The Shadow
Richmond, VA – The Virginia Department of Education today announced major progress in restoring strength and stability to the Commonwealth’s educator workforce. Since 2023, teacher vacancies have declined by 35.9% percent, while teacher salaries have increased significantly across Virginia.
Virginia has invested significant funding for teacher pay between FY2023-FY2026, bringing many divisions above national averages for starting salaries Governor Youngkin signed into law funding for state support of teacher salary increases of 19.3% over the last 4 years.
The number of teaching vacancies in the Commonwealth declined for the third consecutive year based on positions and exit data submitted by school divisions from 3.9% in 2023-2024 to 2.5% in 2025-2026, a 35.9% decrease in vacancies. Eighteen divisions reported zero vacancies and all Governor’s Schools reported zero vacancies.
Teacher vacancies declined in most Superintendent’s Regions, with Superintendent Region 7 (Southwest) leading the way at 1.1% teacher vacancies, Superintendent Region 4 (Northern Virginia) at 1.2%, and Superintendent Region 6 (Western Virginia) at 1.3%. Two Superintendent Regions had slight increases in teacher vacancies.
“Teacher vacancies are down from their post-pandemic peak; that is no coincidence. Virginia is delivering results,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “By raising teacher pay by 19% over the course of my Administration, implementing cell phone-free education across the Commonwealth, strengthening our nationally recognized academic standards, and addressing the teacher licensing system so that it works for Virginia and Virginia teachers, we have made sure that, in the Commonwealth, educators feel valued, supported, and empowered.”
Governor Youngkin continued, “This success illustrates our renewed focus on outcomes. Together with the teachers, principals, and school leaders whose dedication drives forward excellence in the classroom, we are rebuilding a strong, stable educator workforce that serves every student.”
Over the past four school years, Virginia has invested in research-based strategies that contributed to teacher vacancy reductions:
- Governor Youngkin’s Executive Directive 3 resulted in faster hiring, more flexibility to fill teacher vacancies, and stronger support for staffing schools, especially where shortages were the greatest, to ensure Virginia students have qualified teachers in every classroom.
- Signed into law universal teacher license reciprocity to grant immediate licensure to allow experienced educators to move to Virginia classrooms more easily. 4,535 universal teacher licenses have been granted to date.
- Expanded registered apprenticeships to 241 teachers, 32 principal apprenticeships within 65 school divisions, and 194 teacher residents across 30 school divisions in residency programs to recruit and train the next generation of teachers.
- Approved local alternative pathways and alternative providers, such as iteach, to empower subject-matter experts and career switchers with bachelor’s degrees. This targeted training led to over 2,000 enrolled teaching candidates and 600 completers.
- Between 2022 and 2025, 162 new program options were added to traditional educator preparation programs to meet high-demand sector needs.
- Added 17,598 endorsements to 16,988 teacher licenses from 2022 to 2025, demonstrating significant upskilling and expanded expertise across Virginia’s educator workforce.
- Invested $48,255,815, between FY2023 and FY2025, in both state and federal grant funding to support teacher preparation and retention.
- Overhauled the teacher licensing process by replacing the paper-based system with the Virginia Licensure Online System (VALO), resulting in less bureaucracy for teachers, and faster, more efficient application processing with turnaround times of some applications in as little as two days. The Department is also in partnership with Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence to further streamline and automate the application review process.
- Utilized outcomes from the Virginia School Survey of Climate and Working Conditions to inform supports to continuously improve educator work environments.
- Established Bell-to-Bell Cell Phone-Free Education statewide, empowering teachers with more engaged classrooms, fewer disruptions, and improved student well-being.
- Notably, the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Regional Teachers of the Year shared with the Department that students are more focused and present, both academically and socially, without cell phones. Teachers are reporting improved attendance, stronger peer interactions, better eye contact and connections, and fewer conflicts driven by online activity.
- Overall, Bell-to-Bell Cell Phone-Free Education is creating safer, more productive school environments and helping restore classrooms where teachers can teach, students can learn, and everyone can thrive.
“Virginia’s results prove that smart bipartisan reforms and commonsense leadership make a difference,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Emily Anne Gullickson. “We’re attracting new talent, empowering local leaders with more tools for hiring excellent teaching candidates, improving our ability to compete with other states for talent, and cutting through layers of bureaucracy that for too long made it harder to put qualified teachers in classrooms. This is what it looks like when accountability and innovation come together in service to students.”
The 2025 Virginia School Survey results from elementary and middle school teachers found 90.6% of Virginia public school teachers intend to continue teaching. In comparison to 2022, 84.3% of teachers responded favorably to the intention to continuing to teach in Virginia, an increase of 6.3%.
The Department continues to partner with local divisions, higher education institutions, alternative teacher preparation programs, and private sector leaders to expand recruitment, particularly in high-demand areas such as special education, STEM, and early childhood.
“These results reflect the heart, commitment, and excellence of Virginia educators,” said Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera. “By investing in our teachers and opening up new pathways into the profession, the Commonwealth puts students, and those who serve them, first. I’m grateful to every teacher and school leader who helped drive this profound progress towards a stronger teacher workforce, and a stronger future for every Virginia child.”
Additional information and details, including dashboard and division level salary increase data will be provided to the Board of Education at their December 10, 2025, work session during Item B.
