Principal Navigator: Special Educator Retention
IDEA Leadership for Retention
Is your school struggling to find and keep special educators? You are not alone. With over half of public schools needing to fill these positions every year, school principals are asking for practical solutions to address this persistent and deep-rooted challenge.
Research shows that special educator shortages are driven by a range of issues. Lead IDEA Center and CEEDAR Center's Special Educator Retention Navigator highlights 6 pressing retention issues and the principal’s role in proactively addressing them.
Select each issue below to:
In March 2024, 51% of public schools nationwide reported they would need to fill positions in Special Education before the start of the next school year, the most of any specialty.
- Bettini & Gilmour, 2024 Source
These tools have been co-developed by:
What are your school's retention issues?
Who's Responsible?
Role Ambiguity
When special educators’ many and varied roles are unclear and misunderstood, they are unable to contribute their full potential to supporting students with disabilities.
Mine and Yours
Feeling Isolated
When special educators lack opportunities to collaborate effectively with their general education colleagues, they are unable to develop or maintain shared ownership and trust needed for coordinating interventions and services for students with disabilities.
Invisible Experts
Untapped Expertise
Special educators often feel underutilized and underappreciated for their specialized expertise and contributions, resulting in feelings of isolation.
Slow Burn
Overloaded and Overextended
Special educators must constantly adapt and confront situations that are beyond their control to ensure that students with disabilities can learn and thrive, often resulting in burnout.
Feeling at Odds
Differing Expectations: School and Home
When addressing challenging behaviors and reinforcing decisions and expectations that impact students with disabilities, special educators must go above and beyond to engage families as partners.
Sink or Swim
Feeling Unsupported
Special educators, particularly early career special educators, often feel ill-prepared and unsupported when navigating challenges related to serving students with disabilities.
This tool was developed in partnership with the Collaborative for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR Center), a federally funded technical assistance center working to build the capacity of state personnel preparation systems to prepare teachers and leaders to implement evidence-based practices within multi-tiered systems of support.