Maryland Special Education Staffing

Maryland's 24 local school systems and their charter schools are staffing against a shortage that's improving on paper but hasn't actually closed where it matters most. FocusedEDU is a specialized K-12 staffing partner working with Maryland's local education agencies and charter schools to source special-education teachers, general-education teachers, paraprofessionals, school nurses, SLPs, OTs, PTs, school psychologists, BCBAs/RBTs for school-based programs, and substitutes — with charter networks as our highest priority . Here's what the state's own workforce data shows, what Maryland requires before anyone works in a school, how the state's LEA structure works, and which charter operators are active today.

The special-education staffing landscape in Maryland

Maryland's teacher-vacancy picture has genuinely improved, but special education is the one category lagging that improvement. In a Teacher Workforce Update presented to the Maryland State Board of Education on December 9, 2025, MSDE reported beginning-of-year statewide teacher vacancies falling from a peak of 2,144.9 in SY2022-23 to just 886.2 in SY2025-26 — a 45.3% year-over-year drop (source: MSDE, Teacher Workforce Update, Dec. 9, 2025, https://marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/documents/2025/1209/teacher-workforce-update-a.pdf). But special-education vacancies fell only 21.4% over that same year, a far smaller improvement than elementary education's 63.3% drop — meaning special education remains the hardest category to close even as the statewide numbers ease. State Superintendent Carey Wright called the overall drop "a very encouraging sign" while noting "more work to do" (source: Fox Baltimore/WBFF, Dec. 11, 2025, https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/maryland-teacher-vacancies-state-education-department). MSDE's own teacher-recruitment portal continues to list special education as one of Maryland's standing high-needs, critical-shortage subject areas (source: MSDE, teach.maryland.gov, High-Needs Subjects, https://teach.maryland.gov/Pages/High-Needs-Subjects.aspx). That gap is playing out across a genuinely large system: Maryland runs "over 1,400 public schools" across its 24 local education agencies (source: MSDE, About the Maryland State Department of Education, https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/default.aspx), which means even a category-specific vacancy rate translates into a large absolute number of classrooms and caseloads waiting on a qualified hire.

Clearances Maryland requires before anyone works in a school

Maryland's background-screening requirements run through the Education Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland. §6-113 bars a county board from "knowingly hir[ing] or retain[ing]" any individual convicted of specified sex offenses, child sexual abuse, or a crime of violence, and extends the same bar to contractor and subcontractor employees with "direct, unsupervised, and uncontrolled access to children" (source: Md. Code, Education §6-113, https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=ged&section=6-113). §6-113.2 adds an employment-history review requirement: applicants must supply contact information for their current employer and "all former employers... in which the applicant was employed in a position involving direct contact with minors within the previous 10 years," sign a records-release consent, and disclose in writing any prior investigation or discipline for child sexual abuse or misconduct — the hiring entity must then contact those employers directly (source: Md. Code, Education §6-113.2, https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=ged&section=6-113.2). MSDE has published its own implementing guidance on this exact statute, confirming the department's role in administering it (source: MSDE Guidance for Md. Code, Educ. §6-113.2, Feb. 22, 2024). A companion provision, §6-113.1, requires annual training for all school employees on the "prevention, identification, and reporting of child sexual abuse," alongside school-level prevention policies and facility assessments (source: Md. Code, Education §6-113.1, https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=ged&section=6-113.1). Educator licensure itself — including the background-screening step built into certification — is governed under COMAR Title 13A, Subtitle 12 (Educator Licensure) (source: https://regs.maryland.gov/us/md/exec/comar/13A.12/index.full.html).

FocusedEDU completes each Maryland candidate's background clearance and employment-history review, plus role-specific certification verification, before that candidate is ever shortlisted to an LEA .

How Maryland's LEA structure works — no intermediate layer

Maryland has a flatter structure than Pennsylvania or New York: there is no Intermediate Unit or BOCES-style regional layer. MSDE states directly that Maryland has "over 1,400 public schools, 24 local education agencies... serving all of the state's 23 counties plus Baltimore City" (source: MSDE, About the Maryland State Department of Education, https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/default.aspx). Each of the 23 counties plus Baltimore City operates its own local board of education, functioning as that region's LEA, reporting directly to MSDE. For a staffing partner, that means there's no regional service agency standing between a district's special-education office and the state — every LEA owns its own compliance and hiring pipeline directly.

Charter networks staffing in Maryland

Maryland had 48 public charter schools serving 23,974 students across six LEAs as of the 2022-23 school year, concentrated in Baltimore City (31 schools) and Prince George's County (9 schools) (source: MSDE, Maryland's Public Charter Schools legislative report, Dec. 2023, https://marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Documents/Charter-Schools/ReportsData/MDCharterSchools2023.pdf). Active operators include:

• KIPP Baltimore, running KIPP Harmony Academy (PreK-5) and KIPP Ujima Village Academy (6-8) on a shared West Baltimore campus, serving roughly 1,400 students (source: https://kippbaltimore.org/).
• Monarch Academy, a network of tuition-free public charter and contract schools across Annapolis, Glen Burnie, and Laurel (source: https://monarchacademy.org/).
• City Neighbors Charter School, a K-8 school in Baltimore (source: https://cityneighborscharterschool.org/).
• Wolfe Street Academy, a PreK-5 school in southeast Baltimore operated by the Baltimore Curriculum Project since 2007 (source: https://www.wolfestreetacademy.org/).
• Green Street Academy, serving grades 6-12 in West Baltimore (source: https://greenstreetacademy.org/).
• College Park Academy, "a Prince George's County public charter school for students grades 6-12" (source: https://www.collegeparkacademy.org/).

What FocusedEDU does in Maryland

FocusedEDU works with Maryland's local education agencies and charter schools — charter networks are our highest priority — to staff special-education teachers, general-education teachers, paraprofessionals, school nurses (RN/LPN), SLPs, OTs, PTs, school psychologists, BCBAs/RBTs for school-based programs, and substitutes . We source through outbound recruiting of passive candidates rather than waiting on inbound applicants, specialize in the hard-to-fill special-education roles that are lagging Maryland's broader vacancy recovery, and complete Maryland's §6-113.2 employment-history review and certification verification before a candidate is ever shortlisted . We work as a long-term staffing partner, not a single-vacancy vendor .