Peggy Carr, Commissioner of the National Education Statistics Committee, said in a statement: "The coronavirus pneumonia-19 epidemic has led to a shortage of school personnel nationwide." .

"Public schools report that they are trying to solve various staffing problems, including a wide range of job vacancies and a shortage of future teachers," she said. "These problems have disrupted the operation of the school. The measures taken by the school include: using more teachers and non-teaching staff beyond the scheduled duties, increasing the class size, sharing teachers and staff with other schools, and reducing the student flow caused by the shortage of staff. "

As of June, 2022, 44% of public schools reported at least one teaching position vacancy, among which 6 1% clearly pointed out that coronavirus pneumonia-19 epidemic was the reason for these vacancies.

Resignation accounts for 5 1% of vacancies, and retirement accounts for 2 1%. Among the schools that reported vacancies, special education was identified as the most vacant teaching position, with 45% schools reporting this vacancy, followed by ordinary primary schools and substitute teachers, with 365,438+0% and 20% schools reporting this vacancy respectively.

In addition, about half of public schools (49%) reported that at least one non-teaching staff was vacant. Custodian was identified as the most vacant staff position, and 28% of schools filled in this vacancy, followed by transportation personnel and nutrition personnel positions, and 14% of schools filled in these two positions.

In order to fill the vacancy, more than half of the schools reported that they increasingly needed to use school staff beyond their expected responsibilities, including guiding the central office staff to teach. Although not included in the report, many school districts also require recently retired teachers to return to the classroom, provide retention bonuses to avoid resigning, and ask parents to provide support in the classroom. At least two States-New Mexico and Massachusetts-mobilized their National Guard to intervene. These new findings represent the latest round of data of the federal government's latest efforts to provide timely information on the impact of the epidemic on primary and secondary schools in the United States. They supported the view that the epidemic had caused serious damage to the education industry, when schools had to help students resume their studies and avoid mental health challenges.

It is worth noting that the time snapshot represented by the data, from 65438+1October1to 65438+1October 24, covers the moment when the highly spread Omicron variety caused great damage in schools across the country. Educators and assistants test positive or are exposed, forcing them to be isolated and isolated, forcing managers to scramble to find substitutes from scarce candidates.

The National Teachers' Union has been warning them of what they call "an unprecedented personnel crisis in all job categories". According to a poll published by the National Education Association, which has 3 million members, in February this year, 55% of educators said that they were ready to leave this industry.