Special Education Aide

Special Education Aide

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. Although responsible to the teacher(s) to whose classrooms he/she is assigned, the individual's overall performance is evaluated by the principal or designee.

Essential duties include:

• 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.
• Collects, charts and reports student performance data to teachers and/or other service providers.
• Performs general clerical tasks for assigned classroom, including maintaining student records (i.e., data books, portfolios, assignment folders).
• 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.

Other duties may be performed as assigned by the Principal or other appropriate administrator.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential duties.

Minimum qualifications include:

• One of the following: 60 college credit hours from an accredited college, Associate degree, or Passing score on the Work Keys or Para Pro.
• 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;
  
  and compute rate, ratio, and percent and draw and interpret bar graphs.

Physical requirements include the ability 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. Physical requirements also include the ability to frequently lift or move up to 40 pounds; sufficiently 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;

and speak in audible tones so that others may understand clearly in person and on the telephone.

Duties are normally performed in a school/classroom environment. Duties may be conducted in work-related community settings and/or performed while the student is transported to and from school and/or on study trips away from the school.

Pay Grade:
Support Staff 103-104