Middle School Special Education Associate

Denison; Denison (IA); On-site; USD 26,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

Denison is seeking a Special Education Instructional/Associate to provide physical help and emotional support to students within the district's special education program. The role involves assisting with daily routines, supervising activities, and supporting teachers in reinforcing lessons.

Candidates should have a High School diploma and be prepared to work closely with administrators, teachers, and students to promote an inclusive learning environment.

Qualifications

• Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, lesson plans, and classroom materials.
• Ability to write routine reports and correspondence.
• Ability to communicate with coworkers in a professional and courteous manner.

Responsibilities

• Assist the teacher with individual students or small groups to reinforce material introduced by the teacher.
• Help students with daily routines such as putting on outerwear, moving between rooms, using the lavatory, and other personal tasks.
• Supervise students during playtime and assist with group activities and equipment care.
• Lend support during emergency drills, assemblies, field trips, and other school activities.
• Read to students, listen as they read, and participate in oral activities to encourage learning.
• Assist with lunch, wash up, and classroom cleanup routines.

Skills

Communication skills

Analytical and reasoning

Technology skills

Education

High School diploma

Job description

Middle School Special Education Associate JobID: 429

• Position Type:
  Support Staff/ Special Education Associate


• Date Posted:
  9/18/2026

Special Education Instructional Associate

Position Goal

To work closely with one or a few handicapped pupils on a regular basis in an effort to provide them with the physical help and emotional support they need to gain as full benefits from the district's special education program as possible.

Reports to

Building Principal

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education &/or Experience

High School diploma.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Ability to work with the administration, teachers, staff and students.


• To act as a liaison between the public and the school, and in so doing promote the general image of the total school system.


• Assists the student(s) to whom assigned in such physical tasks as putting on and taking off of outerwear, moving from room to room, using the lavatory, and so on.


• Hears the student(s) in recitation, reading, and other curriculum tasks, guiding and helping them but not teaching them.


• Performs simple errands and tasks for student(s) such as sharpening pencils, carrying lunch trays, and the like.


• Under supervision of the special education teacher, works with small groups of students to reinforce material initially introduced by the teacher.


• Accompanies the student(s) to whom assigned when trips to the office or to the school nurse are necessary.


• Establishes as fully as possible a supportive and sympathetic relationship with the


• student(s) without fostering or encouraging intense emotional involvement.


• Serves as a resource person, if and when requested, to the student personnel evaluation team conferring about one of the students to whom assigned.


• Supervises students at playtime and maintains a harmonious atmosphere on the playground.


• Organizes group games and activities.


• Assumes responsibility for play equipment.


• Takes part in inservice training program.


• Directs movement of groups to and from the playground.


• Administers, scores, and records such achievement and diagnostic tests as the teacher recommends for individual students.


• Works with individual students or small groups of students to reinforce learning of material or skills initially introduced by the teacher.


• Assists the teacher in devising special strategies for reinforcing material or skills based on a sympathetic understanding of individual students, their needs, interests, and abilities.


• Operates and cares for equipment used in the classroom for instructional purposes.


• Helps students master equipment or instructional materials assigned by teacher.


• Distributes and collects workbooks, papers, and other materials for instruction.


• Guides independent study, enrichment work, and remedial work set up and assigned by the teacher.


• Assists with the supervision of students during emergency drills, assemblies, play periods, and field trips.


• Keeps bulletin board and other classroom learning displays up to date.


• Assists with such large group activities as drill work, reading aloud, and story telling.


• Reads to students, listens to students read, and participates in other forms of oral communication with students.


• Assists students in the library or media center.


• Checks notebooks, corrects papers, and supervises testing and make up work, as assigned by the teacher.


• Assists with lunch, snack and cleanup routines.


• Assists with wash up and toilet routines.


• Alerts the regular teacher to any problem or special information about an individual student.


• Serves as the chief source of information and help to any substitute teacher assigned in the absence of the regular teacher.


• Maintains the same high level of ethical behavior and confidentiality of information about students as is expected of fully licensed teachers.

Communication Skills

Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, lesson plans, and classroom materials. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to communicate with coworkers in a professional and courteous manner.

Analytical and Reasoning Skills

Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagram form. Ability to be flexible in coping with any situation that may arise.

Technology Skills

Must be able to operate a personal computer, use standard office applications. Must be able to use the computer to use email, complete required trainings, and enter time tracking information.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and reach with hands and arms. The employee is frequently required to talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is occasionally loud.

Other Duties as Assigned

Will perform other duties as may be assigned by the superintendent or designee, necessary and appropriate to achievement of the program and/or District goals and objectives.

Terms of Employment

Salary and benefits to be determined by the Board of Education.

Evaluation

Performance of this job will be evaluated in accordance with the provisions of the Board's policy on evaluation of support services personnel.