Tacoma facing shortage of substitute teachers. They’re boosting pay to hire hundreds
Tacoma Public Schools is boosting pay for substitute teachers in an attempt to fill open positions, with the goal of hiring hundreds of people.
The district confirmed this week that the basic daily pay for certified substitutes has been raised to $200 per day, up from about $150 per day.
District spokesperson Dan Voelpel said the district has a big goal to hire 200 more substitutes. Currently, the district has about 360. Substitute teachers are required to have teaching certificates. People can apply for positions at tacomaschools.org/jobs.
The pay increase is also a way to stay competitive with other districts, Voelpel said.
The shortage of substitutes isn’t limited to Tacoma. Regionally, districts are working to fill substitute positions.
“Like other districts, we are also experiencing a shortage of substitute teachers. To help with this, we have reinstated our Emergency Substitute Teacher Program,” Bethel School District spokesperson Doug Boyles said in an email to The News Tribune this week.
Emergency substitutes are different than regular substitutes in that they do not need a Washington state teaching certificate. Typically, people who participate in the emergency substitute teaching program are “career-changers” looking to explore the teaching profession but have not yet been issued a teaching certificate.
Keri Anderson, a substitute teacher for Tacoma for seven years, said there’s always been a shortage of substitutes, but it’s now the worst she’s seen.
“A lot of our subs are retirees, and they just don’t feel safe going back,” Anderson said.
Tom O’Kelley, who also subs for Tacoma Public Schools, said some substitutes also got new jobs during the pandemic due to unreliable income, while others moved elsewhere. The biggest impact is to elementary schools, he said.
“They need subs desperately, but in descending numbers from (grades) K-5, then 6-8, continuing through 9-12 in high school. There are some of us who restrict ourselves by grade level,” O’Kelley said in an email.
Just Tuesday morning, there were 30 possible openings for substitute positions across the district, Anderson said.
“Those are just teachers who can’t be in their classrooms, and buildings that are going to have to scramble to figure out how they can cover them,” Anderson said.
At the elementary level, specialists like music or physical education teachers help teach classrooms if there are no substitutes available, Anderson said. At the middle and high school levels, other teachers will sometimes give up planning time to assist classes without an available substitute.
Anderson said she’s glad to see the increase in pay for subs and would like to see other strategies implemented to create and retain a professional pool of substitute teachers, such as added guaranteed benefits.
On the plus side, O’Kelley said teachers are getting their substitute requests in earlier than usual — in some cases, months in advance.
“Previously most requests were made the night before the need,” he said.
Anderson said that the substitute shortage highlights that there needs to be a cultural shift when it comes to how society views substitute teachers.
“We need to start seeing subbing as a viable, sustainable career path, not just a temp path,” Anderson said.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 10:37 AM.
