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Kicked. Punched. Whipped. As Schools Struggle to Support Students With Special Needs, Educators Report Abuse on the Job

special education students hitting teachers

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A t a ceremony in 2014 to honor Brett Bigham with Oregon’s Teacher of the Year award, he slouched over in his chair — hoping blood wouldn’t seep through his shirt.

Just days earlier, Bigham wrote in a 2018 op-ed , he had endured a brutal beating in his classroom, one that sent him to the hospital. On this occasion, he wrote, a student bit him and whipped him with a television cable. It was far from the first time he endured physical violence or death threats on the job. It wasn’t the first time a classroom injury sent him to the hospital, either.

He’s been bitten, punched and kicked. He was hit over the head with a chair so hard he quit teaching for seven years.

Bigham’s story is likely an extreme example of the challenges special education teachers face as schools struggle to adequately support children with special needs, like those living with significant trauma or other conditions that affect their ability to regulate behavior. But special education teachers from across the country responded to Bigham’s op-ed, saying they too had experienced violence on the job.

During the 2015-16 school year, 10 percent of teachers reported that students had threatened them with injury and 6 percent said they had been physically attacked, according to an April report by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The federal report didn’t include specific data on special education teachers. However, previous research has found that employees in special education classrooms are about three times as likely to be the victim of physical assault as those in general education classrooms. One report, published in 2014 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that educators who had faced attacks reported lower levels of job satisfaction and were more likely to consider leaving the teaching profession. As a contentious debate over school discipline plays out in Washington, the federal data show that schools have actually become safer in recent years. But exclusionary discipline, like suspensions, isn’t the answer to solve the situations Bigham faced in the classroom, he said. It’s greater support for special education teachers.

Bigham is currently not teaching full time. He is a self-proclaimed “troublemaker,” and he’s no stranger to conflicts with school administrators. Although his last full-time teaching job ended following an unrelated legal battle, he no longer wants to work in high schools. Bigger kids, he said, hit harder.

Before leaving the teaching profession last year, Dante Fuoco faced similar challenges. For six years, he taught special education in Louisiana, specializing in teaching children with behavioral and emotional instability — though he had no previous experience working with that population.

“They actually saw on my résumé that I was a swimmer and they thought, ‘Well that’s good, that probably means he’s physically strong,’ and they told me that afterwards,” Fuoco told The 74. “Just like, ‘Oh, this is somebody who could actually restrain kids.’”

Fuoco said he was kicked, punched and spit on “hundreds of times.” On one occasion, a student whipped him with a belt and he began to bleed. A school nurse offered Fuoco ice but said there was little more she could do.

“It stuck with me as a metaphor for what it’s like to be a special ed teacher working with kids who have trauma, working with kids who have challenging behavior,” Fuoco said. “Teachers aren’t afforded the space to grieve or to be upset or to get hurt. And I didn’t afford myself that space in part because it’s just part of the culture.”

For Fuoco, a punch to the throat was the final blow. Burned out by the job’s emotional toll, he quit to pursue a career in acting.

‘The second hit to my head’

Sandra Lewandowski, superintendent of Minnesota’s Intermediate District 287, is well aware of the challenges special education teachers confront on the job. Education leaders in the district, which serves roughly 1,000 children in suburban Minneapolis, have been transparent about the safety concerns educators confront — and have called on state lawmakers to help.

“I don’t want my school district to be known as a dangerous district — that doesn’t help us or it doesn’t help the students,” Lewandowski said. But “what we do need to talk about is students with very intense mental health needs.”

Intermediate District 287 serves some of the highest-needs students in the region, a majority of whom experience trauma stemming from factors like community violence. As a result, special education teachers in the district are frequently confronted by aggressive student outbursts. Last year, more than 300 educators sustained injuries on the job, according to district data.

Oftentimes, Lewandowski said, staff injuries occur when an educator needs to restrain a child who is experiencing emotional dysregulation. Part of the problem, she said, stems from a lack of high-quality mental health services available to students, both in and outside of schools.

“Most of us have dedicated our entire careers to this population of students, and they’re terribly misunderstood. They don’t get the help they need,” she said. “For our kids of color, they often get in the trajectory in the pipeline to prison very quickly. We see that happening, and it’s a tragedy in real time for us.”

After a teacher is injured on the job, Lewandowski said, administrators meet with staff involved because “they don’t want to feel like they’re alone in this work,” and provide time off for recovery if necessary. If educators feel unsafe, they can be reassigned.

Bigham, who has spent the bulk of his career teaching at a district in the Portland suburbs, said he often lacked support from administrators when confronted by a student’s violent outbursts. After an incident in the early 2000s, he took a seven-year hiatus from teaching.

Each day, he said, a student would hit teachers and classroom assistants. After complaining to school leaders and advocating for more help, Bigham was told he could pin the boy to the ground if the child swung at him more than 300 times. Under those conditions, he warned, someone could get seriously injured.

Bigham was working with another student when the boy hit him in the back and the head with a chair. As Bigham fell to the ground, the boy took a second swing. Bigham said he sprung into action when he realized the other student was about to get hit.

“Instead, I wrapped my arms around that kid and I took the second hit to my head,” he said.

After the seven-year break, he found himself back in the special education classroom, and he was soon recognized as Oregon’s Teacher of the Year — the first special education teacher in the state to receive the honor — before his career quickly hit a snag. Bigham was one of the first openly gay educators to receive the recognition nationally and, after he used the platform to confront bullying against LGBT students, the district reportedly retaliated against him and he was fired. In 2015, Bigham settled with the district for $140,000.

Although he’s currently working as a substitute teacher, he hopes to return to the special education classroom full time — this time at an elementary school.

Finding a solution

A few years ago, school leaders at Intermediate District 287 realized they needed to do more to support their highest-needs kids. They created a “mobile response team” of psychologists, therapists and behavioral specialists who address critical incidents at schools and coach staff on how to de-escalate violent situations. The district also removed school-based police officers from their campuses “because we don’t want to criminalize mental health,” Lewandowski said.

Violent incidents with students happen “every single day, it’s not a once-a-year kind of experience,” Lewandowski said. “That’s what is so challenging.”

The district is also experimenting with a “therapeutic teaching model” that blends mental health services in some elementary classrooms. Under that model, which was funded through a one-time state grant for nearly $2 million, a full-time therapist works alongside educators with children and another therapist works with students’ families. The district has lobbied the state legislature to make funding for the program permanent.

For Bigham, a bulk of the problem comes down to inadequate staffing — not just with special education teachers, but also among counselors, psychologists and paraprofessionals. For example, the American School Counselor Association recommends a student-to-counselor ratio of 250:1, yet few states meet that goal , with a national ratio of 482:1 — a tally that’s remained relatively stable over the past decade.

Indeed, schools have long faced a special education teacher shortage , according to a 2017 report by the Brookings Institution. The challenges schools face in hiring special education teachers has become more acute in recent years. But there are several strategies districts could use to attract educators to their schools. Among them: cash incentives.

