Nearly one in five New York school districts responding to a State Comptroller survey said geography was making it harder to hire teachers. Of the 244 districts that responded, 48 identified location as a recruitment obstacle. Among the 25 rural districts in that group, officials pointed to low salaries and limited housing for young teachers. Twenty-three of those 25 districts also said they were unaware of state grant programs intended to help address teacher shortages.

Those findings are part of an audit released September 10 by Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli examining how the State Education Department administered four teacher-shortage grant programs from July 2019 through August 2025. During that period, the state made $191.3 million available, awarded $155 million and recorded $118.9 million in spending. That left $72.4 million either unawarded or unspent by recipients.

Much of the initial attention has focused on the roughly $36 million NYSED never awarded. For districts preparing 2027-28 staffing plans, however, the larger management issue is the full $72.4 million gap. About half of that amount had already been awarded to districts or colleges but was never spent.

Where the Money Stalled

The audit covered Teachers of Tomorrow and its companion program for science, mathematics, bilingual education and English as a new language, along with the Teacher Opportunity Corps II, the Mentor Teacher Internship Program and the Teacher Diversity Pipeline Pilot. Teachers of Tomorrow accounted for most of the funding, with annual appropriations of $25 million, or $150 million across the audit period. Of that amount, $120.6 million was awarded to 44 districts and $94.8 million was spent. The resulting $55.2 million gap represented more than three quarters of all unspent or unawarded funding identified by auditors.

Forty of the 44 districts participating in Teachers of Tomorrow failed to spend their full awards. Unused balances ranged from $1,914 to $6.2 million. Ten districts underspent every year from 2019 through 2025, receiving a combined $34 million but spending only $15 million. Across all four programs, $60 million in unused funds returned to the state's General Support for Public Schools appropriation. Another $12.5 million carried forward within Teacher Opportunity Corps II, the only program whose appropriation language permits rollover.

Districts gave auditors several explanations for the underspending. Candidates for the science and mathematics program must hold a transitional certificate, narrowing an already limited applicant pool. Service agreements assumed teachers would begin work in September even when new hires arrived in October or later. Mentor and intern pairings sometimes fell apart because districts could not find substitute teachers to cover release time. One district reported requesting less money the following year after underspending its award, only to be encouraged by NYSED to seek a larger amount.

Most Eligible Districts Never Applied

Participation rates across the four programs were strikingly low. During the 2022-26 Teachers of Tomorrow cycle, only 27 of 609 eligible districts applied, a participation rate of about 4 percent. The companion science and mathematics program received 11 applications from 158 eligible districts. The Mentor Teacher Internship Program, established in 1986, drew 20 applicants from 726 eligible districts in 2024, down from 25 applicants five years earlier.

To understand the lack of participation, auditors surveyed 692 districts outside New York City and received 244 responses. Of those respondents, 210 had not participated in any of the four programs. Among the non-participants, 190 said they did not know the programs existed, while 164 said they wanted more information about them. Two of the four programs have existed for more than twenty years.

NYSED told auditors that it advertises the grants through its funding opportunities webpage, the Higher Education Program Office website, the State Contract Reporter and a weekly email distributed to superintendents and other subscribers. The Department does not, however, routinely contact districts that have never applied. Instead, officials said outreach is generally directed to previous grant recipients. NYSED also cited its Restricted Period policy under State Finance Law, which limits communication with potential applicants once a procurement is underway. Auditors acknowledged that restriction but concluded that the Department could still expand outreach before those limitations take effect.

The staffing behind the programs was also limited. According to NYSED, the office responsible for administering all four operated with between 1.0 and 2.25 full-time equivalent employees during portions of the audit period. In the 2025-26 project year alone, that office was overseeing 59 active projects worth nearly $26 million.

NYSED Pushes Back on the Audit

NYSED disagreed with three of the Comptroller's five recommendations, partly agreed with one and accepted only the recommendation to continue developing its new workforce dashboards. In a July 24 response signed by Senior Deputy Commissioner for Education Policy Ceylane Meyers-Ruff, the Department argued that the audit period crossed three distinct operating environments: the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic itself and the subsequent recovery. NYSED also emphasized that eligibility for the programs is established in statute, not by the Department, and that allowing additional funds to roll over would require legislative action. On monitoring, the Department stated: "Dashboards are helpful, but they are not a requirement for monitoring."

The Comptroller's office challenged several parts of that response. When auditors asked how NYSED determined whether the programs were effective, Department officials said they monitor whether recipients spend their awards and comply with grant requirements, but that evaluating program effectiveness is not their responsibility. NYSED also questioned the audit's figure showing 609 districts eligible for Teachers of Tomorrow; auditors responded that the figure came from information supplied by NYSED. The Department asked for the source of a statement about rising enrollment, and auditors replied that the report made no such claim.

DiNapoli focused his public response on administration rather than eligibility. The Department, he said, must "strengthen its oversight, communication and monitoring" and improve participation in programs intended to support teacher recruitment, retention and certification.

The Business Office Takeaway

For school business officials, the audit exposes a problem that does not sit entirely in Albany. Districts cannot pursue grants they do not know exist, which makes grant surveillance part of the business office's staffing strategy. A practical response would be a standing quarterly review, jointly owned by business and human resources, of current and expected state funding tied to recruitment, tuition support, certification costs, mentoring and shortage-area incentives.

Districts also need stronger controls once an award is received. Forty of 44 Teachers of Tomorrow recipients left some portion of their awards unspent, while NYSED acknowledged that it typically does not learn about underspending until year-end financial reports are submitted. By then, there may be little opportunity to redirect spending within the grant period. A monthly review of expenditures and encumbrances against the full award amount would give districts time to identify stalled spending and address it before funds lapse.

New York reports teacher shortages in special education, career and technical education, science, health and physical fitness, language arts and library media, and the state expects to need roughly 180,000 new teachers over the next decade. Districts facing those shortages may already be using unrestricted General Fund dollars for recruitment incentives, tuition reimbursement and certification fees. Before the next budget is built, business offices should determine whether any of those local expenditures could instead qualify under an existing state program.

A similar pattern appeared this summer in prekindergarten, where more than half of 658 districts left at least $100,000 of state money unspent before per-child funding rates increased. At the same time, New York has broadened the potential teacher pipeline by dropping course-by-course review for teachers trained in 23 states and territories. That certification change could expand the pool of candidates districts can recruit with the state grants examined in the audit.

Under Section 170 of the Executive Law, Commissioner Betty A. Rosa must report within 180 days to the Governor, the Comptroller and legislative leaders on which audit recommendations NYSED has implemented and explain why any others were not adopted. That response is due in March. NYSED has also said preliminary analytics for its Educator Workforce Dashboard should be completed within several months, with vacancy data eventually available by district and certification area. Before those tools arrive, districts can begin with their own numbers: what they are spending locally to fill shortage areas, which state programs could offset those costs, and how much awarded funding is actually reaching the people it was intended to support.