its not possible to do in a straight forward way in a lot of the US DE. The most important question is how did they get the IL credential and what type of credential is it? Did they complete an academic path to get the credential that included a field work component and do they have a Professional IL credential (professional grade) or do they have an approval or some other kind of credential?

If they have a professional grade credential and they completed either an Academic or Skills based pathway with a substantial field work component. Then there are several options which breaks down into how they feel about testing.

MA: I would never recommend anyone do the MA requirements in their current form for SPED/SEN/LD. Its a nightmare of coverages, but its possible with a Masters that your friend could meet all the coverages and you would still have to take some exams. The benefit is that the provisional credential would be an effective lifetime credential. Yo also dont need a SS#

Texas: Texas has only one (professional grade) credential, the standard credential. assuming the TX DOE (TEA) accepted the IL credential and issued a provisional credential. Once they did that assuming your friend has a SS# (its required for the CBI). You would then complete whatever exams are required for the initial issuance of the Standard credential (a content exam alligning with their current credential and the PPR). You then only have to take the EC-12 Special Education exam. The Masters has no bearing on the process. The advantage of this route is that TX accepts foreign applicants though you would have to have a SS#.

FL: This option requires meeting the citizenship requirements including a valid SS# but assuming they accepted the IL credential and issued a FL Professional (professional grade) credential your friend would only have to complete the FTCE exam in K-12 Exceptional Student Education.

DC: This route doesnt have a citizenship requirement or SS# requirement. Assuming they met the requirements for the Standard credential (professional grade) they would have to only take the required PRAXIS exams which are available globally.

Your leader is gas lighting you. Indicating you feel inferior as a way of keeping you rating youre teaching ability as subpar as a means of discouraging other DSs from interest in you and making you feel you need them to grow into an exceptional edu. Does your leader have a math DT tree growing somewhere?

Has your leader indicated why you would be better at a senior school than a junior school? Kids in senior schools can be just as disruptive as junior school, plus theyre bigger.

Youre only in your second year of teaching, youre not supposed to know everything. generally edu improvement sees the biggest changes in edu performance and success at years 1, 2, 4, and 8. In years one and two teachers have two skill sets to become proficient in: curriculum and classroom management. Your student demographic is not the best or even in the top half. Lets face it youre likely not the problem, its likely the students.

SPED in US public/maintained DSs is more about documenting why students arent improving more than it is improving student learning. I once had a leader tell me "students in SPED should be prepared to exit into the general purpose classroom within three years." My response was that he should go to wherever that fantasy land is and be a principal there". We never got along after that, but the world is not short of leaders who have grossly unrealistic expectations.

In direct reply to your inquiries:

1) Math DTs rank rather high on competitiveness scales in job availability. I concur with @SJ that youre probably always going to have job opportunities available to you.

2) In the US DE market DSs tend to start recruiting in around march with making the rounds at the Uni job fairs. Then around May when DTs are mostly requied to have their notices in is when recruiting really increases, as leaders both at the campus and the district level want to have as much done by June as they and campus leaders go on their holiday usually around early July. Usually recruiting drops off then in July and resumes in early August before the first day of classes. At that time a DS is more likely to appoint a long term substitute/supply DT for at least the first term if not the full AY.

3) Age isnt really a problem as long s your sharp and energetic. Leaders in US DE prefer DTs who are walkers over sitters.

4) With 2 years teaching experience people are going to think youre rather inexperienced, but as someone not only credentialed in maths but actually with a math adjacent academic background they are going to care more (and be impressed more) about that than anything.

Before searching for a new job be aware of the notice requirements you may have in regard to contract abandonment (which WA does have). You want to ensure youve either fulfilled your contract or be released from your contract.

Either do the bobble head or implement your exit strategy. You will not change anything, so either cope or move on.

Do your own assignments.

1) What is your teaching philosophy? Inquiry based with a focus on cumulative production outcomes (student success) while engaging in formative assessment to both identify teaching opportunities and summative assessment to identify student strength and weaknesses.

