Some school districts have boosted pay to try to lure back reluctant substitutes or attract new ones, and several states recently eased rules for fill-in teachers. Superintendents in some areas have recruited at 55-and-over communities, appealed to parents to serve as subs and in some instances have themselves stepped in to teach.
School officials say the sub drought shows no sign of easing with the Omicron variant surging.
“The staff shortage, and shortage of substitutes, is significantly worse than I’ve ever seen it,” said Debra Pace, superintendent in Osceola County, Fla., which has 74,000 students. On Tuesday, she is scheduled to be a substitute at Kissimmee Middle School.
More than 300 of the roughly 4,000 teachers at her Central Florida district have called in sick lately, she said. Yet the district is able to find subs just 40%-50% of the time, whereas normally the rate is around 90%. Other districts also report coming up far short of demand.
“People are scared,” said 70-year-old Linda Carter, a longtime substitute in Lee County, Fla. “A lot of us are high-risk…We’re retired teachers, retired people from other walks of life. And we all have medical issues or we care for somebody who has medical issues.”
Ms. Carter, treasurer of the National Substitute Teachers Alliance, said she is vaccinated and boosted but has steered clear of classrooms since the pandemic. She uses a wheelchair and breathes with help from a ventilator. “If I get the virus, I’m in trouble,” she said.
In Boston, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius recently taught fourth grade and helped administer Covid-19 tests to students. Mark Racine, Boston Public Schools’ chief information officer and a former teacher, has been teaching art and assisted a special-education teacher.
“We’re doing our absolute best to make sure that every child has the most qualified and appropriate adult in front of them,” said Mr. Racine. For example, he said, a guidance counselor who is a licensed teacher can be shifted to a classroom role.
Boston, like many districts, has struggled with low student attendance since winter break. An upside is reduced need for substitutes, Mr. Racine said, though demand is still outstripping supply in Boston. On Thursday, about 10% of teachers were absent, and student attendance has been around 70% this month. Mr. Racine said all the teacher and student absences are raising serious concerns about learning loss.
Most U.S. public schools are operating in person, while thousands have gone remote, largely due to staff shortages driven by Covid-19 infections. Teachers who are in class feel the added stress with so many colleagues out and too few subs available to pick up the slack, said National Education Association President
Becky Pringle.
“They’re coming into school and not getting a break for lunch, or finding that they have to cover a class of 80,” Ms. Pringle said. She worries burnout could push some teachers out of the profession at a time when the country needs more educators, she said.
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Hoping to ease the substitute crunch,
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont
signed an order Tuesday making it easier for retired teachers to fill in. That same day
California Gov. Gavin Newsom
signed an order reducing barriers to hiring substitutes. In late December,
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
signed a bill to allow school secretaries and others to work as subs.
The Kansas State Board of Education on Wednesday passed a measure allowing anyone 18 or older with a high school diploma to get an emergency substitute license, provided they pass a background check and have an employment commitment. The measure temporarily waives a rule that applicants must have at least 60 semester credit hours from an accredited college or university.
In September, Osceola County raised hourly substitute pay to between $11 and $15, up from a range of $9.50 to $12. The district has done outreach with churches, 55-and-over communities and parent groups, without much success, Dr. Pace said.
To cover classes, district staff are being deployed as needed. “Paraprofessionals, clerical staff, administrators, coaches, it can be anybody,” she said.
She said the district tries to avoid giving substitutes more than one class at a time. But middle and high-schoolers have been grouped in the gym or auditorium, overseen by administrators or teachers during their planning period. Students are expected to do assignments, she said.
In Denver, Superintendent Alex Marrero recently asked central office employees to work one day a week in schools as a teacher, classroom aide or office staffer. He taught a middle school class that officials said otherwise could have had to switch to virtual.
The Denver district said it managed to fill just 44% of requests for substitutes in the first week of January, down from 61% in November and December.
Scott Pribble, the district’s media relations manager, got fingerprinted Wednesday as part of his application for a state substitute teacher’s license. The 53-year-old taught high school in his 20s before becoming a firefighter and later moving into the communications field. He said the prospect of a fresh teaching stint after a long absence gives him a mix of emotions.
“Excited, nervous, anxious, happy, all of that,” he said.
Write to Scott Calvert at scott.calvert@wsj.com
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