Short-staffed and stretched thin: Special Ed crisis leaves Black students with disabilities at risk

By Tavon N. Thomasson
AFRO Intern

In many schools across the country, Black students with disabilities often rely on individualized education  programs (IEPs) that are designed to give students the personalized support they need. But a shortage of  trained staff in the classroom is making this support harder to provide.

According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ 2023-24 School Pulse Panel, 70 percent of K-12 public schools reported vacancies in special education teacher roles, making it one of the most understaffed subject areas in the country.

“Special education is a specialized field that we’re losing a lot of teachers in, or we’ll have teachers that’ll start in that field but they get burned out very easily just because of the caseload that a lot of them have,” said Brittany Shuford, a counselor at Katherine Johnson Elementary School in Newport News, Va. “We’ve been fortunate this past year that we did have a fully staffed special education department, but I know of a lot of schools that each year they don’t.”

A special education teacher in Washington, D.C., who asked to remain anonymous, has also seen firsthand how understaffing can impact special education services.

“I have witnessed a grade going the entire year without having a special education teacher in a core subject, and it was very difficult to contribute data to the rest of the team, subsequently making it hard to write students progress reports and accurately modify their IEP,” he said. 

At Louisa County Public Schools in Virginia, instructional assistant Nakia Johnson said the nature of the work in special education can push people away from applying. In classrooms with students who have more intensive needs, Johnson said staff are sometimes required to assist with toileting and, if qualified, manage feeding tubes or check insulin levels. Not everyone, she said, is comfortable taking on that kind of responsibility.

Recruiting new special education teachers is only part of the problem. The other side of the issue is retention, with many leaving the field due to burnout. Johnson noted that working with students who have behavioral challenges can be particularly draining. 

“You can get burnout quickly, especially if you’re in a classroom that has very high demanding students where they need that constant one-on-one,” said Johnson. “I’ve worked on both parts, where I’ve been in with the behavior and it’s constant. You can get tired,  and it takes a strong person to be able to endure that.”  

In addition to the demands of the classroom, the constant paperwork and caseload required in special education adds to the burnout many educators experience.

“My brother-in-law works in the Newport News school system, and he’s a special education math teacher. He kind of stopped working for a minute because of the burnout, the paperwork,” said Johnson. “So he took a leave, and now he’s back at it. But he had to do that mentally for himself, to just check out for a moment and then come back to it.”

While burnout is a serious challenge for many special educators, many remain in the field because they find the work deeply rewarding. For them, no amount of paperwork or understaffing outweighs the importance of showing up for the students who count on them every day.

“Some people don’t want to deal with the special education part, but it can be very rewarding because those kids need love,” said Johnson.