The St. Vrain Valley School District recently was granted approval by the Colorado State Board of Education to offer an alternative special education teacher licensing program.
The program gives aspiring special education teachers a direct district path to a license, allowing them to teach while concurrently earning their license through classes and coaching provided by the school district. The first group starts in June.
“What’s really unique is it allows us to really support our employees,” said Nathalie Tuhari-Katz, St. Vrain’s assistant director of special education. “To go through state licensure, access becomes an issue. Time and location and cost can become barriers. We can provide individuals in our system or interested in our system a way to develop essentially within our own program.”
Knowing special education can be a hard-to-fill position, Tuhari-Katz said the district is anticipating needing to hire more teachers as enrollment grows. While the district has a high retention rate for special education teachers at about 85% and has limited openings for the fall, Tuhari-Katz expects more positions will need to be filled in future years.
“Special education has the potential to be a high needs area,” she said.
To participate, an aspiring teacher needs a bachelor’s degree and to be offered a special education position in St. Vrain. The teacher then would receive an alternative license from the state and complete district coursework through the two-year program.
“We tried to make it as accessible to as many individuals as possible,” Tuhari-Katz said. “It’s really exciting.”
Along with completing coursework, the teachers will participate in St. Vrain’s two-year new teacher induction program. The program includes instructional coaching, with a teaching coach working side-by-side with new teachers in the classroom.
“It’s in the moment, real time support,” Tuhari-Katz said. “It allows for immediate classroom application of what they learn in their coursework.”
Erin Quakenbush, who worked with Tuhari-Katz and Assistant Superintendent of Special Education Laura Hess to create the curriculum, will teach the alternative licensing class and provide classroom support.
For those who are brand new to teaching, Quakenbush said the class will cover the ins-and-outs of special education. In the second year, the class will go more in-depth into specific topics, such as curriculum and behavior support.
“We want to grow our own teachers and teach them the skills necessary for where they work,” she said.
Quakenbush said one of the biggest needs is support in writing Individualized Education Program plans and conducting ongoing evaluations of those plans.
“It helps those teachers feel supported that they can take on these daunting tasks, like an IEP or an evaluation,” Quakenbush said. “We can help them with big things and with little things. They just know they have someone in their corner.”
She said the district is seeing interest in the program from para-educators, substitute teachers and bus drivers. The first person to get hired for a special education position through the new program is a high school head custodian.
“It’s a project that I’m so very proud of,” Quakenbush said. “We have great people who want to be teachers in this district, and we’re teaching them what they need to know in-house so they can be successful.”
