[blparent] Volunteering in your child's classroom

[Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter]

Julie,

Before my mom finished her teaching degree 20 years ago, she was working as
a para in the Omaha school district in Nebraska. After No Child Left Behind
Act, OPS wanted all paras to hold an associates degree in education. My mom
was already in the process of receiving her degree, but other paras in the
district were allowed to continue working as a para as long as they began
and completed an AA degree. I believe at the time, they provided tuition
assistance for current paras wanting to pursue this. OPS still requires
paras have an AA in education. My husband applied for a job as a para
working with blind children at OPS 8 or 9 years ago, and one of the
requirements was an associates degree.

My sister wanted to apply for a para job in Iowa, but she first had to
receive a certification through an accredited school. I think it took 6
months to a year for the certification.

Schools still ask for volunteer help, but usually not when involving the
educational side of things. Not anymore. Smaller schools and especially
private schools may be more willing to allow volunteer help during class
time, at least here in Omaha, but my experience is that they do not ask for
or want volunteer help in class for teaching or anything pertaining to
curriculum. Helping with class activities, field trips, providing material
for class, helping with open house nights or book fairs, yes, but as an
actual teaching assistance, they do not want parents or "nonqualified"
people helping in this capacity.

Bridgit

Message: 8
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2016 11:25:55 -0500
From: "Julie J." <julielj at neb.rr.com>
To: "Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] Volunteering in your child's classroom
Message-ID: <7651D1B0AA7043B1BF6914B2AC672BB5 at JuliePC>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=original

The requirements for teachers and teacher aids differ from state to state. 
I've interviewed for a paraeducator position here in NE.  I don't have a 
degree in education.

I homeschooled my son for the last two years of high school.  The 
environment was so bad, I was really afraid of the mental health 
consequences for leaving him in the public school.  The elementary and 
middle schools were great...supportive, fair, educational, but high school 
was not.

I am a mentor through the TeamMates program.  Currently I mentor a 7th 
grader.  I did have to go through an extensive application process and a 
background check.  Interestingly though, I also teach resiliency skills in 
the after school programs and never had an interview, background check or 
anything.  In the beginning they would assign one of the after school 
program workers to be in the room with me, but lately I've been on my own.

Each school has a book to sign in and out, so they know who's there at any 
given time.  Except not everyone follows that rule.  In the last year or two

they started locking all the doors and requiring that you ring the buzzer to

ask to be let in.  Another way to keep track of who's coming and going, but 
again, there are frequently times that multiple people go through at once or

people going out will hold the door for those going in.  Polite, but it 
defeats the security.

I don't know.  They try to make the schools a safe place and mostly they 
are, but I think that's more to do with the community where I live and not 
their precautions.
Julie