“I get paid the same as all the other teachers, and they’re not getting beat up,” Bigham said. “We are about to have a huge crisis in staffing schools in this country, in special education especially, and this is one of the reasons.”

Such a straightforward solution isn’t so easy, however, because of collective bargaining agreements between districts and teachers unions, said Thomas Dee, an education professor at Stanford University who co-wrote the Brookings report. The failure to compensate special education teachers more, particularly given their violent encounters in the classroom, offers a disincentive for quality teachers to continue educating children with special needs, he said.

“You end up with this cycling of teachers that accelerate,” Dee said. “If teachers are leaving those special education classrooms — as they’re honing their craft and becoming more experienced — just so they can find better working conditions, the kinds of teachers you’ll have with the most needy students are relative novices who haven’t yet mastered their craft.”

Over the past decade, however, the number of special education teachers has dropped 17 percent while the share of students with disabilities has stayed relatively constant, according to a recent analysis by the Education Week Research Center. On average, there was one special education teacher per 17 students with disabilities during the 2015-16 school year. That year, 6.7 million children , or 13 percent of all public school students, received special education services.

Overall, the teacher workforce has increased slightly over that time period, with a student-to-educator ratio of 16 to 1.

Educators serving students with disabilities have long highlighted challenges they face on the job. Special education teachers have cited an overwhelming burden from paperwork, a heavy workload and a lack of support from school management. Bigham said he’s observed each of these challenges over the course of his career.

For Bigham, it’s a simple equation: Pay to adequately support students with disabilities now, he said, or shell out the money on prison sentences later. Fuoco agreed.

“The population I was working with,” Fuoco said, “is exactly the population that will get incarcerated, or is set to get incarcerated, if things don’t profoundly change.”

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Mark Keierleber is an investigative reporter at The 74.

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‘Shocking' Video Shows Florida Student Brutally Attacking Teacher's Aide For Taking His Video Game

Shocking surveillance footage shows the student chasing the teacher's aide into the hallway after she took his nintendo switch away, by gabi rodriguez • published february 24, 2023 • updated on february 24, 2023 at 10:14 pm.

A 17-year-old special needs student has been accused of violently attacking a teacher's aide at a Flagler County school, rendering her unconscious.

The incident occurred at Matanzas High School when the paraprofessional took away the student's Nintendo game, according to NBC affiliate WESH-TV .

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Shocking surveillance footage shows the student chasing the teacher's aide into the hallway after she took his Nintendo Switch away.

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly watched the video and said, "Quite frankly, it was shocking."

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The report states the student pushed the woman with such force that she was knocked five to six feet into the air, causing her to lose consciousness, WESH-TV reports.

"This could have been a homicide," Staly said. "When you push people down like that, and they hit their head, you never know the outcome."

The surveillance footage shows the student continuing to assault the teacher's aide while she was lying helpless on the ground.

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Authorities say he kicked her, got on top of her, and punched her in the body and back of the head approximately 15 times.

The student is described by FCSO as being 6 feet and 7 inches tall and weighing 270 pounds.

The school has two resource deputies on campus, but due to the campus's large size, authorities say it took several minutes for them to arrive.

“Fortunately, other students and other faculty members, administrators came and intervened,” Staly said.

The student is facing a felony aggravated battery charge and possible school discipline, including expulsion, WESH-TV reports. After the incident, he reportedly started to spit at the victim and threatened to kill her when he returned.

The school district has not disclosed any information about the aide's current condition for privacy reasons. However, she has reportedly been with the district since 2004, but only recently became a teacher's aide, starting at Matanzas in 2021.

The district is also not releasing any information about the student involved in the attack due to confidentiality concerns.

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Students with disabilities are missing school because of staff shortages

Cory Turner

There's a special education staffing crisis in a northern California school district. It means some of the district's most vulnerable students have missed weeks and even months of school.

Why children with disabilities are missing school and losing skills

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

What’s driving a special education teacher shortage and how schools are responding

John Yang John Yang

Claire Mufson Claire Mufson

Lana Green Lana Green

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Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whats-driving-a-special-education-teacher-shortage-and-how-schools-are-responding

Correction: A transcription error displayed the incorrect spelling of Nadene Stein. The name has since been corrected.

More than 7.5 million American students have disabilities that qualify them for individual education plans. But teachers trained in this critical area are in short supply. Special education teachers and administrators share how the shortage is affecting them, and John Yang speaks with Kimber Wilkerson, professor of special education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to learn more.

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Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Seven and a half million American students, or roughly 15 percent of them, have disabilities that qualify them for special instruction, what's known as individual education plans. But teachers trained in this critical area are in short supply.

At the beginning of the current school year, 70 percent of schools surveyed said they had openings for special education teachers. We asked special education teachers and administrators to tell us how the shortage is affecting them.

Maryellen Robinson, Massachusetts:

You're spread thin and you're working with a student on a lesson to meet their academic goals, but you're also thinking about the student behind you who's working on maybe feeding or they're getting their medications, and you're thinking, how can I support that student when I'm working with another student?

My name is Maryellen Robinson. I am a special education teacher for students who have complex support needs in Boston, Massachusetts.

Sarah Davis, Minnesota:

My name is Sarah Davis. I'm a special education teacher in Minnesota, and I teach emotional and behavioral disorders. They have gone so far as to reach out to a temp agency to bring in para educators, which it helps having bodies in the building, but it's not the same as having a teacher who know, trained, and has specialized in behaviors and mental health.

Amy Quellette, Michigan:

My name is Amy Quellette. I'm in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. I'm a retired school teacher.

Nadene Stein, Massachusetts:

I'm Nadene Stein, assistant superintendent for pupil services for the Waltham Public Schools in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Amy Quellette:

It breaks your heart every single day as a teacher to know that you still needed more time with a student. And not only does it break your heart, but I could cry every single day worrying about the kids and that they need more time.

Nadene Stein:

I always have big box Kleenex in my office. That's part of my job. But usually when someone is upset about something, we can work together and we can figure out a solution that is going to benefit people and we can move forward. This year, I don't have a solution because I don't have people.

Sarah Davis:

The staffing shortage really makes me question if I want to spend the rest of my career in this setting.

Maryellen Robinson:

It makes me feel so sad knowing that there's such a shortage of people who want to go into this field and working with students like my own.

I really loved really working with those kids who were struggling, building that relationship and helping them see that, hey, this is a positive thing and I can help you through this. And then those successes, even though they feel very small, are huge for those students.

We got to do a very much better job celebrating these people and thanking them and supporting them, because I don't want them to leave. Let's get past this bump and with always the hope that it's got to get better next year. It has to get better.

The voices of special education teachers and administrators. Kimber Wilkerson is a professor of special education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kimber, we heard in that tape some of them talk about the burnout factor, that they are just so frazzled from all they have to do. How big a factor is that in the shortage?