2) What is your teaching style? A whole student focused Socratic teaching adaptation derived from student learning styles.

3) What are your weaknesses? Im a perfectionist who is always trying to get that last bit of performance from myself and my students.

4) How do you use technology in class? To maximize attention to students individual learning differences. technology allows me to be the kind of teacher each of my students need.

5) What is the most important component of teaching? (curriculum, standards, management, etc). Patience, and empathy. Before my students can believe in themselves academically they need to feel that they are believed in.

6) How do you motivate students? I use a token economy to recognize individual student success.

7) How do you use differentiation in class? I focus class time on general instruction and then outside class I keep in contact with students to address individual needs with adaptive learning strategies.

8) What are the most important measures of safeguarding? Privacy Protection. The most common safeguarding failure is protecting student privacy among students.

9) How do you manage behavior? By implementing procedures and routines early in the year while providing experiential learning activities at the core of my teaching methods that keep students focused and on task.

10) How do you keep up to date with PD / best practices? By enrolling in and completing PD opportunities on best practices in education depending on my provided professional development budget.

@expatscot

Youre agreeing with me. I stated were going to need individuals to supervise and manage behavior. What Ai is going to change is the amount of actual instruction that happens with students. AI, especially generative AI is decent at producing outcomes as far as content goes, it doesnt get more than a layer or two deep though when it comes to inquiry, etc. Regardless, teaching is more an assembly line process rather than a creative one, specifically in DE.

@petroben

Empathy, adaptability, and personal connection are all nice but they dont reflect in asst scores and as class sizes grow it allows even less and less time for that. AI can and should take the bulk of the common general instruction and leave more time for the DT/IT to engage individually or in small groups with students. Instead of spending time in lecture or delivery with students let the AI do it outside of class time allowing that much more time to be focused on differentiation and student care.

@jboeh2

1) TES is free, they tend to emphasis ISs that are more UK centric, but its free.
2) TIE is about as good as Schole and cheaper.
3) ISS has a free tier that will show you vacancies and ISs, you would have to apply outside of ISS though. Their paid tier isnt worth it, unless you really have a job lead that wants to do a meet & greet at a fair.

My list is somewhat different than yours. As to yours:

1) I guess I like safety, but what safe means to me is more along the lines of arbitrary law enforcement (since when cant I have a bottle of wine in a park), and a lack of civil unrest. The rest doesnt really matter much to me since foreigners and expats are usually given greater latitude. The only major increase in crime against expats and foreigners is petty theft (pick pocketing) and street scams. Both can be readily avoidable with a modicum of situational awareness and not looking like a potential target. The US by comparison has rather indiscriminate and rather high rates of gun violence targeted specifically towards DTs. That would worry me more and inconvenience me more in my daily routine than other forms of crime.

2) Air quality really only bothers me if its really bad air, okay air is fine for me. I dont have allergies, and air filters tend to be either conveniently available or easy to fashion (Its just a fan and a filter attached to one another). That being said if the air was terrible, i wouldnt consider a location very strongly but most of the places I would go for other reasons, just dont have poor air quality.

3) Non-Profit/Profit status is a non issue. So many ISs are poo hole ISs and they are non-profit. There are so many ways to run a non-profit IS for profit its not worth considering as a factor.

4) Mobile phones is less an issue for me as long as Im free to ban their use in my classroom. Its one of those factors that isnt really a factor as many ISs get to make their own rules and Ive yet to find an edu that actively encourages phone use in class or supports it.

5) Health Care I can see how the rural mining IS/DS/ES would be problematic, or an IS with a distant field site could be problematic, but ISs usually exist in places that can support them and thats usually a point after establishing reasonably advanced medical facilities. Though I would want to have access to major medical facilities for things like planned procedures and surgical procedures. I dont need a tier 1 trauma center locally though for most things.

