Teachers are unsung heroes, they educate and shape the minds of the next generation and with the absence of people choosing to be an educator, the teaching world is in a crisis. Often times the people who suffer most because of this shortage are special education teachers.
The requirements to become a special education teacher are a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in special education which is usually a two year master’s program.
“You can’t have a master’s in teaching and teach special education,” Tracy Stinson said, Special Education department chair at WAHS. The special education master’s degree focuses on learning how to handle students’ disabilities and the legal aspect of the career.
As well as having to complete a specific degree to have a career in special education, being a special education teacher comes with a wide variety of tasks. “We teach three classes a day and one prep, we’re keeping track of our caseload. We keep track of behaviors, grades, [and] attendance,” Stinson said. Along with these tasks, there are many other responsibilities special education teachers have that other teachers don’t like legal meetings, IPE, and specific paperwork.
As of now, there are only six special education teachers at WAHS. Each te
Having a large caseload can prove to be a difficult task. Special education teachers handle the paperwork and hold multiple legal meetings for their caseloads.“We can be and have to be here way past contract time, multiple days a week,” Stinson said. According to Stinson, the WAHS’ special education department averages at least three legal meetings after school a week; these legal meetings “have to have certain people, which creates scheduling conflicts,” said Stinson.
Since some people at these positions aren’t fully trained on the legal side of things, it can often result in legal meetings having to be rescheduled or paperwork having to be redone. “Our scheduling secretary is under a huge burden to try and figure out how to get all those things scheduled,” Stinson said.
The amount of people in the special education career is declining because many people leave the career after just a few years. “They get in and they get burned out, it’s a lot of work,” Stinson said. It can be a mentally draining job when the workload is so high and the required assistance needed for the staff and students is not available.
The pay for special education teachers is not much more than other teachers. “We’re working a lot harder for the same amount,” Stinson said. Along with this people leave the field as they aren’t able to handle the students. “You’re dealing with really adverse trauma. We don’t have the support [in place to Stinson said. The lack of support for teachers in this field is a direct cause of teachers leaving
special education prematurely.
Although a career in special education can be taxing, there are many positive aspects in choosing a path in the special education field. “You work with a smaller population of students,” Stinson said. “You really get to know the students.” The smaller class size can make a more familial feeling a bond with the class and teacher. Stinson feels that this can make the students and career feel very rewarding.
The special education system is facing adversity with the lack of people choosing it as a career pathway, they are expected to do too much and have too little to work with.
