ESEA--No Child Left Behind Act--Paraprofessionals

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act, the release of the Title I regulation on Nov. 26, 2003, and the Paraprofessional Non-Regulatory Guidance on March 1, 2004, may have a significant impact on duties, training, and qualifications of paraprofessionals working in Title I programs across the state.

Section 1119 of the ESEA requires each local education agency receiving assistance to ensure that all paraprofessionals hired after the date of the ESEA reauthorization (Jan. 8, 2002) must have:

at least two years of higher education that is equivalent to at least 48 semester hours from an accredited higher education institution,or
obtained an associate (or higher) degree, or
met a rigorous standard of quality and be able to demonstrate, through a formal State or local academic assessment, knowledge of and the ability to assist in instructing reading, writing, and mathematics (or, as appropriate, reading readiness, writing readiness, and mathematics readiness).

Existing paraprofessionals that were hired on or before January 8, 2002, must meet the requirements by the end of the 2005/06 school year.

All paraprofessionals in schoolwide schools and all Title I paraprofessionals in targeted assistance schools must work under the close supervision of highly qualified teachers only.

In order to meet the paraprofessional requirements, we developed an Assessment Guidelines for Local School District Use for Title I Paraprofessionals. DPI recommends the use these guidelines to assess paraprofessionals and satisfy the entry level requirements for Title I paraprofessionals. These are recommendations only and therefore, school districts may develop their own protocols as long as they meet the requirements of section 1119 of the ESEA described above.