The Indiana Department of Education says that Indiana is experiencing teacher shortages across 14 subjects, including in key focus areas such as science, math, and career and technical education.
The shortages reflect a long-running need for special education educators. Plus, as the state-funded prekindergarten program grows, Indiana anticipates a greater demand for early childhood education.
“Unfortunately, this shortage continues to spill into areas not only critical to Indiana’s educational plan, but areas that prepare our students for a bright future,” state schools chief Jennifer McCormick said in a statement.
The shortage areas were announced as state lawmakers finalize ways to address raising teacher salaries, a high priority in this year’s legislative session. McCormick said the shortages underscore the political need to take action on teacher pay and find other ways to improve teacher retention.
To prepare the report, the state asked for input from school districts and looked at the numbers of emergency permits to determine shortage areas. For example, in 2017-18, the state issued 396 emergency permits for special education instructors. The state also granted 186 emergency permits in math and 153 in language arts.
Over the last three decades, Indiana’s teacher shortage areas have shifted from focusing mostly on special education to including broader areas such as math, science, and language arts.
