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, 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 opportunities for the Paraprofessional training, as outlined in this memorandum. The paraprofessional training will be held at the following twelve (12) regional locations listed on the attached registration form.
This training will allow paraprofessionals in public agencies to be trained in the Core, Early Childhood (EC) and/or Secondary Paraprofessional Training Modules, developed by the ADE, Special Education Unit. Each site will have a trained facilitator(s) that will assist with activities conducted during the video training, including dissemination of materials and pre- and post-testing to determine competency acquisition.
A registration form is attached. To ensure that sufficient materials are prepared by the facilitators at the sites, paraprofessionals must pre-register to attend all sessions, including any make-up sessions missed during previous trainings. Please submit registration form listing the names of 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 all modules, each paraprofessional will receive a certificate of completion and be entered into the Arkansas registry of trained paraprofessionals maintained by the Special Education Unit.
For some sites registration will be limited due to space. (Note the number by the site on the registration form.) Participants will be registered on a first come, first served bases. The times for the Core training program are as follows: first day 8:00 A.M. - 3:30 P.M. and the second day 8:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. The Early Childhood and Secondary training programsare both scheduled from 8:00 A.M. - 3:30 P.M. for one day only. Please note the training sessions and dates for each of the regional sites listed on the registration form and mark the dates of choice.
Complete and return the attached registration forms for the May & June sessions no later than April 14. For the other training sessions, submit registration forms by June 9, 2000
Return to:
Susie Branon
Arkansas Department of Education
# 4 State Capitol Mall, Room 105-C
Little Rock, AR 72201-1071
Fax 501-682-4313