The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa’s College of Education (COE) has paused their dual licensure program for elementary and special education (ESEE), due to an extreme decline in student interest and enrollment in previous years.
As UH Mānoa is the only university in the state to offer an in person licensure for special education, this decision may impact the future workforce and the number of special education licensed teachers throughout the state.
Cindy Farley, assistant professor and program coordinator for the ESEE program, said, “this time alone in Fall 26, there were 11 students who were going into dual licensure, now none of them are.”
She believed that students are often deferred from the idea of dual licensure because there are slightly more credits, therefore making the course displayed as more rigorous. The singular Elementary Education cohort has not shown a gradual decrease. Historically, the program had often alternated from 15 to 22 students in the cohort.
“Our teachers are very well prepared and a lot of our mentor teachers are graduates,” said Rumi Heine, another assistant professor and cohort coordinator. She explained that the cohort is valuable, cutting edge and models for students to get a preview about what the workforce will look like.
Special Education Department Chair Rhonda Black said, “The ESEE program has experienced low enrollment over the past two years (6 and 9 students). As part of university policy, programs with consistently low enrollment must be reviewed and revised to ensure sustainability and responsible use of resources. For this reason, we are pausing the program for one year to allow time to evaluate and strengthen it.”
Contrary to many students’ speculations, lack of funding is not the primary reason for the suspension of the cohorts. Since only 11 students demonstrated interest in the Fall 2026 program, the department could not justify running the program.
Surveys about program interest were filled out by students at the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester and halfway through as the COE was hoping for an increased amount of potential interest in the dual licensure program.
“Ideally, we would be able to determine enrollment numbers before deciding to pause the program. If we could reliably predict and guarantee at least 15 students, we could run the program. However, program continuation decisions must be made before applications are released, which creates a challenging situation,” said Black.
With uncertainty about the future of the programs, the program coordinators are doing their best in promoting the program via flyers and YouTube videos. With high hopes for the program to be unpaused in 2027, the program requires a sufficient amount of student captivation for it to be resumed in upcoming years.
“Looking ahead to 2027, the program will need at least 15 enrolled students to run. The bottom line is that the program can continue if there is sufficient student interest. We welcome your support in generating awareness and interest in the program, and we would be glad to run it again with sufficient enrollment.” said Black. “We need help recruiting.”
