Training Paras
High School SPED

Training your Special Education high school or transition paras & job coaches is vital! Do you have a plan for how to do it?

Having a plan for how to train your paras will help everyone in your classroom – you, your students, and your support staff! This is because there are a lot of important topics to cover when training your paras, so you need to make sure you cover everything.

But where to begin?

Paras are absolutely essential to how the classroom functions. They may carry lots of experience with them, or be brand new. Either way, if you are new to them, it’s important that they learn your expectations before day one. 

I like to start the year off with a training on Para Expectations & Important Student info, before day 1. Paras know exactly what is expected from them, and learn a bit about each student so they have some background on who they will be teaching.

And yes, paras are teachers, too! It’s important for you to let your paras AND students know that paras are teachers, even though you are the lead teacher.

In any special education classroom, behavior training is also important! Behavior training does not need to be ABA, but it could use ABA principles and still be neurodiversity-affirming. The key to making behavior (or skill-based) training neurodiversity-affirming is to make sure you are not trying to change someone’s behavior just for the sake of making them appear or behave more neurotypically. 

In other words, the goal is to help the student learn a new skill, not make them seem less disabled. 

Grab the free Behavior Management poster by clicking the image!

After covering behavior basics, it’s also important to teach how to PROMPT STUDENTS and also take data in the classroom! 

Whether or not your paras are new to field, you’ll find that everyone has a different understanding of prompting. This is because every teacher (and classroom) may do it a little differently. You’ll want to explain which prompt hierarchy you’ll be using in your classroom. 

Visuals always help!

Re: DATA: over the years, I have used paper based systems, google forms, QR codes & various other methods. How you take data in your classroom will be up to you, so I like to provide multiple options for my paras!

And since your students will be both arriving at different times and completing their warm-up activity at different speeds, you should also have an extended activity ready to go!

Now that your paras are pros at prompting, data collection, and behavior management, it’s also important to cover a few more topics.

I like to have a Neurodiversity & Disability training every year because information about neurodiversity is changing every year!

It’s also important to cover important health topics, such as ALLERGIES, EPILEPSY (seizures), emergency procedures, and other important health safety info! Every student should have a different “safety plan” in your classroom, so that everyone has a plan for what to do in case of emergency. 

Given the nature of special education, this is crucial information to include in your trainings.

The last trainings I like to do are a bit more specific to a Community Based classroom that leaves campus! 

Since my students travel in the community nearly every day, one of my most important para trainings covers COMMUNITY SAFETY. The other training I like to cover is on JOB COACHING.

We’ll cover community safety first. 

Have you ever covered how your paras can be sure to keep your students safe while they are off campus? Taking students in the community requires an ENTIRELY different skillset than helping a student within the classroom setting. 

I like to make safety plans for each of my students, and then I have both students and staff sign out before leaving campus stating that they’ve read their safety plan.

If you teach or support transition aged students off campus at job sites, it’s important to have expectations, an emergency guide, visual supports & a data collection system.

I hope these tips help you out as you figure out a plan for training your paras!

Click here for a free 15 day PDF guide to how to structure your first few weeks back.

If you are wondering how to set up your physical classroom, check out my recent blog post or head to one of the classroom tour videos below!