The Washington State legislature recently passed legislation that starts the important work of developing a career path and better training for para-educators in Washington State.  Washington is the first state in the nation to do this. According to the lead organization representing para-educators (PSE/SEIU 1948) “para-educators provide more than half of all instructional hours in Washington’s public schools to the students who need the most specialized help. Yet they are the least trained instructors in the system, and there are virtually no standards for the job.”

Right now work is underway to set up a task force to establish recommendations that will be presented to the legislature on what these standards should look like and how we can accomplish them.

We are looking for parents of students with disabilities who are interested in volunteering to help. The work involves participating in workgroups that will develop recommendations and otherwise advise the main task force (depending on your area of interest/expertise and needs of the committee tasked with doing the work).  The timeframe for the work is over the course of the next two years (reports are due back to the legislature in 2015 and again in 2016).

If you are interested in getting involved in this groundbreaking effort, please contact Beth Sigall: beth@sigall.org