Special Education Teacher | Longview, WA | Full-Time, Year-Round

Lilac Learning Center | Teacher of Record | $95,000 a year | Up to $10,000 relocation

If you teach special education in Cowlitz County, you already know the options. Take a district caseload that grows every October whether or not anyone asked you. Or drive to Vancouver and give back ninety minutes of your life every day.

We're a third option, and we're in Longview.

Lilac Learning Center is a non-public school for autistic students. Our Longview campus is here, staffed, and running. This isn't a satellite office anyone forgot about. It's a full program with a team that has been doing this work for a while.

What the job actually is

You'd be the Teacher of Record for students ages 3 to 21 with moderate to severe needs. You write the IEPs, you own the goals, you decide what the curricular trajectory looks like for each kid on your caseload.

You're also a leader here, not just a teacher. Behavior Technicians and Lead Techs run programming under your direction, and you train and delegate to them. You work alongside BCBAs on every objective, every data system, every decision about what a student needs next. If you've spent years asking for behavior support and being told to fill out a referral, this part of the job is going to feel strange for about a month.

The caseload is deliberately conservative. We're not going to tell you the number is small and then quietly add three students in November. Ask about it in the interview and we'll give you the actual figure and the actual cap.

The part most postings leave out

Our students have real behavior. Some of them have aggression, self-injury, elopement, property destruction. Not all of them, not every day, but enough that you should know before you apply.

We staff for it. We train for it. We have BCBAs who show up when you need them instead of scheduling a consult for next Thursday. But if the honest answer is that you want a resource room and quiet reading groups, this is not the job, and I'd rather you know that now than six weeks in.

If you read that paragraph and thought "yeah, those are my kids," keep going.

What we do differently

Professional development is on the calendar, not in a mission statement. Half-day Fridays go to it. One full day a month goes to it. We pay for endorsements, coursework, and conferences because we'd rather grow the person we hired than run another search.

Year-round is a real choice, not a trick. You get consistent pay across twelve months and students get consistent programming instead of losing skills every summer. Some teachers love it. Some miss the long break. It's worth thinking about honestly before you apply.

The team is small and openly nerdy about this work. People here argue about prompting hierarchies at lunch. If that sounds like your people, it probably is.

What you need

• Master's degree
• Washington State teaching certificate with a Special Education endorsement
• Ability to move quickly, physically manage a crisis safely, and stay on your feet
• Comfort working with students who have complex communication and behavior needs

What helps but isn't required

• RBT credential or ABA coursework. Plenty of our best teachers came in without it and got it here.
• Experience running a classroom where paraprofessionals or techs report to you
• Experience with severe behavior in a school setting

Coming from out of state

Washington issues teaching certificates by reciprocity to out-of-state applicants who hold a valid comparable certificate. It's an OSPI process, not a compact, and it takes time. If you're licensed elsewhere and interested, reach out early and we'll talk through the timeline before you commit to anything.

The relocation money is aimed squarely at you. We know what it costs to move a household across the country for a school job, and we know most schools offer nothing.

Pay and benefits

$95,000 a year. That's the number. Not a range you have to negotiate your way up through, not a step chart that pays you for years served instead of what you can do. Everyone in this role is paid the same, and it's a number that beats every district in this corner of the state.

The package includes employer-paid health coverage, dental and vision, a 401(k) with an employer match, paid time off, and paid professional development including endorsements and coursework. Full details go to every candidate before an offer, not after.

Relocation

We'll cover up to $10,000 to move you here.

The condition, stated plainly: it's tied to a two-year commitment. Leave before then and you pay back a share of it. We'd rather put that in the ad than spring it on you at the offer stage. The full terms are in the agreement, and you'll see the agreement before you accept anything.

We do this because a teacher moving from out of state is taking a real risk on us, and we'd rather absorb some of it than pretend the risk isn't there.

How to apply

No cover letter required. If you want to tell us something a resume can't, put it in two sentences in the application and we'll read it.

Lilac Learning Center is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with the Washington Fair Chance Act.