Teacher Experts

Anna Lou Pickett
Topic: Paraeducators/Integrating Aides

We have over 50 paraprofessionals on staff of our program for students with severe disabilities. How do you begin to train them for working in the community, working in reg. ed classes etc.?

I am a student at the University of Colorado at Denver in the field of special education. At present I am in a seminar class that requires me, along with two others, to write a grant. Our grant will be written to request funds for the training of paraprofessionals. Since the three of us have been paraprofessionals we realize that training would have made all of us and our cohorts more effective in the classroom. Could you please points to literature that will provide support for our request for funding. We want our grant to be accepted and funded and not just a paper written for a grade. Thank you for any help you may give us.

Q. We have over 50 paraprofessionals on staff of our program for students with severe disabilities. How do you begin to train them for working in the community, working in reg. ed classes etc.?

A. It may seem like a very complicated problem to prepare paraeducators to work in different learning environments (classrooms, community settings, home based programs etc.), however it is not (at least in the beginning). All paraeducators, no matter what their assignment is, require several core competencies, and every training program should build on these competencies. While this training is taking place the school district should take a good hard look at the skills a paraeducator needs to work in a specific program area or in a position where they have greater independence.

You can develop your own set of core competencies by thinking through what is the absolute baseline knowledge/skills a paraprofessional needs in your situation. AGH Associates, Inc. (the sponsor of this site) uses these: safety, cargiving, communicating positively with the child, teachers, and other staff, implementing integrated therapies, using resources provided, and dealing with daily issues.

At the present time the National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals is completing work on a "project of national significance" to develop guidelines for standards for paraeducator roles, preparation, and supervision. The report will contain guidelines policy makers and personnel developers can build on to establish competencies for paraeducator. The report "Strategies to Strengthen Teacher and Paraeducators" will be available around the first of December and may be ordered by contacting the NRC for Paraprofessionals through the this web site.

Q. I am a student at the University of Colorado at Denver in the field of special education. At present I am in a seminar class that requires me, along with two others, to write a grant. Our grant will be written to request funds for the training of paraprofessionals. Since the three of us have been paraprofessionals we realize that training would have made all of us and our cohorts more effective in the classroom. Could you please points to literature that will provide support for our request for funding. We want our grant to be accepted and funded and not just a paper written for a grade. Thank you for any help you may give us.

A. I was really pleased to receive your question. As far as funding sources go you might want to contact the Colorado State Department of Education to see if they have funds available to assist with the type of project you want to carry out. In addition you might want to check the Foundation Resource Library for lists of Colorado corporations of Foundations that provide support to projects concerned with improving the quality of education for all students. The type of project you described might prove to be or special interest to local funding sources.

In addition, if you haven't already done so I suggest you contact Nancy French at the CO-TOP project located at the University of Colorado-Denver. She is the director of several projects concerned with improving the performance of teacher-paraeducator teams, and I'm sure she can provide you with information you can build on to develop your proposal. Her phone number is 303 620-4078. Finally, if you need background or supporting data from the national perspective, please e-mail me so we can discuss exactly what you need.