One who provides indirect and direct instructional services to students can be referred to as paraeducators. Paraeducators are individuals who provide services to students, while they are supervised by a licensed professional.  Individuals who are considered paraeducators are employed by school districts to support schools special education services, remind math and reading support, and for simple general responsibilities of an educator. 

To become a paraeducator one has to have an associates degree or higher from an institution, meet the quality and ability standard to teach math, meet the quality and ability standard to teach reading and writing,  and must be appropriately trained under the rules of IDEA. One should be aware that the employment of paraeducators has grown by approximately eight percent and is still continuously growing. Reasons for a growing number of paraeducators in school districts can include a shortage in SPED teachers, growing number of ESL students, transition assistance needed from school to work settings, and more. All in all, becoming a paraeducator can be a great job while paraeducators are tremendously needed in various school districts. 

Responsibilities of paraeducators can be referred to as “ clerical responsibilities “. The role of paraeducator responsibilities should involve more administrative work rather than direct instructional support for a student all the time. One should note that the roles of paraeducators are broken down into two categories of instructional and non instructional responsibilities. Paraeducator responsibilities can include assisting with technology, record keeping, filing and organizing, communication, helping with  activities, and more. 

These roles are very essential because records help the paraeducator and licensed teacher keep track of students progress while materials being organized is imperative to the instruction that students receive for academic success. Helping  with in class activities is a great responsibility for paraeducators who can provide instructional support to some students who may not understand it from the licensed teacher. Also, planning with the licensed teacher  is very important in paraeducator responsibilities for without planning the instructional support students from both educators in the room may not align properly. 

While paraeducators and licensed professionals are trained a little differently, paraeducators may put themselves in ethical dilemmas. Some ethical dilemmas paraeducators may be involved in can be examples such as touching a child or indirectly bullying a child. Touching  a child can lead to incidents such as a child falsely stating you touched them in a certain area or a child saying that you touch them too aggressively. Also, making jokes about the pace a student is going can be an indirect bullying example because though the paraeducator may mean no harm, the child can feel insecure about the pace they are going out and feel as if the educator is picking on them. With being a paraeducator, one should be aware that they are there to support the instructional needs of the student and not fully teach the students. Sometimes there may be a workload balance dilemma between the licensed professional and the paraeducator due to the work being similar but quite different at the same time. All in all, these are the dilemmas that paraeducators can run into while in the end a paraeducator is an individual mainly used for academic support. 

While paraeducators and licensed professional responsibilities can be mixed up due to them being so closely tied together, licensed professionals should take the initiative to help their paraeducator understand what their specific duties are during the school day. This can happen by the licensed professional using effective strategies that involve effective communication. Some strategies that can help the paraeducator differentiate their responsibilities from their supervised educator can include planning with their paraeducator, talking to their paraeducator often, assisting paraeducators when needed, and giving paraeducators specific tasks to do on a weekly basis. If a licensed professional implements these strategies with their paraeducator then both educators would be aware of their responsibilities and neither educator would overstep their assigned role. 

Due to licensed teachers being the supervisor of paraeducators, sometimes there can be a struggle on ways that paraeducators can collaborate with other educators. While there is no clear way for paraeducators to collaborate amongst others, paraeducators should team up with other educators and administrators in the best way possible.  The reasoning why paraeducators should have the opportunity to collaborate with others is because of them being valuable members involved in students' education. However, paraeducators can help collaborate by sharing responsibilities and ideas with other educators in regards to student academic success.