Common Issues with School Aides and How to Address Them

As we write in 4 Tips for Communicating with Your Child’s Teacher, it’s reasonable to want information on a daily or weekly basis about your child from the people who spend the most time with them at school. If the school doesn’t want you chatting with your child’s aide at pickup to hear about their day, you can request that they fill out a brief communication log with the key points you want to know most about, like health or behavior.

Non-attorney education advocate Lisa Carey says, “I would push for a handoff with the aide present and a supervising person like the teacher. You can often start off by requesting that the handoff in the morning or the afternoon be with the aide present and an administrator or the teacher, whoever they want it to be. And then you can ask very casual questions: ‘Did they use the bathroom today? Did they have a good day? What did they eat for lunch?’ And hopefully, as time goes on, it gets a little bit more relaxed. That's what I would ask for, that touching base with someone else present.”

Education advocate and BCBA-D Dr. Sarah Pelangka cautions that you should keep communication with aides to your communication log and IEP meetings. She explains, “Oftentimes, parents want to talk to the aides at pickup or after school, but aides are not salary-based like teachers are. Their day ends when the school day ends, and they can't stand there and talk to you. Oftentimes, they get caught up with parents asking question after question after question. It's not fair to them, so I think parents have to be mindful of those pieces.”

Your child’s IEP case manager is another person you can communicate with about concerns.

Education advocate and former SpEd administrator Daphne Zacky Bold says, “A parent can ask anybody to come to an IEP meeting that they would like. So if a parent wants the aide to come to the IEP meeting, they have the right to ask for that. A district may say no, and I recommend to parents that they push back and they ask them if there's a policy in place that says that the aide can't go, and if so, that they provide it to them.” We frequently recommend that parents request to see the policy if they’re confused by something the district says.

Bold continues, “There needs to be somebody on behalf of that aide, whether it's the supervisor from the agency or the aide themselves, if they are district employed, they should be there at that IEP meeting to speak in regards to the student’s performance.”

Carey says if the school insists that the aide is not allowed at the IEP meeting, you can ask your child’s teacher to please get the aide's input and request that they share it during the meeting. The aide could even prepare a report for the IEP team with their insights, observations, recommendations, and general feedback about the student.

According to Dr. Pelangka, the same applies to long-term subs: Invite them to participate in the IEP meeting and hold them accountable for your child’s accommodations, goals, and services.

Carey says that if you become aware of your child not getting an aide as written in the IEP, “The next thing is to document it. I would email the case carrier and copy the teacher and say it's come to your attention that your child is not consistently getting an aide. What is the school's plan to rectify it? Ask an open-ended question because we want them to talk.” Where you go from there depends on the school’s answer. You could ask the school to contract with an outside agency to provide the aide on the IEP until the district can provide one themselves.

Carey says one way that parents can address staff shortages is to start showing up at school board meetings. If you don’t feel comfortable going in person, you can email all your board members and learn who the cabinet of your district is in order to reach out and make these problems known.

If an aide is listed in a child’s IEP as a support, accommodation, or service, the aide cannot be discontinued without an IEP meeting or Prior Written Notice. But certain wording in the IEP, such as "additional classroom support as needed," may allow for change without parent consent, so keep an eye on how aides are written in.

Carey recommends that parents test out fading the service before agreeing to end it completely. Draft a fade-out plan as an IEP team in order to dictate what the purposes of the aide are and what criteria need to be met prior to the aide’s removal. Be sure these criteria are observable and measurable and have clear parameters.

You should also discuss with your IEP team additional supports that could help your child make meaningful progress without an aide, such as:

• assistive technology
• teacher training (for example, teaching mixed-ability groups and facilitating social interactions)
• activity-based instruction
• use of existing school-wide supports (such as a learning labs)
• use of a paraprofessional assigned to a class rather than an individual student
• co-teaching in the classroom
• positive behavior supports
• peer supports

A child may benefit from an aide for behavior management, instructional support, activities of daily living (i.e., toileting), safety (for health or mobility), social skills training, and task redirection so that they have access to education with their peers. If you have requested an aide for your child to access their free, appropriate public education (FAPE), the school should not dismiss your concerns without determining your child’s need for an aide through an assessment. The assessment might be called a Special Circumstances Independent Assistant (SCIA), Temporary Special Needs Assistant (TSNA), or other assessment depending on your district. Here’s a sample letter for requesting an assessment in writing.

