Principals’ Special Education Experience: Implications for Special Education Teacher Turnover

Special education teachers often report having heavy workloads and problematic working conditions that lead to a desire to leave their campus. Some attention has been given to the role of principal especially since administrative support has been reported by special education teachers as a working condition influencing their decisions to leave. In this study, we use Texas administrative data from 1995–2024 academic years to identify the extent to which principals have special education teaching experience and examine the relationship between that experience and special education teacher retention. We find that roughly 22% of principals had some special education teaching experience in their careers. We also find that principals with special education teaching experience may be positively correlated with special education teacher retention, but our findings suggest that the influence of principal experience is partially moderated by school-level factors. We discuss these findings and implications for future research and practice.