Individual Student Paraeducator, Grade 5

Holy Redeemer Catholic School • Individual Student Paraeducator, Grade 5 | Page 1
Position Individual Student Paraeducator, Grade 5
Reports to School ILP Case Manager, with daily coordination with the classroom teacher and collaboration
with the student-support team
Schedule School-day position during the academic year
Classification Hourly
1. Position Summary
The Individual Student Paraeducator provides respectful, individualized support to a fifth-grade student with Level 1 autism
and ADHD in an inclusive school environment. Working under the direction of the classroom teacher and designated school
professionals, the paraeducator helps the student access grade-level instruction, strengthen executive-functioning and selfregulation skills, participate successfully in school activities, transition appropriately between school activities and classes,
and develop increasing independence.
This is an inclusion-focused role. Support should be discreet, age-appropriate, strengths-based, and delivered in the natural
classroom and school environment whenever appropriate. The paraeducator should avoid unnecessary separation, overprompting, or dependence on adult assistance.
The successful candidate will be patient, dependable, observant, calm, collaborative, and committed to protecting the
student’s dignity, confidence, privacy, peer relationships, and sense of belonging while maintaining professional boundaries
and reinforcing the instructional authority of the teacher.
2. Key Responsibilities
Instructional and Academic Support
• Support participation in grade-level instruction and reinforce teacher-provided instruction across subject areas.
• Clarify directions, break multi-step assignments into manageable parts, check for understanding, and provide
appropriate processing time.
• Use approved tools such as visual schedules, checklists, graphic organizers, models, timers, assignment trackers, and
guided notes.
• Provide modeling, guided practice, positive feedback, and prompts while gradually reducing assistance as competence
increases.
• Implement approved accommodations and learning strategies without independently changing the curriculum, learning
objective, or grading standard. Assisting with ensuring that advanced supports and plays are developed and used
consistently to scaffold the student’s day to lower cognitive load and stimulation. Ensures predictability.
• Encourage the student to ask teachers questions and seek help independently rather than speaking on the student’s
behalf.
Executive-Functioning and Organizational Support
• Teach and reinforce systems for organizing materials, assignments, deadlines, and transitions.
• Support planning, prioritizing, time management, task initiation, sustained attention, and completion of work.
• Prompt use of planners, folders, checklists, schedules, timers, and digital classroom tools.
• Preview significant schedule changes when possible and conduct brief, structured check-ins instead of providing
constant adult direction.
• Help the student recognize when attention has shifted, select an approved strategy, and reflect on which strategies were
effective.

