We’re past the days when teacher aides just kept the classroom bulletin board current and watched over kids during recess.
For one, they’re now called paraeducators. And they now handle greater responsibilities, such as providing additional academic support for students in reading, writing and math; helping students who are learning English as a second language; or assisting those with special education needs.
“The paraeducator’s job has become a teaching position,” said Reen Doser, a paraeducator for the Lake Stevens School District for the past 20 years and president of Public School Employees of Washington.
Frequently paraeducators work with small groups of children, or even individually, helping to explain and complete class assignments while the teacher leads the rest of the class, Doser said. But too often paraeducators are left to fend for themselves without the benefits of training and development support.
But the standards and support for paraeducators haven’t kept up with that role’s demands and expectations.
With the exception of guidelines for those working alongside special education teachers, in Washington state there are no educational qualifications or license requirements for paraeducators. What training that is offered, often workshops or seminars, are left for individual school districts to provide.
The need hasn’t been ignored in the Legislature. Earlier this year, both the House and Senate passed versions of Senate Bill 5179 that would have established minimum employment standards for paraeducators, created a committee to develop standards for training and development of paraeducators, require community and technical colleges to incorporate the standards into their training programs and set up pilot programs to guide implementation. But neither House nor Senate could agree on amendments to the legislation, and the proposals were left for the coming session that begins in January.
There’s one advantage to the delay. In 2014, the Legislature directed the state’s Professional Educator Standards Board to assign a workgroup to design training and development standards. The workgroup’s final report is due Jan. 10 and should help guide the discussion.
As the Legislature returns to its work to satisfy the state Supreme Court’s McCleary mandate that it amply fund basic education, setting standards and providing training for paraeducators could provide a cost-effective tool for school districts.
Among the sticking points that prevented passage of legislation agreeable to both House and Senate this year was the lack of specified funding. As the state takes on full responsibility for funding basic education, school districts won’t be eager to absorb the costs of training and development for paraeducators as well as their compensation.
The case can be made that the teaching support that paraeducators provide should be considered basic education and the state’s responsibility, not something for school districts to fund through property tax levies. While details are worked out, the state should at least be responsible for fully funding the pilot programs in school districts that volunteer to host them.
“We have to raise the standard for paraeducators,” Doser said, “so students get the education they deserve.”
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