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(BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y.) — The New Hampshire Supreme Court will decide on Tuesday whether to grant Pamela Smart a chance at a hearing that could put her on a path to freedom.

Smart was convicted in 1991 at age 22 of persuading her teenage lover, Billy Flynn, to kill her husband. She met Flynn, then a student, through her work in a New Hampshire school district. Soon after their affair began, Flynn fatally shot her husband, Gregg Smart, in the head.

The press flocked to Exeter, a small New Hampshire town, to cover the case against Smart. Her trial, three years before that of O.J. Simpson’s, was one of the first to be broadcast live — and Smart quickly became the center of a saga that led to a fervor for true crime and an era of televised trials.

Smart has now spent more than 32 years behind bars for conspiring to kill her husband. Flynn, who pulled the trigger, has been out of prison for nearly a decade.

Her accomplices, including three other teenagers who were charged as adults in the killing, cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to lesser charges. They have all been released from prison. Smart was convicted at trial of accomplice to murder in the first degree and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Smart’s Feb. 14 hearing will be the first time that she has had a chance to challenge the state’s repeated denials to make a case for her release.

Smart maintains that she did not ask Flynn to murder her husband — a factor the New Hampshire attorney general’s office and her prosecutor from trial have said disqualify her from mercy. Smart says she does feel responsible for Gregg Smart’s death but did not orchestrate his murder. Had she not had an affair, her husband would still be alive, she told ABC News.

If the court rules in favor of her on Tuesday, Smart will have a chance to stand before the governor and his executive council to ask for a commutation — which is a reduction of a sentence, often for good behavior, as opposed to a pardon which absolves someone of their crime.

For Smart, who has exhausted all of her opportunities to appeal her sentence, a commutation remains her only hope to one day get out of prison.

“In some respects the pieces are finally coming together,” Smart, now 55, told ABC News on a phone call from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York two weeks before the hearing.

“It feels like the last straw, the last stand,” she said. “If this doesn’t work out, what is there after this?”

In 1993, Smart was transferred from a New Hampshire prison to Bedford Hills where she has been ever since.

When she arrived at the maximum security prison, she found many people there knew about her case. In 1995, those who hadn’t watched her trial learned about it from “To Die For,” a Hollywood film starring Nicole Kidman, who played Smart.

She says her reputation has followed her for years.

In one instance, she says, a prison guard in 2003 leaked photos of Smart to the National Enquirer of her kneeling on her bed in her underwear, which sparked a new wave of headlines.

“It was like a nightmare my first 10 years here,” Smart said.

It was during that time Smart leaned into her studies. She began working on the first of three graduate degrees — two master’s, in law and English literature, and a doctorate in ministry.

She also worked as a teacher’s aide and, for those who needed extra help on her cell block, she taped a tutoring schedule to the unit’s bulletin board.

When Bella Gonzalez, 17, first arrived at Bedford Hills, Smart encouraged her to sign up for a slot.

“She gave me a new word for my vocabulary every day,” said Gonzalez, who at first spoke very little English.

The two became close over their nearly 20 years in prison together. They played softball — Smart in center field and Gonzalez at first base — and they cried when Gonzalez’s mom died. They also wept when Smart lost her appeals.

Both young women confided in each other about their dreams of motherhood; for Gonzalez a possibility, for Smart a foregone conclusion.

In 2005, the first two accomplices in Gregg Smart’s murder were paroled. Vance Lattime Jr, the getaway driver who supplied the weapon, and Raymond Fowler, who helped plot the murder, were released from prison. That same year, Smart was denied her first request for a commutation hearing.

While incarcerated at Rikers Island, Kelly Harnett had already heard that Smart was an effective jailhouse lawyer. But when she arrived at Bedford Hills in 2015 she found it was impossible to get a meeting with her.

“People would even follow her into the shower” to ask about their cases, she said.

Later that year, Flynn and another accomplice Pete Randall, who held the knife to Gregg Smart’s throat, were released from prison.

In 2018, New Hampshire rejected Smart’s second attempt for a 15-minute hearing with the governor to review her sentence. By that point, all of Smart’s appeals had been denied. Her friends, including Gonzalez, had been released and gone home. Gonzalez later had a daughter; she named her Pamela.

