Collaborative Local Program Aims to Address Teacher Shortage in Special Education
The University of Mary Washington, Germanna Community College, & local public school divisions developed the program, which will graduate its first cohort this spring.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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A new, collaborative program between the University of Mary Washington, Germanna Community College, and local public school divisions is helping special education paraprofessionals earn their bachelor’s degrees and teaching licenses—so that they both advance their own careers and help fill a critical shortage in the field.
The inaugural cohort of 11 will graduate from the two-year program in May, and a second cohort is following on their heels and will graduate in 2027.
“It would have taken a long time to move beyond an associates degree without the support [provided by the Teacher Apprentice Program ],” said Gerard McKinney, 62, a member of the initial cohort who has worked as a special education paraprofessional in Spotsylvania schools for more than 20 years. “I don’t know if I could have used my second job to pay for school, or if I would have had the time.”
For Shelby Garcia, a paraprofessional at Stafford High School who’s been in special education for 10 years, the program “leaves me with a great feeling knowing that when I finish, I’ll be a better teacher than I was when I started out.”
“I’m so thankful for it,” she said. “I remember that when I first got accepted to it, I cried. It has been amazing, truly.”
The Teacher Apprentice Program is designed for individuals with an associate degree who have been working as special education paraprofessionals in schools in Fredericksburg, Stafford and Spotsylvania, according to information provided by UMW.
Work on designing the program began in the summer of 2022, when UMW and the three school divisions applied for and received a planning grant from the Virginia Department of Education. Faculty of the university’s College of Education worked closely with the Bachelor of Liberal Studies (BLS) program to create a special major both to meet licensure requirements and provide flexible learning alternatives for working adults.
The university offered discounted tuition rates per credit to participants, and the school divisions paid the remaining tuition using separate VDOE grants. Students in the inaugural cohort started in the program in January of last year, taking nine credits in introductory education at Germanna, and then transferring to UMW for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
Each participant was matched with a mentor teacher. And each participant got a pay raise once they had completed 50% of the professional competencies.
For Garcia, the flexibility and personalized support offered by the program were crucial, as she had a baby while enrolled.
“It was so seamless, you’d be surprised,” she said.
But it was also structured and concrete enough to help McKinney, who said it would have been difficult to know what classes to take and what requirements to meet without the assistance of UMW’s professors and the school division’s human resources chief, Amy Williams.
Both Garcia and McKinney said that what they love about special education is being given the opportunity to help children overcome obstacles that are often significant.
“I love knowing that I can provide an environment for the kids to learn no matter what is going on with them,” Garcia said.
McKinney said he “appreciates the effort the students put in every day, through all of the daily issues they might have.”
“I want to elevate and support their initiative,” he said. “There’s a beauty in who our students are and who they want to become.”
McKinney said the program helped him gain an understanding of the complex laws that govern special education in Virginia and how to ensure that lessons plans help students meet the goals of their Individual Education Plans and the state’s standards of learning.
That part of the job is often what drives special education teachers out of the profession. Mentorship and administrative support—both of which were part of the Teacher Apprentice Program—can reverse that trend, McKinney and Garcia said.
“Support and grace—really strong relationships and a good support system” are what special education teachers need, Garcia said.
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