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  • WCCUSD school psychologists face burnout due to consistent staff shortages

    WCCUSD school psychologists face burnout due to consistent staff shortages


    A group of WCCUSD school psychologists at a union contract rally in 2023.

    Courtesy of John Zabala

    West Contra Costa Unified School District’s school psychologist internship program once flourished. The district recruited from substantial applicant pools from local universities and provided a strong start for beginning school psychologists entering the workforce, often retaining them after the internships ended. 

    Now, however, in the years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, WCCUSD is struggling to recruit interns and fill vacant school psychologist positions. This means psychologists, considered essential pieces of school environments, are carrying larger case loads and working longer hours, leading to burnout.

    WCCUSD, like other districts across the state, is no stranger to staff shortages — the district started the 2023-24 academic year with more than 200 special education paraprofessional vacancies. The shortages have persisted, and on Jan. 31, Public Advocates, a nonprofit civil rights law firm, filed three complaints with the district, alleging some schools failed to provide students with qualified teachers because of problems related to staffing shortages.  

    School psychologists fill a critical role in school communities, collaborating with administration, teachers and parents to ensure students are succeeding academically, emotionally and behaviorally. 

    West Contra Costa has struggled with five to seven school psychologist vacancies for the past couple of years. Halfway through the current school year, the district is still dealing with three.

    “We’re going to weather, this obviously, but we still have a couple of years in which we are going to have a really significant shortage, and we’re going to have a really significant increase in the demand for services, so we’re kind of in for a little bit of a scary period,” said John Zabala, a school psychologist in the district and the president of United Teachers of Richmond. 

    California is generally facing a critical shortage of school psychologists. According to the California Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of 1 school psychologist for 500 to 750 students. However, California schools on average have 1 per 1,000 students. Some schools have 1 per 3,000 students.

    Although WCCUSD’s ratio falls into the recommended range at around 1 school psychologist per 500-550 students, school psychologists in the district still face large caseloads and longer work days, contributing to burnout.

    Some districts compensate for shortages by hiring contractors or traveling school psychologists. Emily Springhart, department co-chair of psychology at West Contra Costa, however, said the district has preferred increasing the caseload of school psychologists and extending their work days to deal with the shortage.

    “A lot of the report writing and the case management — those things just go home with people,” Springhart said. “I’m sure it’s not great for their own personal health.”

    Schools have seen a substantial increase in the number of students requiring mental health and behavioral resources in recent years. In April 2022, 69% of public schools reported that the percentage of students seeking mental health services had increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Covid-19 disrupted early intervention for many students, leading to an increase in the number of students needing support, while the staff who would be able to support them, like school psychologists, have not. 

    Mary Campbell, a WCCUSD school psychologist and former department chair, said she worries about what the shortages and the resulting burnout could mean for the longevity of the profession. 

    Springhart said the school psychologist shortage seems to be caused by the same factors triggering shortages of other school staff: inevitable events like retirement, but also financial hardship, forcing people to move out of parts of California with high costs of living. 

    But another cause lies in the declining number of incoming applicants from universities that typically feed into districts like WCCUSD. Springhart said the number has steadily declined, despite the district having a long and strong history of hiring school psychologists from those programs.

    “It seems like all of the districts are kind of fighting over everybody right now, just because there’s not enough people coming out of programs,” Springhart said.

    Oanh Tran, school psychology program coordinator for California State University, East Bay, said she’s actually seen an increase of applicants to the program in recent years. But because the Bay Area is home to so many school districts, there aren’t enough school psychologists to go around.

    “We have so many districts, so many schools, and just a handful of students are graduating with their PPS (Pupil Personnel Services) credential to service those schools and districts,” Tran said. 

    Tran said new school psychologists are also experiencing burnout earlier in their careers. Not only are they dealing with more assessment caseloads, but they’re also spending their days putting out fires likely caused by a lack of early intervention.

    The best districts, Tran said, prioritize monitoring the needs of their school psychologists, ensuring they have access to helpful mentors, have a manageable caseload, and feel supported by their team. Students are being strategic about finding districts that provide these resources, Tran explained. 

    “In West Contra Costa, I do remember there was a time where they did have a lot of our practicum and interns,” Tran said. “But now, I think because there are so many districts that are recruiting our students, it’s competitive. It’s so competitive. We only have so many students in our cohort, but we have over 50 districts now participating in our recruitment fair for our students.”

    Although West Contra Costa offers competitive pay, especially after salary increases last year, Springhart agreed the shortage has been a regional issue, extending beyond the district. She said more education and recruitment about the profession may be necessary to increase the number of applicants to school psychologist programs. 

