Schools are struggling to attract enough special educators as they work to serve increasing numbers of students with disabilities. (Shutterstock)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento City Unified School District held a hiring fair this week in an effort to recruit special education teachers and classroom assistants. The district is looking to hire 270 new employees in the department before the start of the academic year.
Administrators are looking to fill 70 teaching vacancies and 200 aide positions across all district campuses. Talent Management Director Tiffany Smith-Simmons said her goal is to have full staff by the first day of school, which is earlier than usual this year.
The hiring fair comes on the heels of several public complaints with the district’s special education program, including a lawsuit that was settled with the Black Parallel School Board, a letter from the state Department of Education and a grand jury report on program deficiencies.
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Smith-Simmons said the fair was designed to ensure as many applicants as possible were ready for Aug. 19. Interview panels spoke with candidates on-site and nurses conducted tuberculosis screenings and fingerprinting to speed up the onboarding process.
By the end of the day, the district had hired 40 new assistants and four new teachers who are ready to start on day one. The district is still seeking applicants for the remaining positions.
Newly hired teaching assistant Alejandra Rodriguez is new to the classroom, but feels connected to the special needs community because her older brother has autism. She and her family saw the effect an educator could have on the lives and families of children with autism. Her family still keeps in touch with her brother’s kindergarten teacher and Rodriguez said this is partly what inspired her to pursue a career in special education.
“She was an influential person in my being able to take on this position,” Rodriguez said.
The fair also attracted more experienced educators, like Maria Quillici, who has 16 years of teaching experience. Her first few years as a teacher were plagued by hardships due to the 2008 recession: She was laid off from several schools over budget issues. She later received her early childhood special education credential in hopes of finding more secure employment.
After 10 years at Natomas Unified and one at Twin Rivers Unified School District, Quillici again found the job search daunting. She has been applying for positions since May, joking that she must have applied for “like five million other positions.” Several opportunities at other schools fell through toward the end of the process, which Quillici speculates was due to the budget issues plaguing many California schools.
After feeling “demoralized” by the months-long job search, Quillici attended the Sacramento Unified School District’s hiring fair expecting nothing in return. After a successful interview process, she was elated to walk out of the building with a job as a kindergarten special education teacher at Washington Elementary School. She said the fact that they are willing to hire someone with a lot of experience (which is more expensive to hire) bodes well for the district.
“It seemed like they were really excited to see someone with my experience applying and that’s a really good feeling,” she said. “And I think if you feel valued as a teacher and you feel like your experience is valued, then that feeling carries over to the students. And we can take better care of the students if we feel like they’re taking care of us.”
Challenges of the Sacramento City Unified School District’s special education program
Experts theorize that the increased demand for special education services has made the educator shortage more pronounced. About 15% of Sacramento City Unified School District students are enrolled in special education programs for at least part of the day. Black students in the district are overrepresented in the program, inspiring a lawsuit filed by the Black Parallel School Board that was settled in May 2023.
Criticism of the Sacramento Unified School District for its special education program has mounted in recent months, as local and state agencies have publicly condemned the district. A scathing Sacramento grand jury report released in May said the district “continues to miserably fail its most vulnerable students.” This report followed an April letter from the state Department of Education that not only reprimanded the district for failing to comply with federal and state disability education laws, but for failing to respond to 40 emails and 22 phone calls requesting district officials turn over state-required paperwork regarding its special education program.
Key recommendations from the grand jury report included developing and adopting a comprehensive special education plan by February, improving its early intervention assessments, taking corrective steps to reduce the number of students of color in special education programs and requiring professional development for teachers. The district’s special education administrators, Krystal Thomas and Geovanni Linares, had previously focused on bolstering teacher training as a means of improving the overall program.
District spokesman Al Goldberg said they will implement staff training based on the action plan created following the Black Parallel School Board agreement and that additional staff training is still being developed. The agreement also called for a new independent monitor to be appointed who will be responsible for creating an action plan to implement the special education policy and procedure.
Special education teacher shortage is a national problem
The shortage of special education teachers has been a challenge for schools across the country. The number of students in special education has doubled nationally in recent decades, but the number of those wanting to enter the workforce has declined in recent years, likely due to low pay and difficult working conditions.
According to EdJoin.org, for Sacramento Unified School District teachers, the pay scale starts at $65,115 and is capped at $140,436 annually. Salaries for special education paraprofessionals start at $18.19 and are capped at $20.95 per hour, just a few dollars above California’s minimum wage of $16. The district offers fully covered health insurance for workers and their families, and classroom experience that could translate into a teaching career down the road.
“I hope to have a good experience working as an instructional assistant so I can get a bachelor’s or master’s degree and try to become a teacher,” Rodriguez said.
© 2024 The Sacramento Bee
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