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    • Remedies for schools that struggle to find specialist teachers
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    Remedies for schools that struggle to find specialist teachers

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    Public schools are struggling to fill vacant specialist teaching positions.

    For the 2024-25 school year, 72% of public schools with vacant special education teacher positions reported having “encountered difficulty” filling those positions, according to the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Education.

    USA TODAY spoke with special education experts about the factors that have led to the shortage of special education teachers and what schools can do to address the problem.

    1. Mental health checks

    Students in special education programs have disabilities that affect how they interact and learn, and their teachers must be able to manage their emotional and academic needs, said Deborah Schadler, interim associate dean and director of the Institute. of Autism at Gwynedd Mercy University in Philadelphia. .

    The difficulties that arise when teachers face “the unpredictability of human behavior” in a classroom sometimes deter them from pursuing a teaching career or keep them away from their work, Schadler said.

    Having mental health resources and administrators who check in regularly can make a huge difference in retaining educators and helping them deal with these challenges, said Aron Boxer, a former teacher.

    Boxer, who teaches special education and lives in Greenwich, Conn., left his public school job nearly nine years ago. He said he enjoyed working with disabled students who had “difficult cases”, but the lack of support and low pay scared him away.

    After leaving the classroom, Boxer spent two years overseeing special education services at a private school. He now runs his own special education tutoring business in Greenwich, where he employs people with advanced degrees in the field.

    “Special education is rewarding work, but it’s hard work,” he said. “The children we work with suffer from emotional disorders; and as this is such a demanding job, teachers need mental support.”

    Providing special education teachers with consistent coaching on social-emotional learning, access to group therapy or meditation sessions and relaxation strategies could help, Boxer said. School administrators could also offer teachers the opportunity to connect “outside the staff room, away from administrators’ control” and have a neutral person facilitate the sessions, he said.

    Schadler, of the Autism Institute, agrees that school administrators should regularly check in with special education teachers on their mental health. This is a way to avoid pushing teachers out of the field.

    “I think in any of these types of situations, they should go to the source and ask, ‘What do teachers need?’ she said. “There needs to be more discussion before it gets to the point where a teacher says, ‘I’m done.’”

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    2. Coaching, mentoring, workload assistance

    Students in special education classes attend individualized education programs, or IEPs, which are written plans that outline, based on the student’s disability, the types of education and services they need to support learning.

    Staying on top of these legal mandates means special education teachers must complete a lot of paperwork and spend time planning a student’s day. The result is that their daily workload far exceeds what is required of general education teachers, Schadler said.

    “These things are a burden for some teachers and can make them feel lost and unmotivated,” she said.

    Heavy workload is often one of the main reasons teachers leave special education, said Kimber Wilkinson, a professor of special education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Once new teachers land a position at a school, they often tell Wilkinson they’re worried about their morale and workload.

    She recounted the experiences of two special education teachers in Beloit, Wisconsin, who “were excited to return to teach in the school district they attended,” but both ended up leaving the profession shortly after. time after starting. One had to take on additional student cases after another teacher left and the other felt just as burdened by the extra work, she said.

    “It’s not good to have ongoing stressors,” she said. “I think these teachers are very valuable and valuable resources.”

    School administrators can alleviate these stressors and retain new teachers by supporting them from the start, helping them manage their workload, providing coaching and mentoring and encouraging them to express their needs, said Wilkinson.

    3. Alternatives to Expensive, Multi-Year College Training Programs

    Another challenge is attracting people to the profession, Wilkinson and Schadler said.

    Enrollment in first year of undergraduate college fell across the country this fall and it had an impact.

    There have never been enough special education teachers, Schadler said, and now fewer people are pursuing degrees, particularly in special education.

    She believes colleges should cultivate relationships with prospective students to attract them. His school plans to launch an apprenticeship program to provide easier, more cost-effective training for high school students interested in teaching special education and paraprofessionals working in classrooms.

    To attract high school and middle school students, Schadler said, the program will allow young people to take career-specific community college courses for the first two years of school before transferring to a university.

    That would reduce some costs and allow students to work in special education classes and have that count for college credit, she said. In particular, she wants young students to be exposed to special education classes to combat the prejudices associated with teaching students with disabilities.

    Apprenticeship programs can elevate workers already in special education classes, such as health care aides who do not have a college degree. Paraprofessionals in the classroom may not have time to attend school with the burden of work or child care. Under an apprenticeship program, they would use class time to earn college credits en route to a degree.

    These types of “creative solutions” also include residency programs that provide special education training, Wilkinson said.

    The work can be rewarding, Schadler said.

    “The positives of my best day in a regular education classroom would not equal my best day in a special education classroom because the needs are unique,” ​​Schadler said. “If you can meet those needs…you feel a sense of accomplishment.”

    Contact Kayla Jimenez at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.

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