To help address the field’s concerning recruitment and retention issues, Oregon will distribute $8.9 million in one-time bonuses to its special education teachers, paraeducators, and other employees.
The funding is in accordance with a 2023 law that established a possible pay disparity for special education teachers, enabling school districts to raise their salaries or provide them with one-time stipends. The bonuses are now intended to guarantee that all special educators receive recognized, independent of school districts’ particular compensation decisions, according to state senator Michael Dembrow, who authored the 2023 bill and advocated for the current funds.
According to Dembrow, we wanted to guarantee that there would be something for everyone.
The incentive will be awarded to everyone who supports students with Individual Education Programs for at least 75% of their working hours. The number of employees who qualify must be tallied by school districts and other qualifying entities, such as public charter schools, and reported to the Oregon Department of Education by January 13.
According to Marc Siegel, director of communications for the Oregon Department of Education, 4,190 special education teachers were employed by state public schools during the previous academic year. At least 2,400 members of the Oregon School Employee Association, the union that represents classified workers like paraeducators, were found to be eligible as well. If the stipend were distributed solely to those individuals, they would each get $1,350; however, other individuals, such as speech-language pathologists, will probably be included in the pool.
According to Trevor Spangle, a special education teacher at Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis, “I do think it’s a sort of respectful nod from the state towards the work that special education teachers are doing across Oregon.”
However, like a number of other special education professionals, he expressed the opinion that the bonuses would not significantly address the state’s issues with recruiting and maintaining special education personnel.
There is a severe lack of special education teachers in Oregon. There are over 100 available special education positions in the state, according to the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission’s job dashboard, albeit it is not a comprehensive list of openings. 32 positions are listed on the Portland Public Schools careers page, which is more than three times as many as any other academic area.
According to Beaverton School District paraeducator and local chapter president of the Oregon School Employee Association, Kyrsti Sackman, her district had at least 120 paraeducator and special education openings at the beginning of the school year. Additionally, Sackman observes how overworked her colleagues are as a traveling paraeducator who covers for other special education professionals in schools across the district.
I get requests from people all the time for me to attend their classes. According to Sackman, they are severely understaffed. However, there’s always someone else who has fewer employees.
One of paraeducator Kyrsti Sackman’s favorite aspects of her work at Beaverton School District is seeing pupils smile.One of the Oregonians, Dave Killen
She enjoys her employment, seeing the joy on children’s faces when she enters a class, and using her union work to speak up for her pupils and other educators. She does, however, get why the district occasionally has trouble filling positions.
Sackman has been a paraeducator at Beaverton for nine years, but she still earns roughly $1,900 per month. She works multiple jobs to make ends meet. She’s moving into an apartment outside of Beaverton this month after more than a year of couch surfing and scrounging because she can no longer pay the rent in the district.
“I truly adore the students,” she remarked. Nevertheless, I’m getting very close to having to choose between living a comfortable life and pursuing my passion for helping neurodiverse students.
According to paraeducator Kyrsti Sackman (right), she feels as though she may soon have to decide between pursuing her passion of working in special education and providing for herself.One of the Oregonians, Dave Killen
According to Sackman, the bonus appears to be a kind gesture. However, it doesn’t feel entirely adequate either.
Jennifer Groth, another president of the Oregon School Employee Association chapter and inclusion educational assistant at Bend Senior High School, concurred. She has been scratched and bled at work previously, but she also has a strong sense of pride in her profession. She works a second job to supplement her income, just like Sackman.
Groth stated that any acknowledgement is a positive move, particularly for classified employees like herself. However, the stipend is not permanent, which is an issue.
According to Sackman, the long-term answer in Oregon would be to implement a wage disparity for all special education employees. Higher staffing levels—not simply replacing vacancies, but actively adding additional people—would make the position more sustainable, according to several special education workers.
Alyssa Potasznik, a special education teacher at Franklin High School in Portland, stated that the school’s current staffing level is insufficient to adequately support children with varying levels of need. She stated that her first priority over a bonus would be to increase money and hire more instructors.
Franklin speech-language pathologist Moira Finnegan agreed.
According to Finnegan, it’s good that special education instructors and staff are getting credit for their efforts. However, a one-time stipend doesn’t help us address the larger issue of adequately paying special education services in Oregon’s K–12 system.
Aviva Bechky writes for The Oregonian/OregonLive on politics and education. You can contact them on X at@avivabechky or [email protected].
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