West Virginia has two bills up for approval regarding special education students (particularly autism) and school staff.  There are differences between the bills but essentially the state is going to try to limit how often teachers, aides, mentors or paraprofessionals, who work with special needs students, can transfer in one school year.   In order to transfer, the staff member would need approval from the Superintendent.

In my opinion, this is wonderful news for parents of special needs students.  In my experience, I have seen all too often aides transfer positions frequently.  This leaves the students who require one to one assistance wasting so much time.  It can take a long time for a strong bond to form between students and 1:1 aides.  it can also take a lot of training.  Either one of these bills would help to improve continuity of care for these students.  I would also hypothesize that it would improve educational goals and parents satisfaction immensely.

Any thoughts?  Please comment. 

Reference:  Holleran, K (2008)  Legislation Aims to Reduce Transfer of Aides.  Retreived from the web on 2/27/08 from http://www.dailymail.com/News/statenews/200802220169

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