Sept 14, 2023, Cedar Falls (IA) Courier: Waterloo Schools working to find ways around 22 special education teacher vacancies https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/education/waterloo-schools-special-education-teacher-shortage/article_87efe746-48d1-11ee-be9c-b77728f2b79c.html
WATERLOO — With a shortage of nearly two dozen special education teachers, the Waterloo Community School District is looking at creative ways to fill gaps in order to provide students with the education they need.
Director of Special Education Megan Allen said there are 22 openings for special education teachers from Pre-K to 12th grade. About half of those openings are in the three high schools.
“We have one middle school in pretty rough shape and then in elementary we have a sprinkling of vacancies but not anything like high school,” Allen said. “High school is definitely the worst.”
This isn’t just a Waterloo problem, according to Amy Knupp, the executive director of special education for Central Rivers Area Education Agency. The AEA oversees 53 school districts and, with Waterloo being the largest, Knupp said that is one of the reasons for the higher number of vacancies. There are just over 10,000 students in the district.
Knupp said, with the shortage, she thinks Waterloo School has a “laser focus” on providing students with the education they need.
“I would not say kids are not getting what they need at all,” she said. “(The district is) always talking about it and figuring out how to help meet all kids’ needs.”
Allen said the number of students in special education classes are higher than they were before COVID-19. She also said children’s needs are much more complex, with an increase in social and behavioral needs.
Some of these behaviors include faster escalation and heightened emotions like extreme frustration. Other kids have issues with self control and being able to problem solve.
Teaching children with behavioral issues can lead to teacher burnout quicker than teaching children with academic concerns, Allen said. Along with teaching children with more complex issues, class sizes are also growing.
Allen said the ideal classroom size is three to four students in an elementary class and six to eight students in middle and high school classes. She said in some cases, elementary classes now have five to six students and middle and high schools have eight to 10 students….
“If I were to look at a population of eighth graders right now and think, like, ‘What the heck’s going on?’ I would reflect and say, ‘Oh, they missed all of the end of their fifth grade year,’” she explained.
She, along with Knupp, said the district and the AEA are doing what they can to bring more help into the special education classrooms….
One creative way to gain more educators, Allen said, is utilizing the University of Northern Iowa. She said they’re recruiting education students for their pre-service training.
With the program, the district is taking these students and allowing them to be paid part-time paraeducators. Allen said the position will give these students real experience in a special education classroom. In turn, she hopes this will help students deal with future burnout, saying that she hears young teachers say they experience burnout because they didn’t have enough real-world experience while in school….
She said this in turn will create “super qualified” teachers.
Other ways to work around the shortage is by putting more children in classrooms with teachers who have more seniority and in turn giving those teachers more planning time. That planning time would be used to file paperwork and contact students’ families.
Allen is hoping the district can help support paraeducators already in their district obtain their special education degree. She said about 75% of paraeducators work in special education classrooms….
Comments