Special Education Personnel Attrition in Pennsylvania. Working Paper No. 305-0724

Overview & Synopsis

We used longitudinal staffing data from Pennsylvania to explore differences in special education personnel attrition across personnel categories, individual characteristics, and district characteristics. Special education administrators and school psychologists had the highest attrition rates among special education personnel, with special education administrators 6.4 percentage points more likely to leave their district than observably similar special educators in the same district. Black special education personnel were 2.1 percentage points more likely to leave than observably similar White special education personnel in the same district. Special education personnel in urban districts and districts serving high proportions of students of color also were more likely to leave, all else equal. These trends suggest the need for targeted retention efforts for these important categories of special education personnel. [This project is funded by a contract with PaTTAN Pittsburgh and the Bureau of Special Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.]