Special Educator
The Owl House, Aldona, Goa | AbleTree Foundation
About us
The Owl House is a skilling and community centre in Aldona, run by AbleTree Foundation, a Section 8 not-for-profit. We work at the intersection of neurodiversity and disability inclusion — building real skills, real independence, and real belonging for the people who walk through our doors. We're not a therapy clinic and we're not a classroom that pretends the world outside doesn't exist. We build toward employability, autonomy, and community life.
The role
We're looking for a Special Educator who can walk into a room with a neurodivergent or disabled learner and know what to do — not from a textbook, but from having actually done it. You'll design and deliver individualised learning and skilling plans, track progress in ways that hold up to scrutiny, and work alongside our programme and operations team to make sure what happens in the room translates into skills that last outside it.
What you'll do
- Design and run individualised education/skilling plans (IEPs) tailored to each learner's profile — cognitive, sensory, communication, behavioural
- Assess learners on intake and re-assess on a regular cycle, with documentation that's usable, not decorative
- Adapt curriculum and teaching method based on what's actually working for the learner in front of you
- Manage behaviour proactively — de-escalation, positive behaviour support, structured routines — without over-medicalising the learner
- Keep parents/caregivers in the loop with honest, specific updates, not vague reassurance
- Contribute to case notes and outcome data that we can actually use for funder reporting
What you need to bring
- Degree agnostic. We don't gatekeep on B.Ed (Special Education), DSE, or equivalent — if you have it, great, tell us. If you don't, that's not disqualifying.
- Non-negotiable: demonstrated, hands-on experience working with neurodivergent and/or disabled individuals. This means you can point to specific learners, specific settings, specific outcomes — not a course you completed. Come with references, case examples, or a portfolio we can actually check.
- Working knowledge of at least one structured approach (ABA, TEACCH, DIR/Floortime, Picture Exchange, structured teaching, etc.)
- Comfort with learners across a range of profiles — autism, intellectual disability, learning disabilities, ADHD — since our centre doesn't run single-diagnosis classrooms
- Basic documentation discipline: you can write a progress note that another educator could pick up and act on
Good to have
- Experience with vocational/pre-vocational skilling, not just academic instruction
- Konkani or Marathi, in addition to English — useful with several of our families
- Experience working in a small-team, resource-constrained setting where you wear more than one hat
What we offer
- Direct, hands-on work — small learner-to-educator ratios, not a numbers game
- A team that will back your clinical judgement over a rulebook
- Room to shape how the programme runs, not just deliver a fixed curriculum
How to apply
Send your CV along with a short note on the learners you've worked with and what you actually did with them — to [Confidential Information]. Skip the cover letter platitudes; tell us about a specific learner and what changed.
