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A Fort Worth ISD bus waits for students on the last day of school at International Newcomer Academy in Fort Worth on May 21, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Fort Worth ISD\u2019s state-appointed board <\/a>voted Tuesday evening to ask the Texas Education Agency for permission to continue hiring uncertified teachers in key subject areas for two more years.<\/p>\n If its application is approved, Fort Worth ISD would join 570 other districts across the state that have gotten permission from TEA to push the deadline back. That\u2019s a list that includes Dallas ISD, Plano ISD and Garland ISD.<\/p>\n Related<\/strong>: Nearly 800 Fort Worth ISD teachers resigned after state takeover<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The board voted unanimously to apply for a two-year extension to a deadline laid out in a bill state lawmakers passed last year tightening the state\u2019s rules on hiring uncertified teachers<\/a> in most subjects. House Bill 2 gives districts until the beginning of the 2027-28 school year to have no uncertified teachers teaching math, science, English or social studies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Districts may apply for a two-year extension, giving them until the beginning of the 2029-30 school year to get all their uncredentialed teachers certified. The bill also gave districts funding to help get those teachers certified.<\/p>\n FWISD hires 142 uncertified teachers<\/p>\n The proposal board members approved Tuesday also includes a plan to phase uncertified teachers out of core subjects by the 2029 deadline. During Tuesday\u2019s meeting, district officials said they\u2019d hired 142 uncertified teachers to work in the district during the upcoming school year. Last year, 161 uncertified teachers worked in the district, leaders said.<\/p>\n Denisha Presley, the district’s chief talent officer, told The Dallas Morning News that district leaders can\u2019t yet give an accurate number of how many uncertified teachers will work in the district during the upcoming school year, because they haven\u2019t finished hiring for the upcoming school year. District leaders also can\u2019t say how many of last year\u2019s uncertified teachers either left the district at the end of the last school year or earned their certifications, she said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Fort Worth ISD saw a sharp uptick in teacher resignations<\/a> at the end of the most recent school year, according to data obtained by The News through a public records request. By June 28, the district\u2019s deadline for employees to resign, the district had processed 1,026 teacher resignations, up 58% over the previous year. That surge didn\u2019t start until after the district\u2019s state-appointed board and superintendent took control in late March. After March 24, 797 teachers resigned, an 84% increase over the same period the previous year.<\/p>\n During Tuesday\u2019s meeting, Daniel Soliz, the district\u2019s chief of schools, said the district had hired 998 certified teachers over the summer in addition to the 142 uncertified teachers. That level of hiring will allow the district to start the year with few to no teacher vacancies while working to get its uncredentialed teachers certified, he said. On Wednesday, district Chief of Staff Louis Kushner posted on social media that the district had 17 teacher vacancies left.<\/p>\n Uncertified teacher numbers grow across Texas<\/p>\n The certification requirements in House Bill 2 came in response to massive growth in the number of uncertified teachers working in classrooms across the state. Over the past six years, districts across the state have increasingly relied on uncertified teachers to help fill vacancies created by the post-pandemic educator shortage. By the 2023-24 school year, more than half of the roughly 30,000 new teachers statewide were uncertified, according to the Texas Education Agency.<\/p>\n Related<\/strong>: A challenge but ‘worth it’: Texas schools push to certify teachers even with extension<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n