One of Kathleen Tejeda’s students began freshman year just trying to get by. High school can be tricky for any teenager, but she was navigating it as a blind person.

By the end of her junior year, with support from Tejeda and other school staff, the student had gone from getting by to going big: She made the cheerleading squad and the school choir. She even sang the national anthem in front of the whole school.

Tejeda, who has been a special educator for 20 years in Riverside County, Calif., said that kind of advocacy is just as much a part of her job as teaching her students. But teachers like her can be hard to find.

There is a shortage of special educators in 45 out of 50 states, according to the Learning Policy Institute, an education research organization. That shortage is growing because the number of special education students is climbing: It’s now more than 8.2 million — about 1 out of 6 public school students.

While turnover worsened sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic, the shortage isn’t new. It has existed since special education became embedded in federal law with the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1975. Half a century later, a fundamental question remains: Why is this shortage of special education teachers so persistent?

Myths and realities about teaching special education

Let’s start with a common misconception: The kids are hard to work with, so teachers don’t want to do the job. “That is not the case,” said Liz Bettini, a former special education teacher who is now a researcher and professor at Boston University. “That has not borne out in our research at all.”

What Bettini’s research does show: Special educators can feel isolated from other school staff and feel they have too many student needs to manage. The volume of required paperwork can be crushing. These educators are often responsible for teaching across several subjects and grade levels. Many feel they don’t get paid enough to do this essential work.

“That’s a very heavy weight to carry as a teacher,” Bettini said.

NPR set out to hear directly from about a dozen special educators from around the United States’ public schools to learn what it takes to do their jobs day to day. They have been sharing snippets of their lives through voice memos since the start of the school year, and some will open their classroom doors to NPR in the coming months.

“No teacher does this for the paycheck,” said third-year high school teacher Diana Swanson, who works in Vail, Ariz., as she sat at her desk the day before her school year began in July. “Just the students, that fulfillment, seeing them fill their cup a little bit, seeing them smile, be a member of society and part of their community. That’s what fulfills me.”