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 in the education, care, and development of mentally, physically, emotionally disabled, and other special needs students. The role involves instructional, vocational, and developmental assistance to trainable and educable exceptional students.

Responsibilities

• Responds to internal and external customers in a timely, accurate, courteous, and empathetic manner.
• Provides instructional, vocational, and developmental assistance to special needs students as prescribed by the supervising teacher.
• Assists students with transportation, including physically transferring students from wheelchairs to school desks or floor mats.
• Supports students with gross motor activities (grasping, holding, posture, crawling, walking, running) and fine motor activities (playing with toys, cutting, coloring) as appropriate.
• Assists with daily living skills, including dressing, eating, lavatory needs, grooming, and personal hygiene.
• Monitors, observes, and documents student behavior, including behavioral changes, outbursts, and other actions.
• Applies crisis intervention principles for students with aggressive behavior, including physical restraint when necessary.
• Reinforces school rules, encourages appropriate behavior, and corrects inappropriate behavior.
• Assists in preparing lesson plans, behavior modification plans, and pre-planning sessions; contributes to learning activities and instructional materials.
• Maintains accurate records of student activities and behavior, including data entry on computer terminals.
• Supervises learning activities, circulates within the classroom, and provides support to students.
• Performs monitoring duties (hallways, lunchroom, restrooms, bus duty) and escorts students to designated areas.
• May assist in labs, translating lesson plans and information for better student comprehension.
• Stays updated on current technology used by OCPS and attends training as required.

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 requirements of the work and attend to the needs of school-age children.
• Preferred: vocational training or work experience in a licensed childcare environment.
• Minimum two (2) years of experience working with school-age children in an educational setting, with familiarity of exceptional needs children and demonstrated stress management skills.

Skills

• Data Utilization: Ability to evaluate, audit, and assess data using established criteria.
• Human Interaction: Ability to apply principles of persuasion and influence.
• Equipment Use: 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, decimals, percentages, fractions, or graph interpretation.
• Functional Reasoning: Ability to follow detailed written or oral instructions with some independent judgment.
• Situational Reasoning: Ability to evaluate information against sensory, judgmental, or subjective criteria.

ADA Compliance

• Physical Ability: Tasks involve exerting very heavy physical effort (lifting up to 100 pounds, occasionally heavier), including climbing, balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, and crawling.
• Sensory Requirements: Most tasks require visual perception and discrimination; some require oral communication and sound discrimination.
• 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.