Board hears concern that new 3-credit special-education requirement may hinder hiring of specialists

Board members raised concerns that recently adopted regulation language requiring three semester hours of special education for initial licensure in specialist and administrator areas will create hiring barriers. Several members, including school system representatives and clinicians, said candidates such as school social workers, counselors and psychologists commonly enter the workforce without that specific course.

MSDE staff acknowledged the concern and described immediate and medium-term steps to mitigate the barrier: creating an asynchronous, modular online course to meet the requirement; publishing a vetted list of college and continuing professional development courses that satisfy the requirement; and presenting policy options to the PSB for discussion in May with a fuller regulatory proposal in June if needed. MSDE staff also noted that the prior practice — issuing an initial credential and requiring the course at renewal — was a policy memorandum that cannot override regulation, and the recent repeal-and-replace regulatory process re-embedded the three-credit initial requirement.

Board members suggested alternatives to avoid immediate hiring disruption, including embedding the requirement in renewal instead of initial issuance, creating graded timelines for compliance, or carving out targeted exemptions. MSDE agreed to bring options to the May meeting and to place a fuller discussion on the June agenda.

Why it matters: the requirement affects multiple specialist licensure areas and could reduce candidate pools in roles already in short supply. MSDE’s mitigation plan provides immediate pathways for candidates to meet the requirement, but board members emphasized the need to weigh systemic staffing shortages against licensure standards and to consider short-term flexibility while the Department develops training and course access.