According to Oak Park’s Executive Director, every school principal in the United States is looking for trained special education professionals, implying a huge deficit in supply versus need.
Oak Park, a Sarasota school dedicated to providing education to children with disabilities, has raised the alarm that there are not enough faculty members to facilitate the learning process.
Even after the start of the school year, Oak Par is struggling to find enough educators and paraprofessionals. Currently, the school has more than forty (46) open positions. Special education is a delicate area, and there is a significant shortage of trained professionals all over the United States.
Oak Park is just one example of the widespread crisis in special education in the United States. It is not a secret that there are not enough educators with the skills and training to handle a school for children with disabilities.
Special education professionals’ open positions
Oak Park is one of the few educational institutions in the Sarasota area, which has taken up the challenge to become a school for children with disabilities. While the task to provide quality education and learning environment for children with learning and other disabilities is tough, these children have the right to learn.
Oak Park’s mission is noble; however, one of the main problems before the management of the school is to attract enough trained educators.
Recognizing the fact that there is a huge need for special education professionals, the US government should look into ways to boost the interest in this professional qualification as students with special needs are left without teachers all over the country.
Recently, Nevada decided to launch a program for attracting international trained professionals, in order to fill in the gaps and provide enough staff to special education schools in the area. Thanks to that program, more than fifty (57) Filipino teachers were offered positions in special education schools.
