1.5 (1K5B, 1S1C): Knowledge of relevant laws, rules, regulations, and local district policies and procedures to ensure paraprofessionals work within the parameters.

Facilitator Supplement

Worksheets in this Unit

All worksheets are Adobe pdf files. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view and print the worksheets.

Lesson 2a

• Confidentiality: Parental Access to Student Records

Lesson 3a

• Signs of Abuse and Neglect

Lesson 3b

• Information Scavenger Hunt

Lesson 3c

• Interviewing a Social Worker

Lesson 4

• Finding Your School's Specific Policies and Procedures

Discussion Activities

1. Facilitate an online or in-person discussion on the signs of abuse, using selected portions of What can I do to prevent harm?, which also gives characteristics of parents of an abused or neglected child. Because paraprofessionals often have closer contact with families than others, they may be able to recognize situations that seem unhealthy or suspicious. Discuss this with the students. Explain how important it is for paraprofessionals to be knowledgeable about these characteristics in case they find themselves in situations that should be reported.
2. Go over the physical and behavioral signs of abuse or neglect. Discuss the difficulty in identifying abuse or neglect in situations involving persons with disabilities. For example, an individual who experiences behavior challenges may display many of the characteristics of abuse as a part of the disability. An individual with a physical disability may fall often and have many bruises and scrapes. These are just examples to illustrate the complications of identifying abuse and neglect in individuals with disabilities.

Make sure that the paraprofessional receives copies of all district policies and procedures regarding mandated reporting.

The Para eLink is sponsored by the Minnesota Paraprofessional Consortium, in collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Education, located at the Institute on Community Integration in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota.

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