Kimber Wilkerson, University of Wisconsin Madison: I think the job of being a special educator is a meaningful job that provides a lot of satisfaction. But the stresses and the pressures on teachers in schools right now, they are real. So it definitely contributes to people leaving their jobs faster than they might have in the past.

So in addition to that sort of burnout, because of all they have to do, what are the other factors that are behind this shortage?

Kimber Wilkerson:

You know, overall, in the last 10 years or so, there's been kind of an increase in this shortage of educators, and that's across the board. But special education has always been hit sort of the hardest of all the education professions ever since it became a thing in the 70s.

And so I'd say over the last ten years or so, there's been kind of an erosion in the public's view of teaching as a desirable profession, maybe some erosion of benefits and autonomy that teachers experience. So those things combine to create a public narrative that makes teaching and maybe special education less desirable than it was in the past.

Now, federal law guarantees students with disabilities an appropriate public education. How is the shortage affecting that?

The shortage of special educators has an impact on the quality of services that students with disabilities receive. Obviously, when special educators are spread more thin. So maybe in a school where there used to be three special educators for the middle school band, and now we're down an educator, and so you have two or sometimes even one special educator who's now serving that whole population.

Of course, that person's caseload is going to be higher, and the amount of individual attention that they're going to be able to give to specific students is decreased.

What are some of the things that schools are doing to try to bridge this gap, that bridge the shortage?

Schools in states have been sort of forced to be as creative as possible. In some cases, they're making it easier to become a special educator or a teacher. I don't personally think those are the best solutions because what it tends to do is bring in people who are less qualified and that less quality of preparation makes them burnout even faster and provide more poor quality services to kids.

But there are some really creative solutions in terms of trying to provide supports to career changers or people who work in schools already. Some of these are called grow your own programs, where they might take special education paraprofessionals and provide them with the education that they need to be certified. And these are individuals who've already been working with students with disabilities and already have kind of a commitment to that school community.

What should be done or what can be done to resolve this problem?

There are some efforts in different states to increase pay for teachers to try to make the work worth the effort. And there are also initiatives aimed at providing more professional development, more supports to be able to decrease caseloads.

And I think that the awareness of the problem and all the kind of creative solutions that universities and school districts and states are employing right now will likely and hopefully pay off in the coming years.

Now, I believe you were a special educator, and I believe your daughter is a special educator. Talk about why this role is so important, why having special educators is so important.

I'd say from my own perspective, it was a really impactful and meaningful career choice where I could see sort of my efforts paying off right in front of my eyes and investing in students who other people have kind of written off.

My own daughter decided to go into special education. She is actually an early career special educator. In her fourth year, you know, she feels pressures and she feels stretched thin, and she sometimes leans on me for ideas and support and I wish that more districts could provide more support to those early educators to help prevent them from getting burnt out.

And providing more support might be opportunities for those veteran or experienced educators to have some additional sort of impacts in their own buildings as well.

John YangG:

I'm curious what advice you had for your daughter or what advice you would have for any young person who's thinking of getting into this.

I'd say the thing that I try to stress the most is to remember why you got into it in the first place. Usually when people go into special education, they have, again, a desire to kind of invest in young people and try to help them achieve outcomes that other people might have decided they're not going to be able to achieve and to be an advocate for families.

Kimber Wilkerson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thanks very much.

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John Yang is the anchor of PBS News Weekend and a correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. He covered the first year of the Trump administration and is currently reporting on major national issues from Washington, DC, and across the country.

Lana Green is a production assistant at PBS News Weekend.

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Teacher Voices

Now is the time for schools to invest in special-education inclusion models that benefit all students

Kimberly Berry

November 10, 2021.

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Ivan was a fourth grader with big brown eyes, a wide smile and a quiet demeanor who refused to enter my classroom. “Everyone thinks I’m stupid,” he’d say. I’ve changed his name to protect his privacy.

At the time, my school employed a pull-out model for students with disabilities, meaning they were removed from their assigned classrooms to receive specialized services and supports. This left Ivan feeling embarrassed, ostracized and resistant to putting forth academic effort.

One in 8 students in U.S. public schools have an individualized education plan, or IEP, making them eligible for special education services. About 750,000 students with disabilities attend California public schools. Many, like Ivan, do not respond well to being substantially separated from their peers. Research suggests that inclusion models designed to integrate students with and without disabilities into a single learning environment can lead to stronger academic and social outcomes.

At Caliber ChangeMakers Academy — where I have been a program specialist for five of the 10 years I have worked with students with disabilities — we knew an inclusion model was best for Ivan and many others. Yet, we didn’t think we had the tools or resources to make it possible.

We were wrong.

Schools can support students like Ivan — and those of all abilities — to learn from and alongside one another in an inclusive setting without exorbitant costs if they rethink how they allocate resources and develop educators’ confidence and competence in teaching all students in a general education setting.

In 2019, we began intentionally organizing staff, time and money toward inclusion, and we did so without spending more than similar public schools do that don’t focus on inclusion.

Now, with the infusion of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding, schools have additional resources to invest in this approach now, in service to longer-term, sustainable change.

The nonprofit Education Resource Strategies studied our school and three others in California that are doing this work without larger investments of resources. Their analysis examines the resource shifts that inclusion-focused schools employ and can be tapped by other schools considering this work, taking a “do now, build toward” approach that addresses student needs and sustains these changes even after the emergency federal funding expires. Many of their recommendations mirror the steps we took to pursue an inclusion model.

It didn’t happen overnight, but three steps were important to our efforts to adopt a more inclusive model for teaching and learning:

Shift special education staff into general education classrooms to support targeted group sizes. At Caliber ChangeMakers Academy, special education teachers are departmentalized, each serving as a co-teacher to two general education teachers, leveraging their content expertise to share responsibility for classroom instruction. That means some special education teachers now teach students who are not part of their caseload. That means they are tracking the goals of more students, which also means that young people have more specialty educators working together to support their individual needs.
Prioritize connected professional learning around inclusion for all teachers . We adjusted teachers’ schedules to incorporate collaborative time for general education and special education teachers to meet before, during and after lessons to plan engaging, differentiated instruction for all. On the surface, the reduction in individual planning time might be a challenge. However, our teachers have found that they now feel more prepared, effective and connected because they have a partner to turn to for feedback, suggestions and encouragement.
Invest in social-emotional and mental health staff to narrow the scope of special education teachers. These staff members work to reduce unnecessary special education referrals and mitigate troubles facing students regardless of their disability status. They also can help address unexpected challenges, meaning special education teachers can spend more time in general education classrooms. A tradeoff we made is to slightly increase class sizes with fewer general administrative and support staff to prioritize hiring experienced social-emotional learning and mental health professionals.

