Attract, Prepare, Retain Resource Database

Nevada’s Coalition to Address Personnel Shortages in Special Education and Related Services created this page to assist special educators and related service providers who are seeking loan forgiveness programs and resources.

This loan forgiveness program aims to address speech-language pathologist shortages in Mississippi schools by offering a forgivable loan to speech-language pathologists who commit to serving in Mississippi public or charter school districts for at least one year for each year of funding received.

Minnesota Low Incidence Project offers tuition support for individuals pursuing certification in the areas of Blind Visually Impaired (BVI) and Physical/Health Disabilities (P/HD)

This program, led by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) Special Education Division, aims to better prepare current preparation program students and recent graduates by pairing them with an experienced mentor educator who is certified in the same licensure area.

This residency program was established through a partnership between the University of St. Thomas and Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), to create a pathway for unlicensed MPS employees to work towards a licensure in special education while working full time.

This loan repayment program provides teachers with student loan repayment assistance if they are teaching in a designated geographical region or shortage area, such as special education.

Teach Western Mass (TWM) is a one-year teacher residency program that aims to provide aspiring teachers without prior education coursework in the State of Massachusetts, accelerated training and eventual licensure in special education (moderate disabilities) or other shortage areas.

This grant program provides tuition assistance for in-service paraprofessionals that seek to earn a teaching certification in a high-need discipline, such as special education.

This page describes several alternative teacher preparation programs in Maryland, with an emphasis on programs related to certification in high-needs regions and subjects as well as diversifying the educator workforce.

This initiative, led by the Maine Department of Education, draws on funds from Title II and Part A of ESSA to support several programs aimed at attracting and retaining high quality educators. Examples of programs included the Learning Facilitator Credentialing Program as well as regional educator shortage “think tanks”.

MACM is an alternative preparation program that attempts to address Maine’s need for highly qualified special educators by giving conditionally-certified special educators with intensive mentoring and coursework that culminates in full certification.

This Fellowship is a year-long comprehensive program aimed at increasing the retention of special education leaders in Louisiana by offering in-person training and coaching.

This public awareness and teacher recruitment program consists of 32 teacher ambassadors that seek to attract prospective candidates to the teaching profession. Ambassadors advertise the profession in high schools and colleges, highlighting success stories, and promoting pipeline programs such as Educators Rising or Grow-Your-Own programs.

This program’s goal is to lower the attrition of teachers in critical shortage areas, especially special education, by providing one-on-one or small group digital mentoring and targeted support to novice teachers.

The Teach Iowa Scholar Program (TIS) offers loan repayment assistance for a maximum of five years for teachers in designated shortage areas, including the areas of visual impairment, deaf or hard of hearing, mild-moderate disabilities, and school counseling.