New data collected from public school superintendents show the number of teaching vacancies and total school employee vacancies across the state has improved this school year.
For the past four years, the North Carolina School Superintendents’ Association (NCSSA) has surveyed its members on how many teaching and staff vacancies their district has at the start of each school year.
This fall, superintendents reported 8,335 total school employee vacancies statewide. That figure includes 3,142 vacant teaching positions, of which 787 positions are in special education. Read the report here.
“The fact that many districts are still struggling with vacancies highlights the need for continued efforts to address these shortages,” said the association's Executive Director Jack Hoke, adding his group will continue to advocate for raises to educator pay and school funding.
This was the first year all school districts in the state reported their vacancies to NCSSA, although Hoke said that the largest school districts have responded every year. Missing data from more than a dozen smaller school districts in past years makes it difficult to make direct comparisons over time.
But one thing is certain: even with more school districts reporting this fall than last year, vacancies for K-12 classroom teachers decreased across elementary, middle and high schools.
Compared to last year’s report, the total number of vacancies for special education teachers and bus drivers has increased. Superintendents reported 1,315 vacant bus driver positions, which is one more than last year.
Number of teachers who are not fully licensed continues to rise
NCSSA’s count of the number of teachers who are not fully licensed to teach in North Carolina long term has also more than doubled since four years ago. Residency license teachers are typically career changers who have a bachelor’s degree in another area and who still need to complete college courses and pass licensing exams to earn a renewable teaching license in North Carolina.
The rise in residency license teachers is supported by data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI), although NCSSA’s tracking of “residency license” teachers appears to have been an undercount in prior years when compared to state data.
NCSSA called its report “one of the most cumulative annual reports on school vacancies in North Carolina.”
The most comprehensive statewide report on teacher turnover and vacancies is the NC State of the Teaching Profession Report published by DPI officials. However, the most recent publicly available version of that report draws on data that is nearly two years old; it covers the 2022-2023 school year.
