Frequently Asked Questions

Paraeducators serve alongside teachers and other professional educators in schools. Other most commonly used titles for paraeducators are Paraprofessional, Instructional Assistant, Educational Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Instructional Aide, and Aide. Paraeducator provides instructional services to students and works under the supervision or direction of a certified or licensed professional who is ultimately responsible for the students and the program. Paraeducators are important members of the learning and teaching team. They ensure that students receive multiple types of support in schools.

The following example of McKinley Elementary School illustrates the types of supports paraeducators provide in a typical urban/suburban school:

At McKinley Elementary School, 21 people work in instructional support positions alongside a professional faculty of classroom teachers, art, music, and physical education teachers, as well as special education and early childhood teachers. Some paraeducators work alongside itinerant related-services personnel (school psychologist, school nurse, speech-language therapist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and an adapted physical education teacher) to provide support for McKinley students. Paraeducators also work in the school library, the lunchroom, in the school bus loading zone and on the playground.

• Barbara and Mark are paraeducators assigned to the special education program.
• Judy is a special education paraeducator, dedicated to a single student, who needs substantial support throughout the day.
• Estella and Diane are schoolwide Title I program paraeducators.
• Michelle, Kristy, Becky, Peg, Jorge, and Maria all work as classroom paraeducators – each is assigned to a team of teachers at a particular grade level.
• Cruz, Silvia, Amparo, and Elena are ESL / Bilingual paraeducators. They all speak bothSpanish and English. Each is assigned to a particular classroom to work with monolingual Spanish-speaking students. They often act as interpreters between the school and Spanish-speaking parents.
• Rae and Tami deliver speech language services to special education students under the direction of an itinerant speech language pathologist.
• Helen is the health clerk and runs the school health room, distributing medications, providing routine respiratory care, tending to minor injuries and illnesses.
• Joye works full time as a library assistant to manage the school’s media center and assist students and teachers to support instruction and learning.
• Lorraine and Delores work in the lunchroom, supervising students as they eat lunch and on the playground, and supervising students according to the recess schedule. Lorraine works in a Kindergarten classroom before and after lunch and Delores works as a clerk assisting the school secretary when she is not in the lunchroom or on the playground.

Source: French, N. K. (2003). Managing paraeducators in your school: How to hire, train, and supervise non-certified staff. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, Inc. To purchase this book click on http://www.corwinpress.com/

There are 10 compelling reasons to employ paraeducators to work alongside the professionals in schools.

Complexity of student population in schools

The student population includes students with disabilities who attend same schools as their typical peers, students from diverse cultures who enter school speaking languages other than English, and those who come from families living in poverty that often places such children at a high risk of failure. Teachers alone can not meet the diverse needs of their students and therefore need assistance in their classrooms.

Need for instructional support

There focus on high academic standards for all children and the emphasis on testing to determine achievement of standards has resulted in an increased need for individualized, personalized, humane, and caring instructional support for students. The increased need for human contact is central to the shift toward increased instructional roles for paraeducators.

Cost effectiveness

Although teachers or other school professionals are not highly paid, salaries comprise the largest share of school district budgets. Hiring non-professional personnel such as paraprofessionals with lower salaries has made it possible for districts to provide services to students while balancing the budget.

Instructional effectiveness

Research documents that well-trained paraeducators are effective in providing instruction to students under the supervision of a certified teacher.

Community connections

Paraeducators often live in the same community where the students live and thus, share linguistic and cultural similarities with their students. Paraeducators who speak the same language as students work alongside monolingual English-speaking teachers to provide academic instruction. In communities where poverty affects the lives of students, paraeducators may provide “Community Linkages” and perform a wide range of tasks under Title 1 programs – visiting the children’s homes to discuss school attendance, illness, or how families can support student learning, how families can obtain community services and resources. Paraeducators are also the primary linkage between the parents of students with significant disabilities and the school.

Individualized support

Sometime, the parents of students with disabilities request that a dedicated paraeducator to accompany their child throughout the school day. Parents assert that constant support for the physical, health, social, and academic needs of their children is vital to the health and safety of their children in school. General educators also believe that paraeducators are necessary if they are to have special education students in their classrooms. For more information on this practice, see the FAQ, What do parents need to know about one-on-one assignment of paraprofessionals?

Need to provide related services

Paraeducators are often hired as assistants to those professionals who provide related services that include health care services, therapies, and/or psychological services according to the individual needs of students. The advantages to employing paraeducators to assist are increased ability to serve larger numbers of students and to increased amount of services to each student at a lower cost.

Improved teacher-student ratio

It is a well know fact that lower teacher-student ratio results in higher levels of student learning. The presence of a trained paraeducators can increase the amount and quality of instructional time for students, as well as the ability of the teacher-paraeducator team to respond in timely, compassionate ways to student emotional and behavioral needs.

Shortages of fully-qualified professional

Shortages of fully qualified teachers to work in special education, bilingual education, early childhood, and early childhood special education programs have necessitated the employment of paraeducators who work under the direction of the available professionals.

Legislation allows/requires it

No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 as well as The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 2004 both contain permissive language regarding use of adequately qualified/trained and supervised paraeducators in schools to provide instructional and other supports to students.

There is no doubt that paraeducators perform some very critical functions in schools and therefore, are critical to student success. However, the following problems may exist in regards to their use and employment.

