We choose the titles of our blog posts nearly on a whim. But this week in early January 2025 while we had started this original post in December 2024, we feel this title is so appropriate. The wildfires in Southern California are just another reminder of the way the universe can disrupt lives in unexpected ways. Our thoughts are with many of ParaEducate’s supporters in the Los Angeles evacuation zones. If you did not know—Renay has close ties to Los Angeles as she spent her undergraduate time there. The magic that exists when you are coming around some of the most famous areas, especially at night going from light to dark and back reminds Renay of the history and the growth that Los Angeles represents not only to the State of California but to history in general. May all those continue to be safe. Please follow instructions from First Responders. And a big thank you to our local Engine 33 who left as soon as the truck was packed on Monday and headed straight to support the Los Angeles efforts to contain the fires in multiple areas of Los Angeles.
Renay had a few rough weeks coming back from Thanksgiving Break. It was not just about readdressing behaviors. And then December blew by and now, she was looking at a brand-new calendar. And then there were those bits of running a small business all coming to an end as the calendar for 2024 ended.
But she had a moment recently when the discussion for inclusion for a district came up. That has the potential to make an incubator project to get buy-in. And then Renay had a moment leaving and left us the note, “Why do we need buy-in?”
The New Teacher On the Block
Renay considers herself lucky, she has only ever had to restart her professional relationship eight times. Only one of those times she knew the situation was an entirely bad fit. And yet in each of those moments, with that one exception, she knew how to fit in. While Renay is still working on understanding her new professional relationships, there is something to be said about inclusivity as a staff that is modeled to students.
If a campus is truly inclusive, it starts with how staff treat each other. How information is shared. While certain individuals get to know more about other situations because they are closer, the world is not just made up of individual rooms.
If a campus is truly inclusive, it starts with how staff treat each other.
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Not everyone can be so lucky. And Renay knows this to be true.
Every campus has its flow. There are expectations socially and those may seem foreign to anyone who might watch the interactions. When can one stop the moment and engage with a colleague especially outside of formal meetings? How do the values that special educators represent get shared with the general educators, particularly those general educators who have not had the benefit of learning alongside special educators? How do special educators have those moments to help others (teachers, administrators, and other students, both with and without disabilities) see those great qualities of students with disabilities?
How do the values that special educators represent get shared with the general educators, particularly those general educators who have not had the benefit of learning alongside special educators? How do special educators have those moments to help others (teachers, administrators, and other students, both with and without disabilities) see those great qualities of students with disabilities?
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How do teachers fit? How does an administrator fit? How do support providers fit?
Most might focus on the case manager of a special education teacher, and for the most part, they are correct. But have this conversation with yourself too: how everyone interacts also is a model of how those folks interact.
It takes more than a model. It takes that evidence everyone believes that simply, the student ‘can’. Sometimes it means just being able to state things about each student, their likes, or their interests. And parroting that information makes many things easier for many people.
In-House, Out of House
Someone asked Renay to “Please hurry up and train more paraeducators [for my city].” As it stands, Renay has not been out and about as much as she would like. But she knows many districts are opting to save money and train in-house. While in-house district training is something Renay was trained on, she also knows that districts often forget the range of cultures embedded in sites.
School culture is sometimes a difficult entity to adjust expectations for. A certain campus might be, for example, a specific language magnet for a community, that a large enough part of the community wants instruction provided in a specific non-English language. The district has appropriately responded and hired teachers to teach in that language across all grade levels. This is true for many other systems within public education—Montessori, Science Technology Engineering Math, Project Based Learning, and several other systems provide great cultures for opportunities for students. And for some students with disabilities, they will need support in specific capacities. It is often hard to sit as a paraeducator in a training and decide that the information being given is useful, but have no clue how to use that information at your site.
Broad strokes are great, but the specifics of making things work for a site are equally important in training. What works for a paraeducator working with students who need support in toileting, regardless of age, might not work with students who are refusing to work in a classroom and whose disabilities do not require that level of support to be successful in a classroom.
Then come the discussions about the benefits of ‘failure’ even around the zero versus fifty grading conversations that are occurring across the country. It is worth mentioning this conversation that may be occurring because this does affect many students with disabilities and their progress through academic expectations.
