Teachers from the Philippines and beyond are filling gaps in Bay Area schools

With teacher shortages worsening across both the state and region, Bay Area districts are relying more than ever on recruiting teachers like Chan from across the globe, with the vast majority of them coming from the Philippines.

At the Jefferson Union High School District, Chan is one of 15 new Filipino educators who are working at the district’s five schools. At San Jose Unified, 34 teachers from the Philippines have made the South Bay their home. And at the San Mateo-Foster City School District, another 15 Filipino educators — and 25 teacher’s aides — have just settled into their new roles, the result of a Manila-based recruitment fair held by the district last January.

“It came out of having a real lack of (local) candidates,” said Diego Ochoa, superintendent of the San Mateo-Foster City School District. Ochoa said that last year, his team realized that special education students would be starting the 2023-24 academic year without a permanent teacher in the classroom.

“We didn’t want that to happen,” Ochoa said. “So that’s where we drew the line.”

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