Education support includes custodial staff, food service workers and paraprofessionals, also called teacher’s aides. These school employees keep the day-to-day operation of schools running smoothly and help teachers make learning possible.
ESPs interact with students throughout the day and shape their experiences in minor and major ways. Treat these valuable school staff members with respect and create a culture of open sharing.
Guidance or Counseling Office
The guidance office is a crucial part of the educational environment. Guidance counselors are trained to assist students with a variety of matters, including academic planning, career development and personal/social growth. They also provide a range of consultation services for students, teachers and parents.
Individual counseling sessions are a significant part of the guidance program, as they are designed to help students get to know their counselors and identify their specific needs. Counselors also conduct group counseling, teacher advisement and peer programs.
In addition, guidance programs focus on identifying and remediating discriminatory practices against minority, women and handicapped students. These programs are implemented to meet civil rights statutory and regulatory requirements. These include analyzing course enrollment data, ensuring the inclusion of disadvantaged students and providing training workshops for counselors. The guidance office also provides on-campus resources to help students with problems such as bullying, drug and alcohol abuse and youth homelessness. They are able to point students in the direction of off-campus resources that may be available.
Language Assistance
Millions of New Yorkers speak a language other than English and may need interpretation services. MCPS uses temporary part-time interpreting staff to provide real-time face-to-face or over-video communication with patients, families and students who communicate in a non-English language.
Federal civil rights law requires agencies that receive federal financial assistance to take reasonable steps to ensure meaningful access to programs and activities for individuals with limited English proficiency. The 2000 HHS LEP Guidance outlines specific requirements.
To identify the need for language assistance, many jurisdictions have established effective data collection and analysis procedures. For example, some are using demographic information, collaborating with community organizations to monitor fluctuations in population, and making use of internal data such as invoices and expenditure reports. Others are using interpreters from language agencies to help meet the needs of individuals with limited English proficiency. These providers can be an economical and reliable source of translation or interpreting services. These providers often have a large pool of interpreters and translators to serve a variety of languages, allowing them to match the language needs of patients and their families with the appropriate services.
Library and Media Services
Students need to be able to access information in order to develop their critical thinking, communication and collaborative skills. A quality school library media program promotes student learning in dynamic social learning spaces. Certified school librarians co-teach information literacy and reading, support classroom instruction and provide a variety of resources in digital and print formats.
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Library media programs offer welcoming, resource-rich environments that encourage multiple literacies and nurture a love of reading and an appreciation for cultural and aesthetic expression. They promote inquiry-based learning and foster intellectual integrity in making ethical judgments by promoting diverse perspectives, honoring the contributions of religious, social, cultural and ethnic groups and placing principle above personal opinion. They also provide access to a wide array of resources for students to use in research projects and other authentic learning experiences, with priority given to students working on course integrated media creation assignments.
Special Education
In North America, Special Education (sometimes abbreviated as Spec Ed or SpEd) focuses on helping kids with disabilities learn. It’s free under federal law, thanks to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975.
Kids with disabilities may need help learning to read or understand math, or they might need extra speech and language services, short assignments or taped lessons. These supplementary aids and services are part of a child’s IEP, or Individualized Educational Program.
In the past, special needs kids were often segregated from the rest of the school population, but now most schools include kids with disabilities in classrooms with their peers. Some students need more specialized classrooms, though, and that’s where Special Education comes in. It also involves teachers who have received training on how to best support kids with disabilities. Those teachers are known as Special Education Instructional Specialists, or SIES.