TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The State Board of Education on Wednesday took up a report that showed the greatest needs for teachers in areas such as exceptional student education, math and English.
The Florida Department of Education annually issues the report identifying “high demand teacher needs.” Such needs occur “where larger than typical proportions of teachers who are not certified in the appropriate field are being hired to teach courses where significant vacancies exist and where postsecondary institutions do not produce enough graduates to meet the needs of Florida’s K-12 student population,” according to the report.
The seven subject areas identified in this year’s report are exceptional student education, math, English, general science, physical science, Earth and space science and English for Speakers of Other Languages.
For example, about 8,900 of the 37,200 total English courses taught statewide had teachers during the 2024-2025 school year not certified in the field, according to the report. In exceptional student education, nearly 12,000 of the 57,504 total courses had teachers not certified in the field.
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The report also factors in the annual supply of graduates from state-approved teacher education programs for each area and the number and percentage of vacant positions in each discipline. For instance, in exceptional student education, the new report showed a projected number of vacancies at 1,900, down from nearly 2,100 in last year’s report.
The data comes from school superintendents and is separate from a report on school vacancies that the department issues each summer, Josey McDaniel, the department’s deputy chancellor for educator quality, said in presenting the report at the Board of Education meeting in Tallahassee.
“This report is not a determination that Florida has a teacher shortage,” McDaniel said. “Instead, it’s a strategic, data-informed tool that identifies subject areas of greatest need across the state. The purpose is to ensure that our recruitment, preparation and incentive efforts remain targeted and aligned with student demand.”
She said the state is working to attract teachers and pointed, for example, to money approved by the Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis in recent years to increase teacher pay. Other efforts include the Great Florida Teach-In, an annual job fair, and Florida Future Educators of America, a pre-collegiate and collegiate teacher recruitment program.
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During public comment on the report, several teachers expressed frustration with education in Florida.
Christy Kirkland, a 25-year veteran of Polk County school district, said a pay bump is not enough to prevent teachers from vacating their jobs. Mark Motl, a chemistry teacher at Palatka Junior-Senior High School, said, “new hires often do not last more than a couple of years before they leave for higher-paying jobs outside of education.”
Paul Burns, senior chancellor at the Department of Education, said the numbers show that teachers are not leaving Florida jobs in droves.
“We look at a cohort of teachers and we see, where was that cohort of teachers when they started and then where were they five years out,” he said. “The data are really pretty clear that over three-quarters of those teachers are still employed in a district.”
Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said concerns about student behavior are the biggest issue associated with teacher recruitment and retention.
“I would call out our administrators across the state to support teachers when they’re asking for help in their classrooms, and when they need help with behavioral issues with these students, give them the help they need, listen to them,” Kamoutsas said.
Read the report below.