School districts across El Paso County are experiencing a shortage of qualified substitute teachers, causing some districts to take action.According to a 2014 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality, over the course of a studentís kindergarten through 12th grade education, on average he or she will have spent 143 days with a substitute teacher, which is about one month shy of an entire school year.At the April 10 El Paso County Colorado School District 49 Board of Education meeting, the board members unanimously approved a resolution to apply for a waiver through the Colorado Department of Education concerning substitute teacher licensure.The resolution states the following: ìWe, the District 49 Board of Education, are seeking a waiver from the state requirement for substitute teachers to acquire a substitute license/authorization prior to being employed as a substitute teacher of a school district.îPeter Hilts, chief education officer with D 49, said the district has had a shortage of subs for multiple years.ìUnder the old policy, you could only hire people who had gone through the state licensing process,î Hilts said. ìThere are people in our community who are qualified (to substitute teach) but not licensed. The new system under the waiver allows us to hire people as subs who have a bachelorís degree or equivalent, even if they did not have a state substitute teaching license.îKarey Urbanski, director of human resources at Colorado Springs School District 11, said her district is experiencing a similar shortage. ìThere has been a decline in substitute applications and truly having available subs,î she said. ìI would say that I have been working in this position for the last three to four years and even over that short period of time, we have noticed a decline.îThe personnel services manager for Lewis-Palmer School District 38, Teale Kocher, said there are differing views about the shortage of substitutes in her district. ìIf you were to ask the teachers and principals, they would say we do not have enough substitutes in our district,î she said. ìWe have 105 subs on our list right now, but I know that we have about 12 to 13 percent of the subs on our list who have never accepted an offer to sub. I am working to determine why that is.îD 38 administrators have not discussed a policy change or applying for a waiver like D 49 has done, she said.D 11 has also not considered a policy change or applying for a waiver, Urbanski said.The economy could be to blame for the lack of substitute teachers because it has grown strong enough that not as many people are looking for short-term work opportunities, Hilts said. ìPeople who need the flexibility of substitute teaching have more options, like teaching for an online school or hybrid online school, or in a homeschool support setting,î he said. ìWhen workers have more options, it makes it harder to find a concentration in a specific occupation like substitute teaching.îUrbanski said she thinks the shortage has to do, in part, with a shortage of people interested in going into education in general and not just in Colorado Springs or even the state of Colorado. The lack of interest in going into teaching needs to be addressed at the national level as it is a nationwide issue.To incentivize qualified people to become substitute teachers, some districts are raising their pay rates for subs. Urbanski said D 11 has done just that for the 2018-2019 school year. A full day of substitute teaching for Monday through Friday is $115, while a Friday is $125, she said. The pay raise, the higher pay for working on Fridays, which historically is a day when subs are needed the most, and offering free lunches to subs on Fridays are other incentives D 11 offers, Urbanski said.Hilts said D 49 might be considering a pay raise for subs but the current rate is as follows: for an entry-level sub with a bachelorís degree only, the rate is $90 per day, which is raised to $120 per day after 45 days (non-consecutive) of service. That amount goes up to $140 per day after 90 days of service.Kocher said the pay rate for subs in District 38 is a bit different: $95 per day from the first day to 45 days (non-consecutive), with $48 per day for half-days during that same period; $120 per day from day 46 to 89, with $60 per day for half-days; $150 per day from day 90 and beyond, with $75 for half-days; and $185 per day for a long-term position if a teacher is not returning.Danniella Ewen, executive director of human resources at D 11, said universities are trying to combat the lack of interest in a teaching career by offering dual degrees, where a teacher can get an elementary school endorsement (which is the subject area and grade level to qualify teachers) but also get a special education endorsement. Doing so allows them to be qualified to teach in both areas, she said.With new people coming on board to teach, safety and security remain top priorities for each district. Hilts said each sub goes through the same background checks and fingerprinting process as regular teachers. ìWe also train subs on our emergency procedures and protocols for critical incidents,î he said. ìUnder the waiver we received, we are going to train our subs in five areas, and we think we will get a higher quality of performance, but also be a better place to work.îHilts said the five training areas for subs are security, safety and emergency procedures; professional communication so subs can speak with their colleagues, parents and students effectively; instructional practices so they are aligned with what the regular teachers are doing; instruction on classroom management, including how to set up a classroom to work productively and how to intervene if a student is disruptive in class; and assessment proctoring so they understand the rules of how to administer tests.Urbanski said D 11 provides subs with a guest staff orientation session prior to the start of the school year. ìWe had the security director come to the training and provide subs with the process and protocols of how to handle emergency situations,î she said. ìWe are also requiring that every school provide the emergency protocol for their school for each sub that enters their building.îKocher said D 38 does not provide special training for subs, but each school provides a safety folder to each sub when they check in. Inside the folder are instructions on what to do in case of an emergency, including diagrams for classroom evacuation; depending on the situation, she said. Additionally, when a sub is first hired through D 38, they have to sign off on reading material about child abuse reporting, student and employee confidentiality and watch videos about fire extinguishers and hazardous communication, Kocher said.Hilts said he is aware of the amount of time students spend with subs and added, ìThat is why we need to increase the quality and depth of our substitute teacher pool.î
