Advocate for Special

Education Training
Volume 1 | Issue 1
May 1, 2022

Action needs to be taken to solve the issue of the lack of special

“If a child can’t
education teachers and proper support and training for all teachers.
learn the way we
teach, maybe we
Did you know?
should teach the way
Did you know that in the U.S., there are more than 300,000 special education positions and more
they learn.” than 30,000 of those positions are filled by non-certified teachers? And over 6,000 of those
positions are left vacant because of the teacher shortage? This is an unacceptable statistic and
-Ignacio Estrada something needs to change. While I know the severity of this issue is huge and there is no easy
solution, there are simple steps we as a community can take to help.
 2

“Anyone who does Spreading Awareness

anything to help a As a community, we can help spread awareness of this issues to more educators and families of all
child in his life, is a students. Most people in our community are not aware of the toll this shortage is taking on our
children and students- and not just special education students. This shortage is taking away from
hero to me.” the proper education of all students. By letting the families of all students know that the lack of
teachers and proper support in the classroom is taking away from their children’s education, they
-Fred Rogers will be more invested in standing with us to help make a change in this issue.

The Need for More Training

While it is not as simple as filling these positions with just anyone, we can take the qualified
teachers we already have and provide them with more specialized training to properly incorporate
and educate special education students in the general education classroom and have them thrive
and succeed. Teachers are already provided with professional development classes on improving
curriculum such as reading and writing, why not add development courses about helping special
education students? I have talked to multiple educators that have said that they want and need the
extra training and it would be easy to incorporate it into their already required professional
development sessions. All teachers want their students to succeed and all they need is more
training and more help.

Help teachers get the training they desperately want and need to help
support ALL students!

Kelly DiFranco
kadifranco@me.com