OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma schools have grown increasingly reliant on filling teacher vacancies with emergency certified teachers amid a statewide shortage of educators.
The state School Board of Education approved more than 220 emergency certificates Thursday for July, the Tulsa World (https://bit.ly/2s30VBU ) reported. This time last year, the board considered nearly 80 emergency certificates.
The provisional licenses let individuals work as teachers before they complete the education or training requirements for regular or alternative certification. Teachers can use the licenses to teach for two academic years.
School superintendents must prove to the state that there aren’t any certified candidates who can fill a position before they can hire someone with an emergency certificate.
Between 2 percent to 3 percent of Oklahoma’s 42,000 teachers use emergency certificates, said Bill Flanagan, a board member.
Board member Cathryn Franks said emergency certified teachers aren’t necessarily unqualified.
“Some could be certified in another state and emergency certified here,” Franks said. “It doesn’t mean that we have 2 or 2 and a half percent that are unqualified. Some are certified in another state - I have lived that moving from state to state.”
The state’s teacher shortage “isn’t going away - in fact, it is getting worse,” said State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister.
For fiscal year 2017, the board approved a record of almost 1,200 emergency certificates, about a 9 percent increase over last year’s total of more than 1,000 certificates.
Five years ago the board only issued just over 30 certifications in the state in a single year.
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Information from: Tulsa World, https://www.tulsaworld.com
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