Sonoma County sees shortage in special education teachers, aides

This is the first in two-part series. Read the second part here.

Last February, Lisa MacFarland, a single mother of two boys diagnosed with autism and ADHD, moved from Petaluma to Cloverdale so she could afford to buy a house for her family.

She set up a meeting with the Petaluma City Schools District and Cloverdale Unified to make sure her 6-year-old son would be able to smoothly transition between special education programs. She did not want to name her sons publicly for fear of retaliation.

But upon arrival, she was told they did not have a special education program or staff that would fit her son's needs. This left him out of school for at least two months before the district placed him in a general education class with a one-on-one aide.

After that, “it was a revolving door of aides,” MacFarland said. “It was like, one after the other, after the other, after the other. For a couple of them there was no transition at all ― we come back after Christmas break and it’s like ‘sorry we quit.’”

She said her son had seven aides that year, most of whom were young and inexperienced, or retired teachers who returned to substitute. Sometimes an administrator would step in at the last minute when an aide called out sick.

MacFarland said she doesn’t believe the teacher for her 4-year-old son feels supported with the proper training to handle his behavioral outbursts, which lead to frequent removal from class.

Adding to the issues, MacFarland noticed that her kids’ Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals are going unfulfilled. For example, her older son has trouble eating, so he would come home with a full lunch box most days, because the substitute aide was taking lunch when he took lunch.

Her younger son, who struggles with elopement, a behavior common for individuals with intellectual disabilities in which they wander away from their caregiver without warning, has escaped past the school gates twice this year already. People often refer to this behavior as being “a runner,” and it can lead to dangerous incidents.

“I feel unsupported and worried about my children, especially my younger son being a runner,” MacFarland said. “I’m wondering if I'm making the right choice of my children being in this district, not that I have heard that it’s much better anywhere else in the county due to the shortage.”

(The Press Democrat reached out to Cloverdale Unified officials for comment but received no response to phone calls and emails.)

A Press Democrat analysis of EdJoin listings for teachers, aides, specialists and substitutes in the special education field shows a countywide struggle to recruit and retain special education positions.

Countywide, there were listings for approximately 31 teaching positions, 63 instructional assistants, five specialists and 10 speech pathologists. Last year there were 9,444 students with disabilities enrolled in Sonoma County schools, according to data from the California Department of Education. By law, all public school districts must offer special education services.

Within the Santa Rosa City Schools district, the county’s largest, there are 14 special education teacher or long-term substitute positions yet to be filled, and more than 28 open positions for special education instructional assistants.

The vacancies add to educators’ and administrators’ feelings of being spread too thin as they look for ways to support special education students with what resources and personnel they still have.

“It’s a crisis,” said Susan Langer, a program specialist for Sonoma County’s Special Education Local Plan Area, which supports special education programs in the county’s 40 school districts.

“Most special education directors, their number one job is just recruiting people to work,” she said.

“It’s a no-win situation,” Langer said. “The districts are really trying everything they can do, but they’re just not funded enough to raise salaries to attract the people they want to attract.”

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990, the federal government committed to pay 40% of the average per pupil expenditure for special education. However, the current funding falls shorter than originally promised at less than 13%.

A bill, SB3213, introduced to Congress in July by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, would require regular, mandatory increases in federal IDEA spending to eventually meet the government’s initial promise.

Another bill, SB765, would temporarily increase the amount retired teachers can earn so they’re enticed to return to the classroom, stepping into positions districts are unable to fill.

Vacancies in special education are a nationwide problem. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, of schools reporting at least one vacancy in January 2022, special education was identified as the teaching position with the most vacancies, with 45% of schools reporting the job opening.

John Laughlin, deputy superintendent of operations and partnerships at the Sonoma County Office of Education, said the office saw an already existing teacher shortage in 2019 worsened by the pandemic. Laughlin oversees the special education and human resources departments.