    “I think there are ways that we know that we can attract and keep people in these jobs, which can be very rewarding jobs,” Campbell said, “but not when we’re so under-resourced.”





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  • More time with subs is the wrong response to teacher shortages

    More time with subs is the wrong response to teacher shortages


    Middle school history teachers discuss their lesson plans for teaching about the Great Depression.

    Credit: Allison Shelley / American Education

    Twenty-five years ago, when pastor Sweetie Williams asked his 12-year-old son, Eli, why he never had homework, the answer exposed scandalous conditions that would reshape California education forever. Eli’s San Francisco middle school — like many of the 20% of California public schools then serving the greatest number of Black, Latino and low-income students — lacked books, operating bathrooms, proper heating and enough qualified teachers to permanently staff classrooms. The historic litigation that followed in May 2000, Williams v. California, established new laws guaranteeing every student three fundamental rights: permanent, qualified teachers; sufficient instructional materials; and clean, safe facilities.

    Today, as Assembly Bill 1224 (Valencia) races toward a Senate hearing, we’re witnessing some of the same staffing chaos that prompted the Williams lawsuit. In the West Contra Costa Unified School District, parent Darrell Washington watched his rising fifth grader endure what he called “a chaotic game of musical chairs” with two or three different teachers in a single year. At Stege Elementary, third grade teacher Sam Cleare saw students arrive in her classroom, where she was often “their first credentialed teacher for the entire year.”

    In response to teacher shortages, are legislators rising to meet the challenge? Are they grappling with how to raise teacher compensation and improve working conditions to attract and retain educators? Are they seeking to compel those districts stuck on autopilot to do more to recruit new teachers or to place in the classroom their fully certified staff who aren’t currently teaching before turning to short-term substitutes? No.

    The principal response of legislators has been AB 1224, which would double the time untrained substitute teachers can remain in any one classroom — from 30 to 60 days, a full third of the school year. The bill thereby lowers teacher standards for the state’s most disadvantaged students, essentially abandoning our children’s rights to equal educational opportunity to accommodate district requests for administrative convenience.

    When a teacher vacancy exists, districts are supposed to prioritize assigning the most qualified candidates: fully credentialed teachers first, then interns who have the subject matter training but are still learning how to teach it, followed by emergency-style permits that allow those with partial subject matter competence and teacher training to teach for the year under close supervision, and finally waivers, which permit individuals to teach for a year by waiving unmet certification requirements with state approval if the district can demonstrate the candidate is the best person available.

    Williams requires all classrooms to be staffed by a single, designated permanent teacher who is at least minimally certified to teach the whole year, according to one of these bases. That puts the onus on districts to figure out well before the school year begins how they will staff each classroom with a state-qualified teacher.

    Thirty-day substitutes — those affected by AB 1224 — are nowhere in this hierarchy precisely because they are not qualified to serve as the teacher of record for any classroom. They receive zero subject matter training and zero instruction on how to teach a subject, so they have no understanding of lesson planning, classroom management, assessing learning, or differentiating learning for special ed students or English learners. They’re educational placeholders, not teachers. 

    Teachers represent the single most important school-based factor in learning outcomes. When we park unqualified staff in classrooms for months, we’re not solving teacher shortages; we’re creating educational voids that harm student progress for years to come. Our students need qualified educators who provide continuity, expertise and genuine care, not “continuity” with unqualified caretakers.

    Statewide teacher assignment data reveals exactly how this policy will worsen existing inequities. While 84% of California’s teachers are fully trained, this drops to just 76% in districts serving working-class communities like West Contra Costa, but rises to 89% in affluent areas.

    Schools serving larger populations of low-income students, English learners and foster children are already twice as likely to rely on emergency-style permits. AB 1224 will systematically widen these gaps, exacerbating a two-tiered system where privileged students get qualified teachers while vulnerable students get warm bodies. 

    Meanwhile, AB 1224’s “accountability” measures provide legislative lip service. The bill relies on existing legal requirements that districts make “reasonable efforts” to recruit more qualified personnel before turning to long-term substitutes. Yet we know from our experiences with West Contra Costa Unified and elsewhere that districts typically make no particular efforts if an obvious candidate is not already in front of them and there is no outside enforcement of the hiring hierarchy. AB 1224 does nothing to change this. The bill does not define “reasonable,” has no documentation requirements, and has no oversight or accountability measures. 

