How many teacher vacancies in NC are in Exceptional Children departments?

An annual report found that about one in five teaching position vacancies in North Carolina were in Exceptional Children’s (EC) departments across the state during the 2023-24 school year.

Every spring, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) releases the State of the Teaching Profession report for review by the State Board of Education and state lawmakers. The report includes data on turnover rates, mobility, the subject area, and experience level of teachers and administrators who leave their school. The report also breaks the data down by district, also referred to as the local education agency (LEA). 

Across the entire state, the report found 7,141 teacher vacancies on the 40th day of the 2023-24 school year. Of those, 1,544 vacancies were for K-12 EC teachers — nearly 22% of vacancies on the 40th day.

While beginning teachers tended to have the highest rate of turnover, the DPI report identified a few department areas with persistent staffing challenges.

“For elementary schools, core subject teaching positions exhibit the highest vacancy totals,” the report said. “In middle schools (6-8) and in high schools (9-12) LEAs have the highest vacancies for Exceptional Children (EC).”

Below, you can find more information regarding EC vacancies from the report. You can find EdNC’s reporting on the overall attrition and mobility rates here.

Comparison to overall state trends 

The statewide turnover rate for the 2023-24 school year was 9.88%, per the report. This is a slight decrease from the previous year, which had an 11.45% attrition rate. 

North Carolina’s public schools reported roughly 93,868 vacant teaching positions for the 2023-24 academic year. The vacancy rate stood at 7.6% by the 40th day of instruction, compared to the previous year’s rate of 6.4%. While the attrition rate is lower this year, it is still higher than the average for over the past seven years. 

During the 2021-22 academic year, the definition of vacant positions was broadened to include positions filled by teachers who are temporarily licensed and rehired retirees.

In a presentation to the State Board of Education, Tom Tomberlin, DPI’s senior director of educator preparation, licensure and performance, said that beginning and alternatively licensed teachers need more support. He said that due to the state’s definition of vacancies, most of those positions are filled by temporarily licensed educators. 

“If we’re just looking at unfilled positions and unresolved licenses, our vacancy rate would be much lower — approximately 1.9%,” Tomberlin said in April. “The reason that legislators made the change in definition was to get an idea of how far North Carolina public schools are from the ideal staffing scenario. While we do have room for improvement, our school and district leaders do a great job of trying to make sure all student needs are met with the staff members and resources they have.” 

Tomberlin also said North Carolina has consistently been able to hire enough teachers to replace the ones who left. However, because North Carolina does not publish the total number of EC positions by district across the state, it is unclear if EC positions are also being replenished.

As mentioned above, state law defines vacancies as teaching positions in a district that are not filled by someone with a qualifying educator license. Those licenses include a continuing professional license (CPL), initial professional license (IPL), residency license (RL), or a limited license.

Under that definition, retired teachers, interim teachers, long-term substitutes, and teachers with an emergency or provisional license or a permit to teach do not count as being in a permanent placement.

While the attrition and vacancy rates overall decreased in North Carolina in 2023-24 from the previous year, the number of Exceptional Children (EC) vacancies increased. 

Elementary, middle, and high schools collectively had 1,544 EC teacher openings. Most of these vacancies, about 758, were based at elementary schools. This is due to the fact that there are more elementary schools than middle and high schools, the report says. Other licensure areas that were hard to fill included EC and mathematics, though precise attrition rates and vacancy rates were not included for these subjects.

Based on the findings in the report and the dashboard, North Carolina had 28% more EC teacher vacancies in 2023-24 than in 2022-23. EC vacancies have persistently increased over the last few years, though some of the initial increase likely followed the statewide shift in how vacancies are defined. 

• There were 616 EC vacancies in 2020-21.
• There were 900 EC vacancies in 2021-22. The 2021-22 report lists a higher number of vacancies (992).
• There were 1,203 EC vacancies in 2022-23.

DPI’s report highlighted how the absence of a licensed, full-time teacher in any subject can impact students.

“While these numbers may appear small for state-wide totals, one must bear in mind that each vacancy represents a classroom of students that does not have a certified, permanent teacher as of the 40th instructional day,” the report said. “With nearly a quarter of the school year completed by the 40th instructional day, there will likely be a negative effect on the academic achievement of the students in these classrooms.”

EC students in North Carolina

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 7.5 million students between the ages of 3 and 21 years old received special education and/or related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) during the 2022-23 school year. This accounts for 15% of all public school students.

In North Carolina, DPI has an Office of Exceptional Children. The office’s mission is to “assure that students with disabilities and those who are academically or intellectually gifted develop mentally, physically, emotionally, and vocationally through the provision of an appropriate individualized education in the least restrictive environment.”  

The office’s work is required by federal civil rights law, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 “prohibits discrimination of students on the basis of a handicapping condition.”

“No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States…shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. ” U.S. Department of Education.

Requirement under Section 504

Not having enough qualified teachers to serve EC students can put schools at risk of not fulfilling such requirements.

In the 2023-24 school year, 196,041 students were a part of the state’s EC population, according to DPI’s statistical profile online.

About a third of the students (65,638) were identified as having a “specific learning disability,” a slight increase from 2022-23. Examples of these learning differences include dyslexia, dysgraphia, or anything that interferes with a student’s ability to think, speak, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. This is the largest EC designation among North Carolina’s public schools. 

Data at the district level

Across North Carolina, some districts had higher proportions of EC teacher vacancies in 2023-24, according to EdNC’s analysis of DPI’s 40th day vacancy data.

Seven counties reported having at least half of their vacancies in EC positions: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe Greene, McDowell, Onslow, and Rockingham County schools.

A total of 19 LEAs reported not having EC vacancies at all: Cherokee County, Clay County, Clinton City, Elkin City, Gates County, Halifax County, Hickory City, Jackson County, Madison County, Mitchell County, Mount Airy City, Newton Conover City, Polk County, Roanoke Rapids City, Transylvania County, Tyrrell County, Watauga County, Yadkin County, and Yancey county schools.

When sorted by grade level, 

• 30 districts reported not having any K-5 vacancies, 
• 44 reported no middle school vacancies, and
• 41 reported no 9-12 grade vacancies. 

Across the board, less districts are trending up in vacancies compared to the previous year. EC vacancies went up in 59 school districts in the 2023-24 academic year. Between 2021-22 and 2022-23, EC vacancies increased in 64 districts.

Here are the trends in the LEAs with the most EC students — also the largest districts — based on the dashboard.

• Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools counted 162 EC vacancies at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. This means that they had the equivalent of 58.5 more full time vacancies compared to 2022-23. The district served 16,312 students with learning differences at the time.
• Wake County Public Schools reported having nearly the equivalent of 112 full-time EC vacancies, which means they had about 5 less vacancies than the previous year. Last year, the district served 20,526 students with learning differences.
• Guilford County Schools had 28 EC vacancies, which is 18 more openings than during the previous year. The district served 9,567 students with learning differences in 2023-24.

More context about how DPI collects this data can be found in the report, and the dashboard which breaks down the numbers by LEA and subject area can be viewed below or at this link.