Michigan Special Education Teachers Will Be Even Better Prepared to Help Students

State Board of Education Approves New Standards

LANSING – Special education teachers in Michigan will be better able to educate children who receive special education services through new standards approved by the State Board of Education.

The new standards will inform Michigan’s educator preparation universities and colleges in developing special education teacher programs and making continuous improvements to those programs.

Teachers who complete these new endorsement programs will have a strong understanding of special education requirements and strategies. They will be able to meet the needs of a broad range of students in a classroom environment that is the best fit for students’ needs.

“Today is a big day for Michigan students who receive special education services and their parents and guardians,” State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice said after Tuesday’s approval of the new standards. “Special education teachers will be better prepared to educate and support their students in the coming years.”

The standards create the opportunity for the MDE to add a new endorsement titled special education teacher. The endorsement is intended to stand alone on a Michigan teaching certificate but can also be combined with other endorsements in general or special education. It would be an addition to Michigan’s current special education endorsement options.

Special education teachers prepared with these standards will provide support for students with special needs who are receiving instruction in core content areas by general education teachers endorsed in content areas. 

“These new standards support Goal 7 of Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan, to increase the number of teachers in areas of shortage,” said Dr. Michele Harmala, deputy superintendent of MDE’s Division of Educator Excellence, Career and Technical Education, Special Education, and Administrative Law. “A committee of stakeholders including representation from K-12 special education teachers, administrators, college and university teacher educators, and parents developed standards that are aligned with the Council for Exceptional Children’s Initial Practice-Based Professional Preparation Standards for Special Educators.”

Dr. Gina Garner, higher education consultant for the MDE Office of Educator Excellence, said the new standards will ease the process for people seeking special education credentials and for special education teachers from other states who come to Michigan to teach.

The committee met from August 2023 through August 2024 to develop the new special education teacher standards.

After the committee presented the proposed standards at a January 2025 State Board of Education meeting, the committee accepted public comment until Feb. 27 through an online survey. One hundred twenty-eight people participated in the survey, including parents, educators and local school board members. Committee members reviewed the feedback and adjusted four of the proposed standards for increased clarity. Eighty percent of those surveyed either fully supported (37%) the proposed standards or supported them with minor revision (43%).

The new standards are “huge” for special education, said Ms. Valencia Cade, a member of the committee and supervisor of special education for Ferndale Schools.

“The standards will give people a great path to reach that special education certification and to be able to focus on special education and good teaching practices at the same time and not separately,” she said.

The new standards strengthen the focus of educator preparation for special education teachers so that teachers can better support students being educated in the least-restrictive environment possible, expand students’ access to general education, and provide teachers with cross-cutting instructional skills so they can support students with various disabilities.

Educators with the new endorsement can teach in the following special education programs: cognitive impairment, emotional impairment, programs for students with specific learning disabilities, physical impairment or other health impairment, elementary and secondary level resource.

A teacher with the new endorsement cannot be placed in the following special education programs, which will continue to require their existing endorsement: autism spectrum disorder, early childhood special education, deaf and hard of hearing, visual impairment, adapted physical education services, and speech and language impairment services.

Key shifts from the previous special education endorsements in various categories to the new special education teacher endorsement include the following:

• While special education endorsements in specific categories are paired with an endorsement in general education content, the new special education endorsement can be a stand-alone endorsement without an endorsement in general education content. The preparation program for this endorsement is deeply focused on special education, so the teacher will be deeply prepared in understanding legal requirements and instructional strategies for students in these programs. Additionally, because of the embedded foundational content area standards, these teachers will be prepared to support student progress across all content areas.
• While special education endorsements in specific categories are reliant on the teacher’s choice of a general education content endorsement, with the new endorsement the teacher is prepared to support reading and math development, support learning of core content in general education, and provide positive student educational outcomes.
• While endorsements in specific categories require a teacher’s placement to match the endorsement, there is more flexibility for teacher placement in select programs through the new special education teacher endorsement.

Implementation of the new standards will begin immediately with educator preparation programs aligning their programs to the new standards. Prospective special educators will enter the new programs in fall 2026 and teachers will begin to enter the field with the new special education teacher endorsement by spring 2028.

Michigan currently has about 12,000 special education teachers.

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