Philadelphia schools show strong staffing levels despite national teacher shortage

PHILADELPHIA - School officials in Philadelphia don't expect the district to be greatly impacted by a national shortage of teachers due to strong staffing levels. 

The School District of Philadelphia told FOX 29 it is 97% staffed for the upcoming school year and still actively recruiting hiring non-instructional roles. 

Data provided by the district showed a staffing percentage about 95% for positions including principal, vice principal and teacher. 

Counselors, according to the district, are at 94% hiring capacity and special education assists are at 76.8% 

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"Despite shortages in teacher market, we are over 97% staffed for the school year and off to a strong start," a district spokesperson said. "For non-instructional roles, we are still actively recruiting and hiring for roles and show larger needs for certain school-based non-instructional roles." 

Meanwhile, parents of students in understaffed districts believe the teacher shortage could stunt the education of students still catching up from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"My youngest one, he had to get set back a year because being on the computers, he didn’t grab on to it like he should," Fard Udin Muhammad said. "So now what? Less teachers and more students, it might be a little problem with that, but we’ll work it out." 

Public school students across Philadelphia will report back to school buildings on Monday. The district previously announced that students and staff will be masked for the first 10 days of the academic year, then masks will become optional unless a school encounters a spike in COVID infections.