Hello fellow teachers,
I am a teacher from California. For 2 years I was a full time Social Science High School teacher before moving to Southern California a year ago and since moving I had no luck finding a job. I sent out hundreds of applications and only got 1 interview. So I realized at that point there is no future for me in that credential field.
Earlier this year I applied at my local county office of education for an Intern Eligibility letter for SPED covering both mild/moderate and moderate/severe. I have had several emails saying that unfortunately there were too many qualified candidates for the possition and so I did not make it to the interview list. I had a few interviews also in large districts that in some cases had 7 open possitions and all of them that reached back have thanked me for my time and told me that my application will not be moving forward.
My question is, is it really this hard to land a SPED teacher job in 2026? I always thought there was a shortage. People have told me that you were guaranteed a job if you applied to it. I am feeling a bit discouraged and not sure what to do now. I applied to both mild/moderate and moderate/severe positions in Elementary/Middle/High. I probably have sent a total of around a hundred applications thus far. What should I do?