ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Will your student have a teacher in the classroom this year?
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It’s been a growing problem in recent years as school districts nationwide struggle with a record number of teacher vacancies. Last year, Florida had the highest shortage of teachers in the country.
“It has exponentially changed. After COVID, teachers have been leaving in droves because of mental health issues, because of student behavior issues, because of unrealistic demands and also pay,” said Lara Watkins, a middle school literacy coach in Brevard County. She says the shortage has led to a larger workload for teachers.
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But how bad the shortage is depends on who you ask.
For instance, the state teacher union reported nearly 7,000 vacancies at the start of last school year. Meanwhile, the state reported roughly 4,700.
We are still waiting for the Florida Education Association and the Florida Department of Education to report their numbers going in this school year.
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But in the meantime, we did our own research ahead of the school year, reaching out to each of our school districts in our viewing area to see where they are in hiring more teachers.
Overall, the districts are reporting the shortage is improving, based on numbers from mid and late July.
For instance, Brevard County Schools says going into this school year, there are 103 open teacher positions compared to 142 last year.
Osceola County is reporting about 40 less vacancies than the beginning of the 2023 school year.
Marion and Volusia counties are now reporting nearly half the amount of open teacher positions they had in July 2023.
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Orange County Schools is reporting the largest improvement. The number of open teacher positions last July was three times what they have going into this school year.
However, teachers and the union say they feel the numbers don’t tell the full story.
Though several school districts are filling classrooms with teachers, Watkins and others tell 9 Investigates, they’re seeing less qualified new hires.
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“That is a lot of the new hires that we have going into the classroom, they know their stuff, but they don’t know how to teach and it’s a two-prong position,” Watkins said. “We’re having to train those skills on the job.”
Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, says they were expecting lower vacancy numbers this year because several districts in the state have eliminated teacher positions and programs.
“I think we still have a major teacher shortage issue in the state of Florida. “If we’re reducing those vacancies by eliminating course offerings to students and increasing class size, that’s not good for kids,” Spar said.
Not all school districts have eliminated positions, Orange County Schools are reporting they’ve hired more teachers. The data shows Orange County is its most fully staffed since the pandemic with nearly 10,500 teachers.
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