Recruiting and Retaining Special Educators: It's Everybody's Job.

Overview & Synopsis

This bulletin deals with the critical shortage of qualified professionals in special education and related services which seriously hinders the nation's ability to serve the growing number of children and youth with disabilities, birth to age 21. For every 10.5 special education teachers now employed in the nation, school systems report needing one more to meet current demand. The supply of qualified and diverse personnel is not increasing sufficiently, and attrition in special education is higher than in general education. There is no single set of certification or licensure standards nationwide, and ineffective standards may exclude qualified persons and include unqualified persons. New certification approaches are being utilized, including generic, cross-categorical, or noncategorical certification; emergency certification; and alternative routes to certification. Strategies for finding and keeping special education professionals include: (1) a mass media campaign to recruit more teachers; (2) development and field testing of manuals to introduce students to careers in special education, promote special education career awareness, and offer support groups for practicing special education professionals; (3) finding new sources for teachers; (4) keeping special education majors in the field through the use of peer advisors; and (5) keeping teachers in practice by providing collegial support. (JDD)