During a recent interview at Bedford Hills, Smart said she worried her ailing mother, Linda Wojas, 81, who has fought to clear her daughter’s name, would die.

“One day someone is going to walk in here, sit down where you are, and tell me my mom is dead,” said Smart. “I just want to go home so she has one night knowing I’m free.”

In 2021, Smart compiled three decades of evidence to support what may be her last request for a commutation hearing. She said she handpicked hundreds of letters written by prison leadership and inmates who say she changed the trajectory of their lives. She turned in copies of her three degrees, and attached at least 28 certificates for completion of rehabilitation programs.

On March 23, 2022 — in less than three minutes — New Hampshire’s Executive Council unanimously recommended that Gov. Chris Sununu again deny Smart a hearing.

A commutation would “demean the value” of her slain husband, one member of the council reasoned. There was no mention of Smart’s rehabilitation efforts, the basis for Smart’s attorney’s argument on Tuesday when he will challenge the decision.

Smart thought back to the council’s brief comments.

“In two years, my release is still gonna ‘demean’ Gregg’s life. In four years. In 87 years. That can never change. So what’s the point?” she told ABC News. “If I’m not rehabilitated, when will I be?”

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(COLUMBUS, Ga.) — Robert Earhart Jr. was an agent with the Central Intelligence Agency’s “protective operations division” with a Top Secret security clearance, and he needed a meeting with the Department of Justice.

Or at least that is what Earhart, 38, of Columbus, Georgia, allegedly said in a voicemail he left with the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia on Jan. 11.

The federal official with whom he tried to schedule a meeting unsealed a complaint last week charging Earhart with false personation of an officer or employee of the United States.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia also alleged that Earhart has a history of representing himself as a federal official. The DOJ said that in May 2019, Earhart identified himself as an agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency and attempted to free three inmates from Muscogee County Jail in Georgia. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office, Earhart also allegedly represented himself as a Homeland Security agent.

Earhart on Jan. 11 allegedly made a phone call in which he posed as a CIA agent to schedule a meeting with U.S. Attorney Peter Leary, one of the chief federal law enforcement officials in the state of Georgia. The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges that Earhart specifically mentioned his involvement with the “protective operations division” and said he held a top-secret clearance.

The CIA does not publicly advertise a “protective operations division,” though a popular souvenir site sells a replica movie prop badge for the “protective operations division” for $70.

The CIA hires “protective agents” who “deploy worldwide to perform sensitive operations in support of protective requirements to defend our nation from those that try to do us harm,” according to a CIA job posting. That particular role requires six years of combined military or law enforcement experience, preferably in a special operations unit like the Navy Seals or Army Rangers.

Bad actors in the past have impersonated CIA officers, utilizing the covert nature of the agency to establish credibility. A former DEA public affairs officer was sentenced to seven years for impersonating a covert CIA officer to defraud $4.4 million from over a dozen companies, according to a press release from the DOJ.

Earhart faces up to three years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

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(WASHINGTON) — When Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., was sworn in for the 118th Congress in January, he became the highest-ranking Latino in Congress, serving as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, the No. 3 position in his party in the chamber.

Aguilar, a fourth-generation Mexican-American, recently sat down with ABC News contributor Maria Elena Salinas to discuss his personal story, his new role in the House and the pressure of representing a demographic that often feels overlooked.

“It’s a sense of opportunity. My story is not very different than so many other, you know, Latinos who grew up in communities where they had to work hard to get by,” Aguilar told Salinas in the interview, which aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

At just 26 years old, Aguilar began his political career in Redlands, California, 11 miles east from where he grew up.

“I joined the Redlands City Council, actually, by getting appointed to fill a vacancy for someone who had left town, and then became elected at the age of 27 and became mayor by 30,” Aguilar said.

He won election to the U.S. House in 2014, representing what is now California’s 33rd Congressional District. Now, as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, his job is to unite members of his party around legislation and party issues, while also finding common ground across the aisle.

“What issues do you feel that you and Republicans can have common ground on?” Salinas asked.

