The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that about 70% of surveyed schools experienced special education teacher vacancies in the 2023-24 school year. In fact, about half of special education teachers leave the profession within the first five years of teaching, according to officials from CEC and CASE at the Special Education Legislative Summit in Alexandria, VA.
Concurrently, an increasing number of students are being served under IDEA. NCES also reports that nearly 7.5 million students were identified with disabilities in 2022-23, which equals approximately 15% of the pre-K, elementary and secondary student population. Subsequently, CEC and CASE estimate the number of students with disabilities will rise to 7.94 million during the 2024-25 school year.
For more data from K-12 Dive, click here.