ALBANY -- New York is facing a teaching shortage as older teachers retire and fewer college graduates are going into the profession.
But there are opportunities in schools: Prospective teachers just need to find them, a report Wednesday from state School Boards Association said.
"What we found was that teacher shortages in New York exist largely in such hard-to-staff subjects as science, math, special education, English as a second language, bilingual education, foreign languages and technology," Timothy Kremer, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
The drop in the ranks of teachers in New York is part of a national problem, and state leaders have taken a number of steps to try to reverse the trend.
Last year, for example, SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and the state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia launched TeachNY to bolster the teaching ranks, saying New York will need 1.6 million new teachers over the next decade.
The state's Teacher Retirement System last year said active educators in the system fell 4.5 percent between 2011 and 2015, while retirees rose 8 percent, or by 11,600 retired workers.
And teaching has become less popular among college students: Enrollment in teaching programs within the State University of New York system fell a whopping 40 percent over the past five years, a review of records last fall by the USA Today Network's Albany Bureau found.
But the report from School Boards Association, which surveyed superintendents, found there are opportunities in schools for new teachers -- if they choose the right community and subject to teach.
The association cited U.S. Department of Education statistics from last year that showed New York didn't have widespread shortages -- only in certain subject areas, specifically bilingual education, career and technical education, and special education.
New York City had the greatest number of shortages across the most subjects, while the largest districts outside the city -- Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers -- were all in need of teachers for bilingual and special education classes.
Yet a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality said that in the 2012-13 school year, New York had a supply of 6,119 new elementary teachers, but only 2,470 openings.
Of the New York superintendents surveyed, 60 percent said they had difficulty finding teachers for many science programs, as well as special education and foreign languages.
"New York appears to have an overabundance of teachers in subjects with the least demand, such as elementary education, but the fields in which they are most needed are in areas such as science, math, special education and English as a second language," Kremer said.
The group recommended the state work to better align teaching programs to the areas of need, develop greater recruitment efforts and offer higher pay for teachers in hard-to-fill positions.
The group also encouraged the state to make it easier for school districts to hire part-time teachers and for teachers to transfer their certification from one state to another.
