Special education teacher Katlyn Earl has been contacted by teachers in other schools to help with particular students who are going through difficulties in class.

Because she often works with students for several years in a row at Center Avenue Community School, Earl gets to know them better than teachers who serve one grade level. Her skills as a special educator make her a good resource for teachers in other Butler Area School District classrooms.

“Once you realize that behaviors aren't just behaviors — that there is reasoning behind those behaviors — it could be that a child didn't sleep well, or they're hungry, or they got stuck on a question,” Earl said. “You get to know a kid, and it's easier to understand the behavior and help them get through it.”

Special education teachers need a specific state certification from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to teach in a school, said Kristen Clouse, director of human resources for Butler Area School District. Aaron Royhab, director of special education for the district, said having enough special education teachers has been a “consistent challenge” in the schools for several years.

“Over the years, the trends of our student population in the district have gone down a little bit when you compare to five, 10 years ago,” Royhab said. “Our special education number has not.”

Brian White, superintendent of the Butler district, said at a school board meeting March 20 that special education is the most common school staffing shortage in the nation, which applied to Butler as well. Data from the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators shows that 71% of schools nationwide struggle to fill special education positions.

The Butler district has about 80 special education teachers, nine speech therapists, five school psychologists and 108 paraprofessionals positions, according to Royhab. The district also operates a multi-disabilities classroom, emotional-support classrooms and life-skills classrooms, which all fall under the umbrella of special education, he said.

“We have 108 paraprofessional positions and within that we have 15 openings right now. That's our biggest struggle,” Royhab said. “The location of our support staff is dictated by student need, so as we have more needs in one building than another, we reallocate those services based off need.”

Overall, there are about 1,300 students in Butler district who have individualized education plans, Royhab said.

Center Avenue Community School became a designated special education and emotional support school about eight years ago, according to its principal, Keenan McGaughey.

The school has 70 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, 10 teachers and a number of other support staff, McGaughey said. He added that some are students who live in the boundaries of other school districts but come to Center Avenue for specific services.

“We get students from surrounding districts who pay tuition for their kids to come here,” McGaughey said. “Freeport, where my kids go, they don't have an emotional support program so they are looking for an emotional support program outside the district to send their students to.”

The long-term jobs available in special education at the Butler district are not typically difficult to fill. What is more difficult are the paraprofessional and support positions, which involve different kinds of work other than being a teacher.

Royhab said the district works with the staff it has to complete job duties of the open positions.

“One (method) is to get creative with resources to be as efficient as we can meeting the needs of the kids,” Royhab said. “The other piece is we have started to hire long-term substitute teachers that have a teachers' certification to fill a role.”

Clouse said that while the district has been able to work around staff shortages in recent years, there is hope for special education departments in the form of a changing state designation.

“Historically the special ed certification was either pre-K to eighth grade or seven to 12th grade,” Clouse said. “It has been a challenge for us filling the upper grades. Now any new graduate with a certificate is certified to teach K-12, and we're hoping that is going to help us fill secondary roles.”

Additionally, student teachers could help alleviate shortages in staffing because of this change.

“(Slippery Rock University) and Grove City (College), we have a lot of student teachers in our buildings through them,” Clouse said. “Some of the student teaching assignments are to let those individuals act as long-term subs in our building. That's something new and creative we are doing this year to fill those roles.”

Natasha Duska is a teacher at Center Avenue school and has worked in special education for 18 years. She said working with students who have special needs has always been worth it, especially when she sees them transition out of school.

“For high school, a lot of our students may not be going on to technical or trade school or college, so we have to get them ready to work,” Duska said. “So we work with a lot of outside agencies to get them their driver’s license, job shadowing, riding the bus if they are not getting their license.”

Duska also said there have been some positive changes in how special education needs are addressed. More students have been able to get the support they need in part because of outside agencies.

“We're very lucky to have (Glade Run Lutheran Services) here and that they can meet with students on a regular basis, because that would be something to fall off the plates of families,” Duska said. “They are able to do that here as part of their school day.”

Center Avenue school also continues to work with some students after they complete 12th grade. McGaughey said helping students with special needs even after they are done with school is another rewarding aspect of the job.

“We'll even link them with independent living, so there's a continuum of services, and it's really a team,” McGaughey said. “It is not a one size fits all, and you are never on your own.“

White said at the March 20 meeting that shifting state designations could affect special education in the coming years in terms of funding and guidelines.

“I do think the role of a teacher and the role of a special educator is becoming more challenging,” Royhab said.

Royhab said the duties that special education staff members have taken on over the years may be one reason school districts have trouble keeping their departments staffed.

“Sometimes it is like a sudoku puzzle, it could be trauma or it could be that they didn’t sleep well. There is more than one way to solve it,“ McGaughey said.

Earl said working with children in special education always has been fulfilling and urged everyone going into teaching to think about pursuing a career in special education.

“You have to be a special person to be able to teach special education,” Earl said. “The students become closer with us than traditionally because we help them through hard times, help them through things they struggle with academically, behaviorally. It's just different.“