Critical to classrooms, paraeducators in demand

As the need for paraeducators — who support teachers in the classroom and work one-on-one with students with disabilities — persists nationally and across Iowa, the Linn-Mar school district has found some success in training high schoolers for the position.

It began with a statewide grant called the Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Program during the 2022-23 school year, when the district trained 12 high school students as student support professionals — otherwise known as paraeducators.

Today, trainees like Nattalee Larimore, who graduated in May from Compass — Linn-Mar’s alternative high school — are working as student support associates in the district. Larimore is planning to attend Kirkwood Community College next year to begin pursuing a degree in speech pathology, an interest inspired by her work as a student support associate as she navigates different ways to communicate with students, some of whom are non-verbal.

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While the Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Program grant has ended, the district still is encouraging students who are interested to train for the position. One of them is Ava Winn, 16, a junior at Linn-Mar High, who began working this year at Indian Creek Elementary School while a full-time student.

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“This is such good training,” said Winn, who plans to be a teacher someday. “I’m working with kids with special needs. I get to figure out how people with different needs learn. I get to learn how to teach them and techniques I can use. It’s a lot of good experience.”

The grant program first was unveiled in 2022 to help students and adults advance in their education and careers while learning and working in the classroom. Since then, the program has supported over 1,000 apprentices and 124 districts in Iowa.

There are different types of paras: those assigned as classroom or program paras, and those who work one-on-one with a student. Paras assist teachers in reinforcing lessons and keeping students on task, and are an extra pair of eyes in the classroom. Paras also are aides to students with disabilities and behavior problems or with physical or feeding needs.

The need for more paraeducators persists across Iowa. While Eastern Iowa school districts have been focused on hiring and training paraeducators this fall, there still are vacancies.

The Linn-Mar district hired 59 people as paraeducators since Aug. 1, and currently has 18 open positions. There are 219 paraeducators who work in the district, which has about 7,800 students.

Karla Christian, chief human resources officer in the Linn-Mar Community School District, said the district is finding that fewer applicants are applying for these positions despite increasing the ways the open job postings are being promoted.

The Linn-Mar district has promoted the open positions to families in the school system, used targeted Facebook advertising to get information to people who might be seeking employment, offered referral bonuses to employees who direct candidates to the district who are successfully hired, and even placed an advertisement in the movie theater to help drive traffic to its website.

A new funding opportunity

Because of the continued need for more paraeducators — and for teachers — Gov. Kim Reynolds last month announced a Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Program 2.0. Applications are being accepted from K-12 districts through 2 p.m. Dec. 2.

School districts or partners of consortiums that previously were awarded grant funds are ineligible for this new funding opportunity. That means Linn-Mar, Marion Independent, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Mount Vernon, Anamosa, Center Point Urbana, Alburnett, Iowa Valley, English Valleys, Tipton, Benton, Monticello and Mid-Prairie won’t be eligible.

This award will be funded by a combination of American Rescue Plan Act funds and additional funding from the state.

The size and scope of the second iteration of the grant program won’t be determined until the state weighs the potential interest and needs against available resources, said Jesse Dougherty, spokesman for Iowa Workforce Development.

“This is a very unique program intended to help meet the demand for teachers, and so the state would like to first review the number of eligible applications from new school districts,” Dougherty said.

Under the grant, schools that apply are eligible to receive the following funding per apprentice:

School districts are required to provide education and training to the apprentices by partnering with community colleges or four-year colleges and universities.

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More paraeducators required as needs increase

The Cedar Rapids Community School District — which serves about 15,500 students — has hired about 90 people as paraeducators since the beginning of the school year. That’s almost double what the district hired in 2022, said Darius Ballard, chief human resource officer for the district.

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Ballard said some of this increase in staffing is because of the increased needs of students. There are about 49 open paraeducator positions in the district and a total of 570 paras in the district.

Ballard said the “bulk” of people working as paraeducators in the Cedar Rapids district have been in the role for under five years. More than half of all staff — including teachers, nutrition services and bus drivers — have less than five years experience in the district, he said.

Improving retention is one of the key pillars of the Cedar Rapids district’s strategic plan approved by the school board in September.

Ballard said in a previous job as a principal, he encouraged a friend who was considering going back to school to be a teacher to first work as a paraeducator. Working as a para is a good way for people to see if the teaching profession is “right for them,” Ballard said.

While the Cedar Rapids district was a recipient of the Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Program, it largely used the funding to train people who are paraeducators as teachers, Ballard said. About 30 people have been or are being trained in this program.

One challenge to hiring paraeducators is that schools often are competing with grocery stores, gas stations and retail businesses that offer similar pay. School leaders say a challenge to increasing salaries for paras is consistent underfunding of per-pupil state aid.

The starting salary for paras in the Cedar Rapids district rages from $15.10 to $16.60 an hour, depending on the role, a comparable starting wage for most Eastern Iowa schools. The Cedar Rapids district is planning a 50-cent an hour wage increase for paraeducators for the 2025-26 school year, Ballard said.

Paraeducators in Iowa schools also receive benefits, including medical, dental and vision, and enrollment in the state’s public employee retirement plan.

‘Consistently’ trying to fill vacancies

Schools are “consistently working on trying to increase the pay,” said Nick Proud, chief human resource officer in the Iowa City Community School District. “One thing we do have is a pretty robust benefits package. It can be a little more valuable than picking up a job at a convenience store,” he said.

Paraeducators who have children work the same hours their children are in school and have summers and holidays off, although it is unpaid, he noted as another perk.

The total paraeducator workforce in the Iowa City district is about 550, the district’s second-largest employee group, Proud said. There are about 30 paraeducator openings this school year. About 14,800 students are enrolled in the Iowa City district.

The Iowa City district hired 175 people as paras at the beginning of the school year. That’s 20 more people than it hired to start the 2023-24 school year, Proud said.

“That’s one position we’re consistently looking for individuals to fill,” Proud said.

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