Special Education: A CityU Report

Nationwide special education teachers in demand

By Anna King
Velocity Contributor

For nearly six months, Wendy Stegall worked diligently with a developmentally-delayed second-grade boy, mostly on a single exercise: naming shapes aloud.

Despite coaching, Stegall’s student hardly spoke or repeated her words. Then one day, Stegall sketched a circle, a square and a triangle on a piece of paper. To his teacher’s amazement, the brown-haired-boy sat down in his chair, pointed and said, “Circle!”

“I said, ‘What did you just say?’ ” Stegall, 38, recalls. “And he said, ‘Circle!’ again.”

About three months later the student also repeated the word triangle, she adds.

Many special education teachers live for these small moments. In Stegall’s case, giving all children the chance to learn is the reason she chose to study the special education program at City University of Seattle. In Washington state alone, there’s a growing need for special education professionals to teach the 124,000 students enrolled special education classes.

Doug Gill, the Washington State director of special education, says the industry needs more talented and enthusiastic teachers across the nation.

“The school districts try to recruit as best as they can, but there is always a shortage of qualified professionals,” he says.

Locally, he says some of the highest demand areas in the state are: speech pathology, occupational therapy and physical therapy. These professionals are especially needed in rural areas of the state.

“It’s harder to recruit if it’s not into communities like Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane,” he adds.

This year, the state will launch a new pilot program to teach and conduct therapy for special education students using Web-casting. That way, rural students will have access to the same professional care as urban students.

CityU also is working to get more special education professionals out in the job market. This includes enticing prospective students with CityU’s special education program in which students may choose from classes that fit their schedules and goals.

Stephen Smith, CityU special education program coordinator, says CityU can accommodate students who want to earn master’s degrees with programs that focus on a specific subject, such as math.

Smith says carefully designed programs help working, busy students stay focused on their goals. Each student also is placed into a small group called a cohort. This group takes the same classes and graduates together. Smith says the camaraderie helps students get through the tough times in their studies and personal lives.

“Life is going to get in your way with this program but we are going to get you through it OK,” Smith says.

Stegall can relate to this. Like many of the students studying special education at CityU, she’s a mother of young children and works full-time as a para-educator. CityU’s flexible schedule and convenient locations work for her family.

“It is hard, but I know there is a means to an end,” says Stegall, who will graduate this summer.

Stegall also is applying new skills she’s learned in her CityU classroom to her own elementary classroom.

Adds Stegall, “Right now I am writing lesson plans everyday and school (CityU) has been so helpful for that,” she says. “I can whip them out, because I’ve done it at school so much.”

Stegall says mostly she just wants to be a champion for children, no matter what their disability - and CityU helps her get there.

“I don’t want to ignore it or leave it for someone else to take care of,” she says. “Everyone needs a champion in their corner. I want to be that for these kids ‘cause they deserve it.”