Pretty big day today in the Michigan Legislature as SB0657 passed 31-7 with bipartisan support to help alleviate the special education teacher shortage. This is essential for Michigan schools as there were over 250 openings for special education teachers this year.
This is not a shortcut to teaching – teachers will have to complete a Michigan Alternative teacher certification program that includes a minimum of 224 clock hours of special education training prior to getting into the classroom. But this is a big step forward as there was no way to help alleviate this shortage.
This will allow programs like ours to apply the MDE to get approval for our Special Education teacher certification program through the Michigan Alternative Route to Interim Teaching certificate!
We still have to get SB0657 approved by the Michigan House and the Governor – but we have done a lot of work to make that happen. Any help you can give, please do.
Michigan students need more teachers.
Dave Saba testifying for SB0657 before the Michigan Senate Education committee at about the 11 minute mark.