For schools eager to adopt a more inclusive instructional model, now is the time. The emergency federal funding creates unprecedented opportunities for school and system leaders to build research-backed, sustainable inclusion models that can better meet the needs of all students, including students with disabilities.

I’ve seen firsthand that inclusive, diverse classrooms can provide powerful learning opportunities for all students.

As for Ivan, he’s now in eighth grade and thriving in an inclusive, co-teaching classroom. He went from completing almost no academic work independently to completing science lab reports on his own, working in collaborative groups in his English class and declaring that he loves math. Because our school invested in and normalized differentiated supports in an inclusive setting, now Ivan and many other students are getting what they need to be successful academically, socially and emotionally.

Kimberly Berry is a special education program specialist at Caliber ChangeMakers Academy in Vallejo.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us .

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Karina Villalona 2 years ago 2 years ago

I speak as a mom of two kids in co-teaching collaborative classes for their 4 main academic subjects, as well as a former teacher, and a school psychologist for 19 years. I agree with much of what Ms. Berry states. Co-teaching programs can be very successful for both general and special education students if all of the appropriate supports are in place (as listed by Ms. Berry). However, it is important to clarify that this … Read More

However, it is important to clarify that this model is not a panacea. Students with cognitive skills that are far below the average range have also shared how incredibly frustrating being in co-teaching classes can be for them. Even with support from the special education teacher, the pacing for some students is way too fast. In addition, depending on what the student’s specific classification is, co-teaching on its own does not allow an opportunity for remedial instruction.

My daughters are dyslexic. They participate in co-teaching with a lot of support from the special education teacher. They have one period of direct instruction in reading via an Orton-Gillingham based program and one period of Resource Room daily which allows them to work on content from the general education classes that they might need to review, break down or preview.

So, yes, co-teaching can be great for some students when the program is well managed and staffed; however, we cannot ignore the need for small group supports and remedial instruction when necessary.

Craig 2 years ago 2 years ago

Studies cited showing benefits of inclusion model typically suffer from selection bias, and there are no significant data on the effects of inclusion models on neurotypical peers. Does the author of this piece have data showing results that support her claims? Also, what do the teachers in this program have to say about it, in the first person? If this is truly working as presented it will be a game changer.

Monica Saraiya 3 years ago 3 years ago

The inclusion model is not a one size fits all one. Students with significant learning differences do not receive the services that best meet their needs in this model. As with all practices in education, inclusion must be one, but not the only way to service students who need specialized help with their learning.

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Intervention Strategies for Aggression: Hitting

Before that, she served as Training and Behavior Plan Supervisor, Outreach and Training Coordinator, Program Supervisor/Outreach Support Technician and Behavior Technician. During this time, she also moonlighted at Piece by Piece Consulting Services, a private consulting services firm specializing in behavioral treatment methods utilizing Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) principles for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders as a Behavior Consultant. At Step By Step, she is responsible for the hiring and training of all senior clinical staff members. In addition, she trains Clinic Directors on how to develop and monitor treatment and behavior plans, and teaches Clinical Assistants the principles of ABA and monitoring procedures.

Christine regularly presents at professional conferences on topics related to autism and behavioral support. Her areas of expertise include ABA, training, Individual Education Plans (IEPs), treatment planning and behavior modification and behavior management. Additionally, she has developed autism training programs for professionals and families on a variety of topics, including ABA Principles and Procedures, The Picture Exchange Communication System, Token Economy Systems, The Maintenance and Generalization of Acquired Skills and Decreasing Challenging Behaviors.

She has a BA in Psychology and a minor in Sociology from The Ohio State University. She is a Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA) through the University of North Texas and is currently enrolled in the M.S. in ABA & Autism program at The Sage Colleges. She will graduate in the spring of 2012.

Aggressive behavior is a common problem for many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). When a child engages in aggression towards others, there may be a need to create a more restrictive learning environment. Aggression serves as a barrier to the child’s ability to learn and sometimes, it may create an unsafe environment for adults attempting to teach the child. Additionally, it limits opportunities for the child to form meaningful social relationships with both adults and peers.

Neutral redirection is the most common response to aggressive behavior. Neutral redirection consists of stopping the child from engaging in the aggressive behavior and guiding him to perform a functionally-appropriate behavior (for example, a child who hits others as a means to gain attention may be neutrally redirected to appropriately tap another’s shoulder and say “excuse me” instead of hitting). While the adult implements neutral redirection, it is imperative that she refrains from talking to the child while he is engaging in the act of aggression (i.e., she refrains from reprimanding or scolding the child, or asking him to stop); that she refrains from making eye contact with the child, and from providing a physical reaction, such as flinching or scowling. For example, if a teacher asks a child to clean up his art project but he wants to continue working on his project and shows this by hitting the teacher, she can simply guide him to clean up his materials without looking at him or talking him through the task.

While neutral redirection is a common response to aggressive behavior, preventive measure should also be put in place. One such preventive measure is to provide the child praise and attention for appropriate behavior (i.e., “catch him being good”). In addition to rewarding appropriate behavior, keeping the child’s environment rich with preferred activities and providing the child the opportunity to choose the order of tasks he will complete may also prevent the occurrence of aggressive behavior. Finally, identifying what motivates a child and using items or activities that the child finds rewarding is an essential key to successful teaching.

Although each case is unique and should be addressed based upon its own merits, following a technique that can be used to deal with hitting.

A common form of aggression displayed by children with autism is hitting. Hitting can range from slapping with an open hand to punching with a closed fist with extreme force, thereby causing injury ranging in degrees of severity (i.e. bruising, broken skin, fractured or broken bones, or concussions).

To effectively, neutrally redirect hitting behavior, the adult will prevent the child from making contact with her body by moving out of the child’s range of motion. When moving away from the child is not possible, the adult may need to protect the vulnerable parts of her body with her own hands or arms. After the adult has successfully avoided injury and the child has stopped aggressing, she will then guide him to engage in an appropriate task. Again, it is very important that the adult not react to the child with exaggerated body movement or with a change in facial expression.

If the adult knows of situations in which the child is most likely to hit her, it is important for her to be prepared for this possibility. Arranging the environment so that the child has fewer opportunities to hit is advisable; strategies include staying within an arm’s length of him, keeping him seated at a table for instruction, teaching from across the table outside his range of motion, and teaching from a standing position while he is seated. These techniques provide an adult the safest manner to avoid injury from hitting behavior without needing to physically intervene.

When the child is around other children, it is very important to monitor his interactions at all times. Because the sibling or peer will likely react to the child’s hitting behavior, it is important to teach them to excuse themselves from the child’s proximity immediately.

As in most cases, consultation with a trained Behavior Therapist is strongly recommended. A resource that can be used is Special Learning’s BCBA Directory: https://special-learning.com/bcba.

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Being an RBT for me was extremely fun because where were you going to find a place where you can be completely silly without having to worry what people thought about you? This was the only job that made me feel like I could make a dramatic difference while being myself.

