25% of Special Ed teachers unqualified

[Anonymous]

Cross posted under Special Needs, 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]

No one wants teaching jobs in general and especially SPED jobs. The paperwork and caseload alone is untenable. This is not unique to MCPS but rather the entire country. There needs to be a major overhaul in education, which educators tried to tell people during the pandemic. The pandemic provided us with a chance to completely revamp how public education works as a whole, but all parents wanted was to get back to status quo and business as usual. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has actually been paying attention.

[Anonymous]

The only way to retain talent and attract employees is to pay them more. Sp Ed teachers should get pay raises and a caseload cap. If they go over that number, then they get additional bonuses for taking on additional work. But until this country values educators enough to pay them what they deserve and treats them with respect, it’s only going to get worse.

[Anonymous]

You can thank the Margery Smelkinsons of the world who demanded we go back to normal at any cost when normal wasn’t working in the first place. It’s been like this for years, and agree with previous posters… it will only continue to get worse. Instead of just demanding normalcy, parents should have been demanding change. We had the all the time and resources and yet here we are… again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can thank the Margery Smelkinsons of the world who demanded we go back to normal at any cost when normal wasn’t working in the first place. It’s been like this for years, and agree with previous posters… it will only continue to get worse. Instead of just demanding normalcy, parents should have been demanding change. We had the all the time and resources and yet here we are… again.

This! That parent group somehow found the contacts and resources to sit down with people who could actually implement positive and productive changes and instead of thinking outside the box, they just wanted kids back in buildings. What a waste. (But hey, they got to be on Fox News and have their endless Washington Post articles while patting themselves on the back as advocates… Such. A. Joke.)

[Anonymous]

And same thing for special education paras. A para I know moved from an autism program to a more desk based position and she said that the work in the autism program was really hard on her physically and emotionally. Since paras were leaving left and right, there was no time to train new hires so it was hard on the established staff. Normally the class would do one on one ABA with the kids and they were having to do diads and triads.

Also, speech pathologist are having to absorb unopened positions into their caseloads and supervise those who don't have a license (which means they have to complete any kind of testing for them as well as sit in their meetings and complete a fair share of their paperwork).

Anonymous wrote:The only way to retain talent and attract employees is to pay them more. Sp Ed teachers should get pay raises and a caseload cap. If they go over that number, then they
get additional bonuses for taking on additional work. But until this country values educators enough to pay them what they deserve and treats them with respect, it’s only going to get worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cross posted under Special Needs, 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?

With the massive increase in students applying for this status over the past decade, especially in the higher-income areas it's been hard for schools to keep up.

[jsteele]

Cross-posting is prohibited per the DCUM usage guidelines. Please continue in the original thread here:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1125925.page