Special Education Aide 2026-2027 School Year

About the role

Position provides assistance to teachers or other district personnel in the daily instruction and care of eligible students with disabilities. As a paraprofessional, the employee works under the direction of the teacher to monitor and address the instructional, personal, and behavioral needs of students.

Responsibilities

• Assists with the implementation of Individualized Education Programs for students with disabilities under the direction of the classroom teacher(s) and/or service provider(s).
• Assists with individual or small group instruction developed and supervised by the teacher in the assigned class(es) including but not limited to teaching, re-teaching and reviewing lessons, asking questions and prompting students and/or guiding independent work.
• Attends to the needs of students with disabilities that may include personal hygiene, lifting, feeding, toileting, monitoring supportive medical equipment, i.e., walkers, wheelchairs, etc. and/or facilitating the use of assistive technology.
• Escorts and supervises students not limited to daily arrival and school departure, transitions between classes, the playground, cafeteria, transporting to and/or from school and/or off-site learning activities.
• Collections, charts and reports student performance data to teachers and/or other service providers.
• Distributes and collects instructional materials and reports.
• Assists with behavioral management programs in the classroom and implements behavior intervention plans and/or plans for independence for individual students.
• Successfully participates in designated staff development needed to fulfill job duties.
• Maintains bulletin boards and classroom supply inventories, as appropriate.
• Provides intensive behavioral supports, as appropriate.
• Communicates with parents only under the direction and supervision of a teacher.
• Serves as an educational team member who collaborates and supports the efforts of school staff and the needs of all students with disabilities.

Requirements

• Must meet the requirements for a paraprofessional which includes one of the following: minimum of 60 college credit hours, or an Associate's Degree from a regionally accredited college/university (Attach a copy of your transcript); paraprofessional certificate (minimum score of 456 on the exam), (Attach a copy of your test scores); or Passed all 4 areas of Work Keys. (Attach a copy of all 4 tests results)
• Knowledge, skills and abilities of this job include the following: read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals; write routine reports and correspondence; communicate effectively; apply common sense in the delivery, understanding and following instructions in written, oral, or diagram form; add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals; compute rate, ratio, and percent and draw and interpret bar graphs.
• Physical Requirements: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand and reach with hands and arms; walk; sit; stoop or kneel; crouch or crawl. Duties may involve risk resulting from attending to students' behavioral, physical or sanitation/hygiene needs.

Qualifications

• Must be physically capable of frequently lifting or moving up to 40 pounds;
• Mobile to ensure the well-being and safety of students, including but not limited to positioning, transferring and restraining;
• Specific vision requirements include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to focus;
• Ability to sit and stand for extended periods of time;
• Manual dexterity for the purpose of using a telephone and data entry;
• Read a computer screen and printed material with or without vision aids;
• Hear and understand speech at normal levels and on the telephone;
• Speak in audible tones so that others may understand clearly in person and on the telephone.