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Districts nationwide are grappling with increased special education demands amid persistent staff shortages and compliance pressures. At the intersection of technology and student support, Maura Connor, chief operating officer of Better Speech, is leading the launch of Streamline, an AI-powered special education management platform designed to ease administrative burdens and enhance service delivery.
In this Q&A, Connor discusses the realistic, responsible ways AI can empower educators, optimize workflows, and foster stronger connections between schools and families.
1. Many districts are experiencing an increase in special education caseloads while struggling with staff shortages and retention. From your perspective, where can AI most realistically help relieve pressure on special educators without compromising their quality of service?
AI is most impactful when it handles time-intensive, repetitive tasks that don’t require nuanced human judgment. For example, AI can assist in drafting initial progress or intervention notes and tracking intervention outcomes to help identify students who may need additional support. By automating these administrative tasks, special educators and service providers can spend more time delivering direct instruction or therapy, collaborating with colleagues, and planning individualized support for students.
Importantly, AI is a tool that augments, not replaces, human expertise. It can relieve pressure in the special education ecosystem while allowing educators to maintain the high-quality services students need.
2. Special education leaders need to balance efficiency with compliance when it comes to IEP evaluations and goals. How can AI help schools and districts with this?
AI can standardize data collection and analysis, ensuring evaluations capture all legally required components while reducing the manual burden. Advanced AI analytics can also flag potential compliance gaps before they become serious risks and help identify patterns across a student’s performance.
For case managers and providers, especially those new to special education, AI can accelerate skill-building by helping draft legally-defensible, evidence-based IEP goals and recommendations. Rather than spending hours on formatting and documentation, this allows educators and administrators to focus on meaningful decision-making, personalized student support, and family engagement.
3. Beyond easing paperwork, what are some practical ways school and district leaders can use AI to reallocate staff time toward more student-facing work?
AI can help leaders identify trends and bottlenecks across their special education programs, such as caseload imbalances, scheduling inefficiencies, budget planning, or capacity in high-demand intervention areas. By surfacing these insights, districts can make data-informed staffing adjustments, prioritize coaching and professional development, and streamline workflows so teachers and service providers are freed up for individual instruction, small-group interventions, and collaborative planning.
Essentially, AI can turn administrative time into actionable intelligence that translates directly into better targeted student support.
4. When it comes to parent engagement, how can AI support stronger, more transparent communication between schools and families?
Parent engagement in the special education process can be a sensitive experience for districts and families alike. And, it’s a critical challenge we often hear about from leaders and teachers.
AI relieves some of the pressure by generating clear, real-time updates on student progress. In this way, AI can increase transparency and communication, helping families stay informed and engaged without overwhelming staff through repetitive outreach. For example, automated notifications about milestones, progress toward IEP goals, or upcoming meetings can ensure families receive timely, understandable information.
AI can also assist in translating materials for non-English-speaking families, creating more equitable access to information and empowering parents to be active partners in their child’s education.
5. Given the growing availability and use of generative AI tools, how can school and district leaders set guardrails to ensure educators use these tools ethically and securely?
Responsible and ethical use of AI in education starts with districts setting clear policies and engaging in targeted professional development. Leaders should define boundaries around student data privacy, clarify when AI outputs require human review, and provide training on responsible AI use. AI should always enhance staff capacity without compromising student safety or the integrity of decision-making. Since AI can “hallucinate,” it is absolutely critical that educators and providers use their own professional and clinical judgment in reviewing and approving any recommendations generated by AI. Districts should also consider using a proprietary, evidence-based LLM engine instead of open-source AI tools to lessen this risk.
Establishing guardrails also means monitoring usage, maintaining transparency with families, and fostering a culture where AI is a support, not a replacement, for professional and clinical judgment.
6. Overall, what role can AI-powered analytics play in helping school and district leaders make more data-driven, proactive decisions?
AI-powered analytics can transform reactive management into proactive planning. By aggregating and analyzing multiple data points–from academic performance to intervention outcomes–leaders can identify trends and potential compliance issues before they become legal risks. District leaders can also allocate resources more strategically and design targeted programs for students who need the most support or readily plan for coverage or extra resources when settings need to increase capacity.
Overall, AI’s predictive capability can help districts move beyond compliance toward strategic continuous improvement, ensuring every decision is informed by actionable insights rather than intuition alone.
Maura Connor is Chief Operating Officer of Better Speech, where she leads the launch of Streamline, an AI-powered special education management platform that reduces administrative burden and empowers schools to better support students and families. With extensive leadership experience across education and healthcare technology, she specializes in scaling organizations, driving innovation, and advancing solutions that improve outcomes for children and communities.
