OHIO — The number of teachers retiring appears to be declining, according to the American Federation of Teachers. Yet, those numbers don't give a full picture of what's happening when it comes to the many who are retiring and resigning. 

Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, talked with Spectrum News 1 about why the state has seen the declines it has over the years. He indicated that in 2013, Ohio’s State Retirement System and the Ohio Legislature made changes to address funding of the system.

That included increasing the retirement age and changing the benefits formula, which he said led to a “fairly significant wave of retirements shortly after that. And now we're seeing as people have to work until they have 35 years of service, fewer people are eligible for full retirement now.”

DiMauro believes some people may be delaying retirement, taking other positions or going on leaves of absence. However, he noted retirement data doesn’t give all of that detailed information when it comes to people leaving the profession. That’s because Ohio doesn't track that information.

"Federal Department of Labor statistics show that nationally, the rate of quits is increasing and the number of job openings is at a very high level for K-12 education positions across the country," DiMauro said.

DiMauro, like many others, sees the issue as one that is indicative of the challenges that educators are facing in today's climate in addition to mental health challenges and teacher pay not being kept up with other professions. The big concern now is how districts will fill positions.

“Now, we're hearing anecdotally from around the state that even elementary classroom positions which used to have dozens of people for every applicant," he said. "Many cases, they are having a hard time filling those jobs as well.”