“This is a national challenge for public education in full,” Laughlin said. “Specifically, special education is one of those highest need areas where we need to keep recruiting people, even our young people, to be interested and pursue a career in it, because it's one of the most rewarding things that you can do in life.”

Asher Belden beamed as his special education classroom at Albert Biella Elementary school filled with life. A student and her instructional aide tapped small toy drums to the music while another group of kids played make-believe grocery store.

It’s Belden’s first year as a teacher. He gets to school at 7:30 a.m. and stays until 3:30 p.m. while attending classes at the North Coast School of Education twice a week and juggling homework.

His class of seven students, all classified as having mild to moderate disabilities, occupies a nontraditional classroom with movable desks and learning corners geared to specific sensory needs.

“I’m exhausted. I’m learning on the job for sure” he said toward the end of his first week of school.

“But I’m having a lot of fun. I think the thing that I'm most proud of is that every one of my kids has giggled and laughed in this first week. That's what I want in this classroom — for them to want to be here.”

If Belden makes it through this first year, he will buck a troubling trend. The national and countywide shortage of special education teachers has led many new teachers to burn out after their first year. Often those who do enter the field feel the workload of a special education teacher is too much for the pay they receive.

One of the biggest barriers to hiring is the workload. Teachers at any level are required to submit Individual Education Plans, or IEPs, that outline a yearlong plan to meet a student’s unique needs.

“When you think about if you have a class of nine separate students, and let's say they all have autism; they all have different IEPs,” Langer said. “There’s a lot more responsibilities.”

Langer likened special education teachers to case managers, who often juggle IEPs, lesson plans and collaboration with instructional assistants, all in one day.

Managing IEPs means “boatloads of bureaucracy,” as Karl Strandjord puts it. He’s a recently retired special education teacher who spent 20 years working with the Sonoma County Office of Education’s special education classroom at Windsor Middle School.

Additionally, the pathway to becoming a special-education teacher in California has more requirements than a general education teacher. The field requires a Preliminary Education Specialist Authorization Credential and additional certifications and training depending on their student focus area, which can range from mild to severe disabilities.

However, special education aides do not need these certifications.

Around May this year, MacFarland’s younger son was having an outburst. His general education teacher and one-on-one aide couldn’t figure out how to calm down the 4-year-old boy, so they pulled his older brother, who’s 6 and has autism, out of class to help.

“I was really furious about it, because my older son has his own needs ― and to have his full day interrupted to soothe his brother, that felt really inappropriate to me,” she said.

“I think there was a lack of support in getting the teachers training on how to handle some of the behaviors,” she said.

The issue of teacher pay has directly affected MacFarland’s kids experiences too.

MacFarland said that when her older son first started at Jefferson Elementary School in Cloverdale, the district sought a one-on-one aide with experience in special education from an outside company, Inspire Behavioral Services.

When the company canceled its contract with the district, the aide told MacFarland she would have stayed to help her son, but the district would pay her $8 an hour less than what the company was paying her.

“The district is having a hard time employing people, and they’re not willing to put up the dollars to get more experienced teachers or one-on-one aides here,” she said. “Having somebody with no experience working with autistic children is scary to me.”

One of the largest barriers to teacher recruitment and retention in the North Bay is the cost of living.

The average salary for a special education teacher in Sonoma County is just under $77,000, according to 2021 Transparent California data.

An EdJoin listing for an instructional assistant in special education at Petaluma City Schools offers between $18.83 to $24.02 an hour.

“I know my colleagues have gone to many schools inside and outside of the state to try to recruit,” Laughlin said. “We know we have a challenge because of our cost of living.”

Solutions to recruitment, retention

When it comes to recruiting special education teachers, it’s about “the hustle” and finding creative solutions, Sonoma County special education leaders say.

Langer once recruited an instructional assistant while shopping at Whole Foods. The position requires the least amount of background to start working in special education classrooms, making the positions easier to fill — that is, when there are applicants.

