Messaging within Oklahoma education could be scaring off new hires

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Districts throughout the state are seeing significant staffing shortages when it comes to special education teachers going into the new year.

"There needs to be respect and appreciation for educators for their job. I don't think anyone got into education to get rich. You do want to be above the poverty level, but you also want there to be respect when parents know that you have the best interests of their kids at heart," said Superintendent of Choctaw-Nicoma Park School District David Reid.

KFOR reached out to over two dozen districts and asked for the number of special education teacher vacancies going into the new year.

Choctaw-Nicoma reported that they have five vacancies so far that they can't seem to fill.

"We've tried just about everything," said Reid.

Other school districts include Oklahoma City Public School District who have 29 vacancies, last year they had 26 vacancies.

Moore Public Schools sent KFOR to their job opening website where there were found to be eight vacancies for special education teachers.

Mustang Public Schools responded and said they have six vacancies, last year the district had five which was still a desperate need for them.

Guthrie also stated that their district has four vacancies for special education teachers.

"I just feel like this is an important message that we get out, we need the candidate pool to increase anything that we can do. Work together as a group cooperatively," said Reid.

It isn't anything new for Oklahoma districts to see low numbers of hires for Special Education teachers.

Superintendent Reid told KFOR that messaging lately has not been in favor of the teachers through Oklahoma districts. He said that could be why they aren't seeing a flock of new teachers each year.

"Is it respect? Is it all of the noise that happens on social media and sometimes even on news stations that get played out and the lack of respect for education," said Reid.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education has been at the center of many National hot-button topics due to rhetoric and rules announced monthly and almost weekly.

From the recent Bible mandate to the announcement of schools counting how many undocumented families are using Oklahoma schools.

One solution that began last year was the botched teacher signing bonus. It was a program that used tax dollars to incentivize new teachers to come to Oklahoma to teach.

The program did bring in teachers but Superintendent Reid said that the program is a Band-Aid.

"The state needs to come together some way, somehow, and not find a Band-Aid for the problem because I think we've done some things statewide either through the legislature or through OSDE to help alleviate some short-term answers," said Reid.

A website that is meant to be dedicated to information on teacher recruitment and retention is blank and has no links or information.

KFOR asked many of the districts if the Special Education teachers that had been hired were done so through the teachers signing bonus. Several districts said their hires didn't apply. No districts said the hires came because of the signing bonus.

Several schools have seen improvement in hiring Special Education teachers; Yukon Public Schools, Coyle Public Schools, and Millwood Public Schools who said they hired six spots with three of those working on certification.

In terms of new college students graduating specifically in Special Education. The University of Oklahoma report from the recent year showed 13 graduates while Oklahoma State University said they had 20 graduates for that year.

Meanwhile, the new school year starts with several open spots that will be covered by teachers already hired.

What do you do if the school year starts and you can't fill those positions?

"So if you don't have the staff you need, you have to start doubling up, which means the caseload on your existing teachers increases. So instead of a certain number of reasonable cases, now their caseload goes higher and then you're adding to their stress load," said Reid.

"When it comes to staying in the profession or staying in the district, they may consider looking elsewhere because you weren't able to fill all of those positions that year," said Reid.

KFOR reached out to OSDE with specific questions regarding the declining number of Special Education teachers in districts and did not hear back.