Learning pathway
Foundations
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.
Anyone in the role — your first stop, whatever your assignment.
Everyone starts here. This is the shared floor: the parts of the job that don't change with your assignment — who you are in the room, the bright lines, the law you work within, and the safety basics. It isn't a complete onboarding, and your building will add its own.
Entry assessment
Quick assessment (5–10 min)Start with these competencies
Professionalism & EthicsCommunication & Collaboration
Guides for this layer
Foundations & Identity
- Pathways into the RoleYou're considering becoming a paraprofessional, or you just got hired and want to know what to expect before you walk in.
- A Day in the LifeYou're trying to picture what paraprofessional work actually looks like, hour by hour, in your kind of setting before you commit.
- State Certification RequirementsYou want to know what your state actually requires for paraprofessional credentialing, beyond the federal ESSA floor.
- Identity and the RoleYour identity (race, language, disability, class, sexuality, parenting status) shapes how you experience the work, and you want it named, not invisible.
- Developmental ExpectationsYou support a student and want to know what's typical for their age, so you can tell the difference between a skill nobody has taught them yet, an ordinary bad day, and something the team should actually look at.
Ethics & Boundaries
- FERPA and ConfidentialityYou know things about students that other staff and outsiders don't, and you're navigating the daily risk of accidental disclosure.
- Mandated ReportingYou have reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect, or you just received a disclosure and you're deciding what to do next.
- Dual Relationships and Social MediaYour student is also your neighbor, your colleague is also your church friend, or a student just sent you a social media friend request.
- Gifts and BoundariesA family or colleague gave you a gift, and you're trying to figure out whether to accept it, decline it, or escalate.
- When You See Something WrongYou've seen or heard something at work that feels wrong, and you're deciding whether and how to raise it.
- Scope of PracticeYou're being asked to do things that may not be yours to do: design IEP goals, write a BIP, run a pull-out without curriculum, translate a formal document, sub the class.
- See all in Ethics & Boundaries →
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 the designing part is the teacher's, not yours.
- See all in Legal & Policy →
Supervision & Standards
- CEC Specialty Set in PracticeYou want a real professional framework for paraprofessional growth, instead of training on the immediate tasks of your assignment and being left to figure out the rest.
- Coaching and CalibrationYou're a supervisor giving coaching feedback to paras, or a para wanting more from coaching than 'You're doing great' or vague problem-focused feedback.
- Para Teacher Communication NormsCommunication with your supervising teacher (or your para) feels inconsistent, and you suspect the actual problem is that no one ever set the norms.
- Performance EvaluationYou're preparing for your annual evaluation, and you want it to actually drive your growth, not just be a form to sign.
- Onboarding a New ParaYou supervise a new paraprofessional, and you want the first 60 days to produce a competent, supported team member instead of an early-exit turnover statistic.
- Substitute ParasYou'll be out, or a substitute para will be covering your assignment, and you want students kept safe and routines maintained while you're gone.
Collaboration
- Working with the Supervising TeacherYou're building the working partnership with your supervising teacher, or you can feel that partnership drifting and want to reset it.
- Working with the Gen Ed TeacherYou're an inclusion para in someone else's classroom, pushing into gen-ed for part of the day or full-time.
- Cafeteria Recess Bus StaffYour student goes to lunch, recess, and the bus, and the adults in those settings are not the people who know the IEP.
- Working with FamiliesYou interact with families at drop-off, pickup, on the phone, or in meetings, and you want to be a partner without overstepping.
- Working with Outside ProvidersYour student also receives services from an outside ABA agency, private SLP/OT, community counselor, or developmental pediatrician.
- Conflict with a ColleagueYou're navigating professional friction with a colleague: communication breakdown, conduct concerns, or something more serious affecting student welfare.
When something comes up
One screen each. Open the one that matches what's in front of you; the full brief is there when you have time.
- A student just told you something seriousA student just told you about abuse, neglect, or being unsafe — straight out, in bits and pieces, or in a roundabout way.
- You were just asked to do something that felt wrongSomeone in charge of your work just asked you to do something that doesn’t feel right.
- What your district owes you — and what you can declineYou were asked to do something you have not been trained for, you cannot find a student's plan, or you saw a restraint or a hold that worried you.