARD compliance requirements.
Strong facilitation, coaching, and adult learning skills.
Proven ability to manage high-stakes meetings with professionalism and equity-centered decision-making.
Systems-thinking with the ability to design scalable training and monitoring processes.
Exceptional collaboration, communication, and relationship-building skills.
Additional Information
KIPP provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or disability.
Compensation & Benefits
As a full time KIPP Texas employee you are eligible to participate in all KIPP Texas’ benefit plans. KIPP Texas offers a robust variety of benefits choices with competitive rates, including medical, dental, and vision options, as well as life insurance and disability plans.