Fort Worth ISD’s Board of Managers has approved applying for a Texas Education Agency waiver that will allow the district to hire more uncertified teachers for the next two years, under the condition they complete an alternative certification program while teaching, the district announced Wednesday.

If approved by the TEA, the waiver will give Fort Worth ISD permission to continue hiring uncertified teachers who are actively working toward licensing, even as the number of uncertified teachers allowed in classrooms shrinks in years to come under Texas law. Unless a district is on an official TEA waiver list, every core classroom teacher in the state must be certified by the 2029-30 school year.

The TEA waiver Fort Worth ISD is applying for would be valid for two school years, allowing the district to continue filling teaching vacancies with uncertified teachers during that time period.

“Every student deserves an excellent teacher,” wrote Superintendent Peter Licata in a news release Wednesday. “This waiver strengthens our ability to recruit promising educators, support them on a pathway to certification, and grow a sustainable pipeline of highly effective teachers for our schools.”

Fort Worth ISD leaders told the Star-Telegram that they ideally fill every vacancy with a certified teacher, but have had to dip into a pool of uncertified applicants due to overall teacher shortages and a large number of resignations following the TEA’s takeover of the district due to poor academic performance. More than 1,000 Fort Worth ISD teachers resigned, retired or otherwise separated from the district before the June 26 cut-off date, and almost 800 of those teachers resigned after the TEA takeover.

Fort Worth ISD typically sees between 600-700 teacher resignations per year, but this year’s number was up almost 58% compared to last year. The district began the 2025-26 school year with more than 200 vacancies. District leaders have said they have less than 20 vacancies for classroom teachers heading into the 2026-27 school year, as of July 22.

The TEA waiver will allow the district to better fill classrooms and enter school years with zero vacancies, leaders said.

If approved, uncertified teachers who are hired using the TEA waiver will receive ongoing mentoring, instructional coaching, and structured professional development as they work toward obtaining full certification, according to the district. The district also wants to reduce its reliance on substitutes while building a better pipeline for future certified teachers.

In addition to the classroom teacher vacancies Fort Worth ISD currently has, there are also openings for 11 bilingual support teachers, four inclusion teachers, and more than a dozen openings for CTE, arts, health, and physical education teachers, according to the district’s online job board. Those positions are not being counted toward the classroom teacher vacancies reported by the district.

District leaders held a number of job fairs this summer to aggressively address the larger-than-usual number of open positions. They also offered virtual information sessions for potential teachers outside the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The district worked with partners across the state and the nation to identify teachers as part of a national search. They also sent emails to a number of education departments at universities across the United States promoting teaching opportunities in Fort Worth to college graduates.

“At our virtual information sessions, we had teachers who were from all over,” said Fort Worth ISD’s Human Resources Chief Denisha Presley. “There were teachers there who were in the Philippines. There were teachers who were logging on from Georgia, California, just all over the country. And certainly there were teachers here in Texas as well.”

Presley told Fort Worth ISD’s Board of Managers at Tuesday’s meeting that over the last few months, the district has hired 142 uncertified teachers. As of July 18, Fort Worth ISD has a total of 308 uncertified teachers for the 2026-2027 school year.

Licata also announced earlier this summer that all classroom teachers would receive a 5% raise to make Fort Worth ISD a more attractive destination for the best teachers in the area.

District leaders remain confident that they will start the 2026-27 school year with zero teaching vacancies through continued recruitment efforts and strategic hiring initiatives, according to Wednesday’s release.