Cortez Masto calls for J-1 visa changes to keep teachers at CCSD
U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is calling for the federal government to make changes to certain visa requirements to allow teachers from the Philippines to stay for longer in Nevada schools.
In a Feb. 14 letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ur Jaddou, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Masto requests waiving a two-year foreign residence requirement under the J-1 non-immigrant visa for Nevada’s cultural exchange educators.
More than 60 special education teachers from the Philippines will have to leave Nevada in June after they complete the visa program, Cortez Masto wrote in the letter her office released to the Review-Journal.
That will “significantly strain” the Clark County School District, the largest district in the state, she added, noting the district has increasingly relied on international teachers in recent years to fill vacancies.
“As CCSD faces critical teacher shortages, waiving the requirement and allowing J-1 visa educators to continue to fill these teaching positions will keep schools open and enhance student learning during the ongoing public health crisis,” according to the letter.
J-1 visas allow educators from other counties to work in the United States for three years, with a one- or two-year extension allowed based on need.
“While teachers are able to re-apply for the visa, they are required to reside outside of the U.S. for two years following their initial program’s completion,” Cortez Masto wrote.
Many of Nevada’s teachers from the Philippines “now face unprecedented hardships in returning to their home countries,” she wrote.
The Clark and Washoe County school districts are the only two in the state that the Nevada Department of Education is aware of that employ educators on a J-1 visa, said Allegra Demerjian, spokeswoman for the state department of education.
The state doesn’t have data on the number of J-1 visa teachers from the Philippines or other countries in each school district.
Statewide, there were more than 40 J-1 special education teachers from the Philippines in 2021, 57 in 2019, 105 in 2018 and 84 in 2017, according to Cortez Masto’s letter.
The Clark County School District began employing J-1 teachers during the 2017-18 school year and has approximately 345 educators from the Philippines through the visa program this school year, the district said in a statement to the Review-Journal.
“For the last five years, CCSD has hired passionate and effective educators on J-1 Visas,” the district said in a statement. “These educators have filled critical roles in CCSD and served some of our most vulnerable students. Many of our administrators continued to praise these individuals for what they have added to their school communities in support of student success and school climate.”
Teachers are hired in “high needs areas” — special education, elementary education, math and science, according to the district’s website.
The district has faced staffing shortages this school year and had about 1,270 teacher vacancies as of Friday.
Staffing shortages have led some schools to ask teachers to sell their prep periods in order to cover day-to-day or longer-term vacancies.
And due to a lack of substitute teachers, some schools are left to combine two or more classes for a day into a large space such as an auditorium or school library.
Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.