A Montgomery County special education teacher said the budget approved by the Board of Education for 2026 “made my heart just burst with joy.”
Stephanie Gawlinski, who teaches at Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring, Maryland, said the demands of the job have caused some special educators to leave midyear, which is “devastating.”
“That gives you a little bit of an idea of what conditions must be like for people to leave midyear,” she added.
Gawlinski spoke to reporters during a briefing on Wednesday led by Montgomery County Chief Administrative Officer Richard Madaleno.
Included in the Montgomery County Public Schools $3.65 billion budget is $46.7 million for special education. That funding includes hiring 500 new paraeducators, something Gawlinski said is notable, because special education teachers don’t often have the support staff they need alongside them in the classroom.
Gawlinski said that can impact efforts to recruit special education teachers who may be told that the school system will try to have the needed in-classroom support.
“Really, all these responsibilities are just going to be on you,” she said.
On Tuesday, nine of the 11 Montgomery County Council members outlined at a news conference how they had managed to come up with a plan to fund nearly all of the school system’s budget by dipping into an employee retirement benefits fund.
She said the news that the county council had come up with a plan to fund 99.8% of the school system’s requested budget has been welcomed by educators. She credited MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor with crafting a budget that meets the needs of special educators.
“The superintendent recognizes that without these positions, without this support, we’re going to keep losing special educators, and it’s going to be even harder to provide the services that are legally required for our students,” Gawlinski said of the increased staffing levels proposed in the budget.
As she noted the demands that special educators have placed upon them, from adhering to Individual Education Plans or helping students with physical needs go to the toilet, she said what keeps her motivated is the belief that “every student can be successful.”
Gawlinski said she has a younger brother with Down syndrome, and remembered attending his IEP meetings and meeting his teachers.
“And I could see the immense difference that it had on our family when he had a really good special educator, versus when he had someone who really didn’t want to be there. I really stay because I think that the students that I work with now, the students that I’ve worked with in the past, they deserve the best,” she said.
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