I also liked to be surrounded by people that had the same goals of wanting to help kids and the teamwork made the job much easier and more enjoyable.

Change and progress was the ultimate goal for our kiddos. The early intervention program was seriously only a miracle because I saw changes in the kiddos that from day one, you wouldn’t even recognize who they were.

Changes from being able to utter 3-4 words where they can only make a syllable from when they started, the behavior decreases in which kiddo that used to engage in 30-40 0 self-harm to only half, learning how to wait during games, table work where they use to swipe and drop to the floor if they had to.

My favorite was when the parents would tell us what amazing progress they were making at home. I used to tear up and felt for these parents so much because it was already difficult for them and now, they can trust and rely on ABA and the therapists knowing their goal was ours.

By Emma Rogers, BA, RBT

Special Learning’s Free Hotline

This is an independent SL Hotline that is part of our VCAT service. This hotline has no connection with any other association or membership group.

Got a question you want a BCBA or other ABA expert to answer? Fill in this form and one of our professionals will handle your question quickly and confidently. You can expect a response in 24-hours or less.

‘I did not feel safe’: Teachers facing violence from students are leaving profession

A fter teaching for more than 20 years, one educator decided last December she’d had enough. She retired, but it was earlier than planned.

“I would have loved to continue teaching for another three, five years, but due to the behaviors and the lack of support, and the safety issues, I didn’t feel safe,” she told Channel 9′s Jonathan Lowe.

She asked we not use her name or mention the local school where she spent seven years. She said she didn’t just feel unsafe at the school, but also wasn’t supported.

“I’ve been kicked, I’ve been pinched. Students have tried to bite me, I’ve had bruises on my legs from that,” she told Lowe. “A student threatened to throw a chair at me. Another colleague was shoved and punched in the stomach.”

RELATED: CMS substitute teacher says she won’t return to school after being attacked by 2 students

But a series of incidents involving a second grade student is what she said pushed her over the edge.

“This particular second grade student had made threats to shoot all the teachers and shoot all the students,” she said.

“Three weeks later, I encountered that student with a gun, in his front pocket of his sweatshirt. I immediately removed the student from the classroom and restrained him in the hallway while he was fighting to get away from me.”

She said that gun was actually a realistic-looking toy gun. Even so, she didn’t think school administrators took the threats seriously.

“The student was in second grade and they can’t suspend a second grade student,” she said.

She said it was traumatic for her when the student was put back in her class.

“That just solidified my decision to leave,” she said. “I did not feel safe.”

‘Hardly no support’

Student assaults on teachers, whether verbal or physical, are a concerning trend.

Channel 9 partnered with our sister stations across the country to ask teachers about their experiences with student assaults. More than 8,000 teachers in 34 states weighed in, including 857 from North and South Carolina.

RELATED: Report: Teachers leaving the profession increased by 42% from last year

For example, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher said they were just out of physical therapy after a student with previous aggression fits kicked their knee in.

A Rowan County teacher described being hit in the face with a lap desk by a student, causing a scratched cornea. They said the student was suspended for just three days before returning to the same classroom.

Last year , Lowe spoke with battered and bruised substitute teacher Renata Horton.

“She got her hands on me, and she jumped behind me and was choking me back here and pulling me on my neck and pulling all my hair,” she told Lowe then.

Horton was talking about when two female students attacked her in a classroom.

“I’m hurt that I didn’t have hardly no support today,” Horton had said.

Leaving the profession

Teachers who took part in our survey described similar experiences. Of those who responded, 70% said violence has caused them to consider leaving the profession, either quitting or retiring.

Dr. Susan McMahon led an American Psychological Association task force that studied incidents of violence against teachers.

ALSO READ: CMS middle school teacher beaten while breaking up fight, sources say

“We sort of live in a society where violence is an issue, and I think that schools could be considered a microcosm of our larger society,” she said.

Dr. McMahon said when educators leave the classroom, there’s a direct impact to those who stay.

“When people are leaving, that stresses the existing people,” she said. “And then, of course, often people are leaving because they’ve had really pretty serious traumatic experiences with violence and aggression.”

More than a third of respondents from the Carolinas said they’d been subjected to physical violence from a student more than once, and 63% said they experienced verbal abuse many times.

“I think it’s certainly a crisis in our country,” McMahon said.

We also asked teachers if they generally feel safe in the classroom. Of the respondents, 64% said “yes,” but more than half reported feeling afraid to go to school “sometimes.” In addition, 23% said their school does very little to deter violence.

Despite how it ended, the teacher told Lowe she misses the career she loved and she worries the violence is causing lasting damage to her beloved profession.

“My hope and prayers would be that the public, the school administration, the school board, the government officials would take notice and realize what teachers are going through,” she said.

(WATCH BELOW: CMS hosts job fair for thousands of potential teachers)

‘I did not feel safe’: Teachers facing violence from students are leaving profession

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Tomball isd teachers fired, accused of unprofessional behavior with students in autism program.

Karen Araiza , Digital Content Lead , Houston

TOMBALL – Teachers at a Tomball elementary school are out of a job and under investigation after being accused of unprofessional behavior towards students.

The district let parents know by email Tuesday that teachers in Structured Learning Lab classrooms at Creekview Elementary are under investigation by Harris County Pct 4 Constable’s Office and Texas Child Protective Services. The SLL classrooms serve students from PreK up to 6th grade who have Autism Spectrum Disorder or similar behaviors, according to a school document .

About the Author

Karen araiza.

Houston bred and super excited to be back home! I grew up in The Heights with my 8 brothers and sisters and moved back in 2024. My career as a journalist spans a lot of years -- I like to say there's a lot of tread on these tires! I'm passionate about helping people. I also really love sharing success stories and stories of redemption. Email me!

Commonwealth Court ruling strikes down adjusted ‘age-out’ rule for Pa. special education student

A rule change lengthening the time students with disabilities can stay in Pennsylvania public schools has been deemed void and “unenforceable” in a new Commonwealth Court ruling.

The decision marks a win for Pittsburgh Public Schools, which sued the state over the measure last year alongside the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) and two Philadelphia-area school districts.

Their lawsuit came just days after the state’s Department of Education told schools they must serve special education students until their 22nd birthday. Under previous state guidelines, students with disabilities were only entitled to educational services until the end of the school year in which they turned 21.

The 43-page ruling handed down Thursday sided with the districts, who argued that state officials did not follow the “rulemaking procedures” required to implement the age change. As of Monday, officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) have appealed the decision to the state’s Supreme Court.

"The Department is committed to ensuring that every Pennsylvania student receives a high-quality education — and the Department’s position as it relates to the [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)], and guidance has not changed,” PDE wrote in a message to schools Monday. “Specifically, the Department believes that the guidance, which helps to ensure students with disabilities receive services to which they are entitled, is consistent with IDEA.”

