Let's Talk About the Sub Shortage

Like any labor shortage happening recently, the substitute teacher shortage is far more a result of poor working conditions and lack of benefits than it is a result of people ‘just not wanting to work’.

At the beginning of my teaching career, I spent three years as a substitute teacher in three different districts (all at the same time). Since subs are not limited to their certification, I covered classes from kindergarten all the way to an English class for high school seniors. I subbed for music teachers, PE teachers, art specialists, resource room teachers, and even a school counselor.

Subbing is difficult and unpredictable on a good day, and the ways that school districts have gone about COVID precautions have only compounded this.

There are a few realities of being a substitute teacher, however, that make subbing in a pandemic more daunting than it has ever been.

The Job Varies Wildly District by District

The job of ‘substitute teacher’ has different requirements, training, and expectations depending on which district you work for, and they are rarely the same. Some districts require you to hold a teaching certificate in order to sub, others do not. Some pay hourly and bi-weekly, some salary their subs, others pay per-diem and you need to wait months for your paycheck.

Some schools and teachers will book you well ahead of time for days they know they'll need coverage, while others will wait until the morning of, and don’t even tell you what you’re agreeing to. There are schools that treat subs as nothing more than warm bodies occupying the teacher’s space until they can return, and schools where subs are expected to teach lessons and run the class exactly as the absent teacher would, with no deviance.

There are districts that provide training for their substitute teachers, in using the online substitute scheduler, procedures for parking, how to check in at each school, etc. While other districts put your name on the list and wish you luck. There might be a supervisor in charge of substitute teachers, or you might have no contact person at all within the district office other than ‘Human Resources’ (which makes filling out employment histories super fun, by the way).

This variation has only gotten worse with COVID. Different districts, and even different schools within districts are handling the coverage for sick teachers differently. Subs might be offered hazard pay or sick leave, they might not. Schools might want subs for online or distance learning, and they might leave that up to the sick classroom teacher. A substitute teacher might cover a single class, or be responsible for managing several classes at once.

There is no standard for how substitute teaching works overall.

You Absolutely Never Know What You’re Walking Into

Did you know that the job a sub agrees to, either over the phone or through an online scheduler, is not necessarily the job they will be given when they arrive at the school? You could agree to cover a 4th grade class, then walk into the office and be told you’re actually covering PE for the day.

Schools are allowed to do this, and while subs are technically allowed to walk away from something they didn’t agree to, ditching a job last minute will make it significantly harder to secure jobs in the future. It doesn’t matter why you backed out. You bailed last minute, and that makes you unreliable, so you will get less calls. It’s often easier, and less harmful to your income, to just deal with it.

Even when you get the job you agreed to, you could be assigned to the sweetest, most helpful class of kindergarteners you’ve met in your entire life, or be physically blocking the door to prevent kids bolting into the street while the class destroys the furniture. Maybe the teacher left detailed notes about how the class runs, or maybe there’s nothing.

Maybe you call the office for help with a student experiencing an episode of explosive anger and the school counselor is at your door seconds later, or maybe you’re told, ‘there’s only 40 minutes left until school’s out, can’t you just deal with it?’ (that’s a quote, by the way). Maybe it’s a normal school day, or maybe it’s a special assembly day with guest speakers visiting each classroom afterwards, with reptiles.

You don’t know until you’re in the room, and by then it’s too late.

Subs are nothing if not flexible, but there are limits to how far a human being can stretch. With current health and safety standards constantly changing and being interpreted based on the needs of parents who can’t take time off of work, you really don't know what you're walking into on any given day.

Did you get called to the school that screens children for symptoms and fevers at the door, provides N95s and testing to their teachers, and has enough space to adequately distance in classrooms? Or did you get called to the school with no health checks, classes of 30+ students packed into classrooms built to hold 20, optional masking, and an administration that pressures teachers to come to work with flu symptoms because closing a classroom 'sends the wrong message to the community'?

Unless a sub is called to a familiar school, specifically to cover a teacher they've worked for previously, they never know what to expect. Sometimes things are fine, other times, the situation is terrible, and now, the situation can be dangerous.

Sub Don’t Get Benefits

The average substitute teacher is paid either by the hour or by the day, and is not eligible for benefits through the district they work for. Regardless of how many hours you work in a month, you will not receive health insurance, sick leave, or retirement savings from the district.

Some districts allow subs to become eligible for these benefits if they exceed a certain number of hours in a month. However, since your schedule isn’t set, this availability varies month to month, and the employee portion of payments is often higher than it is for regular full-time employees.

This means when subs get sick, they might not be able to see a doctor. Without sick leave, it also means they lose their income. To make matters worse, extended absences from the sub pool can make it difficult to get jobs when you jump back in, since any absence, any cancellation, can get you labeled as ‘unreliable’.

So now, with a deadly and contagious virus tearing its way through schools, it’s a bit obvious why many teachers who’ve subbed previously don’t want to sub. Why go into a classroom with no idea what you’re stepping into, knowing full well that if you get sick, not only can you not go to the doctor, you have no sick leave to fall back on and getting jobs will become more difficult in the future?

It is no surprise that substitute teachers are seeking out other employment opportunities. If there’s a safer, more stable job available, of course the teachers who used to sub will take it. Subbing was stressful, unpredictable, and unsustainable as a full-time job before COVID happened. Now, it’s everything it always was, but also hazardous to your health.