Erin Wilday Erin Wilday

NATIONAL SCHOOL COUNSELING WEEK, FEB 5-9, 2024

The American Counseling Association (ACA) is proud to celebrate school counselors and their work in schools across the nation during National School Counseling Week, Feb. 5 – 9, 2024. School counselors today are at the center of the problem-solving process and can help safeguard the mental and emotional well-being of students and parents alike.

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Erin Wilday Erin Wilday

The Future of Mental Health at Work Is Safety, Community, and a Healthy Organizational Culture

A new study exploring the ever-changing landscape of workers’ experiences and perspectives around mental health, stigma, and work has uncovered new insights about how workplace mental health has changed from before, during, and after the pandemic. The findings show that mental health isn’t improving in the U.S., but there are some new bright spots, too. Workers are demonstrating greater awareness around mental health at work and are looking beyond traditional benefits and the latest technologies. What they increasingly want is what the research has always shown works: mentally healthier cultures. The authors break down what employees need and — increasingly expect — from their employers when it comes to mental health support and offer several strategies for leaders to foster sustainable, mentally healthy cultures.

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Erin Wilday Erin Wilday

Mass. tweaks license rules to allow more educators to teach special ed., ESL

The state education board voted Tuesday to amend licensing regulations in an effort to address the statewide teacher shortage.

The amendments create an easier pathway for already-licensed teachers to be able to teach special education and English as a second language and create a new license for pre-K teachers of students with disabilities. The board also voted to create a new provisional license for school nurses, who are also understaffed in Massachusetts districts.

Heading into the 2022-2023 school year, 48 percent of district leaders in the Northeast felt they were understaffed, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In Boston, there were about 900 positions available — including 219 teacher vacancies, CBS reported.

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Erin Wilday Erin Wilday

Education Week - Teacher Shortage

Teacher shortages lead to stretched resources and diminished individualized attention for students. This Spotlight will help you uncover what principals look for when hiring teachers; learn how establishing a supportive culture can help retain teachers; dissect the key reasons why teachers say they left the profession; examine how some states are making it easier to become a substitute teacher; and more.

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Erin Wilday Erin Wilday

The pandemic has exacerbated a long-standing national shortage of teachers

What this report finds: The pandemic exacerbated a preexisting and long-standing shortage of teachers. The shortage is particularly acute for certain subject areas and in some geographic locations. It is especially severe in schools with high shares of students of color or students from low-income families. The shortage is not a function of an inadequate number of qualified teachers in the U.S. economy. Simply, there are too few qualified teachers willing to work at current compensation levels given the increasingly stressful environment facing teachers.

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