“I think there has been common ground on the ability for ‘Dreamers’ to become citizens,” Aguilar responded, referring to the hundreds of thousands of young people who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children. “We have Republicans on board with that.”

Policies surrounding immigration have been at the forefront of Aguilar’s political career, with the protection of “Dreamers” being at the top of his list. Aguilar supported the DREAM Act, which would allow the young immigrants to establish permanent residency and eventually grant them U.S. citizenship.

His most recent efforts involved a letter pushing for legislation to allow “Dreamers” to hold federal employment.

“The Senate introduced a bill to help guide ‘Dreamers’ toward legalization of their status. This has been happening for decades now and it never comes to fruition,” Salinas said. “What needs to happen to make it a reality?”

“I think we need more friends and allies in the United States Senate,” Aguilar responded. “I can respect that, you know, that certain times the House has been at fault and the Senate’s been at fault. But in the last 10 years, Democrats have continually put these bills on the floor, and Republicans have stood in the way on the House side to see any real reform happen.”

Aguilar said he is also concerned with the influx of migrants at the southern border.

“How do you think President [Joe] Biden is doing on the border?” Salinas asked.

“I think the grade would be incomplete, right?” Aguilar answered. “There’s plenty to do. We know that it’s a humanitarian issue down at the southern border. What President Biden sought to do was to clean up the mess from the prior administration, too.”

“But it’s not less messy right now,” Salinas pressed.

“Well, but I would tell you that the tone of how we address this is very, is very different,” Aguilar said.

He also noted that the Democratic Party has to win back the Latino vote, after recent elections show the party losing ground with those voters. According to national exit polls of the last three election cycles, the share of Latino voters backing Democrats has dropped nine points, from 69% in 2018 to 60% in 2022.

“I think that how we talk to voters, how we meet them where they are and we talk about the issues with them really is important,” Aguilar said. “And there’s no cookie cutter way to talk about Latino issues. We need to realize that we need to have a plan to talk to those voters and those individuals. And I think that we need to do a better job of that.”

The congressman said he is already strategizing how to win back a House majority, emphasizing that lawmakers need to get out and talk to constituents about their legislative wins, such as the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to combat gun violence.

“So can we interpret that as your biggest challenge is going to be winning back the House in 2024?” Salinas asked.

“We have to do it to save democracy, to help our communities,” Aguilar replied.

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(WASHINGTON) — Another high-altitude object was shot down on Sunday afternoon, this one over Lake Huron, three U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News, marking the latest in a string of such incidents.

The object was shot down by a U.S. military aircraft, according to one of the officials.

A senior administration official said President Joe Biden directed that the object be shot down “out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of military leaders.”

This official said the object shot down was detected on radar over Montana on Saturday and was seen again on radar over Wisconsin and Michigan on Sunday.

The object was octagonal in structure, unmanned and traveling at about 20,000 feet, the official said. There is no indication of surveillance capabilities but the administration cannot rule that out.

“The object has been downed by pilots from the US Air Force and National Guard. Great work by all who carried out this mission both in the air and back at headquarters. We’re all interested in exactly what this object was and [its] purpose,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., tweeted.

“As long as these things keep traversing the US and Canada, I’ll continue to ask for Congress to get a full briefing based on our exploitation of the wreckage,” Slotkin wrote.

The downing is the fourth time in recent days that a high-altitude object was shot by the military over U.S. or Canadian territory.

The first incident involved a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was tracked across the continental U.S. and then shot down off the coast of South Carolina by a U.S. F-22 fighter jet on Feb. 4. That balloon caused bipartisan concern in Washington after it floated across Alaska, Canada and then through the U.S., passing over sensitive military installations, including at least one housing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The military waited to shoot it over the Atlantic Ocean out of concerns that downing it could risk people on the ground being injured by debris, officials have said. The delay nonetheless sparked criticism from Republicans and some Democrats that President Joe Biden and the Pentagon waited too long to handle the balloon.

Since then, two more objects were shot down before Sunday — one over Alaska and one over Canada — both by U.S. F-22 jets.

The military has not confirmed what kind of objects they were, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday they too were balloons, though smaller than the first one.

Schumer linked them to the Chinese, who initially claimed the first balloon was a civilian craft.

