PHOENIX, AZ — The crisis of hiring teachers in Arizona is already difficult enough to find qualified teachers.
According to the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association, as of September 2023, 2,229 teacher positions remain vacant. Trying to find special education teachers may be even harder and districts are doing what they can to try and recruit them.
Liliana Morales knew she wanted to be in a special education classroom since high school after she volunteered with her aunt who taught in that specialty.
“That’s when I found out that I could wake up at 5 a.m. and meet her at school at 6 a.m. and be there until 4 p.m. and it didn’t feel like a job. It was really fun for me. That’s when I knew this was something I wanted to do,” Morales told ABC15.
Finding special education teachers and aides is difficult. Those educators are managing students with different needs, ranging from minor learning disabilities to severe needs including a student’s health.
Morales, who student-taught in general education classrooms, says there is a difference in those classrooms.
“The biggest difference is paperwork. We have to write Individualized Education Plans [sic], and they’re really big, legal documents,” Morales said.
According to the latest National Center for Education Statistics report, special education was among the highest vacancies in the education field in Arizona for the 2020-2021 school year.
“We know that about one in three special education teachers leave in their first year of teaching,” said Erin Rotheram-Fuller, an associate professor with Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.
School districts across the Valley are offering thousands of dollars in stipends for hard-to-fill positions.
For special education teachers, the Balsz Elementary School District, where Morales works, is offering $5,000 per year. In Deer Valley Unified, Chandler Unified, Tolleson Union High School District as well as Dysart Unified, they’re offering $3,000 and more.
Schools are required to provide services for special education students. If they can’t hire, they’ll outsource. In the Deer Valley Unified School District, a spokesperson said they’ve spent $3 million this school year with 19 different companies for special education services.
Rotheram-Fuller and her team are trying to find ways to help recruit and retain special education teachers at the college. More than 100 people from researchers, educators, ASU staff and more are working on what’s called Project OASIS, or Optimizing Access for Students in Schools.
Rotheram-Fuller said they’re trying to find models that work well in schools to help bridge the gap for students with disabilities. This would include looking at ways to have better inclusion models for students with disabilities or co-teaching models to ensure educators aren’t alone.
“I think we need to take the burden off of one person meeting all the needs of kids that have a lot of different high-intensity needs,” Rotheram-Fuller said.
Morales told ABC15 she has a lot of support in her classroom, from having, what’s called a partner teacher and special education coach to help. She said hearing from her friends in other districts, that’s not the case everywhere.
“I probably would’ve left after my first year,” Morales said if she didn’t have support in the classroom. “It’s a lot of hard work and there are days when you go home and you’re like, I don’t think I can do that tomorrow… Being able to have all that support really helps you get through the day and also be able to come to school every day.”
