I had an article sent to me from Politico about the Special Education teacher shortage – calling it desperate and that it would force changes in the system. It highlighted the fact that college and university special education programs have seen dwindling enrollment because of “low pay and poor societal perception of teaching”.
How bad is it?
- In California under-prepared teachers using temp licenses outnumber fully certified sped teachers by margin 2 to 1 according to the Learning Policy Institute
- Overall educator preparation enrollment decreased to its lowest level since 2008 when states began collecting data – a 31% drop through 2013
- University of Virginia, the states flagship university, had just 23 Sped Teachers graduate in 2018
- Arizona Sate – one of the largest universities at 72,000 students has seen enrollment in Special Education drop from 123 in 2012 to just 40 this year
- University of Florida used to graduate 70 or more special ed teachers but now it is down to 40.
We have declining enrollment and increasing demand. We have seen demand for our special education teachers increase dramatically over the years and we work hard to make sure we can fill every special education teacher position there is.