The episodes have only fueled bipartisan calls for more information from the Pentagon over the origin of the subsequent objects and their capabilities, with diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing already ratcheting up over the initial balloon.

One U.S. official attributed the rise in the sightings to boosted surveillance capabilities by the military and not a rush of new foreign objects flying over American airspace.

“Northern Command has adjusted the parameters of their radar capabilities in a way that they can see more than they could before,” the official said.

This official explained that the suspected Chinese spy balloon triggered a new state of vigilance for the U.S. military.

“That’s not to say they were blissfully ignorant before,” the official said, “but there are lots of things floating around and now we are more finely attuned to it.”

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(SAN FRANCISCO) — An explosion and fire in a San Francisco residential neighborhood that killed a disabled woman and injured her caregiver and a firefighter was allegedly caused by a clandestine drug lab, according to police.

The blast on Thursday that leveled one home and damaged two others in the city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood led to the arrest of 53-year-old Dorron Price, owner of the home that blew up and whose wife was killed in the incident, the San Francisco Police Department announced Saturday.

Price was arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, manufacturing drugs and reckless arson with great bodily injury, police said. He was being held without bail Sunday in the San Francisco County Jail, according to online jail records.

Price was booked at the jail Friday night after authorities found evidence of the home lab used to manufacture Phencyclidine, a drug also known as PCP or “angel dust,” according to police.

At the time of the blast, Price’s wife and her 65-year-old caregiver were inside the house, according to police. The caregiver, who suffered major injuries, was in the basement doing laundry when the explosion erupted, according to a statement she gave police that was obtained by ABC San Francisco station KGO-TV.

The caregiver, whose name was not released, managed to dig her way out of the rubble. She told police Price and his wife have two children, who were at school at the time of the explosion.

It was not clear where Price was at the time of the blast.

The explosion produced a three-alarm fire that damaged two neighboring homes and displaced five families, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. One firefighter was injured fighting the fire, authorities said.

Once the fire was extinguished, a K-9 search team found the body of Price’s deceased wife, according to the fire department.

More than 100 firefighters fought the blaze, the department said.

“We are aware of the numerous calls and reports of an explosion and houses shaking in the area,” said San Francisco Fire Capt. Jonathan Baxter.

The cause of the explosion and fire left some residents in the neighborhood shocked and angry.

“It’s a quiet neighborhood. People are nice. And in the middle of the street, you have this guy who is doing something illegally,” neighbor Karen Lei, whose home was damaged in the explosion, told KGO-TV.

Lei applauded the arrest of Price, saying, “That’s the right thing to do, because he’s very destructive — causing property damages and disrupting people’s lives.”

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(FLINT, Mich.) — Residents of Flint, Michigan, are facing yet another issue with the city’s embattled water system.

Flint announced a citywide boil water advisory after a water main broke Friday morning, causing the pressure of the entire city’s system to drop below safe levels.

Crews have been able to locate the damaged 24-inch transmission line and begin repairs, officials said. A public notice said that officials anticipate the repairs, flushing, and necessary testing will continue at least through Monday, meaning the city’s over 80,000 residents will be left boiling filtered water or using bottled water through the weekend.

A Facebook post from the City of Flint described the boil water advisory as a “precaution.”

“We are estimating right now, if everything goes well, by Monday we will be all clear with this,” Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley said at a press conference. “The repair is underway right now.”

The call for bottled water use comes a month after a program that previously provided free bottled water to residents ended, though the city still offers water filters.

Flint officials have not identified the cause of Friday’s main break. The notice mentioned that the reservoir and pump station at fault was scheduled for renovation later this year.

“As the City of Flint continues to upgrade our water infrastructure, we need to keep in mind that the integrity of our infrastructure is uneven,” Department of Public Works Director Mike Brown said. “Some of it is state of the art, and some of it is very old.”

The failure of the water main caused a drop in water pressure citywide Friday morning, prompting the boil water advisory. Officials notified the public about the main break on Flint’s city website shortly after 10:00 a.m. local time on Friday; Less than an hour later, officials said they located the break and enacted the boil water advisory.

