Abstract

With increased accountability due to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), the provision of services to children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment is necessary to ensuring an inclusive, free appropriate public education. Paraprofessionals are increasingly utilized as service providers for children with disabilities in the schools. In fact, there are over a million paraprofessionals jobs nationally according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2010) and the upward trend is steadily rising. Yet, the role of the paraprofessional is not well defined, nor agreed upon by school personnel. The Paraprofessional Survey of Expectations Tool (P-SET) was developed to investigate the job expectations for paraprofessionals within central Iowa, according to principals, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals themselves. Results of the survey suggest relative agreement overall between respondents (principals, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals) for job expectations; however, results confirm that ambiguity exists in regards to supervision and job descriptions for paraprofessionals. The need for professional development and training opportunities is discussed.

Advisor

Daniel Houlihan

Committee Member

Andrea Lassiter

Committee Member

Kathy Bertsch

Date of Degree

2013

Language

english

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Psychology

College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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