Shaye Brown is uniquely familiar with the nation’s teacher shortage. About a week into the school year, she learned that her 9-year-old son, who is in a specialized class for students with autism, would not have a full-time teacher because of an acute shortage of teachers at Paterson Public Schools in New Jersey. Instead, a substitute teacher is filling in. And on Sept. 12, she resigned from her job as a special education teacher in the same district to take a better paying job at a neighboring school. She knows her decision will make Paterson’s teacher shortage worse. “I take being a special educator very seriously, but I have to care for my children,” says Brown. “I have to live. I have to pay my bills.” Paterson—where a third of the 26,000 students live below the poverty line—had about double the district’s normal number of vacant teacher jobs at the end of the school year in June. While administrators managed to hire some 150 teachers over the summer, the district still started this school year with 125 open teaching positions, growing to 137 vacancies as teachers left mid-year. The teacher shortage is likely to keep getting worse. The problem in Paterson is reflected in districts across the country. But, like so much of education in the U.S., this problem isn’t affecting all schools equally. Several teachers told TIME they were leaving Paterson for school districts that could pay them better and offered more resources. Read more at the link in our bio. Photograph by @bryananselm for TIME