The federal Safe Water Drinking Act’s public notification rule includes requirements to notify the public about the loss of water pressure in drinking water systems. Michigan’s Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division notes that a low-pressure event can allow contaminants to enter a water supply; however, the declaration of a boil water advisory during a low-pressure event can be made on a case-by-case basis.

To lift the advisory, crews will need to repair the transmission line, flush the system, and complete bacterial testing, according to the advisory.

To maintain water service, Flint increased the amount of water it receives from the Great Lakes Water Authority and Genesee County Drain Commission.

Meanwhile, city officials recommend that residents use bottled water or filtered and boiled water for consumption and cleaning purposes. State guidance recommends that residents boil cold filtered water for one minute to kill bacteria and microorganisms.

Once the boil water advisory is lifted, state guidance recommends flushing plumbing, cleaning faucet aerators, and changing water filters.

Flint suffered a years-long water crisis in 2014 after budget cuts prompted a change in the city’s water source. According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, allowing lead to leach into the supply and expose residents to the carcinogenic substance.

Research from the University of Michigan later indicated that children in Flint were exposed to triple the lead compared to children a decade earlier.

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(LONG BEACH, Calif.) — A California pipeline, that delivers the majority of fuel to the Las Vegas Valley and surrounding areas, is expected to resume operations Saturday afternoon, the pipeline operator announced.

The Kinder Morgan gas pipeline, which supplies about 90% of needed gas, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products to the Las Vegas Valley and surrounding areas, experienced a disruption that resulted in a temporary shutdown of the line.

“We have isolated the source of the release within our Watson Station in Long Beach, California. Restart activities are underway for Watson Station’s associated SFPP West and CalNev pipelines. We expect these pipelines to resume operations this afternoon and begin delivering fuel to their respective market areas later today. We continue to be in close contact with our customers and the appropriate regulatory agencies as we work to resolve this issue,” Kinder Morgan, the pipeline operator, said in a statement to ABC News.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency Friday due to the disruption.

On Thursday, Kinder Morgan, the pipeline operator, began investigating a leak inside its Watson Station in Long Beach, California, the company said in a statement.

“Watson Station and its associated SFPP West and CALNEV pipelines have been isolated and shut down while we work to resolve this issue. There are no injuries or fire reported as a result of this incident,” Kinder Morgan said in its statement.  Kinder Morgan’s 566-mile CALNEV pipeline system transports gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from Los Angeles to terminals in Barstow, California, and Las Vegas.

“The appropriate regulatory agencies have been notified, and an investigation into the cause and quantity of the release will be conducted. We are working closely with our customers on potential impacts,” Kinder Morgan said.

The disruption may cause a shortage of fuel supplies in Nevada, according to the declaration of emergency.

The emergency declaration will allow Nevada to receive federal waivers, resources to repair the pipeline and allow the state to increase the transportation of fuel by other means, according to Lombardo.

“To avoid any unnecessary shortages, I strongly urge all Las Vegas residents to avoid panic buying while awaiting repair timeline updates,” Lombardo said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The declaration expires in 15 days unless it is renewed.

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(SAN DIEGO) — Three people were shot, including one fatally, at an agricultural nursery in Southern California on Friday, authorities said.

A suspected shooter was taken into custody on the property, according to the San Diego Sheriff.

The incident occurred around 3 p.m. local time at Atkins Nursery in Fallbrook, a village located about 50 miles north of San Diego, the San Diego Sheriff said.

First responders and law enforcement officers responded to an “incident involving several patients with gunshot injuries,” the North County Fire Protection District said Friday afternoon.

Responding deputies found two victims outside a barn on the property with gunshot wounds to their upper torso, the sheriff said. The victims — a woman believed to be in her mid-30s and a man in his late 60s — were transported to a local hospital where they underwent surgery for non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

A third victim — a man believed to be in his late 50s — was found dead from apparent gunshot wounds to his upper torso, the sheriff said. His identity is not known at this time.

Another man located inside the barn was determined to be the alleged shooter, the sheriff said. The suspect, identified by the San Diego Sheriff as 76-year-old Enrique Barajas Gutierrez, was arrested and taken to the Fallbrook Sheriff’s Station without incident. He will be booked into the Vista Detention Facility for murder, the sheriff said.

