Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent Peter Licata at the bus barn before the start of the first day of school on Aug. 10, 2026, in Fort Worth.
Amanda McCoy
FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
After announcing before the school year began that it had zero classroom teaching vacancies, Fort Worth ISD’s recruiting website now lists dozens of openings across the district, as of Sept. 30.
Fort Worth ISD has also posted job openings on its social media accounts in recent days and weeks, including teaching openings at more than 20 campuses. The district held a job fair on Sept. 26 at Benbrook Middle-High School.
A spokesperson for Fort Worth ISD did not immediately respond to the Star-Telegram’s request for comment on the teaching openings.
According to posts on the district’s social media accounts, the following campuses have teaching openings:
Natha Howell ElementaryW.J. Turner ElementaryOakhurst ElementaryMeadowbrook MiddleEastern Hills HighCarroll Peak ElementaryMary Louise Phillips ElementaryVan Zandt-Guinn ElementaryWilliam James MiddleArlington Heights HighTrimble Tech HighWestern Hills HighChristine C. Moss ElementaryClifford Davis ElementarySunrise-McMillan ElementaryRosemont MiddleWedgwood MiddleBenbrook Middle-HighApplied Learning AcademyO.D. Wyatt HighSouthwest HighSouth Hills High
Dozens more campuses have openings for teaching assistants, according to the district’s social media posts.
On Frontline, the district’s job portal, as of Wednesday morning there were 27 classroom elementary and secondary teaching openings; seven classroom openings for arts, athletics, health and physical education; four classroom special education openings; nine paraprofessional openings; and 13 office support staff openings.
More than 1,000 teachers resigned or otherwise separated from Fort Worth ISD after the Texas Education Agency took over the district in March due to stagnant academic performance. That number was up 58% from last year’s deadline. By last year’s deadline, 648 teachers had announced their resignation.
Before the school year, state-appointed Superintendent Peter Licata said the district’s decision to give classroom teachers a 5% raise was a major recruiting tool and made Fort Worth ISD an attractive destination for teachers in nearby districts. It also helped district leaders quickly fill a higher-than-usual number of openings, he said.
“There were over 1,000 separations, and those happened for various reasons,” Licata said before the school year. “But starting a school year with zero teaching vacancies, that is unprecedented.”
On Aug. 11, the day district leaders announced Fort Worth ISD would begin the school year with zero teaching vacancies, its recruiting website still showed zones of openings for teaching jobs.
Those positions included: dyslexia teachers, arts, athletics, health and physical education teachers, CTE teachers and special education teachers. There were also vacancies for bilingual support teachers, speech language pathologists, school psychologists, dyslexia specialists, inclusion teachers and bilingual support specialists. Those openings weren’t counted toward the zero vacancies reported by the district because they were not core classroom teachers.
Some of those positions, including dyslexia teachers and speech language pathologists, were cut by the district as part of a major reduction in force shortly after the TEA takeover. Licata said the district needed to make cuts because it had still employed the number of staffers it did when its enrollment was 10,000 students higher.
Several parents told the Star-Telegram that their child’s teacher was changed during the first few weeks of the school year as the district worked to restructure employees to evenly distribute staff.
“My son is at Rolling Hills Elementary and three weeks in, his teachers were changed,” said Angie Still, a parent of two Fort Worth ISD students. “That’s not a great look, especially for younger kids.”
Fort Worth ISD leaders previously announced in August they were reassigning staff to new campuses to address teacher imbalances across the district. In a statement, Licata said staffing imbalances resulted in some classrooms having over 35 students, while others had fewer than 10. Staff leveling allowed the district to “more equitably distribute employees and resources,” Licata said.
“Every single classroom has a teacher in front of them,” Licata said before the school year. “We also have additional teachers at the district office waiting to make sure that no one calls out sick. That is unprecedented in Fort Worth, and it’s unprecedented in many other districts.”
This story was originally published September 30, 2026 at 3:32 PM.
Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Samuel O’Neal is the K-12 Education Reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, covering public schools and policy that impacts them. He previously worked as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a graduate of Temple University.