Paraeducators who support students with disabilities spend a substantial portion of their day implementing behavioral supports and are increasingly relied on to address challenging behavior when it occurs. With such an important role when it comes to the behavioral success of their students, it is crucial for all educational professionals to be aware of paraeducators’ knowledge, training, and experiences as they relate directly to challenging behavior. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the perceptions of administrators, teachers, and paraeducators in relation to paraeducators’ experiences supporting the behavioral needs of students receiving special education services. We surveyed 206 educational professionals and conducted follow-up interviews with 19 participants. Upon survey and interview data analysis, we merged the data and identified areas of convergence and divergence to capture the findings across various sources of data. Findings yielded several themes relative to paraeducator experiences supporting students’ behavioral needs, including outside influences on challenging behavior, paraeducator involvement in behavioral support planning, how paraeducators address challenging behavior, team roles related to supporting students’ behavioral needs, and facilitators and barriers to addressing challenging behavior.
Sobeck et al. (Wed,) studied this question.