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ADVOCACY
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UNDERSTANDING THE PERSONNEL
SHORTAGES IN
SPECIAL EDUCATION AND RELATED SERVICES
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Is there a shortage of special education
and related services professionals?
Why do personnel
shortages exist?
What is the impact of these shortages?
What can be done to
remedy these shortages?
What specific
federal programs need support in order to help remedy the shortageof special education and related services
professionals?
Specific
Recommendations for the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act
Personnel
Shortages in Special Education and Related Services: A Growing Crisis for
Students in America (Power
Point
Presentation)
Legislative Links
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Is there a shortage of special education and
related services professionals?
YES! The American Association for Employment in Education supply and demand
research indicates that special education teachers, bilingual special
education teachers, speech and language pathologists, school psychologists,
and vision and
hearing specialists, and
audiologists have all had considerable or some personnel shortage over the
last 10 years. School nurses, physical therapists, and occupational therapists
have also experienced recent shortages over the last 3-5 years.
Additionally, research has demonstrated that there are not enough funded positionsto serve the growing number of students in
need (McLeskey, Tyler & Flippin,2003). This shortage of positions makes it difficult
for quality services tobe provided consistent
with the recommended standards of a profession. Some ofthe
professions impacted include school counselors, school social workers, audiologists,occupational and
physical therapists, and school psychologists.
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Why
do personnel shortages exist?
Personnel shortages in special education and related services exist due to
two primary conditions: 1) a shortage of professionals to fill available positions
(supply and demand); and 2) a shortage of funding for new positions to meet
the growing demand for services.
Some of the key reasons for personnel shortages include:
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- 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 increasinghigher
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.
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What
is the impact of these shortages?
The primary impact of these personnel shortages is that students in need areoften not able to receive specialized services and
instructional supports thatreduce barriers to
learning. Reasons for this include:
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- 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 reachan all-time
high of 51.2 million by 2015 (Condition of Education Report, 2006).
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What can be done to remedy these shortages?
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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
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- 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)
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What
specific federal programs need support in order to help remedy the shortage
of special education and related services professionals?
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- 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)
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The National
Coalition for Personnel Shortages on Special Education and Related Services
advocates that the following recommendations be adopted in the
reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA):
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- 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).)
- 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.
- 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.
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Legislative Links
Searching for information on a particular member of Congress or a particular
bill? Check out these links:
U.S. Senate
U.S. House of
Representatives
Library of Congress Thomas System
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