Oklahoma Special Education Students Benefit From Education Partnership

Each year more than 500 para-professionals who assist special education teachers statewide are trained. This training has taken place for 10 years either in Oklahoma City or Tulsa by personnel from the State Department of Education (SDE).

This year, the training will be delivered differently, and more conveniently, to these individuals throughout the state.

Oklahoma’s SDE and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education system are teaming up to make training more accessible to people interested in becoming a special education para-professional in their local schools.

“For 10 years the Department of Education has been delivering this training,” Tom Bell, associate state director of Special Education said. “But it creates a hardship for low-wage earners who must travel twice to Oklahoma City or Tulsa for the training offered only four times a year.”

To help the SDE meet this training need, CareerTech Adult Career Development instructors from nine technology centers across the state are being trained to train para-professionals in a pilot program.

“As partners, the Education Department and CareerTech’s technology centers are meeting this educational challenge in our state,” CareerTech Director Phil Berkenbile said. “Now the para-professional training is coming to them through technology centers, adding the element of convenience to keep travel costs and training expenses down for those individuals.”

Technology centers in the pilot program are Canadian Valley, El Reno; Gordon Cooper, Shawnee; Great Plains, Lawton; High Plains, Woodward; Kiamichi, McAlester; Northeast, Afton; Red River, Duncan; Tulsa Tech, Broken Arrow; and Francis Tuttle, Oklahoma City.

While classroom instructors must be certified teachers, school districts recruit and hire much needed assistants, called “paras,” who need a minimum of a high school diploma.

“Special education para-professionals are required to be trained in the history of special education, the law and law changes, ethical practice and how to work with students to meet their goals,” Bell said.

Some of the technology center instructors completed trainer training in October and are beginning to train para-professionals. Starting this month (Nov.) the pilot program opened to all 29 technology center districts. The next instructor/administrator training is scheduled for Dec. 8 at Tulsa Technology Center.

Para-professional curriculum has been developed and is being printed by CareerTech’s Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center. Materials for the program include a training DVD for each technology center and a student handbook.

With regional locations, training may be offered more often to fulfill the 24 hours of class time required to be a Special Education paraprofessional. Additional training requirements include CPR and first aid, both also offered at technology centers.

“The goal of this program is to provide access to training to all school districts for para-professional certification in special education,” Bell said. “We are looking forward to the collaboration with the CareerTech system,” Bell said.

For more information on Special Education para-professional training, contact your local technology center’s adult coordinator.

posted Nov,10 2005

Press Release