Maryland’s state superintendent announced Monday that vacancies in teacher positions have decreased significantly.

“We have moved collaboratively, strategically and cohesively to get more teachers in Maryland classrooms and keep them there,” Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright said.

The teacher vacancy rate has fallen more than 73% over the last four years, “even lower than prepandemic numbers,” she said.

Education officials said the change is due to things such as salary increases, recruitment programs and retention efforts.

“I want Maryland to have the best schools in the world, and that means every classroom must have a dedicated teacher ready to engage and mentor the next generation,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement. “Our administration has tackled barriers to entry and strategically invested to create opportunities for passionate educators to pursue their dream of teaching. We are proud of the historic progress we’ve made, and we won’t stop until every vacancy is filled to deliver the world class education our students deserve.”

In total, teacher vacancies dropped from more than 2,000 in the 2022 to 2023 school year to 572 this year. 

“This is the result of hard work by our districts to recruit passionate educators for our students and create the conditions to retain them,” Wright said.

More than 64,000 educators work in Maryland public schools.

The largest teacher vacancy decline was 45.3% between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

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