By Mari Kanagy, Reporter
Following the resignation of Deb Brown at the end of last school year, the school was left without a teacher to fill the Learning Resource Center (LRC) position.
In August, Laura Weston was hired as the new LRC teacher. Approximately one month into the school year, she resigned. Laura Alexander has now been hired following Weston’s resignation.
Six teachers have served in LRC positions since September of 2013. The issue of low special education retention rates is not only a VHS problem, but a nationwide trend.
“Special education is not a very well understood part of the school system,” Principal Danny Rock said. “It’s often mischaracterized, so it comes with pretty significant staffing challenges.”
Two weeks before the start of the school year, Rock contacted Weston to invite her to apply to the LRC position.
“I [contacted Weston] out of my experience in working with her,” Rock said. “She was a parent educator here for several years at the high school, [and] she worked previous to that in Family Link.”
Weston had recently completed the teacher librarian program, which means that she was certified to teach. She was also close to being fully approved as an LRC teacher, unlike other applicants who did not have a teaching certificate.
“Her resignation was a personal one that I completely understand the reasons behind,” Rock said. “I also think it’s safe to say the position ended up not being something that she was ready to take on.”
Though Weston’s resignation was primarily for personal reasons, there are many aspects of teaching special ed that make it a particularly difficult job.
“When you’re a special education teacher, you also hold the role of being a case manager of a very complicated document called the Individualized Education Plan (IEP),” Rock said. “Every student who has served in special education has their own individualized plan that is connected to an evaluation that qualifies them for special ed.”
LRC teachers are contractually obligated to create and manage the IEPs of each of their students, which are regulated by federal law. If these regulations are not met, there is a resulting loss of funding for that particular student. In addition, the teacher and the school district could be found guilty of breaking laws related to special ed.
“The vast majority of lawsuits are in special ed,” Rock said. “Even when there’s a highly cooperative relationship between the family and the students and the schools, it’s still a challenge.”
The enormous amount of paperwork, as well as the fear of lawsuits associated with teaching in special ed, contributes to the challenge of retaining special-ed teachers.
“One of the things I became aware of when we were hiring this year is that the Kent School District opened their year with 14 open special-education positions that they could not fill,” Superintendent Michael Soltman said.
According to the National Coalition on Personnel Shortages in Special Education and Related Services, 12.3 percent of special-ed teachers end up leaving the field of work, which is almost twice the rate of general-education teachers. Additionally, the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education cites that 98 percent of school districts across the nation have shortages in special-education teachers.
VHS has had additional trouble in hiring LRC teachers due to the small hiring pool of the island population and the long commute for non-locals.