The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and its ensuing regulations require State Education Agencies (SEAs) to address in their State Plans a mechanism for ensuring that Local Education Agencies (LEAs) maintain appropriately qualified personnel to provide special education and related services for children and youth with disabilities who are served by public and private agencies. The following policy was stated in Director’s Memo # ACC-98-058, February 26, 1998: “It shall be the policy of the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) that the paraprofessionals, educational interpreters for the deaf and hearing impaired or other assistants employed by public agencies to assist in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities, birth to 21 years of age, will be appropriately trained and supervised in accordance with guidelines established by the ADE, Special Education Unit”.
To address this requirement, the ADE, Special Education, through the Arkansas Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (ACSPD), is providing an opportunity for additional training for paraprofessionals to meet the requirements as outlined in the policy. A Secondary Paraprofessional Module has been developed to address issues related to the jobs of paraprofessionals in secondary schools. The training will occur on November 17, 1999 via satellite at the 37 regional locations listed on the attached registration form. Each site will have a trained facilitator(s) that will assist with activities conducted during the satellite training, including dissemination of materials and pre- and post test activities for determination of competency acquisition.
*NOTE: The paraprofessionals must have completed the Core Paraprofessional training prior to attending this Secondary Paraprofessional Training.
To ensure that there are sufficient materials prepared by the facilitators at the sites, paraprofessionals must pre-register to attend the one-day session. Please submit the registration form listing all paraprofessionals (names printed clearly) representing a school district, educational cooperative or other agency as well as the form indicating the training site. Upon the completion of the training, each paraprofessional will receive a certificate of completion in the Secondary Paraprofessional Module, 0.6 CEUs, and have an additional module entered on the Arkansas registry of trained paraprofessionals that is maintained by the Special Education Unit.
Space is limited at the sites. Participants will be registered on a first come, first served basis. The times for the training program is 8:00 A.M. - 3:30 P.M.
Complete and return the attached registration forms no later than October 29, 1999.
Return to:
Susie B. Nelson
Arkansas Department of Education
# 4 State Capitol Mall, Room 105-C
Little Rock, AR 72201-1071
or
Fax: 501-682-4313