The solution sounds simple: Teachers can spend more time on instruction when they get help connecting students with physicians, mental health care providers, food banks and other social services.
Teachers, parents and students have turned to the U.S. Department of Education for solutions on how they will ensure quality education as students return this fall.
The current teacher shortage facing the United States is a "five-alarm crisis," according to Rebecca Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers' union in the country.
West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee said in previous years the vacancies were focused in certain subjects but now vacancies are widespread across every discipline in the curriculum.
