Learning pathway
General classroom support
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.
You support students across a range of needs without a single specialization.
A generalist's day touches a bit of everything. This leads with behavior and instruction because that's where generalists most often tell us the day actually goes — reorder if yours runs differently.
Lead competencies for this role
Behavior & Social-Emotional SupportInstructional SupportInclusion & IEP ImplementationCommunication & Collaboration
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 →
Settings & Grade Bands
- Early InterventionYou work in early intervention (birth-3), and the framework, philosophy, and your role are fundamentally different from school-age special ed.
- Early Childhood PreKYou work in preschool / pre-K, and resist the urge to make it look like elementary school.
- ElementaryYou work in K-5 special education, and you need to balance being present enough to support with fading enough to build independence.
- Routines and TransitionsYou support students whose hardest moments are transitions, between activities, locations, adults, and most behavioral incidents cluster there.
- Unstructured TimeYou support students during recess, lunch, hallways, before/after school: the times when most behavioral incidents happen.
- Middle SchoolYou support adolescents in 6-8, and the social and identity landscape is so different that elementary support strategies stop working.
- See all in Settings & Grade Bands →
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 a specific learning disability (SLD), the umbrella covers dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and language-based learning disabilities, 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.
- Speech Language ImpairmentYou support a student with a speech-language impairment, and you can be the SLP's carryover partner if you know the difference between the subtypes.
- See all in Disability-Specific Briefs →
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.
- Your student is refusing to workYour student won’t start. Won’t take part. Won’t pick up the pencil. The room is filling up with the stand-off.
- There’s a substitute teacher in your room todayThere’s a substitute (sub) in your room today. Your job is to keep things steady so your students don’t lose ground.
- A para is out and you’re coveringA para (paraprofessional) is out today, and you’re either filling their role or covering the gap along with the supervising teacher.
- Field trip todayField trip today with your student. The classroom routine is about to disappear.