As Kristina Stadelman cradled her 3-day-old son, she said she was trying not to focus on the demand letter from the Oklahoma State Department of Education in front of her.
“I haven’t had the time to really wrap my head around it,” she said. “I didn’t want to ruin this moment. I want it to be enjoyed and I don’t want to have something like this bearing over me.”
Stadelman teaches special education to kindergarten through fourth-grade students in the Oklahoma City metro area. In 2023, she applied for the state’s new Teacher Signing Bonus program , which aims to address a critical shortage of early education and special education teachers. The $16 million program drew half its funding from unused federal pandemic relief money and the rest from funds allocated for students with disabilities.
To be eligible, educators had to commit to teaching elementary or special education for five years and couldn’t have taught full time with standard certification the year before in Oklahoma. Teachers working in rural or high-poverty schools qualified for bigger amounts. The department gave 522 teachers these bonuses, ranging from $15,000 to $50,000 each.