Here is the best approach is to review your son’s IEP goals with the team with the general education teacher present. Ask what specific strategies the teacher and support staff will use to make sure the student meets his goals in the general education setting without additional support. Sometimes the general education teacher when she sees the number of goals or types of goals will feel she cannot meet these needs without additional support. If they give you reasonable answers that seem plausable then agree for a 30 day trial and ask that staff implement these stratagies and meet back in 30 days to review their effectiveness. Also make sure that all of your child’s needs are addressed by his IEP goals. If the goals are not identified such as increasing time on task etc. then the staff won’t neccesarily address the issue directly. Also work with the school team to explore other methods of increased support besides a one to one aid. Sometimes we include students with additional staff support meaning an aid is assigned to help 2 or 3 children who are struggling versus a one on one aid. A one on one aid is considered fairly restrictive and other supports should be investigated, but sometimes staff are not as creative. If your child has other services, OT, Speech or resource support sometimes those services can best be used by having these services delivered in the classroom to support general education activities instead of pulling your child out and your child missing vital information. Try to work with the team in a positive manner and avoid adversarial reactions.

I am a special ed teacher, and i can honestly say it is very very hard to prove a student needs a para. In my district, generally the only way a student gets a para (that is paid for by the district) is to have a severe physical disability. My recommendation is to ask if your school has a inclusion class where there is 2 teachers. This should be a special ed teacher and a general ed teacher. These classes are generally a little bit smaller, which will help with limiting distractions, but will also offer your child a higher opportunity to be refocused more often with the assistance of the second teacher. Hope this helps…

My son had a para in kindergarden. Paras are usually given to children with special needs in areas such as physical handicaps, communication issues, combinations of several issues or severe ADD/ADHD. You don’t really mention how severe your son’s attention issues are of if there are any other needs he may have, so going on what you have said I would think it highly unlikely for him to get a para just for an attention issue (unless there is a lot of negative behaviors that go along with it).

Generally, schools are very reluctant to assign paras. The primary reason is the cost. While a para does not earn as much as a teacher, the school is still paying for the person to work with just one child. In these times of shrinking special ed and general ed budgets, schools have no choice to maximize each dollar. Another reason, although one you won’t hear in lower grades, are for social reasons. Schools will often protest placement of a student with a para on the grounds it will cause the child to “stand out” and may make things difficult socially for the child. This is not the case…a really good para can help a child with social skills and, in older students, should blend in as much as possible.

My suggestions would be to find out if there will be an aide working in the class…many kindergardens have aides simply as part of regular staffing. If that is the case, expect the school to suggest seeing how your child does with just the teacher and the aide. Another option would be to suggest the child sharing the para with another student in the class who needs that type of support. You can also suggest using a para just during subjects and activities that require your son to focus (circle time, working on printing and numbers, etc.). Keep in mind, your son will have to meet the school requirements to have a para, but by offering these compromises, it may increase your chances.

Hi there,

I work at a school with children of ages 3,4 and 5 with special needs. Your child would have to go through quite a bit of testing from the school therapists to determine whether or not he qualifies having a 1/1 aide. It’s not a matter of what you could say at the IEP meeting that would determine whether they assign an aide or not. It really boils down to how he tests. Hope this helps.

5 year olds have a nano second attention span.

If you feel he is suffering from ADD or ADHD then

take your son to a counselor. They will evaluate

him and let you know. I think you are being a good

mother to be concerned. I have worked in the school district as a Title 1 Paraprofessional. What

I do is work with students who are struggling in class. Give your son a chance to do some growing. Keep reading to him and asking him questions about what is happening around him and ask him why they happened. Use complete sentences when talking to him. This will help build his vocabulary and reasoning skills. Above all,

relax. He sounds like a normal healthy boy to me.

By this do you mean a para professional, aka teachers aide?