Trujillo 1

Fund the Fundamental

There is a hesitation for the state to fund for something that is so nuanced as

funding for special education, as there are some schools that may need more funding

than others. In school environments schools may want to acquire more workers

especially if there are children with behavior. The issue may not be that the schools are

understaffed, but more so that staff is undertrained.

Investments into our educators is crucial, because it will determine even more so

if extra support is actually needed. What tends to happen is that there are students that

are getting services that are needed, but at times the request is to get another staff

member to be hired to support the student because the behaviors are severe or

distracting to teachers. Currently, there is a shortage of fully prepared and experienced

special education teachers, students are left with needs to be met by new

underprepared teachers (Tilos, 33). Before funding for more staff in the schools it would

be best to fund support for schools to train teachers on how to respond to children with

behavior. When the paraprofessionals are assisted in provision of special education

services, the federal law supports them and deems them as “appropriately trained and

supervised” (Biggs, 257). What ends up happening is that children end up getting

isolated out of their education and not getting the proper attention that they need. In

fact, parents have started filing claims that their children have not not been receiving the

education to which they are entitled under federal law, claiming that the services from

their child’s Individualized education program were not provided during the pandemic

(Kamman, 17).
 Trujillo 2

As a behavior technician at schools, I take notice of interactions of students with

special needs with general education teachers and paraprofessionals, and the variability

is quite interesting. There are those that give no attention to the student. This would

mean that interaction is only being isolated at times when attention is needed, and

students are to learn generalization. There are teachers that as soon as a behavior is

presented the student will be kicked out of class. When a student is engaging in a

behavior that has a function of escape and the teacher kicks them out of the classroom,

the teacher is inadvertently reinforcing the behavior of engaging in the same behavior in

the future. In general the paraprofessionals are the most undertrained than all the

support providers by lacking the skills necessary to support students with disabilities

(Walker, 461). If teachers and school paraprofessionals were simply trained more

adequately on function on behavior and how to respond appropriately when a specific

behavior occurs then there may be progress in the behavior of students, and staff

members will have a better feel if more assistance is really needed. Even more so, the

paraprofessionals yielded the skill set of ABA, they would better help the students

advocate for their needs (Pennington,316). This would be ideal, but alternatively if there

was a consultant available in all the schools to check on the responses of teachers, this

would be a great way to give teachers feedback on how to deal with certain situations

that happen in the classroom.

All teachers should have some form of training in behavior and how to respond to

their function. This training directly affects every teacher whether they work with

students with special needs or not, it would just greatly benefit those who would know

how to respond to behaviors.

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Pennington, R. (2022). Applied Behavior Analysis in the Classroom: Applied Behavior Analysis: A
Valuable Partner in Special Education. Teaching Exceptional Children, 54(4), 315–317.
https://doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1177/00400599221079130

KAMMAN, M., ACOSTA, K., & HOLDHEIDE, L. (2023). Keeping Special Ed Staffing Shortages in Check.
Principal, 102(3), 16–19.

Biggs, E. E., Gilson, C. B., & Carter, E. W. (2016). Accomplishing More Together: Influences to the Quality
of Professional Relationships Between Special Educators and Paraprofessionals. Research & Practice for
Persons with Severe Disabilities, 41(4), 256–272.
https://doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1177/1540796916665604

Tilos, T. (2019). Creative Solutions to the Special Education Teacher Shortage. Leadership, 48(3), 32–35.

Walker, V. L., Douglas, K. H., & Yun-Ching Chung. (2017). An Evaluation of Paraprofessionals’ Skills and
Training Needs in Supporting Students with Severe Disabilities. International Journal of Special
Education, 32(3), 460–471.