District A’s 1st Special Education Induction Program: Mentoring with a Community of Practices/Partners (CoP)

District A’s Special Education Induction Program: Mentoring through Capacity Building. Danielle Johnson 2024: Strategic Research Project, Nova Southeastern University, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice. Keywords: administrative support, capacity building, collaboration, mentoring initiative, special education attrition. This strategic research project was designed to assist District A in developing a robust induction program that is geared towards retaining special education teachers. A SWOT matrix was employed to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that currently exist within the organization. One of the threats that was identified in the department was pay, which correlates to the attrition of special education teachers within my department. This threat was created due to nearby counties offering better incentives and longer induction periods to train these individuals for their role as a special education teacher. Each year there are a total of 15+ special education teachers that leave the organization because they become overwhelmed with the responsibilities that they inherit. District A currently has an induction program for all teachers when they are first hired in the district. Each mentee is assigned a mentor, however, the duties that a general education teacher has are different from the tasks that special education teachers must complete. The current mentoring program only lasts for two years, and additional time is needed to ensure that novice special education teachers are equipped with the guidance and training that they need to be successful in their roles and eliminate burnout situations leading to stress. The retention of these candidates within the business will make them an asset to the organization for new candidates. The Quantitative strategic plan matrix identified mentoring through capacity building as two strategies for dissolving the attrition of novice special education teachers within the organization. Through this scheme, educators will continue to receive mentoring assistance from several individuals within the department of exceptional students such as the: (a) special education district administrators, (b) resource compliance specialist, (c) mentor, (d) capacity building with building level special education teachers. Through capacity building efforts, the mentees will have the opportunity to converse with other individuals within the building when the resource compliance specialist and the mentor are unavailable. This assistance can encompass training, observations, and other viable resources that these candidates may need to be effective in their role. It allows all DES staff to communicate with one another and share their knowledge and best practices that can be beneficial for educating youths with disabilities. District A will ensure that these candidates are afforded this mentoring support for the first three years. These paired strategies will be instrumental in decreasing the attrition rate within the department and increase the retention rate of special education candidates within the organization rate. This can really save the organization funds and increase student growth.