ED PARA,EX ED,C

Salary Schedule

About the Role

Under direct supervision, this position provides staff support in an educational or child care environment, performing paraprofessional work to assist teachers and students. Employees work with certified teachers, occupational therapists, and other specialists to support the education, care, and development of mentally, physically, emotionally disabled, and other special needs students. The role involves instructional, vocational, and developmental assistance for trainable and educable exceptional students.

Responsibilities

• Respond to internal and external customers in a timely, accurate, courteous, and empathetic manner, representing OCPS positively.
• Provide instructional, vocational, and developmental assistance to special needs students as prescribed by the supervising teacher.
• Assist students with transportation, including transferring from wheelchairs to school desks or floor mats.
• Support students with gross motor activities (e.g., grasping, holding, posture, crawling, walking, running) and fine motor activities (e.g., playing with toys, cutting, coloring) based on individual development.
• Assist with daily living skills, such as dressing, eating, lavatory needs, grooming, and personal hygiene.
• Monitor, observe, and document student behavior, including behavioral changes, outbursts, and other actions.
• Apply crisis intervention principles for students with aggressive behavior, including physical restraint when necessary.
• Reinforce school and learning environment rules, encouraging appropriate behavior and correcting inappropriate behavior.
• Assist in preparing lesson plans, behavior modification plans, and teacher pre-planning sessions; contribute to learning activity development and instructional material preparation.
• Maintain accurate records of student activities and behavior, including data entry and completion of forms and reports.
• Supervise learning activities, circulate within the classroom, and provide support to students.
• Perform monitoring duties (e.g., hallways, lunchroom, restrooms, bus duty) and escort students to designated activity areas.
• Assist in various labs, translating lesson plans and information for better student comprehension.
• Stay updated on current technology used by OCPS and attend training to maintain required skill levels.
• Ensure timely and accurate information management as part of job responsibilities.

Requirements

• Associate’s degree or higher, or at least sixty (60) semester hours from an accredited institution (official transcript required).
• Passing the paraprofessional certification exam can substitute for the educational requirement to meet highly qualified status.
• Must be highly qualified prior to employment start date.
• Ability to fulfill physical and dexterity requirements of the work and attend to the needs of school-age children.
• Preferred: Previous vocational training or work experience in a licensed childcare environment.
• Minimum two (2) years of experience working with school-age children in an educational environment, with familiarity of exceptional needs children’s behaviors and challenges.
• Demonstrated stress management skills.

Performance Aptitudes

• Data Utilization: Ability to evaluate, audit, deduce, and assess data using established criteria, including discretion in determining consequences and selecting alternatives.
• Human Interaction: Ability to apply principles of persuasion and influence.
• Equipment Utilization: Ability to operate special needs equipment, devices, and standard office tools.
• Verbal Aptitude: Ability to utilize a wide variety of reference, descriptive, and advisory data.
• Mathematical Aptitude: Depending on assignment, may require basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), decimals, percentages, fractions, or graph interpretation.
• Functional Reasoning: Ability to follow detailed but uninvolved written or oral instructions with some latitude for independent judgment.
• Situational Reasoning: Ability to evaluate information against sensory, judgmental, or subjective criteria, requiring judgment, decisiveness, and creativity.

ADA Compliance

• Physical Ability: Tasks involve exerting very heavy physical effort, including climbing, balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, crawling, and lifting/carrying/pushing/pulling objects up to 100 pounds (occasionally heavier).
• Sensory Requirements: Most tasks require visual perception and discrimination; some require oral communication and sound perception.
• Environmental Factors: Regular exposure to adverse conditions, including potential violence when working with developmentally disabled or emotionally disturbed children.

The Orange County School District will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities upon request.