The Colorado Department of Education’s statewide survey released Thursday revealed that pandemic education needs have shifted from technology to staffing.

The survey, conducted in October, received responses from around 78% of Colorado school districts representing 90% of public school students.

When averaging district responses by region, only 9.25% of districts reported having a sufficient number of substitute teachers. Less than 39% said the same for bus drivers and 64.5% for special education teachers.

In the metropolitan region, 50% of districts also reported having an insufficient number of janitorial staff. In the northwest, 70% reported an insufficient number of classroom teachers.

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“Our teachers and districts have worked miracles to provide safe, quality learning environments for our students … especially when you consider the staffing shortages so many of them are up against,” said Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes.

“I’m hopeful this inventory can help us target additional resources to support our teachers, students and districts through the long haul of this pandemic.”

In the survey, districts were also asked to select their top teacher and student priorities.

The most popular teacher priorities were supporting teachers’ mental health, professional development and physical health. Student priorities were kindergarten through third-grade reading loss, high schoolers’ mental health and middle schoolers’ mental health.

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“These are all critical challenges we need to address statewide to give all students the education they deserve,” said Rebecca Holmes with the Colorado Education Initiative.

The survey was the second conducted to assess Colorado’s education needs since the COVID-19 pandemic began. In the first spring survey, a lack of technological devices and internet connectivity were among the leading issues.

The results from the first survey helped inform funding and policy changes in the state. Since then, the 53,000 students in need of devices and 65,860 students in need of wifi have decreased to approximately 30,000 students in both categories.

The complete report of the new survey is available at cde.state.co.us.