25% of current MCPS Special Ed teachers are not qualified

[Anonymous]

Going to cross post under MCPS, but this is appalling. There aren't enough teachers to meet the need (I guess that's not news), and Special Ed students not getting services they are entitled to.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/educators-families-worry-about-state-of-special-education-with-hundreds-of-unfilled-jobs-in-local-public-schools/3328710/

The bigger question is what can we do about it?

[Anonymous]

I would think it's much higher. Being sent to special Ed, as a teacher, is like being sent to Siberia. Not too many signing up for it freely..
IF MCPS Valued special Ed students, it would be a sought after position with higher pay and benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IF MCPS Valued special Ed students, it would be a sought after position with higher pay and benefits.

+1 I would like to see this.

[Anonymous]

Just look at the 60+ pages of parents telling teachers how easy their jobs are or at least not difficult compared to any other job, how they don’t deserve any respect because teachers don't do a good job overall now, etc etc.

I was a special ed teacher for 7 years in a different district. It was constant stress from all angles- some parents were amazing but pretty much every year I would have at least one student on my caseload whose parent(s) were totally unreasonable.

Always legal issues hanging over your head, which regular ed teachers mostly didn't worry about.

Central office always breathing down your neck and also not providing any support (again, regular ed peers not dealing with this)

I was always making up my own curriculum or paying for materials out of pocket. My regular ed peers had everything handed to them while I was spending hours creating my own lessons because I was given no curriculum or decades old materials that were no longer relevant.

School admin often didn't understand special ed issues. Sometimes this meant they left you alone. Sometimes this meant they had unrealistic expectations.

Regular ed teachers were often unhappy with the special ed teachers because they didn't want certain kids in their classes, thought the special ed teacher should be magically fixing behavior issues, etc

[Anonymous]

Teachers get more than enough respect, perhaps many of us are just tired of them always complaining. MCPS has screwed the children in the county on every level with unfettered ESOL and the discipline problems that come from too many kids in overcrowded schools. I would never teach in MCPS when there are so many other options, especially if I were open to leaving the area. Just not worth the headache, many of the younger teachers my DC had before we moved them to private left and became part time tutors while pursuing other career paths. I felt sorry for them because they loved teaching, just was an impossible situation that was promising to get worse every year, and it has, hence the 60+ pages of complaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get more than enough respect, perhaps many of us are just tired of them always complaining. MCPS has screwed the children in the county on every level with unfettered ESOL and the discipline problems that come from too many kids in overcrowded schools. I would never teach in MCPS when there are so many other options, especially if I were open to leaving the area. Just not worth the headache, many of the younger teachers my DC had before we moved them to private left and became part time tutors while pursuing other career paths. I felt sorry for them because they loved teaching, just was an impossible situation that was promising to get worse every year, and it has, hence the 60+ pages of complaining.

Well which is it? Are teachers respected with no right to complain or are the working conditions 'impossible'?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get more than enough respect, perhaps many of us are just tired of them always complaining. MCPS has screwed the children in the county on every level with unfettered ESOL and the discipline problems that come from too many kids in overcrowded schools. I would never teach in MCPS when there are so many other options, especially if I were open to leaving the area. Just not worth the headache, many of the younger teachers my DC had before we moved them to private left and became part time tutors while pursuing other career paths. I felt sorry for them because they loved teaching, just was an impossible situation that was promising to get worse every year, and it has, hence the 60+ pages of complaining.

Well which is it? Are teachers respected with no right to complain or are the working conditions 'impossible'?

And what exactly is "unfettered ESOL"?

[Anonymous]

I am certified in SpEd and ESOL but prefer teaching technology courses. The workload for SpEd and ESOL ridiculous. Paperwork, communication, federal/state laws to keep up with, local jurisdiction interpretations, constant training. They need to increase the pay or reduce the workload. The more SpEd teachers get overwhelmed, then they cannot help teachers in classrooms. So, classroom teachers get overwhelmed by large class sizes with too many students to help. Behaviors can be extremely difficult to deal with with injuries common in ES.

[Anonymous]

I am curious. How do they measure "not qualified"? MD state regs only require passing the praxis II Sped exam. I am not saying that makes one qualified for the job though. It takes a ton of training and experience. Usually MCPS schools, like to see a masters degree in SpEd for their positions.

[Anonymous]

With the number of ESOL and IEPs/504s basically every teacher in MCPS should have special ed certification.