Hawaii’s education system is weighing how long “emergency hire” teachers should be allowed to work without a Hawaiʻi teaching license, as the state’s teacher shortage continues to push administrators toward staffing models that rely on people still in the licensing pipeline. The debate has intensified after Hawaiʻi officials said the Department of Education employed roughly 1,000 emergency hires this year—about 8% of the overall teacher workforce and more than double the number from four years ago—while some parts of the state have emergency hires making up more than 15% of teaching staff.
For Anton Avanozian, an emergency hire at Baldwin High School on Maui, the rules are personal and time-sensitive. Avanozian, who has an emergency hire permit that allows people with a bachelor’s degree but no teacher’s license to work in classrooms for up to three years while they complete coursework and tests, said he is trying to finish his program before a deadline next summer but still worries what happens if he does not. “I’m applying a lot of pressure on myself to get it done,” Avanozian said. “I’m really pushing towards it, but I do have that worry in the back of my mind, what if it doesn’t work out?”
At issue for lawmakers is whether that three-year clock is too short for people to earn credentials while working full time, or whether extending it risks normalizing a large share of staff who are still unlicensed. A package of bills now being considered would allow emergency hires to work in schools for five years instead of three, sparking debate among some lawmakers and the teacher licensing board about the role unlicensed teachers should play in Hawaiʻi classrooms. Rep. Andrew Garrett, who introduced one bill at the Department of Education’s request, said his concern is that emergency hires are becoming treated as a permanent part of the workforce. “My concern is that we’re accepting them as an integral part of the workforce for teachers,” Garrett said. “I just want to make sure that we don’t get too reliant on this.”
The DOE’s argument centers on retention and continuity. Deputy Superintendent Tammi Oyadomari-Chun told lawmakers in a recent hearing that extending emergency hire permits beyond the three-year limit could affect hundreds of teachers who are currently in their third year and need to earn their licenses to remain with the DOE. She said roughly 150 to 200 teachers are currently in their third year as emergency hires, meaning they need to earn their license by the end of this school year to continue working for the department. Oyadomari-Chun also said the department regularly checks that emergency hires are making progress toward their licenses and pairs them with more experienced teachers for mentorship.
However, when lawmakers pushed education officials for performance and outcome data, the DOE could not provide figures on how many emergency hires receive their licenses in three years or how long employees would ideally need to finish the licensing program. The teacher standards board chair, Kristi Miyamae, said the board also does not have easily accessible data on how many licenses are awarded to emergency hires in their third year because licenses are granted case-by-case.
Oyadomari-Chun acknowledged the argument for extending the pathway, but she also said the department lacks data to support a particular number of years. “Moving beyond the three years is important,” Oyadomari-Chun said. “But whether it’s five or 10 is the magic number, there’s no data to back up that choice.”
The debate includes comparisons to other states and concerns about academic effectiveness. Studies from other states that loosened their teaching requirements during the pandemic show that emergency hires tend to be less effective than licensed educators. The AP report said that in Texas, students who were taught high school math by an unlicensed educator received the equivalent of nearly five months of instruction compared with a full nine months from a licensed teacher, citing a 2024 report from the University of Texas at Austin. The report also said researchers found emergency hires face greater early-career challenges in the classroom and experience higher turnover than licensed teachers—conditions that could make retention harder for schools that increasingly depend on emergency hires.
Lawmakers and advocates also argue that extended emergency permits could deepen inequities, because some communities already rely more heavily on unlicensed teachers. In the 2023-24 academic year, the report said Lānaʻi employed the greatest number of unlicensed teachers, followed by the Kūlanihākoʻi and Waiʻanae complexes. Diane Gibson, an instruction and professional development specialist with the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association, said training and licensing timelines typically run from 18 months to two years but are not designed with all emergency hires’ schedules in mind. Gibson said not all licensing programs can accommodate teachers who work full time and that emergency hires may have families and other responsibilities taking up time outside the school day.
Gibson also pointed to how licensing options available to emergency hires could affect whether they can complete requirements within the current limits. The report said the state standards board has paused work on vetting and approving additional mainland programs that offer teacher licenses, to ensure quality of the 14 programs currently authorized, most of which are offered through Hawaiʻi universities. Gibson said some outside programs excluded from Hawaiʻi’s approved licensing pathways offer more online or affordable options that could fit emergency hires’ needs.
The pressure is especially visible in districts that administrators say struggle to fill positions. At Ke’elikōlani Middle School in Honolulu, teacher Nathan Sellner said he saw learning gains after taking over a science position previously filled by substitutes, according to the report. Sellner, who started as an emergency hire and earned his teacher license halfway through last year, said in the report that it is important for students to have a qualified teacher as soon as possible.
Hawaiʻi has also relied on international teachers to address hard-to-staff rural schools, in part through emergency hire mechanisms. The report said that this year, the DOE employed more than 300 international teachers who work as emergency hires until they can receive a Hawaiʻi license, and that at Lānaʻi High and Elementary School, emergency hires make up nearly a third of the teaching staff, with many international hires bringing classroom experience and licenses from elsewhere. Principal Douglas Boyer said the influx of international teachers helped the school offer more classes and prevented it from leaning on vice principals or long-term substitutes, and he said the teachers helped create consistency for students and broaden course offerings.
Sen. Troy Hashimoto said the licensing burden can be a barrier for some international hires. The report said Hashimoto described licensing exams as costly and introduced a bill that would require the teacher standards board to develop a teaching permit to allow international hires to work in Hawaiʻi schools for the full five years of their visa. Hashimoto also said he wants the standards board and universities to consider ways to evaluate international teachers’ qualifications without relying on expensive licensing programs and exams. “It’s trying to help us to bridge the gap,” Hashimoto said. “I think we cannot believe that this is a permanent fix.” Even with a longer emergency pathway for both local and international hires, he said Hawaiʻi still needs additional strategies to attract and retain more educators in public schools.