Nicola Polk

I originally started my career in New York as a 6th grade ELA teacher on the middle school level, and then I became a coach in my last 3 years there. When I transitioned to Houston, Texas, I worked on the elementary level before finding what I didn't think would be my passion - special education. I thought my heart was just too heart-wrenching and I wouldn't be able to handle it, but God knows best, and the opportunity presented itself. I went into special ed and have not looked back since. I've done every continuum in special education - early childhood intervention (ECI) with babies from 0 to 3 who have some sort of deficit, where we try to bridge that gap before they enter school. I've also done life skills on the middle school and high school level, resource teacher, and case manager. In more recent years, I've been doing leadership work. Currently, I work for Cy-Fair ISD in the School Improvement and Transformation department as a district employee. My role involves supporting about 9 campuses that are underperforming on state assessments. My lens is special education, so I go into campuses and look for system failures. I check schedules, observe whether students are receiving their required services and accommodations according to their IEPs, and educate campuses on violations of FAPE and other legal requirements. I check the blind spots and help campuses understand where their system failures are, then support them in correcting those failures. I provide coaching to in-class support staff and case managers because they're in lead roles on campus and need to ensure compliance.