What can help curb the Guam Department of Education’s staffing shortages—especially in its Division of Special Education? One senator is offering new legislation that could point to a path forward, after education officials laid out the challenges they continue to face.

Incentive pay: is it the key to addressing critical staffing shortages at GDOE? It may or may not be, but it could help. At least, that’s what a new bill introduced by oversight chair on education, Senator Vince Borja, proposes. Bill 226 aims to establish a specialty certification incentive pay program to encourage current GDOE employees to earn and use specialized certifications in areas where the need is greatest.  

The legislation comes less than a week after an oversight hearing with the Division of Special Education—where vacancies were front and center: a total of 155 positions, with disability aides making up 72% of all vacancies.

Tom Babauta, the assistant superintendent of the Division of Special Education, said, “We have 112 students who are identified as needing disability aide; however, in their educational plan, however, we do not have that in place. We have 10 CRT TAs."

“We are short eight speech and language pathologists, six school psychologists, four program coordinators IVs.”

Babauta provided additional insight into what’s driving these shortages, saying, “We don’t have a unique situation here on Guam. It’s not that we’re short and the rest of the country is doing fine. The shortages mirror the shortages across the country. There is a limited amount of occupational therapists, a limited amount of physical therapists, a limited amount of psychologists, and speech therapists, and because it is a highly specialized and licensed profession, people are always looking for better opportunities, so there is a high turnover rate across the country.”

He also noted other factors contributing to attrition, including retirement, limited opportunities for upward mobility, burnout, and dual workload—along with the suspension of the Bonus Retention Incentives Program, which he says is now being revisited after 20 years of going un-updated. Uncertainty on the federal level has also made it difficult to offer full-time positions.

Meanwhile, Babauta says efforts are underway to fill special education teacher vacancies—which dropped from 26 to 6 from School Year '23–'24 to School Year '25–'26. This includes a partnership with the University of Guam for a certification program in which GDOE pays for the first set of teachers to complete coursework, with a projection of 9 new special education teachers.

Also underway: GDOE is working with UOG on an online master’s program for other teachers to earn their credentials.