Teacher apprenticeship programs led by school districts and states have been growing in popularity in recent years as a way to strengthen the classroom talent pipeline.
These programs typically aim to train paraprofessionals, high school students or other local community members in the classroom while they earn a teaching credential at no cost to them. The goal is to then ultimately hire these new teachers full-time.
At minimum, there are an estimated 56,000 vacant teaching positions and 350,000 underqualified educators nationwide during the 2025-26 school year, according to a project mapping teacher shortages led by researchers at the University of Missouri and University of Pittsburgh.
But as more teacher apprenticeships launch nationwide, there can be challenges to sustain those programs — especially as local funds in some districts are constrained by shrinking budgets tied to declining enrollment and general uncertainty over state and federal funding.
There are options, however, to leverage local, state and federal dollars for teacher apprenticeships, said David Donaldson, founder and managing partner of nonprofit National Center for Grow Your Own, during a webinar Tuesday.
How districts can leverage vacancy funds
One avenue that school districts with teacher vacancies could take, Donaldson said, is to choose to invest budgeted funds to pay for apprenticeship programs instead of hiring a full-time teacher — particularly if the district is having trouble filling a full-time instructional role.
If a district has $70,000 allotted for a teaching role, for instance, it could reallocate those dollars to pay for a paraprofessional at $30,000, and then use the remaining funds to cover tuition for several paraprofessionals training to become teachers full-time, he said.
That model also means the number of classrooms would have to shrink, and students would be redistributed across fewer teachers. For example, five 20-student classrooms would become four 25-student classrooms.
Donaldson added that it’s important for district leaders to advocate for those vacancy funds to stay in human capital budgets, even if their chief financial officer wants the money to go toward other needs like curriculum or facilities.
Once a district decides to use vacancy funds for teacher apprenticeship pathways, he said, it will need to negotiate tuition prices with a local partnering college or university. It can be difficult to ask a higher education institution to take on just one paraprofessional’s tuition at a discounted rate, Donaldson said.
But if a district were to pull enough funds, for instance, to cover 20 paraprofessionals using vacancy dollars at about $10,000 per person, “no one’s going to shy away from a $200,000 check,” he said.
“So when a state or district is able to bundle together the cohort of folks, that’s a big, big difference, and it allows you to leverage economies of scale,” Donaldson said.
Beyond those local dollars, districts and states can also use federal funds from Title II, Title III, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or Perkins V, Donaldson said.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education released guidance encouraging state and district leaders to use Title II, Part A and Title I funds to cover teacher apprenticeships and other innovative staffing strategies.
Funds used for dual enrollment at the high school level could also be used for apprenticeships, Donaldson said. And if a district required teacher apprentices to get an endorsement in special education, they could use IDEA funds — or for English language learning endorsements, they could leverage Title III money.
State apprenticeship programs
Funds for statewide teacher apprenticeship programs can come from a wide variety of sources.
The Nebraska Department of Education used a $4.5 million grant with a U.S. Department of Labor grant, known as the State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula, to scale its own program in recent years from supporting 12 to over 200 teacher apprentices across eight educator preparation programs.
Some 68% of those apprentices are pursuing special education licensure, said Jessica Javorsky, the department’s strategic initiatives grant specialist, during the Tuesday presentation.
The SAEF grant funds will run out next year, Javorsky said, so the state is now looking for other sustainable funding sources by tapping into new partnerships and federal title funds.
Meanwhile, the Maryland State Department of Education is using $19.4 million in funds approved by the state legislature to support debt-free pathways for aspiring teachers to become fully licensed to instruct in a local school district, said Kelly Meadows, assistant state superintendent for Maryland, in the presentation.
The state’s apprenticeship program, which just opened its first application window, is strategically recruiting men, special education teachers and educators in other shortage areas, she said.
Meadows credits the surge in funding to the “united front” and support for apprenticeships among the state’s teachers union, governor and state superintendent.
“Seize the moment,” Meadows said. “I think we all realized we have to see some momentum.”
