The number of students classified as needing special education keeps growing while teachers willing to teach special education are becoming harder to find. In fact, some special education teachers move into general education after just a few years teaching in special education. This has become such a problem that some school districts have created an entirely separate salary schedule for special education teachers because they are so hard to find and to retain. All the while, the problem of providing a quality education to students with special needs continues to grow.
More American children than ever are qualifying for special education, but schools are struggling to find enough teachers to meet their needs.
A record 7.5 million students accessed special-education services in U.S. schools as of 2022-2023, including children with autism, speech impairments and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. That is 15.2% of the public-school student population, up from less than 13% a decade earlier, the most recent federal data shows.