A rifle of unknown type and caliber is believed to have been used in the shooting, the sheriff said.

A motive is under investigation. Investigators are working to determine the relationship between Gutierrez and the victims, though they believe he is the father of the female victim, the sheriff said.

“At this time, there is no further threat to the community,” the San Diego Sheriff said.

Aerial footage from the scene showed a large law enforcement presence near the nursery.

Residents were asked to avoid the area Friday night due to the active crime scene.

@NorthCountyFire is on scene of an incident involving several patients with gunshot injuries. @SDSOFallbrook is also on scene. Please avoid this area. Reche Road is currently closed from Rabbit Hill to Scooter Lane. pic.twitter.com/FHMOxBFF1q

— North County Fire Protection District (@NorthCountyFire) February 10, 2023

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said they were “coordinating closely with local officials on this developing situation.”

“Our thoughts are with those impacted by today’s act of violence, and all the Californians recovering from tragic shootings this year,” the office tweeted.

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(NEW YORK) — More than three-quarters of U.S. states are experiencing a teacher shortage, highlighting a growing concern among public education and government officials about challenges that were exacerbated during three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on pandemic learning published in June 2022 found that public education lost about 7% of its total teaching population (233,000) between 2019 and 2021 — with many educators, in phone calls, text messages and interviews with ABC News, citing strict time demands, persisting behavioral issues and lack of administrative support, among other obstacles.

According to the education departments, agencies and associations surveyed for this story, staffing issues have continued.

“Our nation is undergoing a mass exodus of teachers leaving the classroom,” Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., told ABC News in December. “We can choose to take this issue head on or lose America’s teachers and have the education of our students severely impacted.”

Between October and the end of January, ABC News reached out by phone and email to the overarching education departments in all 50 states as well as Washington. D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For all 53, ABC News asked if they were experiencing any shortages or extreme staffing vacancies and, if so, what their greatest need was in terms of subject-matter position openings.

As of Feb. 9, at least 39 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands — 41 out of 53 surveyed — reported ongoing shortages. Many also reported subject matter vacancies in areas such as physical and special education and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Sabrina McCall, the Anderson, South Carolina, School District Five director of human resources and teacher effectiveness, told ABC News that the No. 1 contributing factor in her district has been student misbehavior.

“It’s difficult to overcome,” she said. “They [the teachers] have a lot on their plate. And when you add student behaviors in there, it sometimes just messes up the entire plate.”

From Kentucky and Idaho’s communications officers’ statements calling the teacher shortage a “crisis” to several Missouri school districts implementing four-day weeks as a recruitment and retention tool, some states, as the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) put it, are still facing “unprecedented” staffing challenges.

One outside expert, however, said the data on vacancies doesn’t tell a simple story.

Jess Gartner, the founder & CEO of Allovue, a company that combines financial technology with education data, suggested the nation’s shortage situation is “complicated.”

“Part of what’s driving what feels like a very acute challenge or crisis right now — it seems from the data — is more driven by the creation of new positions than a mass exodus of existing staff,” she said.

Where are the shortages?

ABC News received responses from 49 of the 50 states’ education departments and related groups, making multiple efforts to reach Rhode Island, whose state officials have yet to respond to email and phone requests.

Many states say they’re still surveying district data and compiling vacancy statistics that will be released later this year. Puerto Rico did not have its data; neither did Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon or Tennessee.

Florida, New Hampshire and New Mexico did not report shortages and Louisiana said it didn’t believe it was having a teaching shortage either.

Texas education officials said the state “is employing more teachers this school year than ever before, and new teacher production numbers remain high. However, as with many states, Texas public school systems have had a challenging time filling vacant positions due to various factors.”

Despite some states missing vacancy tallies for the 2022-2023 school year, the federal government reported public schools have been experiencing difficulties filling teaching vacancies for more than two full school cycles, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

In Alaska, the state described “significant challenges” and a pressing need for special education teachers, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and more. Across the country, in New York, officials pointed to openings for literacy and special education instructors as “two persistent” and statewide issues. And in Missouri, officials said their staffing problems were the result of “less supply” and “increased demand.”

