As Lucia Mar Unified School District’s academic year gets under way, it still needs 42 more special education paraprofessionals to support the 1,600 students with special needs.
The shortage of educators isn’t anything new, as school districts across the nation have been plagued by teacher shortages since the Great Recession in the late 2000s. But the COVID-19 pandemic has not only exacerbated existing staffing issues, it also impacted the quality of education that disabled students receive.
The lack of staff and resources puts additional pressure on paraprofessionals like Lucia Mar’s Carrie Wood to fill in the gaps left by the vacancies. Last year, the lack of staff left Wood scrambling to fill in for other paraprofessionals instead of onboarding new hires like she usually does.
“I did not get to go out and train staff to help the new employees that came on board and help them understand how important their need was. And we lost out because of that, because they didn’t have a person that they could go to ask questions and get that support. To be fully staffed, it takes pressure off the teacher. It takes pressure off the paraprofessionals that are in that classroom, because now they feel supported,” Wood said.
Paraprofessionals play an essential role, typically assisting teachers in handling students with individualized education programs, commonly known as IEPs, as well as working with the classroom teacher to ensure things are running smoothly.
But with more than three dozen vacancies, burnout is a very real thing for Lucia Mar’s paraprofessionals. According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 44 percent of K-12 employees say they “always” or “very often” feel burned out at work, including 52 percent of teachers who report the same.
Special Education Coordinator Jackie Schwind has worked in special education for more than 10 years and has experienced burnout, but she’s learned that self-care is a big part of mitigating that feeling.
“I wish I had the secret. I’m definitely human. And I really believe in the power of positivity and positive affirmations. I try to everything I do for my own self-care, and balance is the same exact things I’ve taught in the classroom and would teach my kiddos if I still had a classroom,” Schwind said. “Honestly one of the best things is remembering why I do what I do is getting into the classroom and getting to see the kiddos and getting to support teachers and just seeing their little smiles just makes it all worth it. On the hardest days. I try to be out and about. I try to remember that even as an administrator removed from the classroom, I have an impact that trickles all the way down to our students.”
Because of the added demands and intricacies that come along with assisting students with disabilities, Wood said that being a paraprofessional may not be for everybody.
“The difficult part is the more intensive the setting, the more difficult it is to find staff to fill those positions because it takes a lot of energy, whether it’s mental energy or physical energy, to support students with more intensive behaviors, and we understand not everybody is a fit for certain settings,” Wood said.
But the lack of paraprofessionals is not as bad as it seems, special ed coordinator Schwind said. She’s in charge of recruiting, hiring, overseeing paraprofessionals, and creating training programs. For the 1,600 special needs students in the district, there are currently 180 paraprofessionals who either work one-on-one with a student or work with several students in a classroom setting, Schwind says.
“But I think if anything, being faced with 42 vacancies, especially at the start of the school year, has made us very resourceful, has made us look at our resources in unique ways. Each site really has taken the lead on a daily basis, looking at the vacancies, the students’ needs. And shifting staff appropriately to make sure all students still get their needs met and are served and IEPs are met,” Schwind said. “So while it would be nice to be fully staffed, I don’t think we’re lacking.” Ī
Reach Shwetha Sundarrajan at shwetha@newtimesslo.com.
Editor’s note: The original version of this storyĀ incorrectly indicated the nature of the Lucia Mar School District shortage of educators. The district is facing a shortage of special education paraprofessionals. We regret the error.
This article appears in Sep 1-11, 2022.