By: Ibtesam Mustafa
Teachers are absent for an average of 6% of the school year — this is where substitutes step in. Substitute teachers are critical to a school’s daily operation. They give teachers a sense of security, knowing their students will continue to learn even when they take days off. Substitutes also prevent the need for other school employees to fill in for an absent teacher, giving those employees the chance to focus on their own work.
Photo by K. Holmes from Pexels.
Given their value, school districts are desperate to find substitute teachers, but a national shortage has left them without necessary classroom coverage. As a former substitute teacher, I have seen first-hand the need for substitute teachers in schools, the struggle to have enough substitutes, and the chaos that can follow when there is no one to cover a classroom.
From One Shortage to Another
The substitute teacher shortage is not a new issue — states have been dealing with it for years. However, the problem has recently become worse. The recent rise in full-time teachers leaving the profession is contributing to the need for substitute teachers. According to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, there were 233,000 fewer public school teachers in 2021 than in 2019. A press release from the National Center for Education Statistics found that 53% of public schools reported feeling understaffed for the 2022-2023 school year. With teacher vacancies increasing, schools needed more substitutes, and the supply and demand gap widens. Additional causes of the substitute teacher shortage include older substitute teachers feeling nervous going into schools due to COVID-19, a lack of benefits offered for substitutes, low pay, fewer students going into teaching and substituting before full-time employment, and the requirements of state and local laws.
In response to the shortage, some school districts have raised the pay for substitutes or have even begun offering health benefits. Other districts have gone as far as recruiting parents and asking police officers and firefighters to help fill the roles. One effort met with varying opinions is lowering the age and education minimums required to obtain a substitute teacher certificate.
What are these lower requirements?
There is no national standard of requirements to become a substitute teacher. Instead, each state sets its own requirements which vary in minimum age and level of education. According to a January 2022 analysis by The National Council on Teacher Equality, 18 of the 150 districts in its research sample reduced requirements for substitute teachers. Some states have lowered their requirements as well.
In August 2022, Missouri passed a law decreasing its college credit requirement by almost half, from 60 credits to 36. The state also added an alternative to the college credit requirement, allowing those with a high school diploma or equivalent to earn their substitute license by completing 20 hours of training. In September 2021, Oregon created an Emergency Restricted Substitute License that required applicants be at least 18 years old and obtain sponsorship from an Oregon School district. Oregon’s non-emergency Restricted Substitute License requires a bachelor’s degree. The emergency license was set to expire in March 2022 but was extended to May 2023 in response to the continued shortage.
In April 2022, Illinois’ Governor Pritzker enacted four new laws aimed at combatting the substitute teacher shortage. One of the laws lowered the fee to reinstate a lapsed license from $500 to $50. Another increased the days in a row a substitute can fill a position from five to fifteen. Governor Pritzker also lowered the age for paraprofessionals from 19 to 18, and reduced the substitute teacher education requirement from a bachelor’s degree to a minimum of 90 college credits. While the lowered requirements have not entirely resolved the shortage in these states, they are helping the problem.
Lowering the Requirements: A Means to a Hopeful End
Lowering the requirements for substitute teachers is a step towards resolving the shortage, but it may hurt the students that need a solution the most. According to The Education Trust, low-income students and students of color are already taught by teachers with less experience and fewer credentials than those teaching higher-income students and white students. Leslie Fenwick, a dean from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, wrote “disproportionately staffing schools that serve students of color and those from families experiencing poverty with uncredentialed teachers and teachers in training is discriminatory and does harm.” Lowering the requirements for substitute teachers can be viewed as lowering the experience and credentials that substitutes will have. If substitutes are less qualified, it could be harmful to low-income students and students of color and fail to provide them with the education they deserve.
Although lowering substitute requirements could harm the education of low-income students and students of color, it also provides a benefit. Schools serving these students struggle to fill substitute vacancies. The Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University conducted a study of labor supply decisions of substitute teachers in Chicago Public Schools. According to the study, schools in low-income Chicago communities were only able to fill half of their substitute requests in the 2017-2018 school year. However, schools in more affluent areas of Chicago filled over 95% of requests. The lowering of substitute requirements results in more substitutes available to fill the open requests of schools serving low-income and minority students.
Photo by K. Holmes from Pexels
The substitute teacher shortage is an issue that will require multiple varied efforts by states and schools to resolve. The current trend of lowering substitute teaching requirements helps to ensure students have someone in their classroom to guide them when their teacher is absent, allows teachers the opportunity to take time off, and permits school personnel to focus on their roles outside of classrooms. Substitute teachers play a vital role in education and although lowering their requirements may not be a perfect solution, it is still a step toward resolving the shortage.
Ibtesam Mustafa is a law student at Loyola University of Chicago Law School and wrote this blog post as part of the Education Law and Policy Course.
