What Do Paraprofessionals Do For Income During School Off-Periods?
Last spring break, I was chasing my toddler across the mulch at our neighborhood elementary park when I spotted Lila, the para who works 1:1 with my older son’s classmate, spread out on a picnic table folding fitted sheets between dog walking clients. I wandered over with my coffee and asked if she was taking it easy during her time off, and she snort-laughed and held up her phone to show me her calendar: three 30-minute dog walks that morning, a four-hour shift at the downtown coffee shop starting at 2, and a babysitting gig for two teachers’ kids that night. “Off what?” she said.
I’d known Lila for two years through our carpool, so I already knew most paraprofessionals don’t get paid when school isn’t in session. But it hit me that most parents at our school have no idea. They see Lila walking their kids’ classmates into the building every morning, helping with lunchroom monitoring, and staying late for IEPs, but few stop to ask how her pay works. In most school districts across the country, paras are classified as 10-month employees, meaning you only get paid for the 180 or so days that school is in session. Winter break, spring break, summer vacation—those are all unpaid, unless you’ve arranged otherwise.
Some districts offer to spread your 10 months of pay over 12 months, which sounds helpful on paper. But that means your regular paycheck during the school year gets cut by roughly 17%, which just isn’t feasible for most paras, who make an average of under $20 an hour nationwide. Lila makes $18.25 an hour as a 1:1 para, and as a single mom, she can’t afford to take less out of every check just to cover the summer months. Last December, we were driving home from school when she got a notification that her bank account was $15 short for her monthly auto insurance draft. Her last school paycheck had arrived two weeks before Christmas break, and the next one wasn’t scheduled until three days after classes restarted in January. She ended up selling a sealed vintage Star Wars action figure set she’d gotten as a birthday gift for her 10-year-old son, for $80 on Facebook Marketplace. She didn’t even get overly upset, just shrugged and said it was either that or let the insurance lapse.
So what do paras actually do to cover income gaps during off periods? From what I’ve seen talking to Lila and the four other full-time paras at our elementary school, almost everyone cobbles together multiple small gigs. Only one of the five has a partner with a steady full-time income that covers the gaps, so the rest work through every break. Lila built up a steady client list of dog walking and house sitting from families at our school who travel over breaks, and that’s her most consistent extra income. Maria, who works in the kindergarten special education classroom, cleans two houses every other week all summer and picks up weekend deli shifts at the local grocery store to make up the rest. Jen, the pre-K para, sells knit hats and scarves at our small town’s weekly farmers market from May through October, which adds up just enough to cover her summer rent.
A lot of paras also take whatever casual work the district offers: helping with summer school, assisting custodians with deep cleaning over summer break, or helping teachers pack and move classrooms at the end of the school year. But that work is limited, first-come first-served, and rarely pays more than their regular hourly rate. There’s no extra bonus for giving up your break.
Most people don’t talk about this, but there are small, concrete things parents and teachers can do to support paras in your school community that make a real difference. If you’re planning a vacation over a school break, book your para’s house sitting or dog walking services instead of going through a larger company. Most charge less than commercial services anyway, and the money goes straight to them. If you need part-time childcare over summer break, ask paras at your school if they’re available; they already know most of the kids in the building, and the steady income covers a huge chunk of a monthly gap. If you’re a teacher getting a stipend to prep your classroom over summer, consider splitting the work and the pay with your regular para if they need extra work. Even just asking your parent-teacher group to keep a list of paras looking for extra casual work (yard clean up, garage help, pet sitting) and share it with parents can connect them to steady gigs. Last year, a parent at our school hired Lila to watch her two kids three mornings a week over summer, and that covered her rent for two full months. It was a win for everyone: the parent paid less than she would have for full-time camp, and Lila didn’t have to pick up extra coffee shifts that cut into time with her own son.
Last week, Lila texted our carpool group that she locked in a house sitting gig for the entire two-week winter break this year, so she won’t have to dip into her son’s Christmas savings to make the car payment this time around. It’s a small win. Our district still hasn’t moved to required 12-month pay for full-time paras, and most people still don’t stop to ask what they do to make ends meet when school’s out. It’s still a cobble, every break, every paycheck. It doesn’t feel fair, given how much paras show up for our kids every single school day. But for now, small bits of support from the people who benefit from their work add up more than most people realize.
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