“Although on paper, it looks like we have a vacancy, we don't have a void,” says superintendent Michael Sasscer. Edenton-Chowan Schools is pairing a new or substitute teacher with an experienced teacher in a co-teaching relationship to fill its vacancies.

Superintendents from 98 of 115 school districts reported their district's current vacancies to the North Carolina School Superintendents Association this month.

Every former teacher had a breaking point. A high school teacher from Orange County, a special education teacher from Forsyth County and an elementary teacher from Wake County describe the stresses of a career in teaching and how the pandemic led them to examine their priorities.

Enrollment at public teaching colleges in North Carolina dropped over the past decade. The NC Teaching Fellows loan-forgiveness program once attracted education majors to colleges across the state. After the General Assembly ended and then resurrected the program, some participating schools are now seeing a rebound.

Students may be on summer break, but school principals are hard at work using these months to find a qualified, well-prepared teacher for every classroom come fall. Teacher turnover was higher than usual in some North Carolina districts this past year.