PDE also said that its appeal had stayed the Commonwealth Court’s decision while further action remains pending, though no official court action staying the ruling had been issued as of Monday evening.

Pittsburgh Public Schools solicitor Ira Weiss said the district is now reviewing the effect of the PDE’s appeal. He added that, for the remainder of the 2023-2024 school year, no student who is 21 years old and enrolled in the district’s special education services will be turned away.

“We're not making any change till the end of the year, if then,” Weiss said. “So anybody that's there now will continue there till the end of the school year.”

But many families have been left in limbo while they await further guidance from school leaders for the 2024-2025 school year, or sooner. Claudia De Palma, a senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, said that her organization has been approached by families who were told their students must transition out of their school district in two weeks.

“Even though they'd previously been told that they could stay in school until they were 22, as federal law required,” De Palma said.

According to a PDE memo last year, the rule change was meant to align the state with age requirements outlined in the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a law that ensures children with disabilities have access to a free appropriate public education.

States are mandated to provide that level of education to all children with disabilities “between the ages of 3 and 21, inclusive” under IDEA, meaning students are entitled to those education services through the end of their 21st year.

Federal court rulings in Connecticut and Minnesota have also upheld that right for students in those states. Pennsylvania’s rule change was also taken to federal court when a family in the Lower Merion School District alleged that the state’s age-out policy had violated the IDEA.

The state’s extended age-out policy was adopted as part of the resulting settlement last August.

“As federal appellate courts have unanimously concluded, the statute states that students with disabilities are eligible to receive special education services until the date they turn twenty-two years old,” Education Law Center senior attorney Hetal Dhagat wrote in a statement.

“As a recipient of federal funds under the IDEA, Pennsylvania must follow this requirement.”

School services are critical as students age out of system

In their complaint last September, the suing districts said they had not received sufficient warning of the age-out change and therefore did not budget for services they are now obligated to provide. At the time, PPS solicitor Weiss said extending the duration of services could require the district to spend an additional $1 million or more.

De Palma with the Public Interest Law Center said that families with students at the cusp of aging out are now facing a similar scramble.

“The parents we're talking to are the parents whose additional year was going to be this coming school year, who are now being told, ‘Actually, you're done now. You're done in June,’” she said.

De Palma added that many of these students are receiving carefully designed services to help them transition out of school and into adult education classes, independent living programs and entry-level jobs.

“They're receiving a lot of skills to help them bridge that change from being a student to being a young adult, and these services are really critical for navigating that transition,” De Palma said.

She said families have been relying on the additional time allotted to their students when making transition plans.

“There are any number of really complicated transitions that families are navigating at this point, and they take time and they take care of coordination and planning.”

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5 Things Teachers Can Do When a Student Is in a Mental Health Crisis or Challenge

Be prepared so you can respond appropriately.

Concept illustration of student in mental health crisis

May marks Mental Health Awareness Month , and May 9 in particular marks Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day . The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that one in five youths have a diagnosed mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder. And even those who don’t necessarily have a diagnosed mental health disorder may struggle with their mental health at any one point in time. It’s likely that we all have at least one student who struggles with a mental health challenge or crisis while they are in our classroom.

In a moment of crisis, it can be challenging to remain calm and figure out how to best support students. However, this support can be lifesaving for students. As someone with lived experience both as a student experiencing a mental health crisis and a teacher supporting students experiencing a mental health crisis, here are five tips for how to best assist students in seeking the help they need and deserve.

1. Create the time and space to listen

As teachers, we are busy with so many responsibilities, but taking time to listen to our students can be life-changing. It can be helpful to ask a student if they would like advice/feedback or just for us to listen. We are naturally inclined to want to “help” and “fix” situations. However, sometimes students don’t want to be told “It will get better” or other phrases we think may be supportive.

I know for myself as a student, no amount of “it will get better” or “you have so much potential” made me feel better in my moments of crisis. Sometimes students just want someone to listen and validate their experience. Phrases such as “I hear you are in pain” or “I hear that this situation is upsetting for you” can be helpful in those moments. As we listen, it is also important to be aware of our biases (cultural, religious, racial, implicit/explicit) and how our responses may be perceived by students who have different beliefs and opinions than ourselves. We are all different humans with different experiences, so listening without judgment is key.

2. Offer choices

Even through mental health challenges and crises, it’s important to provide students with agency as much as possible. It may be necessary for you to call a student’s parents, refer them to a counselor, or call a crisis line. Still, in these moments, you can provide choices. You can give a student a choice to be present or absent when you reach out to their parents/caregivers. You can offer to walk the student to a counselor if they are afraid to go alone (this was immensely helpful for me as a student). Providing choices within the context of crisis communicates to students that they are human, their voices matter, and they are not “bad” or “in trouble” for experiencing a mental health challenge.

3. Know when to tag out or ask for support

As a teacher, it can be stressful and scary to have a student in your classroom who is experiencing a mental health challenge or crisis, as many of us did not receive preparation and training to handle these situations in teacher prep programs. It is important to remember you are not alone or solely responsible for supporting students experiencing a mental health challenge. Reach out to school counselors, psychologists, social workers, and/or administrators to help you navigate the best course of action and gain support and resources for yourself. Be aware of your own mental health history and what situations may activate/trigger you that may require you to tag out of a situation and have another professional support the student.

4. Follow up with students

If a student opens up to you about a mental health challenge or experiences a mental health crisis in your presence, follow up with them. It can be uncomfortable to bring up topics of mental health due to stigma. But the more we model speaking openly about our mental health, the more our students learn that there is no shame in experiencing mental health challenges.

If a student is hospitalized or out of school for an extended period of time, check in with the student’s case worker, guidance counselor, or parents/caregivers to see if it is all right to remain in contact with the student via email, mail, or other modes of communication. As a student who was hospitalized, having teachers who maintained contact with me, shared stories of what was happening at school, and followed up with me greatly helped me feel valued as a member of the school and classroom community.

Check out these 22 empowering mental health activities for teens .

5. Remain flexible on schoolwork/deadlines

In times of crisis or when students are experiencing mental health challenges, schoolwork may be the least of a student’s concern. Students need emotional regulation and mental stability to do their best work. Some students experiencing mental health challenges may have difficulty completing work and meeting deadlines while others may “overachieve” and try to delve into schoolwork in an attempt to avoid addressing other issues. Therefore, it can be incredibly beneficial for students to know that they have flexibility in completing schoolwork and meeting deadlines . I personally benefited from extensions, incompletes, and other accommodations. Some students may benefit from a 504 plan to provide accommodations and modifications necessary to support their mental health. Each student has different needs in times of crisis, so remaining flexible is crucial to supporting student success.

We must remember that, as teachers, we are mandated reporters. There may be some situations that warrant us to report confidential information that students disclose. You can remind students of this in conversation and be transparent with them, as you don’t want to make promises of confidentiality you can’t keep. If you are unsure if a situation warrants reporting, seek advice from counseling or administration and/or the resources below.

