Identifying Paraprofessional Competencies for Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education

Abstract

Help! Paraprofessionals needed!This cry is going out across theUnited States, even as the increaseddemand is not seeing a correspon-ding supply of trained personnel.Because few state institutions ofhigher education can produce the num-bers of professionals needed to workwith young children with disabilitiesand their families (Gallagher, Malone,Cleghorne, & Helms, 1997), it is onlylogical that state and local programshave increased their use of paraprofes-sionals in the delivery of needed servic-es (see box, “The IDEA P Stayton & Bruder,1999). Despite these needs, few states, priorto the 1997 IDEA amendments, requireddemonstration of specific competenciesor provided ongoing competency-basedtraining for paraprofessionals.This article provides a set of compe-tencies for paraprofessionals anddemonstrates ways to document thevarious mastery levels of paraprofes-sionals. We have found this structureuseful; and it forms the foundation ofOregon’s personnel development sys-tem for the state’s early intervention/early childhood education special edu-cation services.