PPD Files Three Bills to Strip Out-of-Pocket Costs From Special Education Assistants

The Popular Democratic Party (PPD) delegation in the Puerto Rico Senate filed three bills on Monday aimed at eliminating costs and requirements that Special Education service assistants known as T1 and T2 currently pay out of their own pockets -- a workforce of more than 6,500 people who earn just $11 an hour with no fringe benefits and who prop up much of the Special Education services in the island's public schools. ¹²

T1 assistants accompany students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) inside the classroom, while T2 assistants support personal care and mobility tasks. For the 2026-2027 school year there are 6,588 assistants on payroll: 2,191 with permanent appointments and 4,397 under contract -- meaning two out of every three work without the stability or benefits of a career position. ¹ The bills arrive barely a week after the same delegation reported, on September 4, that 3,208 of the 11,697 students eligible for an educational assistant -- 29.1 percent -- were still waiting to be assigned one, while 1,275 receive services through the so-called Provisional Remedy, under which the Department of Education (DE) pays private providers when no staff is available in-house. ³ Senator Roxanna Soto Aguilu of the New Progressive Party disputed those figures at the time, arguing that some of the backlog stems from incomplete applications filed by parents. ³

The three bills, filed Monday, September 21, target specific charges. Senate Bill 1471 eliminates the $70 fee Law 300 requires for assistant certification, though the certification itself -- issued through the Department of Health's Criminal Background Screening Information System (SICHDe) -- remains mandatory. ¹² Senate Bill 1472 exempts assistants from registering -- and paying $100 -- in the Unique Registry of Professional Service Providers run by the General Services Administration (ASG). ¹² Senate Bill 1473 excludes assistants from the special 1.5 percent withholding that Law 48-2013 imposes on professional and consulting service contracts. ¹²

"Just imagine those 4,397 workers who barely earn a wage of $11.00 an hour, with no fringe benefits," said PPD delegation spokesman Luis Javier Hernandez Ortiz, referring to the impact of the 1.5 percent withholding on contracted assistants. ² Senator Ada Alvarez Conde questioned why these employees are treated as "professional service providers" when many of the positions require only a high school diploma. "Given how essential their support work is in delivering education, we are taking a step forward to begin improving these workers' conditions," she said. ² Senators Marially Gonzalez and Josian Santiago also joined the news conference, along with Guillermo Betancourt Rodriguez, spokesman for the Association of School Employees (ASEEPR), and Carmen Warren, representing the committee that monitors the Rosa Lydia Velez class-action lawsuit. ² Beyond the three bills, the delegation requested a meeting with the Fiscal Oversight Board to push for a recurring budget line in next year's spending plan dedicated to hiring T1 assistants permanently, rather than relying on contracts renewed year after year. ¹²

What This Means for You

If you work as a T1 or T2 assistant in a public school, these bills -- if passed -- would save you up to $170 a year in certification and registration fees, on top of eliminating the 1.5 percent withholding on your contract. If you are the parent of a student with an IEP, assistant availability directly affects whether your child gets the classroom support the IEP requires. And if you teach Special Education, the assistant shortage -- nearly 3 in 10 eligible students still without one -- lands on you as extra workload.

How to Do It / Checklist

1. If you are a contracted assistant currently having 1.5 percent withheld under Law 48-2013, review your current contract and keep copies of your pay stubs as evidence while the bills move forward.
2. Track Senate Bills 1471, 1472 and 1473 at camara.pr.gov and senado.pr.gov, where public hearings and committee referrals are posted.
3. If your child has an IEP and has not been assigned an assistant, request a written status update from your district's Special Education program and ask whether your child qualifies for the Provisional Remedy while the position is filled.
4. If you suspect your child's application is incomplete -- one of the causes Senator Soto Aguilu cited for the backlog -- request a meeting with the school's case manager to confirm the file is up to date.
5. Assistants interested in testifying at public hearings can contact the PPD Senate delegation's office or ASEEPR to coordinate participation.

What's Next

All three bills must first clear the Senate Education Committee before reaching the floor, and no date has been set yet for public hearings. The real test, however, will be budgetary: the PPD delegation wants the Fiscal Oversight Board to include a recurring line item in next fiscal year's budget to convert a substantial share of the 4,397 contract-based positions into permanent ones -- a decision the Board has not indicated it will support. Meanwhile, the DE -- which manages a consolidated budget of more than $4 billion -- will have to keep reporting on the status of the 3,208 students still waiting for an assistant, a figure the delegation vowed to keep tracking in the coming weeks.