Education attorney Dina Kaplan says, “If the assessment's been done by the school district and they say your child doesn't need an aide, and you disagree, you have the right to request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE).”

For more information on determining if a student needs an aide, see our full article here.

Parents can request a paraeducator with certain training, but they cannot request particular individuals, just services or specific skill sets (the IEP team does not make personnel decisions; these are for the principal or district HR department).

If there are special circumstances, make sure they’re outlined in the IEP (for example, if your child can only work with a female aide due to past trauma, or if your child with autism requires an aide specifically trained in ABA).

If your child has worked with a specific person already and you want that aide again next year, you could get the importance of continuity written into the IEP and ask them to train another person on campus when the main person is absent. You will need to state why the switching of aides is not appropriate for your child to access education. Acknowledge that you understand it cannot be helped at times (illness, vacations, etc.), but focus on the need for consistency as much as possible and how the switching is not appropriate and impedes access to education.

Human resources are the school district’s decision, not an IEP decision. It is possible to add a training or qualification component in your IEP, but your child’s access to FAPE cannot be contingent on the presence of one named employee. If you feel that changing the personnel implementing the IEP would make things work better, here are some things you can do:

• Speak up during an IEP meeting (as kindly as possible), but remember that the IEP team can’t make this decision.
• The best person to discuss this with is the aide’s manager, which for most professionals is the school principal. For paraprofessionals, there could be a special education teacher or a credentialed behaviorist (BCBA) overseeing their work. For an Non Public Agency (NPA) aide, you could talk to your principal or to the agency manager.
• If your child is struggling with their current teacher or aide and it’s affecting their progress, it’s important to have a conversation with the person’s supervisor. While schools might not be able to change staff based solely on preference, they do want to support your child’s learning and well-being. Open communication can help find solutions that make the classroom experience more positive.

If your child is going on a field trip, participating in after-school activities, or enjoying other extracurricular activities, your child should have access to the same IEP supports as in their classroom, including a 1:1 aide, at school-sponsored activities. The school cannot make a particular person work after hours, but they can make an arrangement to hire an aide for that time if your child needs support to have the same access as other students. It may depend on what kind of aide your child has and what the activity is. Check out our article When Is a School Required to Pay for an Aide? for more details.

If the school still refuses, put your request in writing and ask that they respond to your request with a Prior Written Notice.

If your child has an aide written into their IEP, the school is responsible for providing that aide. This includes plans for a substitute aide if their normal aide is absent. A substitute aide can disrupt a child's routine, so some advance planning is helpful for all involved. At your next IEP meeting or in an email, ask your team for the plan when the aide is out. Let them know that advance notice can help you prime your child for the change.

If the school repeatedly fails to provide your child with an aide (or substitute aide) even though it's written into the IEP, you can file a state compliance complaint with the help of an education advocate. For evidence, provide the email correspondence you sent detailing the incident. In the remedies section of the complaint, ask that the state department of education order the school to provide a sub whenever the aide is absent; to do so for all students similarly situated; and for the department of education to monitor how often the school does not provide a sub for absent aides.

If your child is homeschooled and you want to request a 1:1 aide, whether your school district will provide one depends on your child's homeschool setup. The reason homeschool charters generally don’t offer 1:1 aides is that classes and options are all independent of the charters and by choice of the parents, so the school doesn’t have to provide the 1:1 for classes through different enrichment or learning centers by choice.

If you homeschool by filing a PSA, you’re essentially creating your own private school, and the public school district doesn’t have to provide any IEP services in a private school setting. One option that works for some families is to obtain ABA therapy services (typically through insurance) and then use the ABA professional as a 1:1 aide during school time.

Do you have additional questions or concerns about working with your district on a school aide? Come to Undivided’s next office hours with an education advocate to ask during our members-only Q&A.