Eric Steffen was surprised.
As his 6-year-old neared the end of kindergarten this year, Steffen learned his son would soon need to return for six weeks of summer school.
The school had messed up.
Olson Elementary hired a substitute special education teacher for Steffen’s son and six other students for the school year to fill a vacancy. But the school failed to ensure the teacher had the proper licensing to teach a portion of the students’ instruction.
The error meant Steffen’s son, Theodore, and his son’s six classmates would need to redo thousands of minutes of instruction to stay on track with other students.
“I don’t think the problem was on the employee,” Steffen said. “(The school district) hired her, they put her in the position for the job she was going to do, so it seems like a district issue to me.”
The Madison Metropolitan School District realized the problem when another parent filed a complaint with the state Department of Public Instruction, which credentials teachers, according to a district employee. The staff member requested anonymity because they were not authorized by the district to speak on the matter.
In a statement to the Cap Times, district spokeswoman Edell Fiedler acknowledged the error. She said staff members had misinterpreted the Department of Public Instruction’s rules for allowable substitute teachers.
The district “unintentionally did not meet” its requirements, Fiedler said.
The Department of Public Instruction allows people with short-term substitute licenses to work at a school in a specific assignment for up to 45 days. In this case, the Olson Elementary teacher exceeded that limit.
The teacher had licenses to be a short-term substitute and special education program aide, but she has yet to complete the requirements of a teaching license, according to records from the Department of Public Instruction.
“This person has been serving as a substitute since 2022, was (and still is) actively enrolled in a teacher-prep program to become a licensed classroom and special education teacher and is expected to receive their degree in December,” Fiedler said. “They worked directly with a lead special education teacher who provided guidance on programming, student assessments and legal protocols.”
In a May 23 letter to Steffen, shared with the Cap Times, Olson Elementary outlined two options for Theodore to redo his 2,430 minutes of disqualified instruction. He could make them up during the first two quarters of the next academic year or return for summer school.
Steffen chose the latter option, fearing Theodore would need to be pulled out of the classroom if he were to make up the missed minutes during the regular school year. However, Steffen was concerned the new teacher would have only a few weeks to prepare before summer school began.
In a statement to the Cap Times, the Madison Metropolitan School District’s associate superintendent of student services provided assurances the district is “deeply committed to our students’ success.”
“We are diligently working to ensure the seven students get the special education services required” under each student’s individual education plan, Nancy Molfenter said.
Steffen remains worried, though. Noting the district and schools statewide are struggling with a shortage of special education teachers, Steffen raised concern that schools might be relying on underqualified staff to fill these roles.
“Maybe (the district) didn't have qualified applicants, so they just hired other people to have a body in place,” Steffen said.
As of May, nearly 50 special education teaching positions and 70 behavioral or special education assistant positions were vacant districtwide, according to Madison School Board documents.
“It is a severe problem,” said Nicki Vander Meulen, a School Board member. “We do have a shortage of special ed teachers because, very simply, it's some of the most demanding work, and they are in very high demand.”
Vander Meulen said the shortages are in part due to a lack of federal and state funding. The state funds less than a third of the Madison Metropolitan School District’s special education costs, which left the district with a $66.4 million shortfall to pay for those services during the last school year, according to the district.
In an effort to get more special education staff into classrooms, many schools are increasingly turning to emergency licenses, the nonprofit Wisconsin Policy Forum reported last year. Emergency licenses allow schools to hire people without teaching degrees to fill open positions.
In 2022, 8% of all teaching positions in Wisconsin were held by someone with a cross-categorical license, which is required under Department of Public Instruction rules for teachers who work with students with disabilities, the Wisconsin Policy Forum found.
What happened at Olson Elementary was likely “an unfortunate mistake in which they were trying to provide the services that were necessary,” Vander Meulen said.