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Social-Emotional and Self-Regulation Support
• Build a trusting, respectful relationship based on the student’s strengths, interests, preferences, and developmental
level.
• Recognize early signs of frustration, anxiety, sensory overload, disengagement, or dysregulation and use approved
support strategies.
• Prompt appropriate use of breaks, movement, sensory tools, breathing techniques, quiet spaces, or other approved
regulation strategies.
• Use calm, neutral, specific, and non-shaming redirection; reinforce expectations through specific positive feedback.
• Avoid power struggles, public correction, punitive responses, sarcasm, or treating disability-related needs as intentional
misconduct. When situations arise, use them as a learning moment and teach in skills and educate for growth mindset.
• Help the student identify emotions, communicate needs, solve problems, repair misunderstandings, and return to
instruction.
• Follow established safety and escalation procedures, involving designated personnel when needs exceed the
paraeducator’s training or authority. Do not independently create behavioral interventions or consequence systems.
Independence, Confidence, and Self-Advocacy
• Make independence the central objective and use the least intrusive effective support.
• Allow sufficient processing and attempt time before intervening; gradually fade prompts and physical proximity.
• Teach the student to request clarification, accommodations, breaks, or assistance in an age-appropriate manner.
• Encourage direct communication with teachers and peers and provide choices within teacher-established parameters.
• Recognize effort, strategy use, persistence, flexibility, problem-solving, and recovery from setbacks.
• Bring a disability supportive perspective to helping other adults fully see and understand the student perspective to
reduce frequency of misunderstandings.
• Avoid completing work for the student, answering on the student’s behalf, or becoming the student’s only source of help.
Inclusion and Peer Relationships
• Support meaningful participation in classroom discussions, group work, recess, lunch, safety drills, assemblies,
specials, field trips, and other activities.
• Help the student understand social expectations, group roles, conversational cues, and differing perspectives when
needed. Assist with reminders to use social scripts developed by school counselor and ILP case manager.
• Facilitate natural peer interaction without controlling it or acting as the student’s constant companion.
• Create appropriate physical distance when the student can participate independently and safely.
• Protect the student from unnecessary attention, embarrassment, infantilization, isolation, or disclosure of private
information.
• Treat the student as a capable fifth grader with age-appropriate expectations.
Collaboration, Communication, and Progress Monitoring
• Collaborate with teachers, administrators, learning-support staff, counselors, specialists, family, and other authorized
team members.
• Follow the teacher’s instructional direction and the school’s student-support plan; participate in check-ins, meetings,
and training as requested.
• Share prompt, objective observations about academic engagement, organization, regulation, social participation, and
independence.
• Collect and securely maintain simple data as directed, such as task initiation, completion, prompt levels, transitions,
participation, and use of regulation strategies.
• Record observable facts, relationship health with adults, supports provided, ILP accommodations preventatively
provided, and student responses rather than assumptions, motives, or diagnoses.
• Maintain confidentiality and professional boundaries; communicate with the family only through school-approved
protocols.
Safety and Professional Responsibilities
• Maintain active awareness of the student’s safety and well-being across classroom and non-classroom settings.
• Follow school policies for supervision, safeguarding, emergencies, health and safety, technology, and confidentiality.
• Flag for the cross functional team if it would benefit the ability for the student to thrive if a check-in meeting is needed.
• Maintain reliable attendance, punctuality, emotional stability, sound judgment, flexibility, and professional conduct.

Holy Redeemer Catholic School • Individual Student Paraeducator, Grade 5 | Page 3
3. Qualifications
Required Qualifications
• High school diploma or equivalent.
• Experience working successfully with upper-elementary or middle-school-aged children in a school, tutoring, mentoring,
youth program, behavioral-health, childcare, or similar setting.
• Ability to build supportive relationships while maintaining clear professional boundaries.
• Ability to follow instructional plans, student-support procedures, school policies, and professional direction
consistently.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to document observations objectively and respectfully.
• Basic proficiency in fifth-grade reading, writing, mathematics, and general academic content.
• Ability to remain calm, patient, and professional during frustration, refusal, conflict, or emotional dysregulation.
• Ability to receive coaching and collaborate effectively with teachers, administrators, specialists, and family members.
• Commitment to inclusive, neurodiversity-affirming education, student dignity, confidentiality, and increasing
independence.
• Successful completion of required background checks, fingerprinting, safeguarding requirements, and employment
clearances.
• Willingness to complete required training before or immediately after starting the assignment.
Preferred Qualifications
• College coursework or a degree in education, special education, child development, psychology, social work,
occupational therapy, speech and language, behavior support, or a related field.
• At least one year of experience supporting students with autism, ADHD, executive-functioning differences, anxiety,
sensory needs, or related learning differences in an inclusive setting.
• Knowledge of visual supports, task analysis, prompting and prompt fading, positive reinforcement, explicit instruction,
modeling, and structured choices.
• Experience teaching organizational, self-monitoring, study, and self-advocacy strategies and collecting objective
progress data.
• Familiarity with learning plans, accommodation plans, ILP/IEPs, 504 Plans, or behavior-support plans.
• Training in autism support, ADHD, executive functioning, trauma-informed practice, positive behavior support, deescalation, or restorative practices.
• Current first aid/CPR certification. ParaPro, state paraeducator, or RBT credentials are beneficial but not required.
Interested applicants should send resume and cover letter to Principal McPheeters at: dmcpheeters@holyredeemerpd.org

Official job posting PDF