As a result of mainstreaming students with special needs into the education system, many schools are finding that locating qualified teachers to work with the kids is a constant challenge.
Lynda Van Kuren is the communications director at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). She is also a former special education teacher.
She believes more resources for special education teachers are essential because many of those currently working with kids are not properly trained.
"We have approximately 30,000 people teaching children who have disabilities who do not have proper licences. In rural and urban areas, estimates are we will need 20,000 special education teachers in the next five years," she says.
Van Kuren says as more and more disabilities are targeted and diagnosed in children, the need for people who can work with them also increases.
"Partly, that is a function of the fact that medical science has improved. Students who might not have been identified as learning disabled are now being identified."
One drawback Van Kuren sees as a factor in turning teachers away from special education is the number of hours they have to put in after work to keep up with the paperwork.
She estimates keeping up takes about 20 per cent of their weekly teaching time. But because the kids need so much attention and care, that time is often made up outside school hours.
"We have extremely high caseloads in special education, again, partly because of the shortage of teachers. Our teachers are getting very frustrated because they want to do a good job in special education and it is imperative you be able to give the students individual, direct instruction.
"We did a survey two years ago and almost 70 per cent of our teachers spend two hours or less in individual instruction with their students. And that instruction is absolutely necessary if many kids with disabilities are going to get what they need to master a skill or a concept."
Van Kuren believes that educating teachers about special education is a good starting point to attract new, qualified applicants. To that end, the CEC co-produced public service announcements that have been piloted in six states.
"They show people who are mid-life career changers becoming special educators in urban and rural areas. And they show what happens in special education classrooms. We are showing that kids with disabilities often look just like us. We are trying to get an accurate picture of the type of children we work with and also give people an idea of how rewarding it is."
She says the CEC is also developing a mentoring program for teachers interested in getting into special education.
"In some countries, in most other professions, you serve an apprenticeship even after you get a degree. But in the United States and probably in Canada, teachers go right into the school environment and that's it," she says.
"So with a mentoring program, new special education teachers would have someone they can turn to with questions. If they don't have those strategies, someone else will have them and they can give them that type of assistance and reassurance."
Ken McCluskey is an education professor at the University of Winnipeg. He is also predicting a shortage of people with a background in special education. Unlike Van Kuren, though, McCluskey believes the education system has stymied those interested in pursuing the subject.
"[Manitoba] used to have a certificate for resource teachers for qualifications for special ed. That has gone by the wayside, saying people could fill the resource jobs without having the certificate.
"Now they're looking at reinstituting that so you would have to be licensed. There's a series of different courses you take after your degree that would equip you to do special ed. And I think there have to be more of those kinds of options available."
McCluskey does agree that with more disabilities being diagnosed, more special education teachers are needed.
"There are students being identified now as having attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity disorder. Fetal alcohol syndrome is all over the place in the news, and that can be a tough diagnosis to make," he says.
But the teacher shortages are not only affecting students with learning disabilities. Programs for gifted students are also feeling the pinch.
"Across the country, I think it has been a difficult time where most of the gifted coordinators' positions have dried up. A lot of jurisdictions are looking at trying to cope by assigning a teacher-librarian or naming an enrichment educator in the school and giving them perhaps quarter time to work on enrichment," says McCluskey.
According to the U.S. Department of Education's Finance Statistics Center, a federal survey of the states for 1995-1996 found that special education programs served 5,619,000 students.
A national study of expenditures in special education by Moore, Strang, Schwartz and Braddock in 1988 found that expenditures on the average student with disabilities is 2.28 times that of a mainstream student.
McCluskey believes that increased referrals are making the special education teachers' jobs increasingly difficult. "The referrals keep pouring in and often it falls on the resource teachers," he says.
"I know in one district that I was in with just under 5,000 kids, they would typically get well over 600 referrals a year. Many of the people in special education won't say overwhelmed, but they are challenged by the demand and the needs that are out there, yes."
He believes mentoring is an essential way to guide people through the transition to teaching in special education. But he says mass retirements may be lessening the likelihood of that happening.
"I think you need that system of young, energetic newcomers to revitalize people. But you also need the seasoned veterans to be mentors and guides to the new people. We may be losing a lot of those mentors and experienced people in big bunches."
That means tossing new teachers into the fray. McCluskey says both universities and teacher societies are looking at ways to help that transition. But it comes down to the type of person who is willing to put in the time.
Van Kuren believes being a successful special education teacher is a pretty high calling.
"I will say not everyone is going to be drawn to special ed. It takes someone who is very caring, who is a giver, who has a sense of humor who is intelligent and has the ability to hang in there for the long haul.
"Because with students with disabilities, it may take them three weeks to grasp the concept where it will take another child maybe one week."
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