Candace Black has been teaching special education at Burdell-Hunt Elementary for 13 years and she says it's her passion.
"I truly love what I do. I feel this is my calling, and I'm enthusiastic about working with our students with disabilities," Black said.
This school year, Bibb County struggled to fill 9 special education teaching positions. Now, four are still open.
Assistant Superintendent Paige Busbee says the certification needed to teach education is a major barrier.
"It's a high area where we just see a huge shortage across the state, so we're just constantly looking for ways to get teachers motivated and interested in going back and obtaining the certification to be in those special classrooms," Busbee said.
Bibb County is a Strategic Waiver School District. They can waive certification for critical courses such as math and science. Teachers who have yet to pursue certification for the course can still teach.
However, the federal law "Every Student Succeeds Act" prohibits waiving certification for special education.
"That's one of the reasons we feel that all of our critical areas that special ed is our last big hill that we've got to climb over to get all of our positions filled," Busbee said.
Bibb County currently has 211 special education teachers and their class sizes range from 7 up to 12 students per teacher.
Candace Black says she couldn't imagine doing anything else.
"That's my passion, ever since leaving college -- working with individuals with disabilities. It didn't matter if it was children or adults, I'm just passionate about that population of people," Black said.