In South Carolina, McCall said her district pulled some aspiring educators from local apprenticeship programs to help fill positions left open from teachers quitting over the summer.

Separately, last October, NCES found particular vacancy problems in high-poverty, high-minority school districts. Barnard College professor Erika Kitzmiller believes the vacancy rate in low-income schools has worsened inequities that existed in education prior to the pandemic.

“There’s clearly a strain on the system if we can’t find teachers who are qualified to fill positions in high-need districts,” Kitzmiller told ABC News. “We know that people [school districts] are having difficulty just finding people regardless of qualifications or competencies or effectiveness. And those vacancies are highly prevalent in low-income schools that predominantly serve Black and brown youth.”

However, the vacancy issues are location-specific as well, according to education advocates. Urban and rural student populations often face acute shortages, said Gartner.

“The reality is that these experiences can vary a lot across geographies … even from one county to the next,” Gartner explained.

“It is almost always true that when there are economic challenges and when there are curricular challenges or policy changes, those things hit our large urban school districts and our rural school districts the hardest,” she added.

Some states see declining shortages

With data varying from district to district, not all states are feeling the same strain in the same way, if at all. Some tout above average statistics and say they have less to worry about than the areas with severe staffing issues.

For example, Alabama’s state education officials said they were struggling to find “qualified teachers” in rural areas but the state’s overall challenges are subsiding.

“Alabama, like most other states, has experienced teacher shortages in certain areas,” the state said in December, adding, “It is not as urgent as it has been in the past.”

In contrast, the number of educators in New Hampshire has been steadily increasing, according to a July 2022 report released by its state education department.

“While there may be teacher shortages in certain subjects and certain locations throughout New Hampshire – specifically special education, paraprofessional, and STEM positions – the educator shortage has not worsened, overall,” wrote Stephen Appleby, director of the New Hampshire Education Department’s Division of Educator Support and Higher Education.

“Instead, it has improved during the past two years,” Appleby wrote.

New Mexico, which last year sent in the National Guard to aid short-staffed school districts, saw a 34% decrease in the 2022 teacher vacancy rate, according to a statewide report. The state also touts the highest average teacher compensation throughout the Southwest region.

“Improved teacher salaries have been an important incentive to get people back into the classroom and New Mexico’s teachers appreciate the hard work of Gov. [Michelle] Lujan Grisham and the Legislature to make this happen,” the state’s teacher’s union president, Mary Parr-Sanchez, said in a statement.

Florida’s education department said it only saw 2% of its teaching positions unfilled to start the 2022-2023 school year, thanks to its recruitment and retention strategies.

The education department also had hundreds of qualified veterans apply for temporary teaching certificates, and it gave bonuses to retired military veterans and first responders who committed to at least two years of teaching. Last year, Florida recorded the largest teacher salary raise in its history, boosting the average starting salary from $40,000 to $48,000. In January, Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed investing $1 billion that could raise teacher salaries again.

From Tennessee — whose Grow Your Own program was the first in the nation to have a recognized apprenticeship program through the U.S. Labor and Education departments — to Texas’ Teacher Vacancy Task Force, most states have been trying varied approaches to help crack the shortage issue.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently signed an executive order establishing a task force to combat his state’s public education challenges.

“Unfortunately, our state is no exception to the national teacher shortage currently straining our education system,” Murphy said in a statement. “With a critical need for learning recovery and acceleration as well as mental health support for our students, teachers and other school staff are more essential than ever,” he said.

But Gartner warns that if states didn’t fill the hardest hit positions during the fall, now might be too late.

“If you’ve got dozens or hundreds of those same positions open, is it likely that you’re going to fill them this far into the year? Probably not. So what’s plan B?” she asked, adding, “That is not an enviable decision to make. Because what you’re really saying is we now have to spend money on our second-best resource or our third-best resource that we would prefer to have because the resource simply is not available.”

Some vacancies point to funding for increased support

With the federal government providing nearly $200 billion in elementary and secondary school emergency funds during the pandemic, Gartner believes the overall data on district vacancies has been conflated because that money is being sent to states and local education agencies to create new positions to help students with their social, emotional and mental health needs.

