• Insufficient funding for incentive programs (e.g. loan forgiveness, personnel preparation grants) designed to entice new graduate students and support them as they gain their professional training.
  
• Limited capacity of existing training programs to meet the demand for new professionals due to a shortage of qualified faculty and increasing higher education costs.
  
• Personnel attrition in special education and related services in the first five years of employment due to
  o poor supervision and low quality mentoring programs,
  o lack of recognition and support from school leadership,
  o difficult working conditions including increased case loads and class sizes,
  o burdensome paperwork and documentation requirements for IDEA, and
  o growing pressures on teachers and other professions due to the NCLB requirements for meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
  
• Personnel attrition due to retirement rates exceeding the supply of new university graduates eligible for employment.
  
• Limited supply of qualified professionals willing to work in certain communities (rural, high poverty, high crime) or with specific populations (minorities, culturally and linguistically diverse, socially or economically disadvantaged) due to the personal and professional risks.
  
• Credentialing barriers in some states that limit opportunities for re-specialization, re-licensure, or alternative routes to licensure of otherwise qualified personnel.
  

• Missing or incomplete services when a qualified professional is not available to deliver these services.
• Lower quality of services are provided by unqualified personnel even though NCLB and IDEA require all students be delivered services by qualified, highly trained professionals.
• Increasing school enrollments while there is a growing decline in the number of qualified professionals available to fill positions. The Condition of Education report (2006) estimates that school enrollment will reach an all-time high of 51.2 million by 2015 (Condition of Education Report, 2006).

What can be done to remedy these shortages?

1. Improve the ability of local and state educational agencies to identify the needs of students relative to these shortage issues and to advocate on the local level for needed resources and systems change.
2. Improve the availability of state and federal funding sources and programs that assist higher education institutions in recruiting students into high need professions, especially minority and bilingual candidates. Such programs include loan forgiveness, personnel preparation grants, and alternate routes to certification, as well as incentives to recruit qualified faculty.
3. Improve the availability of direct technical assistance and federal funding to assist local educational agencies in recruiting and retaining qualified personnel through improved workplace conditions, professional support including teacher induction, and other incentives.
4. Improve the availability of federal funding to support states and districts in creating new positions and programs to meet student needs and improve academic outcomes.
5. Support through local, state, and federal funding the creation of positions as needed to improve the maximum number of students per school professional. The following maximum professional to general education student ratios are recommended:

• School Counselor to Students: 1 to 250 (American School Counseling Association)
• School Psychologist to Students: 1 to 1000 (National Association of School Psychologists)
• School Social Worker to Students: 1 to 400 ( School Social Work Association of America)
• Audiologist to Students: 1 to 10,000 (American Speech Language and Hearing Association)

• Higher Education Act
• Perkins and Stafford Loan Programs
• Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

1. Addressing Shortages: Recruiting and Retaining Qualified Personnel
   We strongly believe that language should be included in the Higher Education Act to address recruitment and retention of all special education and pupil/related services personnel, similar to what is included for teachers. Pupil/related services personnel are critical to assisting teachers with the many difficult challenges they face in today’s classrooms. We cannot expect teachers to possess all the skills and qualifications of pupil/related services personnel, who are specifically trained to address these types of challenges. Unfortunately, there is a chronic and severe nationwide shortage of qualified special education personnel. In fact, when pupil/related service providers are included, special education personnel rank among the country's top labor shortage areas. (U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, DC (2003).)
2. Loan Forgiveness
   Incentives such as loan forgiveness – as proposed in Section 114 of S. 1793, the “College Quality, Affordability, and Diversity Improvement Act of 2003” – must be available to assist districts in recruitment and retention of pupil/related services personnel. Loan forgiveness will help to ensure that students have access to services from qualified personnel that are critical to achieving academic success.
3. Mentoring Programs
   Pupil/related services personnel also should be utilized in mentoring programs for teachers and administrators that are aimed at increasing staff retention rates. Teachers who understand that there are specially trained individuals available to help them meet classroom challenges will feel more supported and thus more likely to stay in the profession.