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Letter 20: Request to Consider a 1:1 Paraprofessional

When to Use It

Send this letter when the data - incident reports, elopement, lost instructional time - shows your child needs adult support to stay safe and stay learning in the current classroom. A 1:1 paraprofessional is a supplementary aid and service the IEP must address (34 C.F.R. §§ 300.320(a)(4), 300.42). Supplementary aids and services exist so a child can be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate, and removal to a more restrictive setting is lawful only if education in the regular class cannot be achieved satisfactorily with those aids in place (34 C.F.R. § 300.114(a)(2)).

Build the case before you ask - Tool 39 walks through it. This letter asks the team to consider the support; it does not, and cannot, dictate the answer.

Send it to: the director of special education, with a copy to the principal and case manager.