Mental Health Resources

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
Behavioral Health Resources for Youth
Child Mind Institute
Classroom WISE
Teacher Tools for Student Mental Health
Five Pillars: The Pathway to Improving the Delivery of Mental Health Services in Education
Mental Health America
Mental Health First Aid for Youth

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Nixa special education teacher charged with sexual contact with student, statutory rape

A special education teacher who worked at Nixa's Inman Intermediate School was charged Wednesday with nine felonies, including statutory rape and sexual contact with a student.

Chelsea Paige Harper, 34, of Nixa, worked for Nixa Public Schools from 2013 through 2022, including at the Summit Intermediate School and Nixa High School, and was rehired to teach at Inman for this school year.

Court documents used to charge Harper allege she was involved in a sexual relationship with a student that started in 2022, while she was working as a paraprofessional at the high school, and continued through part of 2023.

The victim in the case was under the age of 17 but a specific age was not listed.

Harper has been charged with four counts of second-degree statutory rape, two counts of statutory sodomy and three counts of sexual contact with a student.

If convicted, each charge of statutory rape and statutory sodomy, are punishable by up to seven years in prison. Each charge of sexual contact with a student can carry up to four years in prison.

Zac Rantz, chief communications officer, said the allegations of inappropriate conduct were leveled against Harper last month.

"The district takes all allegations such as this extremely seriously," Rantz said. "The teacher was immediately placed on administrative leave and an investigation was conducted in cooperation with the appropriate authorities."

In a statement, Rantz said: "The investigation quickly revealed sufficient facts to the board to allow it to move on and vote to terminate this teacher’s employment at the May 6 board meeting. The district did not comment immediately after the May 6 board meeting to allow the authorities to continue to conduct their investigation. The district will continue to follow policy and procedure and cooperate fully as the investigation by authorities continues."

Harper, who was issued an initial teaching certification in elementary education and K-12 special education in 2023, worked at Orchard Hills Elementary in the Willard district during the 2022-23 year.

More: Family of Glendale junior sues to stop SPS from 'forcing' student to graduate early

The case has been investigated by the Nixa Police Department. The News-Leader reached out the city for more details.

A statement provided by spokeswoman Macie Thornhill confirmed Nixa police initiated an investigation in April after allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student occurred while Harper was employed at the high school.

In a statement, Thornhill said an arrest warrant was issued for Harper and that she turned herself in Wednesday. She was booked, released and ordered not to have contact with any minors except her own children.

A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 26 in front of Christian County Judge Douglas Bacon. She does not yet have an attorney listed in court records.

"Investigations of this nature are complex and often very time-consuming. This investigation is active and ongoing; therefore, specific information cannot be disclosed at this time to avoid making extrajudicial statements that could potentially prejudice legal proceedings."

Anyone with additional information about the incident or related issues can contact the police at 417-725-2510.

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Kensington teacher, student going viral for 'veggie dance' battle

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Close to 20 million people around the globe have seen the TikTok video of a 2nd grader and his teacher throw down in a "Veggie Dance" dance-off.

We tracked down the stars of the viral video at Deep Roots Charter School in Philadelphia 's Kensington neighborhood and found out firsthand how they won the hearts of the internet.

"It all started to teach Ahmad a lesson," says 2nd grade teacher Regina Laurie. "He kept telling me, 'Oh, Mrs. Laurie, you're old. Look at your (gray) hair.' So I said to myself, 'I'm going to challenge this boy to a dance-off. I'm going to dance rings around this boy and he doesn't even know it yet!'"

Close to 20 million people around the globe have seen the video of a Kensington 2nd grader and his teacher at Deep Roots Charter School throw down in a 'veggie dance' dance off.

And that's exactly what Laurie did.

"I never knew she could dance like that," said 8-year-old Ahmad Dennis. "People were saying, 'They ate that,' and 'she ate you up!"

Viewers especially loved seeing a seasoned woman tear up the dance floor.

One comment read: "She left no crumbs."

"That's hysterical," Laurie says. "I cannot wrap my head around all this."

Laurie has been an educator for more than 30 years, but, no surprise, she also has a bachelor's degree in dance from Temple University.

Here's why she's thrilled this video is viral across the globe.

"I think that I sort of led the way in terms of having other teachers not be afraid to kick off their shoes and literally just show that you're also a person behind that role that we have," Laurie says.

Dean of Students Jigcara Grant posts videos like this all the time to show the love, confidence and support being poured into these kids.

Some viewers called Deep Roots Charter School a "real-life Abbott Elementary."

"When you come to this school, you feel loved," Grant said. "And we'll cheer you on no matter what. We spread all of the joy, positivity because we all need it."

They do this during lunchtime every Friday. They call it "Fun Friday."

"Let children be children," said CEO and Principal Lucilla Perry-Edwards. "A lot of times we push children and we just push books in front of them. Let them be kids."

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Retention Is the Missing Ingredient in Special Education Staffing

Special education staffing strategies often focus on recruiting and training new teachers in the specialty, but those efforts alone aren’t enough to address shortages in the high-demand field.

Education labor economists say it’s equally important to address leaks in the educator pipeline—stressful working conditions and a lack of resources that cause many special education teachers to retreat to general education positions in the middle of their careers.

Special education teachers often teach multiple subjects across multiple grade levels, manage loads of paperwork to track individual student’s progress, and regularly communicate with families.

That’s why states and districts have adopted workforce strategies that target the stress points special educators face: incentive payments to motivate them to stay in the specialty, professional development practices to help them feel less isolated in their school communities, and approaches to teacher preparation designed with retention in mind.

Addressing the factors that strain special education teacher morale can feel like an uphill battle for district leaders, who face systemic challenges like gaps in state and federal funding to support their programs, said Elizabeth Bettini, an associate professor of special education at Boston University who studies educators’ workplace perceptions.

“Special education teachers are tasked with particularly challenging responsibilities— and that’s not because of the kids,” said Bettini, who previously worked as a K-12 special education teacher. “What’s frustrating educators is feeling like they are not serving [students] well, feeling like they don’t have the time, materials, and support to meet the needs of kids.”

District leaders say maintaining a pool of talented special education teachers is one of the biggest challenges they face.

A churn of teachers moving in and out of special education roles and positions left unfilled because of a lack of candidates or funding are consistent concerns. And economists believe the need for additional special education teachers will remain, even as many school systems brace for broader staff layoffs following declines in overall student enrollment. Reducing teacher shortages is urgent, especially as the number of students who qualify for special education services —about 15 percent of public school students—continues to grow.

Federal data show that 21 percent of public schools were not fully staffed in special education at the start of the 2023-24 school year, higher levels of reported shortages than any other teaching specialty. And about 8 percent of teachers who work with children who qualify for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are not fully certified .

States, districts experiment with extra pay for special education teachers

Research suggests that districts looking for special education teaching candidates might want to start with their general education workforce.

