Nebraska's school teacher shortage improving overall, special ed jobs have most vacancies

Nebraska schools made strides to combat the ongoing teacher shortage for the 2025-26 academic year, with about 490 unfilled positions compared to 669 from the previous school year, according to the Nebraska Department of Education.

Unfilled positions include roles filled by those who are not fully qualified or are left vacant. About 110 positions were completely vacant, compared to 200 in the 2024-25 school year.

Special education still has the highest number of openings at 140 unfilled roles, followed by elementary education with about 60.

Several areas — including career education, early childhood and language arts — saw substantial improvements this school year, filling more than 20 positions in each.

Nebraska Public Media News spoke with superintendents at several school districts at the start of the 2025-26 school year who said teaching positions felt easier to fill than in past years.

At Norris School District 160, assistant superintendent Sean Molloy said all teaching roles were filled, but they were looking for people to fill paraeducator and bus driver positions.

“We have every single classroom then it has a teacher in it that is ready to welcome students back,” Molloy said last August. “We do not have any unfilled positions that are going to result in increased class sizes or long-term subs filling in or anything like that. Everyone is going to be a certificated teacher that has received ample training to prepare students for success.”

Michael Hart, superintendent of District OR-1, which encompasses Bennet Elementary and Palmyra Jr./Sr. High School, said the district only had to fill new positions that were added for the school year.

“That’s very unusual,” Hart said in August.

About 81% of schools replied to the teacher shortage survey, “marking the strongest participation the survey has ever received,” according to the report. Out of the 355 districts and nonpublic schools to reply, 135 reported unfilled positions at the beginning of the school year.