Here’s why so few become special education teachers
New Mexico piles on paperwork, rejected pay increase, and leaves no time for lesson plans
Just pull up the job openings at any school district in our state and you will notice the same thing. There is a desperate shortage of special education teachers. As a special education teacher myself, I could easily find a job anywhere in New Mexico.
This job security should attract more educators to this field, but it just isn’t enough. In fact, there is a common piece of advice in education that says, “don’t get a special education credential, because you will never get out.” Trust me, almost every student teacher has heard it, and many have avoided special education because of it.
I recently discovered this to be true. After becoming highly qualified with a general education credential in social studies, I was still denied the opportunity to move into social studies positions because they couldn’t replace me as a special education teacher. Although I should have felt honored by such a sentiment expressed by my principal, I felt resentful as I watched less qualified candidates being given the opportunity for those general education positions.
I absolutely love being a special education teacher, but it’s an almost impossible job ... The amount of paperwork from IEPs and other types of legal documentation eats up way more prep time than is allotted to us. In order to keep up with legal timelines, we are forced to spend evenings and weekends working on it. This interferes with us using our time to plan exciting lessons that directly benefit our students.
I’ve always been amazed at how the gifted students at my school enjoy smaller classes than our students with disabilities. Their case managers are also given double the prep time as case managers of students with disabilities. How is this fair to our students? The Yazzie/Martinez (ruling) was absolutely right when it asserted we are not prioritizing these students. I see it first hand every day I step into my classroom.
I do everything I can for these kids, but I need more resources to be as effective as possible in filling major educational gaps.
In 2019, Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque, recognized special education teachers have a lot more administrative responsibilities and proposed they receive a 15% raise as compensation. His proposal did not pass because others thought it would be giving special treatment to one group of educators over another. However ... Special education teachers manage a caseload of students, have copious amounts of additional paperwork, hold several meetings and more in addition to all of the other normal teaching responsibilities such as lesson-planning and grading . ... additional compensation would have at least helped alleviate the dire teacher shortage.
Instead, New Mexico is hoping to attract more special education teachers by promoting the alternative licensure program. Essentially, you can become a special education teacher without having to go through the same rigorous teaching program that I had to go through to become certified. Why are we lowering the standards instead of actively retaining qualified teachers?
Several studies back up the fact the turnover rate is exceptionally higher for special education teachers. Oftentimes, this leaves special education classes being taught by long-term substitute teachers without teaching credentials. This population of students deserves the most consistency. These students need small class sizes, hands-on curriculum and teachers who are given time to plan engaging activities for them.
I applaud New Mexico for recently passing legislation to create an ombudsman program to help parents navigate through the special education system. However, what is the point when the system itself is not adequately providing for these students? Shouldn’t we be focusing on fixing the flawed system itself first? Our special education students were especially neglected during the COVID pandemic. We owe it to them and their teachers to allocate more resources going forward.