POSITION SUMMARY

A Student Mentor is a school employee who works under the direction of a certificated special education teacher to provide neurotypical social experiences and other services for students with disabilities. The certificated special education teacher is responsible for the overall management of the classroom or program, including the design, implementation and evaluation of the instructional program and monitoring of student progress. The Student Mentor’s responsibility is to implement the program as designed and directed by the special education teacher. The Special Education Director or designee directly supervises the Student Mentor and has the right to assign duties to the Student Mentor.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Work as part of a special education support team under the direction of a special education teacher.
• Follow the day-to-day schedule as directed by the special education teacher.
• Take direction from the special education teacher regarding instructional materials, methods and prompts (e.g. visual, verbal, gestural, physical).
• Participate in small group academic, adaptive, social/emotional, vocational, communication, life skills and other instruction to students as directed by the special education teacher.
• Provide social scaffolding and support during activities.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Must be at least 16 years old and have a desire to work with students with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

District Requirements

• Meet State qualifications
• 1-3 years of experience working with children or young adults; experience with special education students preferred.
• Language Skills - Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operation, and maintenance instructions and procedure manuals. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to present information in one-on-one and small group situations to other employees, and/or students.
• Mathematical Skills - Ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide into all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
• Reasoning Ability - Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
• Must have strong communications, computer, organizational and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to develop effective working relationships with students, staff and the community.
• Patience in working with students.
• Ability to perform duties in accordance with all District and State requirements and policies.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to communicate through speech and push items on wheels.

• Occasionally, but essentially, the employee must be able to repeat the same hand, arm, or finger motion many times (i.e. typing data entry, etc.), utilize finger dexterity. The employee may occasionally walk, stand, sprint/run, bend or twist at the neck and trunk more than the average person, squat/stoop/kneel, reach above the head, reach forward, climb (on ladders, into large vehicles, etc.), utilize hand/grip strength, utilize manual dexterity (i.e. using a wrench or screwing a lid onto a jar), lift up to 50 pounds floor to waist, lift up to 25 pounds from floor to overhead.
• Specific vision and hearing required by this job include seeing objects/persons at a distance, hearing conversation in a quiet environment, hearing differences among bells, buzzers, beeps, horns, etc.