    And while this same expanded access to substitutes was temporarily allowed during the pandemic, frankly, the whole system was in chaos then, and many virtual classrooms were providing little more than day care, even with qualified teachers. Yet, AB 1224 provides no sunset date like that exception did. To the contrary, the pending proposal is for a permanent change in law, a permanent authorized dilution of instructional quality, a permanent permission for districts to avoid the hard work of recruiting and retaining qualified educators — all to be disproportionately visited upon the most disadvantaged students in the state. 

    The response to teacher shortages must not be to lower standards, but the opposite. As if our collective hair were on fire, the state and districts need to be doubling down on bringing back the fully certified teachers who have left the classroom (more than enough to cover the shortages). Likewise, the state and districts need to work harder to develop the next generation of diverse and fully prepared educators. Since the pandemic, California has invested over $2 billion in evidence-based solutions: the National Board Certification Incentive Program, Golden State Teacher Grant Program, teacher residencies, a grow-your-own program, and Educator Effectiveness grants — all designed to increase supply and retention in high-need schools. The latest annual Teacher Supply Report from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing suggests the state is starting to turn a corner as a result of these efforts. New teaching credentials issued in 2023-24 were up over 18% — the first surge in new credentials since the pandemic in 2020-21. 

    In the meantime, districts have existing tools: emergency permits for at least provisionally qualified candidates, intern teachers and residents, teachers with permits to cover those on statutory leave, and experienced “career substitutes” who already are allowed to teach in a single classroom for 60 days. And before even turning to these substandard options, districts’ “reasonable efforts” must include returning fully credentialed teachers to a district’s highest priority: classroom instruction. When Superintendent Alberto Carvalho took the helm of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in late 2021, one of his first actions was to fill some 700 vacancies with certified educators who had been serving in the district office and various non-teaching roles. 

    That’s 700 classrooms and several thousand students’ educational lives that were not sacrificed for administrative convenience. Today’s Eli Williamses deserve no less.

    •••

    John Affeldt, who was one of the lead counsels on Williams v. California, is a managing attorney at Public Advocates, a public interest law firm in San Francisco, where he focuses on educational equity issues.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Crowded classes, staff shortages, insufficient pay are making some California teachers rethink careers

    Crowded classes, staff shortages, insufficient pay are making some California teachers rethink careers


    Kindergarten teacher Carla Randazzo watches a student write alphabet letters on a white board at Golden Empire Elementary School in Sacramento.

    Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo

    Insufficient school funding is hurting California teachers and their students, according to “The State of California Public Schools,” a report from the California Teachers Association released Tuesday. 

    The lack of funding has meant insufficient wages and high health insurance premiums for teachers, crowded classrooms and a lack of support staff, according to the report, which is based on a December survey of almost 2,000 TK-12 educators.

    Most of the educators surveyed said that their pay is too low to afford housing near their jobs and that their salaries aren’t keeping up with the rising costs of groceries, childcare and other necessary expenses.

    Ninety-one percent of the educators surveyed who rent reported that they can’t afford to buy a home. Only 12% of the teachers surveyed said they were able to save a comfortable amount for the future, while 31% said they are living paycheck to paycheck.

    “Many educators are spread thin and frankly aren’t able to make ends meet financially, and are working in a public school system that continues to be underfunded year after year,” said CTA President David Golberg at a press conference Tuesday.

    The California Teachers Association represents 310,000 of the state’s educators, including teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists, librarians, education support professionals and some higher education faculty and staff. The survey was conducted for the union by GBAO Strategies, a public opinion research and political strategy firm.

    Teachers who took part in the survey, which targeted teachers throughout the state to provide a representative demographic, overwhelmingly agreed that California schools don’t pay high enough salaries to teachers or have the resources to meet the needs of the students.

    Eighty-four percent said there aren’t enough staff, resources or training to support special education students, and 76% reported that classrooms are overcrowded. Sixty-eight percent said students lack access to mental health support.

    California ranked 18th in per pupil spending in 2021-22, the most recent year nationally comparable data is available – slightly above the national average, according to a November report by the Public Policy Institute of California. When the difference in labor costs were taken into account, California dropped to 34th. In the five years between the 2018-19 school year and the 2023-24 school year, education funding increased nearly 34% in California, according to the PPIC.

    “We’re not even in the top 10 when we compare ourselves to other states,” Goldberg said. “So, that shows you the real disconnect from the wealth that exists in our state and the resources that are going to students and educators.”

    Almost a third of the teachers surveyed have taken second jobs or gig work to make ends meet, 37% have delayed or gone without medical care and 65% have skipped family vacations because of financial constraints, according to the report.

