Paraprofessionals may find themselves delivering primary instruction to students with disabilities and making curricular and instructional decisions without oversight of a licensed teacher, plan lessons, lead instruction, create and administer tests, and assign student grades (CITE A). With such a wide variety of tasks beings asked of a paraprofessional, it becomes clear why role confusion can occur. Examining the roles that paraprofessionals can take on, it is critical to approach it from a legal standpoint. Ashbaker and Morgan cite that out of 100 paraprofessionals, 95 spend 60% of their time teaching without a teacher present (CITE M). In Sioux City Community School District (2003), the district lost a lawsuit from parents of a 7 year-old
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McGrath, Johns, and Mathur provide an interesting look at relationship between a teacher and paraprofessional when working together. They outlined multiple challenges that a teacher and paraprofessional may face. Some of these challenges include: the “paramother” meaning the paraprofessional treat the students as their own children, a paraprofessional who worked in the system either as a paraprofessional or teacher for longer than the teacher and reiterates what has been done in the past, the paraprofessional who has different connections with higher level school administration, paraprofessionals who have been trained and feel they are the expert in the field, paraprofessionals who are unable to respect the boundaries between the student or their parents, or paraprofessionals who want to be the teachers themselves (CITE F). Staff members have different personalities, however, when they must work within the same classroom with the same student some difficulties can arise and the children …show more content…
Schools open themselves to a myriad of lawsuits from parents of students. Students are frequently supported by paraprofessionals who do not meet the state criteria of adequate training, or they are not consistently support for skill maintenance. Additionally, they are often asked to fill roles that are beyond their appropriate training or are a violation of legal standards. Therefore, paraprofessionals are one of the most utilized staff members in a school; however, they are also one of the greatest sources of possible negative legal outcomes. Therefore, careful attention needs to be paid to the training and expectations that are placed on paraprofessionals. As special education continues to grow so too must the use of paraprofessional. Recognizing the large role they play in the schools, the position is widely under researched. This implicates that the schools are entering into an area of possible ignorance and it is critical that they educate themselves to remain in compliance with national standards.
McGrath, Johns, and Mathur provide an interesting look at relationship between a teacher and paraprofessional when working together. They outlined multiple challenges that a teacher and paraprofessional may face. Some of these challenges include: the “paramother” meaning the paraprofessional treat the students as their own children, a paraprofessional who worked in the system either as a paraprofessional or teacher for longer than the teacher and reiterates what has been done in the past, the paraprofessional who has different connections with higher level school administration, paraprofessionals who have been trained and feel they are the expert in the field, paraprofessionals who are unable to respect the boundaries between the student or their parents, or paraprofessionals who want to be the teachers themselves (CITE F). Staff members have different personalities, however, when they must work within the same classroom with the same student some difficulties can arise and the children …show more content…
Schools open themselves to a myriad of lawsuits from parents of students. Students are frequently supported by paraprofessionals who do not meet the state criteria of adequate training, or they are not consistently support for skill maintenance. Additionally, they are often asked to fill roles that are beyond their appropriate training or are a violation of legal standards. Therefore, paraprofessionals are one of the most utilized staff members in a school; however, they are also one of the greatest sources of possible negative legal outcomes. Therefore, careful attention needs to be paid to the training and expectations that are placed on paraprofessionals. As special education continues to grow so too must the use of paraprofessional. Recognizing the large role they play in the schools, the position is widely under researched. This implicates that the schools are entering into an area of possible ignorance and it is critical that they educate themselves to remain in compliance with national standards.