• Paraeducators may be hired with no minimum qualifications or prior training.
• School districts may often fail to provide appropriate in service training for paraeducators in curriculum, instruction, behavior management, teacher paraeducator roles, classroom organization, confidentiality and privacy of students and families etc.
• Teachers may fail to provide appropriate direction, supervision, on-the job training or coaching to help paraeducators be effective in their job.
• Presence of paraeducators may limit students’ time with the teacher and may result in the paraeducator becoming the primary service provider for certain students.

Parents of students requiring paraeducator support should request that the schools:

• Provide training to the paraeducators which includes (and is not to limited) to the knowledge of disabilities; techniques for positive behavior intervention, communication strategies for interacting with other team members including parents , health issues; and approaches that encourage independence for the child.
• Ensure appropriate supervision of the paraeducator by a certified school professional.
• Include the paraeducator’s input in the child’s IEP meetings.
• Clearly determine the paraeducator’s roles and responsibilities. Specify that the teacher is the child’s primary instructor who is assisted by the paraeducator.

The Special Education Paraeducator Support Checklist is a useful tool that addresses important issues concerning the use of paraeducators. Parents may share this tool with school personnel prior to or during a special education IEP meeting and use it to make informed decisions about effective paraeducator support.

Many parents of students with disabilities in inclusive settings, request a one-on-one paraeducator assigned to their child to ensure the students’ safety and success. Even though such a request is understandable and well meaning, it may inadvertently interfere with the child’s inclusion and education.

Some of the downfalls of the practice of one-on-one assignment are that the paraeducator may:

• Become primary service provider and limit the involvement of the special education teacher and the classroom teacher with the student. This practice is further exacerbated when paraeducators are not qualified and or trained. It is not in the best interest of the students with most complex needs to be taught by the least qualified staff member.
• Make decisions that should be made by the person with the highest level of training and certification (e.g. adapting materials or assignments without direction, communicate directly with families – leaving teacher out of the loop.
• Refuse to consider the teacher as the supervisor.
• Develop “ownership” of the child, lose perspective and deny the professional team members / parents access to information they need to make effective plans for the child’s education.
• Hover or create over dependence/learned helplessness in the student.
• Create social barriers between students with disabilities and typical peers.

Together, parents and schools should consider ways to minimize the problems resulting from one-on-one dedicated paraeducators in inclusive classes. The Special Education Paraeducator Support Checklist is a helpful tool for this purpose, as it may accomplish the following four things:

• It documents the need for paraeducator support and causes the students’ educational team to consider other alternatives, such as natural supports (age-peer student, older student, general education or classroom teacher, special education teacher, parent volunteer) already available in the environment, prior to or during a special education IEP meeting.
• It identifies skills that require training and assigns responsibility for training the paraeducator or other person who provides the needed supports; thus, assuring that the student will receive the best possible instructional support.
• It specifies supervisory responsibilities and thus helps to assure that the paraeducator is, in fact, assisting appropriately.
• It identifies areas where the classroom teacher can be an alternative to paraeducator support; thus, the form may help in shifting the classroom teacher’s role from someone who simply hosts a student with disabilities to an active/engaged teacher for that student.

Only a few studies have addressed topics that relate to both paraeducators and parents (e.g. parent-paraeducator communication, paraeducator role in inclusion, paraeducators as bridges between school and parents and community, etc.). Most of these studies involve parents of students with disabilities and the paraeducators who support them. Some of the research evidence in the literature involves parents from diverse cultures who share linguistic and cultural similarities with paraeducators more often than the teachers do. The salient findings of the research are summarized below:

• Most parents of students with disabilities describe their child’s paraeducator positively and believe that successful inclusion is not possible for their children without paraeducator support.
• Parents consider paraeducators as liaisons or connectors between school and themselves/community and their children and other students.
• Parents want paraeducators to be accepted as part of the school community and to be respected and valued for their contributions to the child’s educational team.
• Paraeducators and parents often communicate on a daily basis, sometimes extensively, which many a times leads to close relationships. However close relationships between parents and paraeducators do not necessarily help; and may sometimes negatively affect the education of the child particularly when the supervising teacher is not in the loop of the parent-paraeducator communication.
• Parents need to be fully aware of the role of the teacher versus the role of the paraeducator with their child. The paraeducator supports the teacher who is the child’s primary instructor and teacher is the supervisor of the paraeducator.
• Parents are critical of paraeducators who a) fail to foster independence and make the students develop a sense of helpless and overdependence and b) interfere or create barriers in peer interactions.
• Parents of students with disabilities recommend that paraeducators who support their children must be well trained.

• Chopra, R. V., & French, N. K. (2004). Paraeducator relationships with parents of students with significant disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 25(4), 240-251.
• French, N.K., & Chopra, R. (1999). Parent perspectives on the roles of paraprofessionals. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 24(4), 259-272.
• Giangreco, M.F., Yuan, S., McKenzie, B., Cameron, P., & Fialka, J. (2005). “Be careful what you wish for…”: Five reasons to be concerned about the assignment of individual paraprofessionals. Teaching Exceptional Children, 37(5), 28-34.
• Haas, E.M. (1996). Necessity: The mother of intervention. A parent’s recommendation for the preparation and use of speech-language paraprofessionals in education settings. Journal of Children’s Communication Development, 18(1), 111-114.
• Werts, M.G., Harris, S., Tillery, C.Y., Roark, R. (2004). What parents tell us about paraeducators. Remedial and Special Education, 25(4), 232-239.
• Mueller, P.H. (2002). The paraeducator paradox. Exceptional Parent,32(9), 64-67.