    “These are not extra frills,” Goldberg said. “These are things that we consider part of just the everyday life that us, as human beings and as workers, a dignified life would entail. And, you see that a lot of educators are living with a scarcity around even the most basic things.”

    Four out of 10 of the educators surveyed said they are considering leaving the profession in the next few years. Nearly 80% of the teachers said that finances were the primary reason they would consider the job change.

    Sacramento-area TK teacher Kristina Caswell said a recent increase in the cost of healthcare premiums at her district swallowed up the recent raise she received. She said the affordability tool on the Covered California website rates her healthcare costs for a family of five as unaffordable.

    “I will spend money on my students before I will think about going to that doctor’s appointment that I need and spending that money on maybe a prescription that I need if I get sick,” she said. “That’s something I will stop and think about. Whereas when I’m thinking about my students, I don’t (stop to) think about spending the money.”

    Despite their concerns, 77% of teachers surveyed said they still find their job rewarding, although 62% are dissatisfied with their overall working conditions.

    “I’m really thankful and grateful that I have the job that I have,” Caswell said. “I absolutely love my job. I adore my students, I adore the families that I serve.”





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  • End of federal grants could worsen teacher shortages

    End of federal grants could worsen teacher shortages


    Credit: Carlos Kosienski/Sipa via AP Images

    Top Takeaways
    • $600 million in federal grants for teacher preparation is in limbo while the court decides whether the Trump administration can cancel the funding.
    • Some California university and school district leaders are unsure whether programs can continue without help from the federal government.
    • The loss of the programs, which sometimes offer stipends and other financial help to teacher candidates, could worsen an already dire shortage of teachers for hard-to-fill jobs.
    • The number of teachers on emergency-style waivers and permits has tripled in the last decade. Teachers on emergency-style permits aren’t required to have completed teacher training.

    The abrupt termination of $600 million in federal teacher-training grants by the Trump administration — and the uncertainty that remains while their cancellation is contested in court — have left teacher candidates and university and school district leaders worried about whether the programs they fund can continue.

    The Teacher Quality Partnership grant and the Supporting Effective Educator Development grant have been used to help recruit and train teachers for high-needs schools and for hard-to-fill jobs, such as teaching science, special education and math.

    At least $148 million in grants go to California teacher preparation programs.

    “CSU simply does not have the resources to sustain these programs without funding from the U.S. Department of Education,” said Amy Bentley-Smith, director of strategic communications and public affairs for the university, in an email.

    The loss of the grants, which fund programs at both universities and school districts, could worsen the state’s teacher shortage and force school districts to hire more teachers on emergency-style permits that don’t require them to complete teacher training. 

    “There’s still acute shortages of credentialed teachers in California,” said Dana Grayson, director of West-Ed’s Teacher Workforce team. “Numbers show that, in the past decade, the number of teachers who aren’t fully credentialed has tripled. So, really making sure we have fully credentialed teachers in classrooms is especially important.”

    During the 2023-24 school year, the most recent year state data is available, 5% of California teachers were on emergency-style permits and waivers, according to newly released state data.

    CSU can’t sustain programs alone

    Without the grants, programs at four CSU campuses — Chico State, Cal State LA, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and CSU Monterey Bay  — could lose a total of $29 million. The funds provide stipends for teacher candidates, pay for professional development for student residents and their mentor teachers, pay staff salaries and for faculty release time, and support college preparation for K-12 students, Bentley-Smith said.

    Terminating the teacher preparation grants before the end of their terms — usually five years — would likely result in many teacher candidates delaying or abandoning plans to become credentialed teachers, she said.

    “The high-needs, high-poverty schools these programs support, which have historically experienced difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers, will lose support, collaboration, and access to new and future teachers,” Bentley-Smith said. “Further, teachers in these schools will lose out on professional development opportunities that support them in meeting the needs of their students.”    

    Among the grants in danger of being eliminated is a five-year grant to address a chronic shortage of qualified teachers in rural northeastern California. The $2.4 million grant to Chico State supports a teacher residency program that recruits, trains and prepares teachers to work in high-poverty, hard-to-staff rural communities, according to the California Attorney General’s office, which has sued to stop the terminations.

    Residencies allow teacher candidates to work alongside a mentor teacher in a classroom while completing their teaching credential. 

    The uncertainty around the grant “has led to significant disruptions in the program, including the inability to confidently plan for the upcoming year,” said Rebecca Justeson, a professor at Chico State’s School of Education.

