Vermont ESP win state rules on paraeducator training, supervision.

Before you can talk about professional standards for para-educators, you've got to confront some troubling double standards.
In too many places, paras work intimately with special education students-reinforcing instruction, attending to personal needs such as feeding, or managing an entire class-but receive little or no formal training or professional supervision. By contrast, their teacher colleagues are held to a whole battery of standards and "accountability" measures.

Even in progressive Vermont, a state that pioneered inclusive education and now ranks among jurisdictions with the fewest number of separate special ed classes, state law has long ignored the very existence of paraeductors. All the Green Mountain State has ever required of paras is a minimum age of 18 and a high school diploma.

"In Vermont, most newly hired paraeductors are placed in a job with no training whatsoever, and put to work with the most needy students," points out Corrie Palmer, a 14-year paraeducator and vice president of the Ferrisburg ESP Association. "I don't understand how a school district could do this-the student health issues alone are mind-boggling!"

This disgraceful situation is starting to change, thanks to the activism of Palmer and other members of the Vermont-NEA Paraeducator Standards Task Force. Following two years of statewide grassroots organizing, this para-run panel has persuaded the state Board of Education to formally adopt a set of paraeducator "personnel standards" in its special education rules.
Helping move this process along was the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 1997, which stipulates: "A State may allow paraprofessionals and assistants who are appropriately trained and supervised [emphasis added], in accordance with State law, regulations, or written policy . . . to be used to assist in the provision of special education and related services to children with disabilities."

Vermont's new para standards, adopted in April and awaiting final state approval, aren't as detailed as draft rules submitted by the para task force.

"They're a compromise, and they're not prescriptive" says Ellen David Friedman, a Vermont-NEA staffer and task force member, "but they do require districts to provide in-service training, evaluations, and supervision-so these rules go visibly beyond what came before."

The new Vermont standards will require school employers to:

• Identify the training needs of pareducators who "assist qualified personnel in the provision of special ed and related services."
• Provide paras entry-level training as needed and ongoing in-service training to "ensure that paraeducators are appropriately trained."
  
• Provide ongoing supervision of paraeducators by "qualified" personnel, licensed to provide special education and related services.
  
• Develop and implement procedures for performance evaluations of paras by "appropriate professional staff."
  

Performance evaluations are important to paras, Palmer explains, "because a lot of our colleagues get no work evaluations whatsoever. They're never told if they do a good job or not, be it the way they handle students or how they're getting points across in math or reading reinforcement."

While Palmer believes the new Vermont rules are a good starting point, she stresses that the para task force "will definitely follow up to push for even stricter standards."

The panel and Vermont-NEA will also work for school district compliance with the new regs-while educating the school community that proper para training and supervision needn't drain school budgets.

"When superintendents and administrators say, 'There's no money for training,' we'll encourage them to think about models of peer mentoring and training," says Friedman.

"We'll encourage Vermont-NEA local affiliates to bargain for additional employer-provided training, designed and produced with the participation of paras themselves," Friedman adds. "In Rutland, Vermont, Association members and management sat down and worked out a deal with the local vo-tech center to provide low-tuition courses taught by experienced paras-for professional development credits!"

An equally intriguing model can be found in Corrie Palmer's own backyard. In anticipation of the statewide paraeducator standards, the Ferrisburg school district created a full para training program with entry-level courses, an option to participate in teacher training sessions, para-only workshops, and reimbursement for up to three credits at the University of Vermont.

And, better yet, Ferrisburg ESP and teachers created a culture that values paras' personal and professional development. "New para hires get a lot of support from teachers and other paras," says Palmer. "Their questions get answered and they're constantly reassured by senior colleagues that 'We're here for you.'" 4

For more information on the new Vermont paraeducator standards, contact Vermont NEA staffer Ellen David Friedman at 802/223-6375. And check out two books of special interest to paraeducators published by the NEA Professional Library: The New IDEA Survival Guide (Item #2016-2-00-PL) and Let's Team Up: A Checklist for Paraeducators, Teachers, and Principals (Item #2163-0-00-PL).

For price and ordering information, go to www.nea.org/books or call 800/229-4200.

Here's How You Can Get Started

If your state doesn't yet have para regulations, here's a little start-up advice from members of the Vermont-NEA Paraeducator Standards Task Force:

• Start by talking to one or two paras in other districts who see the need for standards, then reach out to other interested paras.
  
• Create a task force and invite your NEA state affiliate on board.
  
• Ask colleagues in your own district what state rules are and aren't needed, and come to task force meetings "prepared to defend your statements."
  
• Draft some paraeducator standards and present them to other school stakeholders-like parents and advocates for the disabled-who have a stake in better-trained and supervised paras. Get their buy-in.
  
• Line up backing from sympathetic administrators and approach your state education department for support.
  
• Keep working, keep gaining allies, and keep reminding everyone that you're doing this to improve education for kids with the greatest needs.

Member Milestones

• In July, NEA Representative Assembly delegates voted to change the definition of ESP from "education support personnel" to "education support professionals." This name change "acknowledges the major contribution ESP make for children and public education," says Karen Mahurin, president of NEA's National Council for ESP.
  
• The NEA-Retired Task Force has successfully lobbied for Education Employees Liability Insurance for members who return to teach in the classroom. The coverage had been available to NEA-Retired Lifetime members for many years.
  In May, the NEA Legal Services Program announced an expansion of coverage to include NEA-Retired annual members, beginning September 1, 2001.

NEA has released a report that will be heavily used by education researchers and reporters, Rankings and Estimates: Rankings of the States 2000 and Estimates of School Statistics 2001. Among other things, the report pegs the average U.S. public teacher salary for 1999-2000 at $41,724 and records a dramatic public school enrollment increase over the last decade, from 41 million in the fall of 1989 to 47 million in the fall of 1999. To download the report, go to www.nea.org/publiced/edstats/.

Looking for ways to successfully use technology in your classrooms? Join NEA and the National School Boards Association in Atlanta November 8-10 for the 15th annual Technology+Learning Conference. Registration materials are online at www.nea.org/technology/nsba/registration.html. Discounts are available for NEA members.

Bargaining without a Bargaining Law

By sticking together and "chipping away" at their school board, members of the Mitchell County (Georgia) Bus Drivers recently won two years of back overtime pay for 13 drivers. These employees had worked dual jobs-like driver and paraeducator-but never got time and a half when their combined work hours exceeded 40 in a week.

The 35-member MCBD never had to file a wage and hour complaint under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The local, which has 100 percent membership, relied on tactics that had previously yielded pay scale upgrades and management support for school bus safety.

The winning tactic: Mitchell County drivers told their story together, both through one-on-one chats with the seven school board members and a group visit to a board meeting. At that meeting, "We gave a face to a dilemma," says former local activist Rosa Ward, who estimates the loss of overtime pay deprived her of $350 a month.

"We talked about light bills and car payments we couldn't make," Ward recalls, "and we all said we needed to find another job."
Mitchell County drivers "bargained" an overtime settlement-and enforcement of the FLSA-without the benefit of a state bargaining law. "Now the Georgia Association of Educators is looking to help ESP do the same in seven other counties," notes Ward, a UniServ director who specializes in UniServ organizing. Stay tuned.