UPDATE: Due to inclement weather, this event and all District 49 afternoon and evening activities for Jan. 30 have been canceled. The event will be rescheduled for a later date.

As shortages in the education workforce linger on across Colorado, School District 49 will be hosting state leaders, neighboring school districts, local universities and anyone interested in becoming a teacher.

This Thursday, the nonprofit organization TEACH Colorado will welcome aspiring educators to D-49’s Creekside Success Center and highlight different pathways to becoming a teacher in Colorado.

Attendees will learn how to earn a teaching license to pair with their bachelor’s or master’s degree along with alternatives to this traditional approach.

Representatives from CSU Pueblo, Public Education and Business Coalition, University of Colorado Colorado Springs and University of Colorado Denver’s ASPIRE also will take part in the public session. They also be joined by representatives from Academy D-20, Schools D-11 and Fountain-Fort Carson School D-8.

The gathering will be the latest in a series of sessions held by the Colorado Department of Education, TEACH Colorado and partnering school districts across the state.

Colorado Department of Education Chief Talent Officer Margarita​​​​ Tovar said they have been hosting traditional career fairs along in addition to these more informational sessions to promote all the different ways to become an educator.

“And so, folks can come in without feeling the pressure of having to make a career commitment,” she said.

She added that the session locations were selected based on areas across the state that experienced significant shortages. In the case of the Pikes Peak region, about 200 positions remained unfilled during the past academic year.

“We wanted to make sure that we specifically targeted areas, based on our critical shortage data, who are in need of these events earlier on in the year outside of regular hiring seasons,” she said.

In the state’s educator shortage survey for the 2023-24 school year, 635 teaching vacancies went unfilled across the state. When accounting for additional groups like paraprofessionals and special service providers, special-education positions were the largest group left unfilled.

Tovar said there are over 20 different paths to becoming a teacher in the state while additional solutions have been developed in recent years to increase access to the profession.

The state’s Educator Recruitment and Retention Program was first established in 2021 and has since expanded to provide applicants up to $10,000 in stipends toward their educator preparation program costs if they commit to teaching at a public school.

In 2023, Colorado Senate Bill 23-087 was signed into law, which expanded teaching licensure opportunities through on-the-job training alongside a mentor.

Tovar said these new options have expanded the talent pool in the profession. She explained how educators from different fields and backgrounds bring new perspectives to classrooms, while other candidates previously unable to complete college degrees due to socioeconomic circumstances can now consider teaching as a career option.

“Some of the folks just simply didn’t even enter the pathway at all, especially our lower-income folks who cannot take their day job out of their … financial planning” she said. “And so, teaching was just seen as this career that was maybe for the middle class.”

Tovar said that there will be future sessions to continue throughout the year, with another one slated to be hosted by D-20 next month.