    Termination of the grant would result in two employees being laid off and another having their hours reduced, said Jennifer Oloff-Lewis, a professor at the College of Communication and Education at Chico State.

    California State University officials would not comment on how many employees systemwide might be laid off if the grants are eliminated, saying only that the positions funded by the grants are usually terminated when grants end. 

    More than 1,000 students have completed CSU programs funded by the grants and have gone on to become credentialed teachers working in local school districts, said Bentley-Smith. About 300 teacher residents are in programs now. Some campuses have already committed funding and resources to support students for the upcoming school year. 

    Grants terminated with form letter

    The two federal grants were terminated in early February by the U.S. Department of Education with a form letter that offered no specific reason, except to say that the program might promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; violate civil rights law; be fraudulent, abusive, or duplicate other programs; or otherwise fail to serve the best interests of the United States, according to the lawsuit filed by the state of California and a multi-state coalition.

    When asked if California State University’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies may have put it at odds with the Trump administration, Bentley-Smith said the university complies with all federal and state nondiscrimination laws.

    “We regret that programs that promote equity in learning are being misconstrued as being inconsistent with federal priorities,” she said. “We can think of few greater priorities than ensuring all our youth are taught by skilled and qualified teachers.”

    Credential programs for school staff also at risk

    University programs aren’t the only ones under threat of losing grant funding. Some school districts and nonprofits have also won federal grants for programs to train and recruit teachers to fill hard-to-hire positions.

    The Lindsay School District began a residency program in 2021 in an attempt to recruit and retain teachers. The district had been losing about 25% of its teaching staff each year, according to the National Education Association. Residents are paid $31,400 a school year, and their mentors $7,000. 

    Its $8 million federal teaching grant is among those canceled.  

    Special education is a shortage area that would be hit hard if it loses the grants.

    “The sudden loss of federal funding for teacher residency grant programs will have a significant and profound impact on an already fragile system,” stated a letter from the Tulare Office of Education to state and federal lawmakers. “In 2020-21, 40 percent of schools hiring for open positions in special education reported having difficulties filling vacant openings as compared to 17 percent a decade earlier.”

    Cases make their way through courts

    The plaintiff state attorneys general argue in their lawsuit that termination of the grants, issued without warning, violates the Administrative Procedure Act, would impact teacher preparation programs, and immediately reduce the number of teachers and teacher trainees serving in schools.

    The coalition won a temporary restraining order on March 10 from the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, requiring the grants be restored temporarily while the case is being litigated. The reprieve was brief. The Supreme Court ruled on April 4 to allow the U.S. Department of Education to terminate the grants while the court case is being heard.

    The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled on a separate lawsuit filed by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the National Center for Teacher Residencies and the Maryland Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. The court also lifted the temporary restraining order, citing the Supreme Court ruling, effectively freezing the grant funds for the plaintiffs in this suit.

    Teacher preparation programs have an administrative appeals process that allows them to respond by letter to the allegations in the termination missive, according to Reach University President Joe Ross. 

    University leaders sent appeals for each of its three federal grants and received acknowledgment that their appeal had arrived, but otherwise have not heard back.

    “As far as I know, I don’t know of any institution who has heard back on their efforts to engage with the Department of Education directly,” Ross said.

    Program reaches out to high-poverty areas

    Reach University had three federal grants totaling $14.7 million over five years that would be eliminated if the court ultimately agrees with the Trump administration. Although the nonprofit university is based in Oakland, it has been using the grants to support teacher candidates in high-poverty communities in rural Arkansas and Louisiana, where there are no universities within commuting distance.

    The federal grant money was used to start partnerships with school districts and to recruit community college graduates who want to complete a bachelor’s degree while working in a classified position, such as a para-educator, after-school tutor, office clerk or bus driver, in a public school. After earning a degree, teacher candidates can become interns or residents in the district while earning their credential through the university.

    Reach University has had to make immediate cuts, including laying off some staff members and suspending third-party evaluations of the program. The evaluations were used to determine the efficacy of the program and to allow grant programs to share best practices.

    Ross is trying to find local funding to help sustain the work, but there are no plans to reduce the number of teacher candidates the program supports. He is afraid that staff cuts may impact teacher recruitment.

    But Ross is optimistic about the long-term sustainability of these programs. He believes the funding will be replenished somehow because of broad bipartisan support for building a robust teacher pipeline across the country.

    “I think that if you travel through rural communities in California, rural communities in eastern Arkansas, or rural communities in northwest Alabama, you will see lots of different kinds of people, but they’re all trying to figure out how to find enough teachers to serve their kids,” he said.





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