Paraprofessionals and School Reopenings by Dr. Michael Flanagan

Original art by Pamela Michaels

During the outbreak of COVID-19 in March and April, the New York City United Federation of Teachers lost more than 75 school-based employees. 

28 of those employees who died were paraprofessionals. 

A paraprofessional is an educational assistant. They are usually assigned either to an entire classroom, or to work one-to-one with a student. A “para” can be responsible for reading and writing assistance, social and emotional support, administration of some medical procedures, and even feeding and diapering in some instances. They offer support in both special education and general education classrooms in all grades. The position began with recruitment of community-based educators in the late 1960’s.

NYC currently has about 27,000 paraprofessionals in the United Federation Of Teachers Union(UFT) whose Salaries range from between $27,000 and $38,000 per year. They can also be hired as day-to-day substitutes with no benefits. To be a paraprofessional you need to be nominated by a principal, fingerprinted, take a series of workshops and pass a state assessment. As a “para” you can continue to go to college through the Career Training Program. Paraprofessionals have their own Chapter Representatives in the UFT. 

So...here we are, about to start school again. Why has there been no discussion of the role of paraprofessionals during the upcoming school year, a year like no other?  Why are the powers that be ignoring the people who play such an important role in our education system? And the fact that the majority of paraprofessionals are women and people of color, who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, makes this slight even more egregious. 

Paraprofessionals must be part of the re-opening conversation. Now. 

They were ignored when the schools shut down in March. Given little to no direction on what their roles should be, and how best to serve their students. That lack of direction—and consideration—has not changed. 

I would not be a teacher now, were it not for the eight years I spent as a paraprofessional in the Bronx. As a para, I not only learned how to work with students and acquired the skills necessary to become an educator, I used the Career Training Program to put myself through college.

Working as a para, I gained my chops as an educator. I learned how to use my strengths, and—more importantly—embrace and understand my weaknesses. I came to realize my privilege. I developed a love for the profession. In all my years of education, the most soul-rending and rewarding experience I have ever had was one particular year as a one-on-one health paraprofessional. It was simultaneously humbling and empowering. And it was hard. Very hard.  It was summed up in one student. 

Juan. 

We all have students who have changed our lives. Mine was Juan. Juan was the child of a single mother. They lived in a homeless shelter. Juan was wheelchair-bound with degenerative skeletal and muscular issues, a heart condition, and a multitude of other ailments. 

My job—my calling?—was to feed Juan, help him in the bathroom, write for him (he could not hold a pencil), help him dress and, most of all, just be with him. Juan was a very smart and articulate boy, with a strong grasp of people, their nature and their intent. 

As I write this, decades later, I can still see Juan. Even today, I get the same overwhelming feeling in my chest thinking about him as I got from working with him all those years ago. Knowing what his life was like outside the school, it meant the world to me that I was someone important to him during his hours in the classroom. He was a source of endless inspiration to not only me, but to everyone around him—as hard as it was for him and his mother, he showed up every day, and never gave it anything less than his all. 

Even as we knew he would never see age 25.

Children like Juan, and all children with special needs, are the precise reasons we need to bring paraprofessionals into the reopening conversations. Paras make connections with their students at the most fundamental, emotional, level. While teachers are tasked with working with whole classes for specific periods of time, paraprofessionals spend entire school days—and years—with one student. Or a classroom of students. Helping them learn, working with them through their struggles, talking them through crises, and protecting them and others during physical outbursts. 

Paraprofessionals are the first line of crisis management for our special-needs populations. And they themselves are now in crisis. 

Speaking as a teacher, a union rep, and a former para, we need to do better. Especially during these extraordinary times, we need to give them a voice. And we need to make sure they have training and the support they themselves will need in order to help our students.