TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – On Wednesday, the State Board of Education examined a revealing report highlighting the acute need for teachers in critical areas such as exceptional student education, mathematics, and English.

Each year, the Florida Department of Education releases a report pinpointing “high demand teacher needs.” These are identified in regions where a significant number of teachers who lack proper certification are being hired to fill roles that experience notable vacancies. Additionally, the report underscores the shortfall in graduates from postsecondary institutions to satisfy the demand in Florida’s K-12 education system.

This year, seven key subject areas have been spotlighted: exceptional student education, math, English, general science, physical science, Earth and space science, and English for Speakers of Other Languages.

To illustrate the scope of the issue, the report revealed that approximately 8,900 of the 37,200 English courses offered across the state during the 2024-2025 school year were taught by teachers without proper certification in that subject. Similarly, in exceptional student education, nearly 12,000 of the 57,504 courses were led by instructors who were not certified in the field.

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Moreover, the report evaluates the supply of graduates from state-approved teacher education programs and the number of vacancies and their percentages in each discipline. For example, the projected vacancies in exceptional student education have decreased, with the latest report estimating around 1,900 positions needing to be filled, down from nearly 2,100 reported the previous year.

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.