Over the past few decades, the role and presence of the paraprofessional, that is the educational assistant, within the classroom has evolved from providing teacher and student support to involving greater decision-making concerning instructional content and practice. The extent to which this shift is impacting students with a variety of mild to severe developmental disabilities is a crucial question that to date remains under-researched and unanswered. The authors studied this issue by probing students' perceptions concerning the role of their paraprofessionals and their impact on the student's inclusive education experience. The authors explored the following perspective areas noted by the students: student personal control, impact on peer relations, dependency on adults, instructional relationship of teachers compared to paraprofessionals, and inclusion of peers. In general, the authors found that students felt that their paraprofessionals were viewed favorably by peers, but that promotion of socialization and peer networking may have been compromised as they reported that they spent a majority of the school day interacting with the paraprofessional as opposed to other students. Other factors bear consideration as well, and the authors conclude that the educational system continues to be in need of revamping, and that the efficacy of the system needs to be demonstrated by empirical evidence.