6) Savings is such a widely variable thing to so many people. I would say that discretionary coin is one of my priorities, whether that means living a higher than typical lifestyle or being able to meet retirement and savings goals. I dont want to be in a position of scraping buy every month or over holidays just to be able to live in a certain location or have a certain experience.

7) Inappropriate Grading Influence just doesnt mean as much to me as it used to. As long as there is some discretion in place and practiced between the top mark/grade and the passing mark/grade, I dont really care about policies prohibiting failures or below passing marks/grades. In some ways ISs where everyone gets high marks means it frees up time to focus on instruction and minimizes the amount of time an IT has to put into marking/grading.

8) Work Life Balance is probably my number one priority. Though I tend to agree that at a certain point the ITs putting in excessive hours either havent been teaching effectively enough to develop efficiencies or are the source of their own poor time management.
Where I do disagree with other contributors is the Iss where leadership has been careful not to put explicit and overt pressure on ITs, but they do so subtly with philosophies and policies that emphasis "getting the job done", "student success is priority 1", "students come first". Those types of environments are rather insidious and tend to reward effort and time rather than productivity while chasing the tails of student performance at extreme costs.
Where I disagree with @justme123 is usally you find tier 2 ISs to be the most taxing as opposed to lax as they try to improve their ranking and tier status. Tier 1 ISs can be very comfortable with work life balance if the leadership and ownership are content to just keep doing what they are doing. Upper tier 3 ISs can be very nice work experiences.

Its entirely in the realm of reasonable that they are looking for someone with less experience, so that they can grow their own IB expertise as opposed to importing some other ISs meds/peds/asst.

Cheaper is more of a reach, as many ISs have salary caps on incoming hires usually 5 or 10 years. Considering an IS wants someone who has at least been on the instructor side of the classroom at 2 years, and considering that incremental increases between steps are usually very small (less than 5%) they arent really saving much between an IT with 2 years and one with 5 years (assuming a 5 year cap). They would likely be happier with an applicant with 8 years over less since they are getting 3 extra years of experience in IB at step 5 in coin. Thats just free added value.

@jboeh2

Kind of, sort of. Youre actually asking two questions.
In regards to the first question: Yes a NYS Professional credential is comparable to QTS (Professional grade) credential, and depending on the pathway MAY exceed QTS as an Advanced grade credential.
To the second question: In The Netherlands Independent/Private ISs (B4 institutions) are largely exempt from the credential requirements for regulated (maintained/public) DSs. DT training programs, particularly at the secondary level, require a 1 year post bachelors/first degree program, comparable to a PGCE and ITT program in the UK or a Post-Bach and EPP program in the US. The issue is that there are pathways for the Professional credential that do not require graduate level coursework, or the obtainment of a Masters degree to complete requirements.
Regardless, the NYS professional credential is at least equivalent to QTS.

For many of their positions, an EU Passport or right to work in the EU/Netherlands is a requirement to be considered. The IS is indicating they will not pursue or obtain a work visa for the candidate. There is the occasional position that they will consider those who do not have an EU Passport, or right to work in the EU. In those cases its a preference, but for most practical matters they will exhaust the pool of qualified EU passport holders or those with a right to work in the EU, before advancing to interview to those who would require visa sponsorship, which rarely happens. The cost to apply however is trivial.

"Qualified Teacher Status" (QTS) isnt a term used in The Netherlands to describe a credential for K12/KS edu. You need to have a credential either issued by the MOE or one recognized by the DUO, and the standard of recognition for foreign credentials is the UK equivalent of QTS (assuming the Academic PGCE pathways). If you obtained your US credential through an academic pathway that consists of courses on a transcript and a field experience than it would likely be equivalent for the DUO.

That particular IS has a high frequency of requiring applicants to have an EU passport, or have the right to work in the EU to be considered.

