Will Larsen began his career in education when he took a job at Glasgow Middle School as a teacher’s assistant in the special-education department. Before that, he worked in the oil fields.
Last spring, he got an offer to work at the school as more than an assistant. The science teacher was gone, and the school needed help - fast.
“The principal came to me and was like, “Hey, we know you're working on your teaching degree, so-and-so had to step away. Would you be willing to step in?”,” he said.
Larsen began to teach the middle school’s science course under an Emergency Authorized license. It’s a temporary license developed by Montana’s Office of Public Instruction for these exact situations: a school needs a teacher and there’s no fully licensed instructor who will take the job.
Larsen eventually moved to teach science at Wolf Point High School under the same type of emergency license.
“I’m a history social studies guy but, you know, you adapt to whatever spots are available,” he said. “So right now, I'm a science guy.”
Schools across the state struggle to fill staffing vacancies. And while improving teacher pay and retention has been a top priority for the Montana Legislature, schools often turn to emergency authorized licenses to fill the gaps.
But data show schools in some rural communities rely on this tool more than others. This has caused concern that a tool created as a temporary fix has turned into a long-term crutch.
Seventy-five percent of districts in northeastern Montana have emergency licensed teachers, according to the School Administrators of Montana.
Teachers under an emergency license may bring other life experience into the classroom but they often lack formal training on skills vital to teaching, like creating lesson plans.
Some, like the head of the School Administrators of Montana, worry about equitability in public education when more teachers aren’t fully licensed. Executive Director Rob Watson says it’s important that every student has the best opportunity to succeed, regardless of where they live.
“The more and more emergency authorized that just tells us that we've got folks out there working in classrooms that may have some pieces of the requirement to be a teacher, but they don't have all of it,” he said.
In 2023, there were 1,000 vacant teaching positions across the state that needed to be filled, according to the state education department. The number of emerging teachers fails to meet those vacancy numbers. Over half of newly licensed teachers leave the state or profession within the first three years.
The Frazer School District on the Fort Peck Reservation has about 30 students. Fort Peck Tribes’ Education Director Rena Lambert says they struggle to recruit:
“It's hard to find housing,” she said. “I know a lot of the schools are trying to build teacher housing.
Back in Wolf Point, Larsen is one of 17 Emergency Authorized teachers in the school district, according to January data from Montana’s education department. Superintendent David Perkins said their remote location in northeastern Montana and pay limits make it hard to recruit from outside the community.
“It's hard to find staff,” he said. “They aren't coming out of the colleges the way they used to. The pandemic really hurt some of that as well.”
Perkins says he’s working to reduce the district’s emergency licenses by supporting people like Larsen who are seeking a full-time teaching career. He developed an agreement with the teachers’ union requiring EA teachers to make some progress toward certification each year. He hopes to grow teachers from within their community.
“Because when you do that, then you've got a loyal employee and you hire good people and they're from here,” he said. “What more can you ask? That's about as good as it gets.”
Larsen is an example of what many hope for from an emergency licensed teacher. He’s working on his teaching degree and hopes to continue his career in a classroom.
In the fall, Larsen says he was honored when he was presented with a star quilt by one of his students.
“She's like you're not even a science guy and you're teaching us science you know in a way that's that's easy for us to learn,” he said. “So, that really stood out to me.”
He plans to finish his degree by 2026.
Montana Public Radio is a public service of the University of Montana. State government coverage is funded in part through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
