Bossier City, LA: District approves $1,500 supplement for SPED teachers, paras who get behavior training
BOSSIER CITY, La. — The Bossier Parish School Board approved a new $1,500 training supplement for special education teachers and paraprofessionals during its regular meeting Thursday night.
The financial incentive aims to equip educators with advanced skills to manage unique behavioral challenges in special education classrooms.
To qualify for the stipend, eligible staff must complete a 40-hour Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) training course.
Bossier Parish School Board Chief Financial Officer Nisha Bamberg explained the reasoning behind the initiative during the presentation.
"Our students in our specialty special education classes, we've been seeing a unique set of behavioral issues within some of those classes," Bamberg said.
"And so the SPED department has been looking for some good training programs that they can begin to implement with those teachers and those paras that are within that classroom."
The $1,500 supplement will be distributed in two phases: first in January for employees who complete the 40-hour course during the first half of the school year, and again at the end of the school year for those who finish later.
District officials confirmed that the training program and its supplements will be fully funded through federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds, requiring no impact on the parish’s general fund.
Stokes’ comments were a nod to the budget problems facing the district. Last month, she told the board the district should end its fiscal year June 30 with a $2.1 million deficit in its general fund balance.
Changes to the physical architecture of school campuses can deter students with autism from leaving school unsupervised. At Hamilton Elementary, workers have installed a temporary fence to keep all students away from a nearby creek.
District officials may consider hiring more staff or adding alarms to playground gates, the board heard Wednesday.
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