You already answered your own question, ISs dont prioritize music IT recruitment because these positions arent hard to fill, in general. Of course theres a continuum, on one end you have the same situation similarly described by @popgirl where much like primary or lower secondary social studies it doesnt take a lot to teach a music class, assuming its a mix of theory and some rudimentary instrumentation and/or vocals. If the role is music on a cart as a fine/performing art, as part of a minimal enrichment program, and provide a little keyboard/piano support for theater, etc., then no its not hard to recruit for that at all in a small IS for example.
On the other end of the spectrum youve got programs that approach the 'Specialized Performing and Fine Arts' category. These are programs that prep students for Julliard, RCM, etc. They do professional level recitals, and have chair challenges that actually make (IS) news and are considered significant events that matter. An IS with a single, senior IT, junior leadership role for their music department has to be able to do everything and look like a master doing it. Everything from seminar/concept courses, to instrumental, vocals (accompaniment), choral/choir. recital, planning, preparation, and performance is a big aspect of this type of position. Recitals are one of the few times the ISs face is put out for the public.
The latter can be difficult to recruit for.
First, Music ITs of that caliber usually have a personal music career on the side and leaving there HOR can dump their private music hustle to the bottom. These edus are part of a local regional scene, they have some reputation that is worth something, and it goes away if they uproot. Likely a not insignificant amount of coin disappears with them (considering their private tutoring side hustle vanishes when they leave)
Second, many of these ITs are in essentially permenant positions. You give up a lot to pack up and go. Contracts alone can stipulate a protracted resignation process and period to find a replacement. Its a very nice place to be at the top of something great, compared to giving it up for OS, and the IS OS is likely to consider the first appointment/contract as a form of probationary period, requiring the IT to perform up to some expectation in a location they arent familiar with.
Third, DTs with established positions often have relationships that provide them a certain amount of cache that is attached more so to the DS and the position rather than the person in the position. That one non-competitive slot that College Uni. keeps open for Acme Prep DS stays with the DS it doesnt go with the DT when they become an IT.
So yes on one very polarized side of the spectrum theres a very small group of ITs at that level, but 'music' isnt hard to recruit for in general.

A lot of IE recruitment exhibits a wave, some years demand is up and some years its seems there are no vacancies, but that cycle describes a lot of content fields in addition to music.

@Nangu

March 2023, thats not that old, thats Spring of this year. Youve been in this job for 3 months? You can do anything for a year and not have it effect your marketability. You were studying, taking care of a sick family member, had some crises (your goldfish died), you had to settle a relative or friends estate, you started a business (it hasnt been as lucrative as you thought), you were backpacking/traveling/holiday/vacay. It really doesnt matter. So you contact your previous employer (though you should have the letters saved).
You have control over only one variable, whether you disclose this IS or not. Once you make that disclosure, you lose all control. You cant dictate some HOS/Leader/Recruiter reaction, response, feelings, or thoughts. This employer (the HOS) isnt going to give you a positive reference, and you dont know what pressure the IS is going to put on the rest of senior leadership to tow the line, who may otherwise support you. You can whine, that the position wasnt organized properly, that it wasnt supported, that it just didnt work out, and its no ones fault, but thats just whining. Unless the IS is willing to do a 180 and support you finding another job and actually do that without sabotaging you, and they are going to say that your position really didnt materialize with your arrival, no fault on you, there just isnt really a role for you. Its not like warming a seat for a couple months is going to be worth anything anyway, why take the risk when you can just ghost it.

@shopaholic

Early recruiting starts in October, Peak recruiting in early January until mid February, Late recruiting follows until the Spring push in Aprilish (mostly EU) and then the Summer shuffle around Juneish.

@Nangu

You dont. Its an IT whining vs. whatever the HOS of the IS says. Youre best option is to ghost it.

Parents will need their children supervised, monitored, and some level of proctoring for assessments, so there will be job security, but less and less of the edus job is going to be engaged in knowledge transfer and instructional tasks. CMI has already seen a lot of advancements, specifically in the static learning domain (push), reading, lecturing, visual elements, AI brings in the dynamic elements (pull), asking and responding to inquiries, generating supplemental material. That really only leaves intervention, studio, and experiential (tactile/manipulable) learning left for an edu.