Alabama's second annual educator preparation report card recorded 3,413 unfilled teacher positions statewide in the 2025-26 school year, an increase of about 23 percent from 2,771 the prior year, according to data collected by the Alabama State Department of Education and reported by AL.com. The report card, first implemented as a dynamic dashboard in December 2025, replaced a static paper format and provides year-over-year trend data for the first time.
Elementary and early childhood lead the increase
Elementary education posted 751 unfilled positions in 2025-26, up roughly 37 percent from 548 the year before, making it the largest single shortage area. Early childhood education saw 356 vacancies, a 39 percent jump from 256, the largest percentage increase of any field. Collaborative special education, both K-6 and 6-12, had combined shortages that rose less than 10 percent.
Other fields with notable shortages included English language arts, with 227 vacancies, health and physical education with 152, and computer science with 69. English for speakers of other languages had 63 unfilled positions. An additional 1,850 vacancies were spread across other subjects.
At the district level, Huntsville City had the most elementary education vacancies with 87, and Birmingham City had the most early childhood vacancies with 113, according to the AL.com report.
Clustering of shortages and emergency certification
The teacher shortage is not uniformly distributed across the state. An evaluation by the Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services in 2022 found that 8.6 percent of Alabama schools had more than 10 percent of teachers on emergency certificates, while 52.5 percent had none, indicating heavy geographic clustering. The same evaluation reported that more first-time teachers in Alabama are changing districts and leaving the profession faster than the national average.
During the 2023-24 school year, 3,014 teachers statewide used emergency certificates, nearly 6 percent of all teachers, up from 2,800 the prior year and more than six times the 476 in 2019-20, according to the Alabama Daily News. The number of schools where more than 10 percent of teachers held emergency certificates grew from roughly 1 in 20 in 2019-20 to more than 1 in 5 in 2023-24. Six schools had more than half their teachers emergency-certified, including Highland Gardens Elementary in Montgomery, Payne Elementary in Selma, and Barbour County Primary School, all in high-poverty areas.
Supply-side challenges and incentive programs
State incentive programs include the AMSTEP loan forgiveness program, which offers up to $30,000 for math, science, and computer science teachers, increased by a 2022 act, and the TEAMS program for math and science teacher pay supplements. Alabama has also launched a multi-year Thank Alabama Teachers campaign to honor current teachers and recruit new ones, as reported by Alabama Daily News.
However, an evaluation by the Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services in 2022 found that the three state initiatives examined, including AMSTEP, lacked meaningful data collection to inform their stated goals and did not report clear, measurable outcomes at the time of implementation, limiting the ability to assess whether they are working.
On the supply side, a September 2022 white paper by the same commission found that since 2010, Alabama's public colleges of education have consistently produced fewer certified teachers in nearly all subjects, contributing to the shortfall documented in the report card.
Research evidence on certification and retention
The 2022 ACES evaluation tracked teacher outcomes over a 13-year period. It found that only 51.6 percent of teachers who began with an emergency certificate became licensed professional teachers, and only 32 percent of those entering under an emergency certificate in 2018 were still employed in public education. Alternative and emergency-certified teachers left the profession at the highest rate. The estimated cost to replace a teacher was between $9,000 and $40,000.
A 2023 follow-up evaluation by ACES found that more than 90 percent of teachers who left the profession but remained in Alabama's labor force entered jobs earning at or below the average full-time teacher salary, suggesting pay is a factor but not necessarily the leading one. The same study noted Praxis exam passage rates declined, but the biggest declines were attributed to changes in passing scores and exam formats rather than lower candidate quality. ACES recommended annual workforce studies and targeted salary increases.
The 2022 ACES evaluation also identified inaccuracies in the Alabama State Department of Education's published out-of-field teacher data, finding the number reported in the state report card was inaccurate to an unknown extent. According to the evaluation, these inaccuracies precluded quantifying the status and needs of certified teachers by subject and grade level.