That addition of federal dollars also caused a 57% spike in new job openings in public education, according to Gartner.

But most of the relief money goes to address severe staffing challenges at high-need or the low-income public schools, as designated under Title I, and Gartner said the funding was allocated proportionally. Still, there’s not enough money for the increased vacancies created by the combination of quitting teachers and extra positions, which Gartner suggests compounds the challenges that these schools normally see.

“You’re going to have some districts where they’re probably seeing higher than typical quit rates [voluntary resignations],” the educator, who has taught in schools around the world, told ABC News. “They have more job openings available right now, so that gap is really large.”

Gartner said the so-called teacher exodus doesn’t outpace other professions. Government data supports this view: From January 2017-January 2022, K-12 employee quit rates were down compared to the private sector, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Even in the midst of a lot of turmoil, a lot of economic volatility, a lot of heightened stress, we’re still seeing consistently lower rates of attrition in public education than we are in nearly any other industry,” Gartner said.

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(ST.LOUIS) — For more than a year, Fatima Suarez said her family’s St. Louis home was repeatedly visited by a woman who allegedly insulted her family, stole their mail and damaged their property.

Video footage captured by the family’s Ring doorbell camera allegedly shows a woman yelling into the camera, going through their mail and hurling racist remarks at them.

“It scared my family. It scared me,” she said. “I’ve cried. It was really stressful to see her keep coming back.”

Suarez, whose family is of Mexican descent, posted the footage to TikTok, where it received millions of views.

On Tuesday, the city’s Circuit Attorney’s Office said in a statement that it “elevated the warrant application related to this case.” On Wednesday, Judy Kline of St. Louis was criminally charged on three counts — burglary, property damage and unlawful use of a weapon.

According to a probable cause statement sent to ABC News by the Circuit Attorney’s Office, Ring camera video footage shows Kline “holding a hammer and yelling ‘What the hell are you doing in my home? Get out b—-! Get out! It’s my home!”

Suarez said her family doesn’t know Kline. “We’ve never seen her in our lives,” she said.

Suarez credits social media in spurring the police to take action.

“I’ve seen similar stories on TikTok going on, and I thought maybe that would help my family out as well,” she said. “But I never knew it would blow up like that, and it did. So I’m thankful for everybody that made it viral because now [there’s] going to be hopefully action taken.”

Suarez said Kline first came to her family’s home last year.

According to the probable cause statement, Kline went to the back of the house on January 5, 2022, and used a “hammer to break in through the basement door window by breaking the glass on the door.”

Suarez said her father was in the house with her sister, who was 4 years old at the time.

Kline “smashed a glass door on a drying machine,” the statement said. “The victim stated that once inside, [Kline] yelled insults at him, while holding the hammer over her head.”

A booking data report from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department showed that Kline was arrested that day and charged with aggravated burglary and property damage.

“I always call the cops, and all the times that I call them, they only kept her for like 72 hours and then she was released,” Suarez alleged. “That’s why she had the opportunity to keep coming back.”

Kline was also “served with an ex parte order of protection involving a petitioner who resides at the same address as this incident,” the probable cause statement said. “This matter is scheduled for an Adult Abuse Hearing on February 15, 2023.”

Suarez said Kline has visited the home multiple times, including last week. The probable cause statement said that she was reported to have returned to the home multiple times.

Even though Kline has charges against her, Suarez said her family still fear that she will return.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department told ABC News Thursday that Kline “is not currently in custody.”

ABC News could not reach Kline for comment.

In a statement Tuesday, the city’s Circuit Attorney’s Office said, “when cases are submitted by the police, the SLMPD [St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department] determines the public safety threat to evaluate whether the case should be reviewed within 24 hours of the application for an arrest warrant.”

“The CAO has elevated the warrant application related to this case, and is awaiting the video evidence that was not initially submitted, and that is now circulating on the Internet,” the office said.

Suarez claimed she previously sent the videos to the police.

“At one point, I wanted to become part of the justice system, like a cop or something,” she said, “but because of how they are with other people, how they treat other people, how they don’t care about cases. … I don’t really trust them as much anymore.”

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