i've heard so many horror stories about tightwad school districts ans special ed its insane, my aunt is in the same situation, teaching special ed with no formal training, its essentially an excersise in crowd control. Problem is the school districts dont give a damn about the special ed classes, they dont take exams so the school wont get ranked well off thier exam statistics, but they have to teach them, despite the fact that most of them are un-educatable and little more than drooling morons, so they slap anyone they can find on the class to keep them under control and thats that. not to mention the turnover rate of these teachers is extremely high as they go insane and quit.
this is horribly insensitive, but its a funny read and should cheer her up somewhat that shes not alone with this, a blog by a special ed teacher chronicling her adventures:
http://www.tard-blog.com