Schools are scrambling to find special education teachers. 3 ways to address shortage.

Public schools are struggling to fill vacancies for special education teachers.

For the 2024-25 school year, 72% of public schools with special education teacher vacancies reported they'd "experienced difficulty" filling the positions, according to the Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics.

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

1. Mental health check-ins

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, an interim associate dean and director of the Autism Institute at Gwynedd Mercy University, in Philadelphia.

Difficulties that arise when teachers confront the "unpredictability of human behavior" in a classroom sometimes deter them from pursuing a teaching career or drive them away from the job, Schadler said.

Having mental health resources available and administrators who check in on a regular basis can make a huge difference in retaining educators and helping them cope with those challenges, said Aron Boxer, a former teacher.

Boxer, who taught special education and lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, left his job at a public school nearly nine years ago. He said he enjoyed working with disabled students who had "tough cases," but the lack of support and the low pay drove him away.

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

"Special education is a rewarding job, but it's a tough job," he said. "The kids we're working with have emotional disturbances; and since it's one of the more taxing jobs, teachers need to be supported mentally."

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 opportunities for teachers to connect "outside of the teacher lounge, away from the scrutiny of administrators" and have a neutral party facilitate the sessions, he said.

Schadler, from the Autism Institute, agrees that school administrators should regularly check in with special education teachers about their mental health. It's one way to avoid pushing teachers out of the field.

"I think that in any of those kinds of situations, they should go to the source and ask, 'What do teachers need?" she said. "There needs to be more discussion before it reaches the point where a teacher says, 'I'm done.'"

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2. Coaching, mentoring, help with workload

Students in special education classrooms have Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, which are written plans that outline, based on a student's disability, the types of education and services they need to support learning.

Staying on top of these legal mandates, means special ed teachers have to fill out a lot of paperwork and spend time planning a student's day. The upshot is that their everyday workloads far surpass what's required of general education teachers, Schadler said.

"Those things are burdensome with some teachers and can make them feel lost and not driven," she said.

The heavy workload is often a key reason teachers leave special education, said Kimber Wilkinson, a special education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After new teachers land a role at a school, they often tell Wilkinson they're concerned about their morale and the workload.

She recounted the experiences of two special education teachers in Beloit, Wisconsin who "were excited about going back to teaching in the school district they attended" but both ended up leaving the profession shortly after they'd started. One had to take on extra student cases after another teacher left and the other felt similarly burdened by the extra work, she said.

"It's not good to have continuous stressors," she said. "I think these teachers are so valuable and precious resources."

School administrators can alleviate these stressors and retain new teachers by supporting them from the outset, helping them manage their workloads, offering coaching and mentoring and encouraging them to speak up about their needs, Wilkinson said.

3. Alternatives to expensive, yearslong college training programs

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

First-year undergraduate college enrollment dropped across the nation this fall and that's had an impact.

There never were enough special education teachers, Schadler said, and now fewer people are pursuing education, especially special education.

She thinks colleges should cultivate relationships with prospective students to attract them. Her school is planning to launch an apprenticeship program to give easier and more cost-effective training to high schoolers interested in teaching special education and paraprofessionals working in classrooms.

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

This would alleviate some of the costs and allow students to work in special education classrooms and have it count for college credit, she said. She especially wants young students to be exposed to special education classrooms to combat stigmas about teaching disabled students.

Apprenticeship programs can elevate working people already present in special education classrooms, like aides who don't have a college degree. Paraprofessionals in classrooms may not have the time to go to school with the burdens of work or childcare. Under an apprenticeship program, they would apply some time spent in classrooms toward college credit en route to a degree.

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

The job 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're able to meet those needs ... There's a feeling of accomplishment."

Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Remedies for schools struggling to find special education teachers