Nebraska researchers looking to tackle massive special education teacher shortage

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A team of Nebraska researchers is creating a program to help develop and retain special education teachers amid a massive shortage nationwide.

Right now, 98% of our country’s school districts don’t have enough, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Get SET Nebraska will serve as both a mentorship and professional development program, to keep teachers in the field by finding what will make the job more enticing to them.

Project Manager Pamela Brezenski said they want to reduce work stress while boosting job satisfaction, so they’re gathering data for schools on why teachers leave.

“Some special education teachers feel buried, but our program provides them with the information they need to be able to answer questions — and know who to contact for answers — so they feel like they are empowered to make some decisions,” she said.

One thing that’s been causing special ed teachers to leave the profession is too many procedural elements like paperwork, meetings and policy practices rather than a focus on the students.

“And many of those teachers went into the field because they cared about students, and they wanted to make a difference,” Brezenski said.

The program has been piloted in four Nebraska districts, in both rural and urban settings.

Many states have also tried to address the shortage by lowering their licensing standards to find more teachers.

Nebraska currently has a bill that would do that by removing skills tests for writing, reading and math in favor of more comprehensive ways to verify teacher competency.

But Education Week reported that that change won’t affect the lack of special education teachers.

Brezenski agreed that changing standards won’t help, particularly because there’s different requirements for different types of teachers.

“We need quality teachers in our classrooms to serve our greatest resource in Nebraska, which is our students,” she said. “And so lowering standards is not always the answer.”

She said special education teachers need a variety of supports depending on the school, the district and the students.

“Teachers across the state are putting in so much time, effort and love into their students,” she said. “So we’re here to provide administrators and teachers with supports that are differentiated to meet their career field instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.”

At the start of this school year, Nebraska public school administrators reported 768 open positions statewide.

More than 140 of those were in the special education field.