Abstract: Although enhancing students" self-determination is advocated as a central element of high-quality special education and transition services, little is known about the ways in which paraprofessionals are involved in promoting self-determination or the extent to which they share teachers' views regarding its importance. The authors surveyed 223 paraprofessionals from 115 randomly selected public schools to examine their perspectives on promoting self-determination among students with high-incidence disabilities. Overall, paraprofessionals attributed high levels of importance to each of the 7 component elements of self-determination (i.e., choice making, decision making, problem solving, goal setting and attainment, self-advocacy and leadership, self-management and self-regulation, and self-awareness and self-knowledge). The extent to which paraprofessionals reported providing instruction addressing each of the 7 components of self-determination was moderate, with average ratings all slightly above the midpoint of the scale. This article presents implications for the involvement of paraprofessionals in supporting the development of self-determination among students with high-incidence disabilities, along with recommendations for future research.

Over the past 2 decades, self-determination has emerged as an important construct within the field of special education and secondary transition services. This emphasis on promoting students' self-determination is now evident within legislative and policy initiatives (i.e., Field & Hoffman, 2002; Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, 2004), state standards (Konrad, Walker, Fowler, Test, & Wood, 2008; Wehmeyer, Field, Doren, Jones, & Mason, 2004), and professional competencies (Council for Exceptional Children, 2009; National Alliance for Secondary Education and Transition, 2005). Concurrently, mounting empirical evidence suggests that self-determination is strongly associated with improved postschool outcomes (Test, Mazotti, et al., 2009; Wehmeyer & Palmer, 2003), and numerous studies have demonstrated that self-determination can be effectively taught to students with high-incidence disabilities (Carter, Lane, Crnobori, Bruhn, & Oakes, 2011; Test, Fowler, Brewer, & Wood, 2005; Wehmeyer, Palmer, Lee, Williams-Diehm, & Shogren, 2011).

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