Job market for special education teachers? (St. Louis, Florida: neighborhoods, school district, living)

[harrison21]

I currently teach special education in Colorado (although I'm originally from OH) and I'm looking to relocate. I've been to STL a lot and I really like it. I've heard the job market is tough- is it any better for special ed? I know in some places having a special ed cert makes all the difference (the special ed market here in CO is wide open), and in some places there aren't jobs in that either (like in OH). I teach students in k-5 with mild/moderate disabilities. I work with a high poverty/high esl population and I actually prefer this student population. I will have two years experience at the end of this year. I have great references and good data to show growth in my students. I would love to look in STL (it's one of my top choices), but the thing is STL is the only part of Missouri I'd really be interested in moving to. So to make it worth paying for the teaching license for the state I need to first check out the job market. How likely is it that I would be able to find a job? I'm willing to do any elementary grade but I do want to stay with mild/moderate disabilities. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I am dual certified (I'm certified in regular elementary ed as well). I know there are budget cuts, low pay, lots of bad political things happening- that's really true everywhere. I just want to clear that up so I don't get a bunch of replies about that- I really want to first determine how the job market is. CO is actually 50th in teacher pay vs. cost of living, so I have absolutely nowhere to go but up. We also have merit pay based on test scores, no union, etc- that stuff is pretty much a given anywhere I would look to move to. The reason I'm moving is because I hate the location. Just getting that out of the way- it seems like every time I ask about the job market in any given area, all people want to do is tell me the schools/system is bad! Thank you for any information!

[STLCityMike]

Hi, while I have no personal knowledge on the topic, I have two friends that teach in special ed. If there isn't a lot of knowledge here, I may be able to refer you to their email (with their approval). Let me know

[goat314]

You can get a job at St. Louis Public Schools overnight teaching in special ed, but its pretty much like that in every inner city in the country. If you dont mind teaching in an urban school district and going to some really rough neighborhoods and dealing with some mostly hopeless children.

[Old Trafford]

Originally Posted by harrison21

I currently teach special education in Colorado (although I'm originally from OH) and I'm looking to relocate. I've been to STL a lot and I really like it. I've heard the job market is tough- is it any better for special ed? I know in some places having a special ed cert makes all the difference (the special ed market here in CO is wide open), and in some places there aren't jobs in that either (like in OH). I teach students in k-5 with mild/moderate disabilities. I work with a high poverty/high esl population and I actually prefer this student population. I will have two years experience at the end of this year. I have great references and good data to show growth in my students. I would love to look in STL (it's one of my top choices), but the thing is STL is the only part of Missouri I'd really be interested in moving to. So to make it worth paying for the teaching license for the state I need to first check out the job market. How likely is it that I would be able to find a job? I'm willing to do any elementary grade but I do want to stay with mild/moderate disabilities. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I am dual certified (I'm certified in regular elementary ed as well). I know there are budget cuts, low pay, lots of bad political things happening- that's really true everywhere. I just want to clear that up so I don't get a bunch of replies about that- I really want to first determine how the job market is. CO is actually 50th in teacher pay vs. cost of living, so I have absolutely nowhere to go but up. We also have merit pay based on test scores, no union, etc- that stuff is pretty much a given anywhere I would look to move to. The reason I'm moving is because I hate the location. Just getting that out of the way- it seems like every time I ask about the job market in any given area, all people want to do is tell me the schools/system is bad! Thank you for any information!

Check with the St. Louis County Special School District. They are pretty big for being a Special District and it includes the whole county. Had a former client who moved his sister here (with 2 special needs kids) because they thought it was the best public district they had ever seen.

[harrison21]

Originally Posted by Old Trafford

Check with the St. Louis County Special School District. They are pretty big for being a Special District and it includes the whole county. Had a former client who moved his sister here (with 2 special needs kids) because they thought it was the best public district they had ever seen.

Okay, I looked that up and I'm a little confused. Do the schools in STL contract out all of their special ed teachers (as in you are hired by an organization that sends you into schools, instead of being a full time staff member hired by one school?) It says 97% of the students attend a public school in their neighborhood, which implies that this SSD organization sends teachers into those public schools. Around here the principal hires the special ed teacher(s) for the school and you're just an employee of the school like anyone else. I see SSD does have some "special schools" but given that I'm a mild/moderate teacher my students wouldn't be in those schools. I've looked all over their website but there isn't much information about what a job for them is actually like (do they just place you in a school and you work in one school all year, do they have you travelling around, are you in some sort of "district office" some of the time, does the principal of the school have any say in who they get as a special ed teacher at their school?) Are there schools that do just hire their own special ed teachers? Finding a school that's a good fit is important to me and it seems in a system like SSD they just place you somewhere. If anyone has any more information about how this works, I would love to hear it! Thank you for the replies! I had done a search on the job market in the area and saw several people saying they couldn't find jobs in special ed- but those posts were several years old. Has something changed or were those people just few and far between? I think most people assume "inner city" schools are desperate for anyone, but in a lot of places that's not true. I applied to every city in OH when I was first looking and didn't even get an interview most places, if they had any job openings at all. Our job market is impossible to get into even in the "inner city" schools.

[Old Trafford]

Originally Posted by harrison21

Okay, I looked that up and I'm a little confused. Do the schools in STL contract out all of their special ed teachers (as in you are hired by an organization that sends you into schools, instead of being a full time staff member hired by one school?) It says 97% of the students attend a public school in their neighborhood, which implies that this SSD organization sends teachers into those public schools. Around here the principal hires the special ed teacher(s) for the school and you're just an employee of the school like anyone else. I see SSD does have some "special schools" but given that I'm a mild/moderate teacher my students wouldn't be in those schools. I've looked all over their website but there isn't much information about what a job for them is actually like (do they just place you in a school and you work in one school all year, do they have you travelling around, are you in some sort of "district office" some of the time, does the principal of the school have any say in who they get as a special ed teacher at their school?) Are there schools that do just hire their own special ed teachers? Finding a school that's a good fit is important to me and it seems in a system like SSD they just place you somewhere. If anyone has any more information about how this works, I would love to hear it! Thank you for the replies! I had done a search on the job market in the area and saw several people saying they couldn't find jobs in special ed- but those posts were several years old. Has something changed or were those people just few and far between? I think most people assume "inner city" schools are desperate for anyone, but in a lot of places that's not true. I applied to every city in OH when I was first looking and didn't even get an interview most places, if they had any job openings at all. Our job market is impossible to get into even in the "inner city" schools.

I wish I could help you more, but I am not in education. I grew up down the street from a school in SSD that belonged to the disctrict they would pool from a local geographic area not related to the local school district boundries. My one client was just very impressed with them, enough to move his sister from Florida where she was having a hard time finding good spec ed.