Special education teachers share joys and challenges amid staffing shortages

NPR Health has begun a new series that lets special‑education teachers across the United States share their most rewarding and toughest moments, recording voice memos that will be released throughout the school year. The project features educators from Chicago, Kansas, Virginia, Philadelphia, California, Arizona, South Carolina and other districts, giving listeners a rare glimpse into classrooms where teachers juggle instruction, advocacy and paperwork every day.

The series comes at a time when a severe shortage of special‑education teachers threatens to widen an already widening gap. The Learning Policy Institute reports that 45 of the nation’s 50 states lack enough qualified staff, even as the population of students receiving special services climbs past 8.2 million – roughly one in six public‑school pupils. Turnover spiked after the COVID‑19 pandemic, but the problem has persisted since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was passed in 1975. Researchers say the crisis is not driven by difficult students, as some assume, but by isolation, overwhelming caseloads and low pay.

One vivid illustration comes from Kathleen Tejeda, a veteran special‑education teacher in Riverside County, California. When a blind student entered her freshman class, the youngster was only managing to get by. By junior year, with Tejeda’s support and coordinated help from school staff, the student earned a spot on the cheerleading squad, joined the choir and even sang the national anthem at a school assembly. “Advocacy is as much a part of my job as teaching,” Tejeda said, underscoring why teachers like her are hard to replace. Former teacher‑turned‑researcher Liz Bettini of Boston University adds that many special educators feel cut off from colleagues, burdened by endless documentation, and forced to teach multiple subjects across grades, all for salaries that rarely reflect the workload.

The NPR diaries aim to humanize the crisis and spark discussion about how to retain and attract more teachers to the field. By broadcasting real stories, the series hopes to pressure policymakers to address funding, professional‑development and compensation gaps. As more educators open their classroom doors to the microphone, listeners will hear both the triumphs that keep teachers in the profession and the systemic hurdles that risk losing the very support students with disabilities need.