ST. LOUIS — The Missouri State Board of Education authorized the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education(DESE) to request to make permanent a pandemic program that dramatically shortened the training program for substitute teachers.
If the request is approved by the Secretary of State and the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, it would go into effect next month, rather than next year.
The city of St. Charles School District, with an enrollment of 5,000 students, utilizes substitute teachers every school day.
“Two years ago, our fill rate — which means when teachers were out how much success we had at filling that position — was 94-percent," Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Dr. Rodney Lewis said. "Right now, our percentage is in the 70s, to give you an indication how dire this is.”
Fort Zumwalt, with an enrollment of 17,500, uses as many as 320 subs every school day. Superintendent Dr. Bernard DuBray said a shortage of substitutes has been an ongoing issue for educators.
“Yes, it has,” said DuBray, “and that’s continuing. If anything, it’s exacerbated because of COVID, because a lot of times staff have to stay home with their children and get exposed themselves. So, if anything, it’s worse.”
During the pandemic, Missouri education officials allowed substitutes to teach after just 20 hours of training instead of 60. That is scheduled to become permanent on Jan. 1.
Now Missouri education officials would like to move that change in substitute certification up to next month, instead of next year.
“I think DESE’s on the right track trying to mitigate the issue,” said Lewis. “If you lessen the requirements, hopefully, we get people to the table. We increased our sub pay and a lot of school districts are increasing their sub pay. Now, I know we’re not breaking the piggy bank here, but we went from $96 to $100 a day to try to make it more of a competitive market rate for our subs to be here.”
DuBray said the change helped and hopes it will continue to help.
“It got more substitutes in," he said. "People who didn’t have 60 college hours were able to come in and take that 20 hours course that DESE put together to teach people how to be subs. So consequently, it opened it up to a lot of people who didn’t have that associate's degree or 60 hours.”
DESE officials say the 20-hour online training covers honoring diversity, engaging students, classroom management techniques, instructional strategies and supporting students with special needs and at-risk youth.