Reducing Ambiguity: Tools to Define and Communicate Paraprofessional Roles and Responsibilities.

One-on-one and program-based special education paraprofessionals are often used to support students with disabilities across school settings. While paraprofessionals may have the best of intentions, their proximity and the support they provide may prevent students with disabilities from fully accessing educational and social opportunities. To prevent unintentional yet negative student outcomes, it is necessary to define and communicate job responsibilities to paraprofessionals before they begin working with students with disabilities. This article outlines several flexible tools and strategies that teachers and administrators can use to efficiently and effectively communicate this information. The article includes (a) a description of how teachers and administrators can define and deliver job-related information to paraprofessionals, (b) reproducible templates for developing a written or digital job responsibilities notebook for paraprofessionals, and (c) recommendations for using these tools effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]