INDIANAPOLIS – New federal data shows the majority of the country’s public K–12 schools had difficulty hiring fully-certified teachers heading into the current academic year, and Indiana districts are not immune to vacancies.
Officials at nearly 75% of public schools nationwide said they had trouble filling one or more vacant teaching positions before kicking off the 2024-25 school year, according to a survey study released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
The School Pulse Panel data published by NCES showed one-fifth of vacant teacher positions remained unfilled at the start of this school year — with many ongoing vacancies. As of Thursday, the Indiana Department of Education listed more than 1,300 available educator jobs statewide.
That’s an improvement from earlier this year. As of June, there were more than 2,200 vacancies for teaching positions statewide and nearly 1,000 openings for other jobs within school districts.
It’s a hopeful drop, too, compared to 2022, when — not long after the COVID-19 pandemic — IDOE’s job board listed 4,200 open jobs within Indiana schools. More than 2,500 of the open positions posted were teaching jobs.
But many openings remain. Most of the unfilled positions in Indiana are for elementary, early childhood, and special education positions.
The NCES data, collected in August, came from 1,392 participating public K–12 schools from every state and the District of Columbia. On average, public schools reported having six open teacher positions before the start of the current academic year. By the first day of school, 79% of those positions were filled, according to NCES.
National survey results indicated that general elementary teaching positions, special education, and English language arts positions were among the most commonly cited by public schools as having at least one teaching position to fill before the start of this school year. Special education remained the most difficult teaching position to hire for this year.
In the Hoosier state, 1,370 teaching positions were listed on IDOE’s jobs board as of Thursday. More than 2,600 school openings were available, overall.
Read the rest of the Casey Smith story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.
