Leveraging Virtual Mentoring to Retain Rural Special-Education Teachers through a Residency Model

Virtual mentoring boosts novice special-education teacher efficacy and retention, especially in rural districts. Synthesizing empirical studies and alignment with a residency-style alternative teacher preparation program, this session highlights evidence-based design principles, implementation models, and equips participants with ready-to-use tools to launch, refine, or evaluate virtual mentoring programs.Participants will be able to: 1. Design a virtual mentoring cycle including mentor recruitment, scheduling, and feedback routines that reflect evidence-based success factors for special-education teachers in rural contexts. 2. Implement at least three relationship-building strategies that increase social presence and reduce novice isolation. 3. Evaluate the impact of a mentoring program by adapting simple retention and instructional-growth metrics.