What Do Paraprofessionals Do For Income During School Breaks? A Teacher Explains
The hallway smelled like lemon polish and leftover popsicles from the fifth grade end-of-year party last week when I ran into Mia, my classroom para, by the water fountain. She was heaving a cracked canvas tote over one shoulder, the one plastered with her 8-year-old’s soccer team stickers, and fumbling for her keys. “You heading out?” I asked, stacking the last of my students’ writing portfolios into my closet. “Got a shift in 45 minutes,” she said, shifting her weight. “Starting night stock at the grocery store tomorrow, actually. Summer schedule.”
I was curious. I’d heard her mention a family soccer tournament the first week of break, and I assumed she’d take most of June off to relax before school started back up. She laughed when I said that, leaning against the cinder block wall. “Relax costs money,” she said. “I’m on a 10-month contract, no pay for 10 weeks of summer, no pay for spring or winter break. District doesn’t let non-certified staff spread pay out over 12 months, so I get 20 paychecks a year to cover 12 months of rent, meds, all of it. Gotta work every off period I can.”
I got it, I told her. I was a para for three years before I earned my teaching license, and I remember that strain clear as day. The summer after my first year as a para, I worked 60 hours a week between a downtown coffee shop and two recurring babysitting jobs just to make my car payment and rent. I never mentioned it to any of the parents I worked with back then, either. It felt awkward, like people would question why I was working with kids if I couldn’t make ends meet. That’s a feeling most paras know well, I’ve learned.
Over the 10 years I’ve been teaching, I’ve seen just about every way paras make up for lost income during off periods. It’s never fancy six-month sabbaticals or lavish vacations. It’s just regular, hard work that fits around the school calendar. Mia does night stock four nights a week in summer, plus three mornings a week helping at the city rec department’s summer day camp, which adds up to about 30 extra hours a week on top of what she saved during the school year. Lisa, another para who works with our nonverbal students, does pet sitting through a local app; she loves dogs, and can set her own hours around her kid’s summer activities. Jake, the para who supports our middle school inclusion classes, has run a small landscaping business on the side for seven years. He does mowing and mulching in spring and summer, snow blowing in winter, which lines up perfectly with every school break. The youngest para on our staff does small graphic design projects for local cafes, fitting that in whenever she has free time between breaks. A few do gig work like delivery driving, or pick up per diem substitute shifts, though that rarely adds up to enough to cover rent for the whole summer.
Most parents I talk to have no idea this is the reality. They assume paras get paid year-round just like teachers, or that the job is just a part-time hobby for extra spending money. That’s almost never the case. Most paras are full-time school staff who spend every off period scrambling to make up the income they lose when school’s out.
After my conversation with Mia, I brought the idea to our PTA president last month, and we put together a simple, one-page list of side services our paras offer for off-period income. We only included paras who wanted to be on the list, everything from babysitting and pet sitting to art tutoring and lawn care, and sent it out to all parent emails. It’s a tiny, low-effort change, but already three paras have picked up five new regular clients just from that list. If you’re a parent, that’s something easy you can suggest at your own school: if your paras want to share their side work, make it easy for other families to find them. If you need a summer sitter, a dog walker, or even help cleaning out your garage, check with your school’s paras first. They’re already vetted by the district, and most are hungry for flexible work that fits their break schedule.
If you’re a teacher, stop asking paras to come in for unpaid prep days before school starts. When I need an extra hand setting up my classroom now, I pay for the time out of my annual classroom supply budget, or I ask parent volunteers instead. Asking someone to give up a full day of paid side work to help you arrange desks just isn’t fair, and now that I see how stretched most paras are, I can’t imagine doing it anymore. Even small gestures like adding a $25 grocery gift card to your para’s end-of-year gift goes a lot further than another branded mug or scented candle. That $25 can cover two or three days of groceries for someone who isn’t getting a paycheck that month.
Mia texted me a couple of days ago to say she got two recurring babysitting jobs from our list, which covers her son’s soccer camp fees this summer. That’s a small win, but she’s still working 55 hours a week between her two summer jobs, and the district still hasn’t changed the rule that keeps paras from spreading their pay out over 12 months. This isn’t a problem that gets fixed with a single parent email list or a few extra gift cards. It’s a systemic issue that needs policy change, and that’s slow going. But in the meantime, knowing what paras do to make ends meet during off periods lets you show up in small, real ways. Most paras don’t talk about this stuff, because it feels awkward to share that you’re stretching every dollar. But it’s the reality for most of them, and a little practical help goes a long way.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » What Do Paraprofessionals Do For Income During School Breaks