A new, statewide push in California is bringing laid off general education teachers into special education, an area with chronic staffing shortages, reports The Oakland Tribune.
The California Teacher Corps, an organization of the state’s alternative teacher-certification programs, announced this week that the programs would work with school districts to provide special education training to teachers subject to layoffs. The article said more than 23,000 teachers received notices in March that they might not have jobs in the fall, according to the California Teachers Association.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell told the Tribune that the initiative would help counter “the chilling effect on our teacher pipeline” caused by the state budget crisis.
“It’s a win for everybody,” Catherine Kearney, the president of the California Teacher Corps, told the Tribune. “The teacher keeps the job, the students have a passionate, committed teacher, and the district doesn’t have to go out and recruit when they already have talented people.”