School culture reflects its community. From the ‘easy’ which day of the week the school shirts are worn, to the ‘harder’, how a given campus responds to support a student who needs more support [socioeconomic, social emotional, academic]. Those nuances that build are a part of that training.
Should every campus be trained differently? Actually no. Unlike some general education teachers, Special Education is a service. Their directives should come from the Special Education Department and should reflect the District Office. However, their responses should be tailored to their campus, the students they work with, and the community where students live.
The Issues of Paraeducators
The real problem simply is acknowledging that paraeducators are human. They have emotional, social, and economic demands placed upon them.
But in the school setting, paraeducators are running around helping to keep classrooms running when the special education teacher is not available. They are trying to figure out how to make things stretch, how to make the continuity for students who depend on continuity stable, and how to explain the unexplainable to students with disabilities.
The limits that individuals can have are finite. And paraeducators are human. Recalling that when training paraeducators. Even when they are above and beyond in their work.
So then how to build community?
The inroads for some are much easier than for others. Sometimes the interactions are small. Being asked ‘How are you doing?’ and honestly stopping and making time in that moment to not just be two ships in a moment. Certainly, there are plenty of times when you just cannot give your time that way to someone, and certainly not within special education.
How one speaks is something to consider, but always recognizing that schools are built upon hierarchy. There is an expectation at some campuses that there are old traditions that rely on the respect that hierarchy. Again, the marching orders may be relationships between everyone, but this also points back to campus culture.
While we look at this, How about a book?
Renay had the fortune to get to enjoy a new book by Amanda Morin and Emily Kircher Morris. To be entirely transparent, Renay has worked with Amanda in small capacities since 2015. Renay has received no compensation for sharing this information.
Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools is a book every educator is going to need. The world recognizes that students with ADHD, Autism, and Emotional Disabilities are in every classroom. The world has changed for most schools. It is time for schools to respond and be that change so the students know they are accepted by word and deed from all the educators at the school.
Even shifting the language around understanding students and their strengths is important.
The book is ultimately a great reference for schools looking to support all learners. Neurodiversity-affirming schools provide some frameworks and discussions for general educators who received their credentials before the required deep conversations about students with disabilities. Firstly, the authors, Emily Kircher-Morris and Amanda Morin, center their discussions on the fact that neurodiverse individuals are already in schools and receiving education. How schools, administrators, and teachers respond to those students and their needs helps provide those pathways of belonging to the school community. Kircher-Morris and Morin also look at the changes in schools since their early teaching days.
Covering the highlights at the end of every chapter, Kircher-Morris and Morin give some key takeaways for every teacher. Not just a treatise on the arguments for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) or Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools provide the background to leading not just young children but older students who will eventually either follow pathways to college or careers.
Not just a treatise on the arguments for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) or Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Neurodiversity-Affirming Schools provide the background to leading not just young children but older students who will eventually either follow pathways to college or careers.
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There are ways to improve our public education system, and this is just one pathway to making schools better for all students involved.
We are lucky to have always known people who lead the way for us all to learn how to be better at including students with disabilities. Morin and Kircher-Morris are some of the best leaders around inclusion and we can all benefit from sharing their insights.
Neurodiversity Affirming Schools is available at most bookstores and yes we did link from a well-known major retailer — again, we receive no benefit from that link. Please use the retailer that best fits your values. The book, Neurodiversity Affirming Schools releases to the general public on January 21, 2025.
Before we leave…
Once again, we hope everyone in the Los Angeles wildfire zone is safe. We know agencies are coming in to help First Responders and those who have been evacuated. It is all right to be very mindful of the impact this is having on people with disabilities and all school children. When the time to rebuild comes, we can start by remembering how the example of coming together to help our communities in times of crisis do the best they can and get the help they need as quickly as possible.
Do you have any comments about this month’s blog? Do you have a question for us? Would you like to have an opportunity to pilot some materials at your campus? Find ParaEducate online here, here, here, and on our website. ParaEducate is a company providing materials, information, and strategies for people working in special education inclusion settings for grades K-12. ParaEducate, the blog, is published once a month during the academic school year. ParaEducate shares their findings at conferences, through their books, and their academic adaptations.
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