Some school jobs only exist in the big city. New York City's travel trainers--a group of about 40 paraprofessionals and teachers--definitely fall into that category. All members of the AFT-affiliated United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the educators work with special-education students to help them become independent travelers on the city's public transit system.

As evidence of how well the training worked, on Sept. 11 many of the students made their way home as usual without extra assistance, even when the subway and many buses weren't running. A group of deaf students, for example, walked south through Manhattan, just blocks from the disaster, then across the Brooklyn Bridge safely home.

Before they start working in the program, the paraprofessionals receive intense training over the course of three months. Students' initial contact with the program begins in elementary school as they receive basic training on getting around school, home and stores. In middle school, the lessons emphasize safety, appropriate social behavior in the community and problem-solving skills. Then in high school, the students work one on one with a trainer who helps them negotiate the best route to and from home, school and their worksites. A successful student saves the schools huge amounts of money because student fares on the subway are one-tenth the cost of specialized buses and one-fifth the cost of regular buses.

Paraprofessional Miriam Harrell trains about 25 high school students per year. "Sometimes it's hard to develop the training methods for different disabilities," she says, "but I love seeing the results, helping the kids get out on their own."

One vital strategy the students learn is how to ask for help. Students with limited verbal skills, for example, use identification cards that explain who they are and where they're going. The students also have to prove they can do more than just get where they're going on the transportation system. Trainers they don't know follow and observe them, sometimes approaching the students to see how they deal with a stranger. If students break the rules, they have to go back to commuting by bus.

"If I had a quarter for every time I've heard that kids can't travel on their own, I'd be a millionaire," says Dorothy McGrew, a paraprofessional who has been working with Down's Syndrome students for more than 20 years. "Yes, they need more time, and sometimes it takes me longer to figure out what the kids need to learn." She recalls one student who finally learned her bus stop after McGrew told her to touch the mailbox on the corner. "Lord, I hope they never move that mailbox," she says.

UFT paraprofessional leader Maria Portalatin is proud of her members' vital role in the unique program. "Their responsibilities are huge, and they live up to the job," she says.