A few bits of information for context: I live, work, and go to school in Minnesota. I’m currently attending college for a degree in secondary social studies education, and in the meantime, I work full-time as a paraprofessional in a nearby school as it’s good experience. We are a K-12 school in a small town, with under 400 students enrolled in the entire school- in other words, we’re a VERY small district; the typical grade size averages about 25-30 students. For our purposes, we consider K-6 to be elementary, and we have a Special Education teacher that handles all students on IEPs in those grades. We consider 7-12 to be secondary, and that is the side I work on. There are two SPED teachers on our side, one that handles students 7-9 and the other handles 10-12. One last thing to note- because we are such a small school, we are incredibly under-staffed. Including myself, there are a grand total of THREE paras on the secondary side to work with all of the kids in 7-12 on IEPs.
With all of that said, there’s a caveat here that is the source of my current dilemma: the 7-9 SPED teacher has a 6th grade student on their caseload, and has assigned me to this student for three hours every day now that we have entered our new semester. Back in November, this teacher asked me to start accompanying this 6th grade student to their first period class as a 1:1. I normally work with high school students, so this age group is outside my comfort zone already, and I felt as though I could not say no. For legal reasons, I can’t provide much detail about this student, but it’s worth mentioning that this student is very high functioning, and nowhere in their IEP does it state that they require 1:1 para supervision. I do not assist this student with their academics, nor even with organization skills. They perform well in their classes and keep track of their materials and assignments on their own. I am, essentially, here to babysit this 6th grader; my job consists solely of ensuring that this student sits down in their desk and doesn’t disrupt the class by making noises or saying inappropriate things. I am having to pull them out of the classroom during lessons on a daily basis because they cannot get through a lesson without being a significant disruption. They also are not allowed into the hallway unsupervised under any circumstances due to them vandalizing school property. Yes, this means that I am required to escort this student to the bathroom. And on a personal level, I just do not enjoy working with that student. I feel bad saying that about an 11 year old, but it’s the truth. We just do not have compatible personalities.
One more piece of context: a couple weeks ago, there was a meeting with all of the paras on both elementary and secondary sides, where we were essentially told that we are not allowed to say no to new assignments. I understand that, legally, we are required to meet the needs of students on IEPs and that excluding myself, we only have two other paras to cover all classes with 7-12 students. I’m not unwilling to work with this student, but three hours a day, 1:1, is just too much for me to handle and I would really like to go back to just once a day; however, I’m afraid that if I go to the SPED teachers with this, they are going to dismiss my request and not listen to my concerns. I apologize for the wall of text, I wasn’t sure how to condense everything because there’s a lot going on here. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated, I’m at my wit’s end here.
TL,DR: I’m a para, and my new assignment has me literally babysitting a student that’s younger than what I’m used to working with, and I’m not there to assist with any academic or cognitive needs. I want to go back to being with this student once a day instead of three times, but I’m afraid my SPED teachers won’t listen to me. What should I do?
Submitted January 23, 2023 at 06:50PM by ToothlessBeggar https://ift.tt/6z0KwBi
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