A Call for Change
Special education teacher attrition is at a crisis level in the United States. 50% of special education teachers leave their role within five years. Turnover is costly for school districts. Larger, more urban districts can spend more than $20,000 per new hire, accounting for expenses related to separation, recruitment, hiring, and training (Learning Policy Institute).
Special education teachers are turning over at alarming rate.
Lower student achievement
Nationwide shortages
How are teachers being impacted day-to-day?
Special education teachers are asked to do it all: manage student caseloads (Individualized Education Programs), track progress data, generate lessons, collaborate with team, and communicate with families, often with fragmented tools and systems.
The result is a system that pushes even the most dedicated educators to the edge of burnout.
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75% of teachers surveyed suggest they cannot complete their responsibilities within contractual hours.
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Student goal data often becomes a black box—disorganized, hard to interpret, and difficult to communicate data-driven insights across the team.
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Parent communication satisfaction averages just 2/7, highlighting major inefficiencies in timeliness, management, and reporting.
“Some days, special education feels like it’s stuck in the past. We’re expected to do so much with a large caseload of students, and somehow just make it work. The weight of this work never leaves me.”
Rose T. (Special Education Teacher, 9 years experience)
I spent eight years working in special education. I left teaching because I felt I was operating in a system that was deeply broken.
The initial concept of Mela Mela took root during my last years as a teacher, when I saw just how fragile my workflows were. The tools and strategies available just weren’t built for the reality of the work, and even veteran educators had no real answers.
What started as a design school project quickly evolved into something real. Something that had to work. After handing off my MVP designs to engineers, I realized my role was expanding. I was no longer just learning. I was leading product strategy, providing subject matter expertise, driving research, and working closely with our small team of engineers.
Early Decisions
Traditional data collection methods are rooted in student binders, individualized paper data sheets, and anecdotal observations. Paper-based collection is difficult to manage, misses the mark in documentation quality and involves a cumbersome data synthesis process.
I asked myself, “How might we reimagine a digital experience that aligns with current educator workflows and mental models?”
I made a foundational design decision to create a simple yet comprehensive experience tailored to our core daily users: paraprofessionals. Competitor audits exposed a major oversight—paraprofessionals were rarely considered in interface or workflow design.
Business Impact
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In many special education classrooms, paraprofessionals outnumber teachers by a ratio of five to one or more. By focusing on their needs, we support the individuals who spend the most time with students and serve as the backbone of daily instruction. This not only strengthens the entire classroom team but also expands our total addressable market.
Outcomes
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Jan - April 25', average 850 goal submissions per month, 98% paraprofessional driven
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90% of paraprofessionals surveyed agree that Mela Mela better reflects their daily workflow
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95% of support/feedback tickets come from paraprofessional staff
“I’ve never been super confident with computers, and honestly, I used to get really nervous trying to enter data. But Mela Mela is set up in a way that just makes sense. It’s simple, clear, and easy to use. Now, I can finish my notes without second-guessing inputs on Excel. It’s now a much quicker process.”
Vivian V. (Paraprofessional)
Getting Back Inside the Classroom
We had a functional MVP. It was in the hands of our early adopters but we knew we had to get back inside real classrooms. This why we created the Mela Mela Innovation Lab. This initiative served two purposes: first, it gave us access to interview, observe, and learn directly from classroom teams in a district setting; second, it opened the door to securing our first district partnership.
Output and Process
1
10 interviews, 30 surveys across district
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Facilitated focus-group ideation workshop with 4 teachers and 6 paraprofessionals
3
Get product in the hands of 18 new users (AKA: development partners)
Outcomes
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Rich qualitative and quantitive data aligned product and engineering with an updated product roadmap with 2 major new features
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Continuous feedback and usability testing on the live product helped surface key UX issues, revealing workflow friction points and informing our next round of design improvements.
Business Impact
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Increased revenue with our first district pilot, converting early users into our first paying customers.
Lifting the Blackbox of Data
Even in classrooms with a strong culture of data collection, a core problem remains: no one has time to make sense of the data or turn it into actionable insights. Teachers are left to interpret it on their own, often under time pressure. Paraprofessionals collect data daily but rarely see how it is used. Most insights only surface during annual meetings, if at all.
This isn't anyone's fault. Synthesizing raw data takes time, and most educators simply don't have it.
I collect the data, but I don’t really know what happens after that...or how it actually connects to the student’s plan.
Gabe M (Paraprofessional)
Teachers and paraprofessionals are navigating a system that make continuous and meaningful data-driven insights difficult to to come by.
We saw an opportunity to flip that dynamic. By automatically synthesizing imported data into thoughtful graphs and tables, we shifted the burden off educators and onto the system. What once took hours or was never done at all became available instantly. Insight was no longer a occasional event. It was now accessible any day of the week.
Outcomes
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We saw a 95% reduction in time spent synthesizing data, along with faster time to value through clearer data visibility and more consistent, data-driven communication among classroom teams.
Business Impact
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Reducing time spent on data synthesis gave districts a clear ROI: less time lost to paperwork, more time supporting instruction, and better communication within classroom teams.
Beyond the Status Quo
Mela Mela is a reminder that technology, when built with care and empathy, can be a powerful force in education. Special education teachers face overwhelming workloads and constant emotional demands, yet they continue to show up for their students with true dedication. What they need are tools that understand and support the realities of their work.
Education is at a crossroads. The status quo is not sustainable, and we should not pretend it is. If we believe teachers deserve better, then we must give technology a seat at the table. Thoughtfully designed solutions ease burdens, strengthen collaboration, and create more time for what matters most: teaching, connection, and self-care.
This case study only scratches the surface of what we are building at Mela Mela. Interested in learning more? Please get in touch.