And as the first day of school approaches, COVID-19 is still a problem. While it may not shut down schools, the effects of the last two years will be felt in the form of social and emotional issues, as well as staffing shortages.
Massachusetts is in better shape than many states when it comes to the teacher and substitute teacher shortage.
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In Framingham, for example, there are 1,037 teachers and 57 vacancies. The head of the teachers union in Christine Mulroney.
“They're navigating it OK. I mean I'm hoping that the next week or so, they're continuing to interview, that they will find the educators that they need," Framingham Teachers Association President Christine Mulroney said.
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Other school districts are doing the same. In Boston there are 245 teacher vacancies -- about 6%. Lynn schools are looking to fill 122 jobs or about 10%.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said the district is hiring.
"And we will go into day one with every single classroom and young person having their teacher so this is not risking at all schools being unable to open or classrooms being able to open," she said.
The head of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, Tom Scott, said most of the vacancies are in specialties that have always been a challenge to fill.
"Such as math, certain sciences, English language learning, special ed - those continue to be really challenging," he explained.
As are substitute teachers. COVID-19 is largely responsible as it drove a lot of teachers out of the schools.
"I've talked to several retirees who wouldn't have retired if it hadn't been such a challenge to work," Mulroney said.
Staffing is only one challenge schools face.
"Coming out of the pandemic we have a lot of really dysregulated people. And it’s not just kids," Scott said.
Mulroney added, “Most educators are not trained to deal with dysregulated students to the degree that they have become since COVID.”
Dysregulated students are those who haven’t had the social and academic structure school provides.
"The pandemic and all the stress and all the needs that our families have been facing really end up coming out in the classroom. And educators, school leaders, have had to wrap their arms around all of our young people and just try to hold the world together," Wu said.
And many of those students will return to the classroom for the first time in a long time.
Mulroney said that is significant.
"As students go through the education process some of these social, emotional needs are observed by the school social worker and classroom educators and addressed at an earlier level."
To deal with this schools are hiring more counselors and social workers as well as teachers.