The absence of applicants may stem from a lack of advertisement for open positions, which are often only posted on EdJoin, the most commonly used education job board.

So Langer has often turned to word-of-mouth as a means of recruitment.

“I started talking to a gal and she was really disappointed in her job,” Langer said of her grocery store recruitment. “We started talking and I said, ‘Have you ever thought about becoming an aide?’”

Langer herself was recruited to be an aide by someone who mentioned it, before working toward her credential and becoming a teacher.

“It's just a matter of having to be out there to find people, but you have to hustle,” Langer said.

Still, this requires special education directors and program coordinators to work outside of their set hours, leaving many of them feeling as though they are “burning the candle at both ends,” as Langer put it.

Often, retired teachers who come back as substitutes are the school’s saving grace.

Strandjord, who spent 30 years in the special education field, two decades of which were at SCOE, retired in June 2022. He had to wait until January of this year before going back to teaching because of state regulations, “which I think is silly. I mean, if they need subs so bad, why make them wait six months?”

Despite the negative impacts of the shortage, districts are trying strategies that will not only recruit more teachers and aides, but also improve retention.

Katya Robinson, a special education program manager for the Santa Rosa City Schools said the shortage required them to get more creative and to see potential in people already in the district’s system — like the instructional aides — and training them up to become teachers.

“You can see the passion; they're in there teaching as an aide … not really paid to the highest standard, but they're still showing up every day,” Robinson said. “Those are the people that we want to build up in here.”

Behavioral Specialist Maddie Sinclair trains teachers to identify behaviors of their special education students, and prevent negative behaviors. By having these specialists, Robinson hopes that teachers will spend less time managing behaviors, preventing the opportunity for burnout.

Another solution many districts are turning to is the North Coast School of Education, which provides low-cost credentials for teachers, including special education teachers. They operate inside the building of the Sonoma County Office of Education.

This year’s cohort has 105 interns, 62 of whom will finish with a credential that will allow them to teach in special education classrooms, according to Eric Wittmershaus, the Office of Education’s communication director. This group is the biggest cohort they have seen and an increase from 88 interns last year, which included 53 people seeking the credential that would allow them to teach in special education.

One of those interns is Belden, who’s gaining experience at Albert Biella Elementary School in one of three special education classes, all taught by first-year teachers.

Belden is one of three brand-new teachers, all “raised” under the Extensive Support Needs program.

“It's kind of like we're starting from scratch and building our own empire,” Robinson said.

Nora Parajon, is also one of the three new special education teachers at Biella. She took her first real lunch break of the school year toward the end of the second week of classes, eating pizza while giving Press Democrat reporters a tour of her classroom.

Parajon was not always a teacher. At age 19 she enlisted in the military. After she finished her service, Parajon became pregnant with her first child who has special needs. Parajon became eager to learn everything she could about special education.

“I became a volunteer in his deaf and hard of hearing class. And I never left,” she said.

Eventually the district recruited her as an aide and she earned her credential at Sonoma State University last winter.

Parajon’s classroom included a “calming corner” filled with pillows and a weighted blanket. She covered fluorescent lights with fabric, to create a more soothing atmosphere for her students with sensory needs.

She has three aides present in her classroom of 10 students, who help students back to their desks when their lunch recess ended. The aides help keep the students safe, and allow for Parajon to get much needed downtime without having to worry about her students during their shared lunch break, she said.

“It's a good community — a whole community,” Parajon said. “It’s not just the students, not just the teacher. It's home, the school, the district, the program, the teacher's assistants, so, of course, I’m planning on staying.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story was updated to reflect John Laughlin's title at the Sonoma County Office of Education is deputy superintendent of operations and partnerships.

Report For America corps member Adriana Gutierrez covers education and child welfare issues for The Press Democrat. Reach her at adriana.gutierrez@pressdemocrat.com.

You can reach Staff Writer Alana Minkler at 707-526-8531 or alana.minkler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @alana_minkler.