Nebraska Sees Reduction in Teacher Shortages for 2025-26 School Year
Nebraska schools are beginning to see some relief from the teacher shortage crisis. For the 2025-26 academic year, the state reported approximately 490 unfilled teaching positions, a notable improvement from the 669 vacancies recorded the previous year, as per the Nebraska Department of Education.
The term ‘unfilled positions’ covers roles that remain vacant or are filled by individuals lacking full qualifications. Of these, around 110 positions were entirely vacant, a decrease from the 200 unoccupied slots during the 2024-25 school year.
Special education remains the sector with the highest number of vacancies, accounting for 140 unfilled positions, followed by elementary education, which has about 60 openings.
Notably, several educational fields, such as career education, early childhood, and language arts, have seen significant progress, each filling over 20 positions this school year.
At the start of the 2025-26 school year, Nebraska Public Media News engaged with superintendents from various districts, who indicated that filling teaching roles appeared less challenging compared to previous years.
In Norris School District 160, Assistant Superintendent Sean Molloy noted that they successfully filled all teaching positions. However, the district continues to seek candidates for paraeducator and bus driver roles.
“We have every single classroom then it has a teacher in it that is ready to welcome students back,” Molloy remarked last August. “We do not have any unfilled positions that are going to result in increased class sizes or long-term subs filling in or anything like that. Everyone is going to be a certificated teacher that has received ample training to prepare students for success.”
Meanwhile, Michael Hart, Superintendent of District OR-1, which includes Bennet Elementary and Palmyra Jr./Sr. High School, reported that the district only needed to staff newly created positions for the academic year.
“That’s very unusual,” Hart commented in August.
The teacher shortage survey achieved a response rate of about 81%, marking the highest participation ever recorded. Of the 355 districts and nonpublic schools that responded, 135 reported vacancies at the start of the school year.