In Washington state, for example, researchers who analyzed 10 years of state data collected from 2009 to 2019 found that new teacher-candidates who were dual-certified in special education and another subject were more likely to take jobs in general education classrooms than their peers who were only certified in special education.

The study, published in the 2021 issue of the journal Exceptional Children, also found that dual-certified teachers were less likely to remain in special education placements than their peers. In every year of the analysis, the number of certified special education teachers in Washington state exceeded the number of teachers actually working in special education positions by more than 50 percent, researchers found.

“It’s a solution to special education teacher shortages that’s hiding in plain sight,” said Roddy Theobold, the deputy director of the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, who co-authored the study.

Theobold and his colleagues see the potential for success in one strategy: higher pay for special education teachers to match their more complex workload.

Incentive programs and differentiated pay by specialty remain rare because they are sometimes rejected by labor unions or viewed as politically unpalatable. The National Council on Teacher Quality has found districts’ financial incentives for special education teachers are most often one-time hiring bonuses, but some have experimented with ongoing pay boosts by advancing teachers in hard-to-staff areas a few steps higher on the salary schedule.

The Detroit district began offering an ongoing $15,000 bonus for special education teachers in 2022, which it has credited with reducing a long-standing need for special education teachers.

In 2020, Hawaii’s statewide school district raised its $50,000 base salary by $10,000 through a bonus program for special education teachers, offering further incentives for those who take positions in schools classified as hard to staff. Within a year, the school system saw a 16 percent increase in licensed special education teachers, and the number of unfilled special education vacancies dropped from 122 to 69, state data showed.

Studying Hawaii’s 2022 data, Theobold and fellow researchers found that, while special education vacancies continued to increase alongside teacher vacancies in general, they made up a lower proportion of overall unfilled teaching positions. The change could largely be attributed to teachers who were motivated by the incentive to shift from general education classrooms to special education placements, not by increased retention of existing special education teachers, the researchers found.

“It’s really less about keeping special education teachers than getting people who weren’t in special education to move into special education positions,” Theobold said of the Hawaii research. “That’s why you see this big shrinking of the gap in terms of vacancies and unqualified teachers between special education and other subjects.”

And that dynamic could be helpful as districts consider layoffs in light of budget cuts and declining enrollment, he said. Larger conversations about general teacher shortages have glossed over more pronounced and enduring shortages of special education teachers, Theobold said. In that case of broader staff layoffs, districts would benefit from encouraging qualified, certified teachers to move into harder-to-staff subjects, he said.

More data are needed to determine how Hawaii’s incentive pay will affect the likelihood that new teacher-candidates take special education positions, he said. The research also spanned a unique time, the pandemic, in a unique place, an island school system where teachers can’t easily transfer to other districts, which means results may vary in different conditions.

Understanding special education teachers’ stressors

School and district leaders should also help retain special education teachers by addressing the systemic conditions that cause them to burn out in the first place —or at least acknowledging their frustrations, said Bettini, the Boston University professor.

“Generally, school is not oriented around students with disabilities,” she said. “It’s not oriented to meet their needs; therefore, it’s not oriented around the needs of the teachers who are serving them. That leaves them kind of back ending a lot of services and supports.”

In her time as a K-12 teacher and as a researcher, Bettini has heard from special education teachers whose planning time isn’t included in the schedule, who are left out of conversations about purchasing and curriculum, and who have to rush to formulate a plan B when assessments and classroom technology are not accessible to students with disabilities.

Special education teachers’ workloads are far more varied than their peers’, they must navigate the challenges of team teaching, and they are often led by principals who have no background in special education, Bettini said.

“That’s why I left,” she said. “I just felt like I couldn’t meet all of my students’ needs with the resources and support that I had, no matter how hard I worked.”

School and district leaders can help address these concerns by seeking targeted feedback from special education teachers, whose struggles are often masked by the aggregate results of general staff surveys.

More targeted surveys and feedback sessions can help gauge whether special education teachers have adequate planning time, whether they feel empowered to partner with general classroom teachers, and whether they face burdensome bureaucratic processes that add further stress to their days, Bettini said. The results of that feedback should be included in the district’s continuous improvement work, she said.

Districts should also offer principals professional development in supporting special education teachers and inclusion for students with disabilities, she said.

Preparing teachers with an eye toward retention

Supporters hope fast-growing teacher-preparation strategies like “grow your own” programs and apprenticeships will help improve special education teacher retention by providing more on-the-job training before they step into their first certified position.

Through those nontraditional certification programs, districts train teacher-candidates under supervision of certified teachers while they work full time in positions like paraprofessionals, student-teachers, or long-term substitutes. Cooperating colleges and universities, which oversee the programs, offer the candidates expedited coursework, often online, to allow them to complete a teaching degree while remaining in their communities.

The Biden administration has urged states to have their grow-your-own programs classified as approved apprenticeships , which opens up access to targeted federal funding for on-the-job training. Thirty states now have federally approved programs.

One factor that helps with retention: Many of the candidates who are attracted to on-the-job certification programs are special education paraprofessionals who want to work as teachers in their current districts, said Amy Jacobson, the director of the Special Education Resident Teacher Program at the University of North Dakota.

“They are already vetted by their school districts and they already have interest and a passion to work in special education,” she said.

North Dakota launched its program in 1997, first partnering with the Grand Forks school district after a massive flood caused widespread devastation and destabilized the community. The program, which has since expanded statewide, allows people with a bachelor’s degree to complete a master’s in special education while working with a mentor in a partner district as well as a mentor at the university to learn the ropes.

To address an urgent need for special education teachers, organizers recently reduced the program from two years to one, and they created an accelerated general studies program to allow paraprofessionals, who may not have four-year degrees, to sign on.

“They are really mentored and coached,” Jacobson said. “That only helps as far as retention goes. They feel superprepared by the time they get that full-time teaching job.”

The program also attracts traditional undergraduate students in fields like physical therapy who decide to go into teaching as a way to help people, she said.

“That passion, that love, and that drive to work with kids who may learn differently or behave differently,” she said, “that makes staying in the field easier.”

A version of this article appeared in the May 22, 2024 edition of Education Week as Retention Is the Missing Ingredient in Special Education Staffing

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IMAGES

A California teacher's aide was caught on camera hitting a young boy with special needs
What is a special school?
California students enrolled in special education face unique burdens
Role of Special Education Teachers in an Inclusive Classroom
BISD terminates Ozen teacher seen hitting student in viral video
Within Teacher Shortage, the Pool of Special Education Teachers

VIDEO

Special Education Webinar Series: How To Home School Your Child
Florida teacher severely beaten by 270-pound student
How Teachers Can Help Students Who Self-Injure
Student in Flint Michigan, Hits Teacher In The Head With A Chair! (Edited!)
Viral illnesses continue to spread in Indiana schools
Teacher SEVERELY INJURED during altercation with student!

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