Learning pathway
Special education — milder needs
Pathways are suggestions, not requirements. They order existing content by what tends to matter most for a role — you can switch pathways or browse everything any time.
Primarily students with learning disabilities, ADHD, mild autism, or emotional/behavioral disabilities (EBD).
EBD and ADHD put self-regulation at the front edge, so this leads with behavior — but the core support is academic. The legal section is here for one reason: implementing accommodations without drift.
Lead competencies for this role
Behavior & Social-Emotional SupportInstructional SupportInclusion & IEP Implementation
Guides for this role
Behavior Support
- Function-Based ThinkingYou're trying to figure out why a student behaves the way they do — and why the answer matters more than the behavior itself.
- Functional Behavior AssessmentAn FBA is happening for your student — and you're going to be a major source of the data the team needs.
- Reading and Running a BIPYou're being asked to run a Behavior Intervention Plan — and you need to read it the way it's meant to be read.
- Antecedent StrategiesYou want to spend less time managing crises — by changing what happens *before* the behavior, not what happens after.
- Reinforcement Based InterventionsYou're being asked to run DRO, DRA, DRI, or NCR — and you need to know what those mean and where most paras get it wrong.
- Functional Communication TrainingYou're teaching a student a replacement for behavior that's already doing real work for them — and you need to do it the way the plan was designed.
- See all in Behavior Support →
Instructional Practice
- Instructional Roles of the ParaYou do instructional work all day — and you need a clear line between supporting and teaching, with the skill ceiling that comes with each.
- Prompting HierarchiesPrompting is most of what you do — and the difference between skilled and well-intentioned prompting determines whether the student becomes independent.
- Prompt FadingYou prompt students through skills they can't yet do alone — and fading those prompts is where actual independence gets built.
- Programming Sheets and Procedural FidelityYou run programs that another adult also runs — and consistency between you is the difference between the program working and not.
- Reinforcement BasicsYou use reinforcement every day — and the difference between great reinforcement and "bribery" is whether you know what you're doing.
- Errorless Learning and Error CorrectionYou teach skills where the student's errors matter — and where uncorrected wrong responses get rehearsed into harder-to-undo patterns.
- See all in Instructional Practice →
Disability-Specific Briefs
- AutismYou support an autistic student — and you need a frame that holds the heterogeneity ("if you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person") without flattening it.
- ADHDYou support a student with ADHD — and most of what's hard for them at school is executive function, not motivation.
- Specific Learning DisabilitiesYou support a student with an SLD — and the umbrella covers dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, language-based LD, each needing different support.
- DyslexiaYou support a student with dyslexia — and the right kind of reading instruction (Structured Literacy) makes the difference.
- Intellectual DisabilityYou support a student with intellectual disability — and the field has historically underestimated what these students can do.
- Emotional Disturbance EBDYou support a student under the ED / EBD category — and these students have the worst outcomes in special ed unless the relationship gets right first.
- See all in Disability-Specific Briefs →
Legal & Policy
- IDEA Overview for ParasYou work under IDEA every day — and you need a clear sense of the law's promises, your role within them, and where families' rights touch your work.
- ESSA and Title I Para QualificationsYou work in a Title I school — and federal law specifies what qualifications you must hold and what you can / cannot be assigned to do.
- Section 504 OverviewYou support a student with a 504 plan — and 504 is *not* a smaller IEP; it's a different law with different protections.
- ADA in SchoolsYou support students who need physical, communication, or program access — and the ADA reaches further than IDEA or 504 in some ways.
- Reading an IEPYou support a student with an IEP — and you should be able to read the IEP, find what affects your work, and use it as the contract it is.
- Specially Designed InstructionYou're being asked to design lessons, choose strategies, or adapt content — and that may be SDI, which IDEA reserves for the teacher.
- See all in Legal & Policy →
Data & Documentation
- Data Types OverviewYou take data on student goals — and you want to know which type (frequency, duration, latency, intensity, prompt level, permanent product, ABC) answers the question you actually have.
- Interval RecordingYou're tracking behavior that's hard to count (engagement, vocal stim, on-task) — and you want to know whether whole-interval, partial-interval, or momentary time sampling fits your question.
- Prompt Level DataYou're teaching a skill — and you want to track honestly how much help the student actually needed, so the team can fade prompts and build real independence.
- ABC Narrative RecordingA behavior is puzzling and the team doesn't yet understand it — and you're capturing antecedent-behavior-consequence notes that the BCBA or teacher can analyze for function.
- IEP Progress MonitoringYou're collecting data that feeds quarterly IEP progress reports — and you want to be sure the reports tell the family and team something real about whether the student is growing.
- Digital Data ToolsYour district uses Catalyst, BehaviorSnap, Rethink, or another digital data platform — and you want to make it useful instead of just filling in fields.
- See all in Data & Documentation →
When the moment is happening
Open these cards during the situation — not to study.
All right-now cards →