Educational Support Professional; ESP-BHS .FTE

Position

Bedford Public Schools invites applications for the position of Educational Support Professional (ESP-1), 13.5 hours per week.

The role of the Education Support Professional (ESP) is to provide General Education support to enhance the academic and social/emotional development of each assigned student according to the student's capacity for growth through the support of students, teachers, and administrators.

• Support classroom routines and procedures; reinforce principles of social interaction programs such as Responsive Classroom, RULER, PBIS and assist with behavioral support.
• Provide supervision and/or student support services in all environments of the school for activities including recess, lunch, arrival, dismissal, field trips, and escorting students to designated areas, including guidance from teaching/counseling/administrative staff.
• Provide small group or individual instructional support with guidance from teaching/counseling staff aligned with student goals, benchmarks, individualized education plans, and related behavior plans.
• Consult with teachers in preparation for daily classes to become familiar with learning targets, success criteria, and classroom expectations.
• Support academic programs (reteaching, reinforcing, reviewing, assessing, scribing, note‑taking, data collection) and behavioral programs (data collection, cueing, providing motor breaks, implementing behavior plans).
• Provide regular feedback to teaching/counseling staff on progress and challenges experienced by assigned students in addressing their goals.
• Work in conjunction with classroom teacher to support learning experiences, focusing first on identified priority students and then broader group.
• Support implementation of behavior intervention plans and social skill facilitation across various school settings.
• Support crisis intervention as needed in a culturally responsive manner, including verbal de‑escalation, processing events with students and staff, and application of physical intervention methods to reduce risk of injury.
• Adapt to varying needs of students.
• Perform other job‑related tasks or duties at the discretion of administrators.
• Assist teacher(s) with basic data entry, word processing, printing, and copying as necessary.

• Ability to integrate into classroom settings under direction of administrative/teaching/counseling staff.
• Collect, record, and analyze data across multiple data points.
• Record data collected into spreadsheets and provide graphs to visually display student progress using Google tools.
• Adapt and acquire new skills and knowledge and use them consistently to support student engagement, behavior interventions, social interactions, and the school day.
• Maintain flexibility in day‑to‑day priorities to reflect changing student needs.
• Work in multiple classrooms or environments during the school day.
• Maintain confidentiality and professionalism expected of teaching staff.
• Anticipate and effectively address unforeseen events associated with working with large groups of children.
• Maintain positive relations with students, parents, staff, and the public.

• Passion for working with children/students.
• Knowledge of child growth and development.
• Knowledge of basic learning strategies.
• Knowledge of social‑emotional learning (SEL).
• Knowledge of proper de‑escalation strategies and restraint protocols.
• Ability to work with diverse learning styles.
• Ability to collaborate and participate as a member of a teaching team.

• Able to move with students from one school environment to another.
• Physical agility and strength with proper safety protocols.

Associate’s Degree in Psychology, Education or related area preferred.

An ESP is considered to be an Instructional Aide as defined in General Laws, Chapter 71, Section 38.

In accordance with the Bedford Education Support Professional

Contract:

$31.07 to $32.98 per hour; annualized for 184 work days at 6.75 hours per day, $38,594 to $40,956. Benefits are outlined at Benefits | Bedford Public Schools (bedfordps.org).