Science

Q&A: More children than ever need special education, but burnout is creating a teacher shortage

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The number of public school students is increasing, and approximately 15% of them are now eligible for special education services. These services include instruction specifically designed for students with autism, learning disabilities, physical disabilities, or traumatic brain injuries. However, entering this school year, more than half of U.S. public schools are expected to have a shortage of special education personnel. Dr. Kimber Wilkerson, special education professor and department chair at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains why there is a talent shortage and what needs to be done to close the gap.

The Conversation, in collaboration with SciLine, brings you discussion highlights edited for brevity and clarity.

Which students receive special education services?

Students with a disability label receive special education services. They need these additional services and, in some cases, instruction in school so that they can access the curriculum and develop like their peers.

What is the staffing situation for special education?

Since special education became popular in the 1970s, filling all special education positions has always been a challenge.

These challenges began to increase over the past decade, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of each school year, there were more special education job openings than in decades past. For the 2023-24 school year, 42 states and the District of Columbia reported a special education teacher shortage.

What is the cause of these shortages?

One is that fewer young people are choosing teaching as a college major or career. And special education is affected by this lower rate more than other forms of education.

Also, layoffs are increasing. When people leave teaching sooner than expected, it’s not because they’re quitting, but because they’re tired of the job.

They want to do something different. They want to go back to school. Due to lifestyle reasons, an increasing number of people are quitting their jobs before retirement age. And in our state, Wisconsin, about 35% of all educators leave the field before their fifth year.

The number is even higher for special educators. About half of special educators retire within five years.

Why do special education teachers retire?

There are no national studies that explain why. There have been several local investigations, with reports of too much paperwork and too many administrative tasks associated with the job. In some cases, students may report behavioral issues. In some cases, this can be due to feelings of isolation and lack of support from school.

How are students with disabilities affected when schools do not have enough professional educators?

When a school is short of one special educator, other special educators must take over the duties. You went from having 12 students on your caseload to maybe 20 now. Therefore, the amount of individual attention given to each student with a disability is reduced.

Additionally, when experienced teachers leave their positions, a group of less experienced teachers remains. This means that students lose the benefit of years of wisdom and experience.

What are some strategies for recruiting and retaining more special education teachers?

Different universities, states, and school districts have different strategies in place, including residency programs.

In these programs, people learning to become teachers, known as teaching residents, work for a year with a supervisor at a school and are compensated for their work. Although they are not teachers of record, they are paid to learn and are part of the school community.

Please tell us about recent research on supporting new special education teachers.

One of the things that made a big difference was when the teachers in our current study were given access to a group of mentors and colleagues. We called this facilitated peer-to-peer teacher group a “community of practice.” Every other week, new special education teachers from different school districts met on Zoom, along with experienced teachers. And then they did something about the problem, brought something difficult to the table, and worked on possible solutions as a group.

We also provided one-on-one instruction using Zoom. And what people loved about it was being able to talk to someone in their own district, someone they could open up to and be vulnerable with, rather than right next to their building.

In some cases, special educators can feel isolated because they are not necessarily part of a grade-level team. They work with children in many classrooms. This gave them the opportunity to have their own community, which made a difference.

We also looked at their level of burnout and how good they felt about the work they did. We then surveyed special education teachers who were not part of our community of practice.

At the end of the year, those who participated in the teaching and community of practice felt less burned out and more effective in their classroom management. This is very important because burnout is one of the main reasons people quit their jobs.

So if you can make people feel like they’re equipped to handle this challenging position, that’s one strategy to increase the number of people who want to stay in the job year after year. .

If you want to know more, check out the full interview.

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.conversation

Quote: Q&A: More children than ever with special education needs, but burnout is creating a teacher shortage (October 21, 2024) https://phys.org/news/2024-10 -qa-kids-special- Retrieved October 21, 2024 Burnout-Teacher.html

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