Unequal and Maybe Inequitable: Emergency Permitted Special Education Teachers in Pennsylvania

Worsening staffing challenges in special education have led to increased reliance on emergency permits to staff special education positions, but there is little large-scale quantitative evidence about special education teachers (SETs) who entered the workforce with emergency permits. We used longitudinal data from Pennsylvania to study the composition, distribution, and stability of emergency permitted special education teachers (EPSETs). EPSETs were more racially and ethnically diverse than other novice SETs, and they disproportionately taught in schools serving more historically disadvantaged students. EPSETs of color were more likely to leave the workforce and were less likely to transition to full certification than other EPSETs, as were EPSETs in schools with higher percentages of students of color in a district. Efforts to retain and fully credential EPSETs of color and EPSETs in harder-to-staff schools are one mechanism to improve the racial and ethnic diversity of the SET workforce and address special education staffing challenges.