Lincoln Public Schools expands 'Grow Your Own' teacher pipelines, aims for 28 new special-education hires by 2027

Lincoln Public Schools trustees heard a detailed update Feb. 11 on the district’s Grow Your Own career pathways, a set of apprenticeship and partnership programs designed to increase the number of certified and classified staff and create hiring pipelines into special education and early childhood classrooms.

The report, led by Barb Miller, the district’s emerging educators empowerment specialist, and introduced by Van Price, described three special-education “cadres” and multiple early-childhood tracks that pair current paraeducators and classified staff with university partners and on-the-job mentors.

Miller said the first special-education pathway, launched in fall 2023 in partnership with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), is a 2½-year program for paraeducators who already hold baccalaureate degrees and combines evening and summer coursework with district support. That program is expected to yield about 12 eligible hires for special education by late 2025 or spring 2026, Miller said. A second, one-year registered apprenticeship (also in partnership with UNL) began in spring 2024 and has seven participants who will be eligible for hire in 2025. A third, two-and-a-half-year apprenticeship started in January and is open to classified staff; Miller said that cohort should produce nine additional eligible hires in 2027.

“Within the next four years with our Grow Your Own, we actually have 28 teachers that will be certified to teach special education,” Miller said.

Miller described the registered apprenticeship model as competency-based: participants complete summer foundational training, then work during the school year under a designated mentor (referred to in the presentation as a “journey worker”) while being assessed on NDE (Nebraska Department of Education) teacher-preparation competencies. Miller said NDE applied for apprenticeship grant funding that allowed LPS to register the pathway with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Kara Lucas presented the Early Childhood Avenues Program, which the district said includes three tracks (Avenue A, B and C). Avenue A is a UNL partnership that places junior-year UNL students in inclusive early-childhood classrooms; eight students began that cohort in January and are working in LPS classrooms this semester. Lucas said those participants are on pathways that make them eligible for the district’s four certified early-childhood positions upon completion.

Board members asked about financial support and capacity. Miller said tuition assistance was part of the UNL partnership for the first pathway and that the apprenticeship model provides on-the-job training; she said the partners worked to cover tuition costs for participants and that the district had received additional interest from other institutions wanting to collaborate.

Trustees and district staff described positive early outcomes and an active pipeline of applicants. Several board members encouraged expanding similar approaches to other hard-to-fill roles, such as counselors, and asked whether the district had capacity to sustain the paraeducator pipeline; Miller said staff inquiries were already coming in.

The district framed the Grow Your Own effort as a strategic response to staffing shortages and a way to retain and develop local talent through partnerships with UNL and federally-registered apprenticeship pathways. No formal board action was requested the night of the presentation; staff said the programs are ongoing and will continue to expand pending grant opportunities and partner agreements.

Miller and Lucas accepted congratulations from trustees and answered procedural questions about timelines and eligibility.