Arizona expands earn-while-you-learn path for special education teachers
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Arizona schools continue to face difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified special education teachers, while traditional teacher preparation can create financial barriers for people who cannot afford to leave paid employment to complete classroom training.
Arizona is putting $5 million into an effort to build its special education teacher workforce from within schools, creating paid pathways that allow paraprofessionals and other aspiring educators to work while earning their teaching credentials.
The five-year federal grant will expand the Arizona Teacher Registered Apprenticeship Program and support apprenticeships focused specifically on special education, the Arizona Department of Education announced Sept. 24.
The investment comes as the state continues to struggle with qualified special education personnel shortages.
An ADE teacher retention study found 533 special education teachers in a certificate renewal cohort did not renew their certificates for the 2024-25 school year, equivalent to about 6.4% of the state's overall certified special education teacher workforce.
ADE cautions that educators can hold multiple certificates, and certificate nonrenewal does not necessarily mean a teacher left an Arizona classroom that year.
Special education shortages present additional challenges for schools because districts remain responsible for providing the individualized education and related services required for students with disabilities even when qualified personnel are difficult to find.
ADE requires Arizona public education agencies to report special education vacancies and turnover annually and describes the state as experiencing an ongoing shortage of qualified special education personnel. The department separately tracks teachers, paraprofessionals and related-service providers.
AZTRAP working in schools
Rather than relying solely on recruiting certified teachers from elsewhere, Arizona's apprenticeship program creates a potential pipeline: people who already work in schools.
Apprentices are employed by participating districts or charter schools while completing an approved educator preparation program and working alongside experienced mentor teachers.
That can provide a route into teaching for paraprofessionals and other school employees who otherwise might have to leave paid employment to complete traditional student teaching.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said interest in the program has grown.
“The grant will expand a program that currently serves more than 90 apprentices statewide, has doubled enrollment in the past year, and maintains a 97% apprentice retention rate,” Horne said in a press release. “Nearly half of current apprentices are pursuing special education certification, demonstrating the strong demand for these pathways.”
The apprenticeship differs from traditional student teaching in both its length and structure.
Apprentices can spend two to four years in the program depending on their previous education and receive more than 2,000 hours of classroom experience along with at least 140 hours of related instruction. They gradually assume additional classroom responsibilities while working toward teacher certification.
Dr. Meredith Critchfield, dean of Grand Canyon University's College of Education, said in a press release when GCU joined the program that the combination of employment and mentorship addresses two barriers facing prospective teachers.
“This says we understand you need to earn a living, but we also understand that you need the mentorship of someone who is really skilled,” Critchfield said.
That extended classroom experience also gives prospective teachers time to learn the job before becoming solely responsible for a classroom.
“This program allows them to ease into the profession versus being shocked into the profession,” Critchfield said.
Removing the cost barrier
The apprenticeship model is designed to reduce the financial burden of becoming a teacher.
Arizona Job Connection lists the estimated total cost of the registered apprenticeship program at $24,920, including $21,600 in tuition plus books, testing, registration and graduation expenses. ADE says apprentices receive funding to cover coursework while earning wages through their school employment.
The state's quality agreement with the National Center for Grow Your Own calls for apprentices to complete the program without tuition debt and receive at least one year of gradual-release training under an experienced mentor teacher. Apprentices also should not be used as teachers of record or full-time substitutes while completing the program.
The agreement encourages programs to provide opportunities for apprentices to graduate with special education certification in addition to another certification area based on state and district workforce needs.
Vacancies don't tell the entire story
Measuring Arizona's special education staffing shortage is more complicated than counting empty positions.
ADE's annual Special Education Teacher Attrition Survey asks schools to report open positions, new hires, returning teachers, teachers who left, retirements and positions staffed through outside agencies.
A position filled by a contracted teacher through a staffing agency is not considered a vacancy under ADE's definition, meaning vacancy totals alone do not show the extent to which schools rely on contracted personnel to provide special education services.
That makes retention as important as recruitment.
Critchfield said mentorship and greater preparation before taking over a classroom could help address some pressures facing teachers early in their careers.
“A lot of times it’s because they are thrown in without the support and guidance they need,” she said of teachers leaving the profession. “This is only going to help them retain better.”
The $5 million award will be distributed over five years and will expand the existing AZTRAP program.
Early participation indicates interest in the approach. The program has doubled enrollment in the past year, more than 90 apprentices are participating and nearly half are pursuing special education certification.
ADE also reports a 97% apprentice retention rate.
That figure, however, measures whether participants remain in the apprenticeship program. It does not yet show how many apprentices ultimately become certified special education teachers or how long they remain in Arizona classrooms after completing the program.
Those longer-term numbers (including program completion, certification and teacher retention) will provide a clearer measure over the next five years of whether paying aspiring teachers while they learn can help Arizona build and keep the special education workforce its schools need.
Editor’s note: A grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation made this story possible. The foundation awarded 15 newsrooms to pay for solutions-focused education reporters for two years. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
Meet Stacy Stacy Mantle is joining the team at Independent Newsmedia, Inc. as an Education Solutions journalist, thanks to a grant from the Arizona Community Collaborative. She has a long history in education that ranges from teaching junior high and middle school to developing curriculum and standards-based assessments.
Community: A longtime advocate for animal welfare, Stacy is deeply involved in rescue efforts and volunteers with several nonprofit organizations.
Random Fact: Once upon a time, she shared her home with a pet coyote and two wolf hybrids. The experiences were wild enough to become the subject of her first book!
Education: She holds a BA in English with a minor in Political Science, a Post-baccalaureate in Secondary Education, and an MBA with a emphasis on Marketing.
Hobbies: In her spare time, Stacy writes fast-paced urban fantasy novels, crafts small-batch artisan soap, and is always up for hiking or off-roading through the Arizona wilderness with her husband of 23 years.
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