Virginia’s teacher vacancy rate shows slight improvement ahead of annual report

Demonstrators outside of Virginia's capitol protesting for better pay for teachers in January 2018. (Ned Oliver/ Virginia Mercury)

Statewide, the teacher vacancy rate was down to 3.4% at the start of the school year after hovering at 4.7% in July, according to data provided by the Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Licensure during an advisory meeting on Monday.

Virginia’s teacher vacancy rate was 3.9% last October. The agency’s annual vacancy report, which provides a breakdown of school division vacancies, will be published next month, along with the vacancy rate for bus drivers.

Of the 131 school divisions in Virginia, 30 have a 0-1% vacancy rate, and 64 have a vacancy rate under 2%.

The focus on the teacher shortage in Virginia’s K-12 schools sharpened in recent years, after studies found that teachers were  leaving public schools because of several factors including dissatisfaction with wages, challenges after the pandemic, and political battles over education.

“We continue to look for innovative ways to help school divisions ensure that every Virginia child has a high-quality educator in their K-12 classroom,” said Todd Reid, a spokesman for the Department of Education, in a statement to the Mercury.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration has tried different methods to address the shortage by relaxing guidelines to hire retired teachers and targeting educator recruitment and retention efforts in areas of need.The Republican governor also worked on the issue with the Democrat-controlled state legislature, whose priorities included raising teacher salaries to the national average.

Last session, the General Assembly passed legislation authorizing school boards to issue a one-year, nonrenewable local eligibility license to people to work as teachers within the school division that made the authorization.

Under the legislation, locally licensed teachers must have a college degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education, be a subject matter expert or have training in a specific area of instruction and not seek to teach special education or  plan to be certified to teach at a college or higher professional level.

The legislation expires on July 1, 2030.

Agency efforts and improvements

Last year, the state education department developed the Grow Your Own initiative, which helps develop well-qualified teachers locally. As part of the program’s mission, the agency awarded $1.5 million to 24 school divisions in February.

Then, in July, VDOE received $6 million in federal funding to expand its registered apprenticeship program for K-12 teachers and create pathways for beginners to become educators.

VDOE has also updated its licensure office, including fully staffing it, improving communications about licensing, and, last year, launching a new teacher licensing system, VALO .

Phase 2 of the system, which will debut in the fall, will allow applicants to renew their licenses, add endorsements and print licenses.

Last year, the agency rolled out VALOto help “modernize” the teacher licensure process and make the application process more “user-friendly” for first-time applicants.

VDOE said it reduced the time required to process complete applications from approximately one month to an average of two weeks.

According to the licensure office, there are 339 different areas within the agency where an educator can obtain a license. Currently, there are over one million active license types among all eligible teachers in the commonwealth.

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