San Francisco has a special education problem.
The city’s public schools have long struggled with a shortage of special education teachers, a problem made worse by the recent hiring freeze, imposed due to the ongoing budget crisis. Last fall, San Francisco’s special education students missed 9,100 hours of school-time instruction in skills such as math, school readiness, and speech therapy.
To make up for those hours, Gazetteer SF has learned that San Francisco Unified School District is offering teachers $53.29 an hour to work overtime with kids needing educational resources that they’re not getting in the classroom. The district is also offering to reimburse the parents of special ed students who hire outside tutors, at a rate of $130 an hour — more than double what they’re offering their own teachers for the same services.
“I think it’s very low for what they’re asking teachers to provide — it’s not market rate, that’s for sure,” said one SFUSD special education teacher, referring to the $53 per hour offer. “If they’re willing to reimburse at $130 an hour, they should be paying [everyone] $130 an hour.” (The teacher requested anonymity because she’s not authorized to speak for the district).
Special education students at SFUSD schools are assigned case managers, who design individualized programs for each child. Such programs might consist of math, reading, self-care, school readiness, and speech or physical therapy.
But a severe shortage of special education teachers means that many of the district’s students, some as young as kindergarteners, aren’t able to get that instruction during school hours, a shortfall that’s being partly made up by general education instructors and principals. The gap has left the district “desperate,” the teacher said.
SFUSD’s call for help went out to various types of educators, including substitute teachers. Some of the sessions may be completed online, according to the offer, which was reviewed by Gazetteer.
Besides the rate discrepancy, teachers told Gazetteer they were concerned that the offer was extended to substitute teachers, who aren’t required to obtain a teaching certificate. And even if the current missing hours are made up, a similar shortfall in education instruction is already accumulating for the spring semester, they said.
The district also sent letters to parents describing the effort to compensate families, which was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. In a statement to Gazetteer, SFUSD confirmed that they are offering to reimburse families $130 an hour for outside tutors for the 9,100 hours of education students have missed. If every family accepted the offer, it would cost the district $1.18 million, the district said in its statement.
The statement did not answer questions from Gazetteer about its separate offer to teachers, and why the rate is so much lower than the reimbursement rate for families.
Despite the offer’s flaws, special education teachers described feeling glad the district was doing something, even temporarily, for students who have not been getting the services they need.
“It’s a start,” said another special education teacher, who told Gazetteer they’re considering the district’s offer to work overtime. “I kind of felt happy that they were going to do something.” (The teacher also requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak).
It may be a start, but the offers will do little to combat the deeply entrenched problems which have created the staffing shortage. There has been a hiring freeze in the district since last year, and in February 2024, the district announced it would pause a program, Pathway to Teaching, which was training special education teachers every year, many of whom went on to take jobs at the district. Some SFUSD schools have gone years without dedicated special education teachers, leaving general education instructors and principals to help fill the gaps.
“To think we don’t have people feeding into that pipeline any more, it’s going to get even worse,” one teacher told Gazetteer.
The root problem may be simple: San Francisco’s school teachers are paid salaries that make it impossible to live in the Bay Area.
“It makes me feel irritated,” said one of the teachers, referring to the apparent disparity in the district’s offers. “I know that teaching is a calling and most of us do it because we don’t want the kids to be left behind. At the same time, if there is money that isn’t being given to us, that could be, it would be nice to have it.”
