Eli5 – How do schools use substitute teachers? How do substitute teachers make reliable income?
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After graduating from college, my first teaching positions were as a substitute teacher. Where I lived had access to 4 different school districts, and because I had my teaching license, I got paid more than a normal sub would.
That being said, it is not consistent work. There would be days where I wouldn’t get a call from any of the 4 districts. On the other hand, I covered a 2nd grade classroom for 2 weeks once as well. I’d usually work 3-5 times a week, and make between 55-80 a day for a full day.
At most, I would have made about $1600 a month at max compensation (different schools pay different amounts). It’s not a great way to make a living, especially because there is no retirement fund to contribute to, no benefits given, etc.
Source: I am a full-time teacher and was a Substitute for a semester after college.
Edit: Most subs are either retired teachers looking to supplement their income, recent graduates still looking for a full time position, or people who don’t need to bring in a ton of money to their families, but the extra income is nice.
I am a substitute teacher for a small private school. I will get notified when a teacher is absent—sometimes a day or two before I’m needed, sometimes a week in advance, sometimes at five in the morning the day of—and I’ll show up and work.
Substitute teaching does not provide a good income. I’m a college student living at home with few bills, so I didn’t need a reliable income. If I needed more money, I’d have to get another job and pray my schedules mesh.
Schools/school districts might have a number of permanent substitutes on staff, knowing that on any given day they’ll likely have X number of teachers out and have a need. Others may be on-call and available if needed, and may have a general idea of how often they’ll work but not be dependent on fulltime work… when I was a kid, I remember there was one regular sub in elementary school, but sometimes there’d be ones who were mothers of kids in the school, who likely left fulltime teaching when they started a family but were able to fill in when needed. Or retired teachers who wanted something to do occasionally without the stress of teaching daily.
my wife is a sub – she was a full time teacher before we had kids, and now that our kids are in school she subs as a way to earn money but still have a flexible schedule
the money is OK – not great – and she gets paid more for accepting a long term assignment (like if a teacher is out on maternity leave or has surgery). She can get health insurance but has to pay the entire premium. She doesn’t have to do in-service days like FT staff.
as far as “reliable” income she could work every day if she wanted. She is always getting calls from teachers she knows asking for her to sub for them, and from what I read most schools in the US are critically short on qualified subs due to the pandemic.
It REALLY depends on the local school board and how they manage things. I’ll tell you how it works where I live.
I live in eastern Canada. There are 2 schoolboards in my city, 1 English and 1 French, all of public the schools belong to one or the other.
In order to qualify as a teacher here you need to have 2 bachelors degrees, 1 in education and another in your subject, you need the first degree done in order to get admitted to the BED programs here. A BED can often be done in around 2 years though since there’s no electives involved.
Anyway once you have your credentials you register with the province, then contact the local schoolboard to get added to the sub list. This gets you a login to an online portal.
Now at the school level, they often call in the same sub teachers over and over again. Most schools have 2 or 3 subs that they like working with and they try to stick to just those. If a school gets in a bind or is just being lazy they can post the opening on the online portal.
Substitute teachers wake up very early. They check their phones for calls from the schools that they work with, and they try to pounce on anything that gets posted to the portal. Subs get paid a day rate for teaching something around $175 a day.
Our Canadian Employment Insurance system also comes into play here. Once you have built up enough hours worked within the past 52 weeks you are allowed to apply for EI benefits. This will pay you for the weeks that you don’t work very much. As a general rule, if you work 1 day you can collect EI for the others and come out OK. If you work 2 days you will almost always earn slightly less then if you worked 1, and if you work 3/4 or 5 days you’ll earn more. So most subs try to get as many days as they can. Overall this EI system really helps smooth our the slow weeks, but it’s not what I would call a reliable income.
While doing all this scrambling every day, subs are also always on the lookout for a coveted “long term” spot. This is normally someone who retires part way through the year, or someone who goes on a maternity leave. Schools have a lot of leeway with who they hire for long term spots so it’s often their favorite subs who land those positions.
Long term spots are key because they give you some kind of credit with the teachers union. Once you have the equivalent of 2 years long term subbing you qualify as an internal applicant just like any other union member, so it’s basically easier to get a permanent full time job at that point.
Most substitute teachers fall into 2 categories. New teachers who are trying to get hired full time, or retired teachers looking to make a little extra cash. There are some obvious tensions that occur between these two groups. Most new grad teachers where I live sub for 3-5 years before being hired full time. Those who want a faster track will often gain teaching experience by traveling to remote teaching locations (such as Northern communities).
But overall most subs are just people looking to get a foot in the door of the industry they have trained for. And yeah, it’s really hard to make a reliable income and that’s why people generally don’t sub as a career but rather a stepping stone to a career.
My Dad started substitute teaching after he retired from the military. After a few years or so, they offered him a full time position. He really enjoyed his “second” career.
If you’re lucky you can get a “long term occasional” role and cover someone’s sick leave or maternity leave. Otherwise you’re just on call as a substitute and there is no stability or reliable income.
Source: I used to work as a substitute school librarian and the process was identical to substitute teachers except I have more education than they do.
I think I’m probably in a different country but here substitute teachers tend to be called in to cover absence by regular teachers or when you can’t get anyone to apply for a job. Wheel there may be some very good , professional ones it tends to be that by being a substitute they can sometimes be looking for a permanent job but nit have one yet, prefer to pick and choose the days they work, perhaps avoid a lot of the admin and stress outside the classroom that you get when permanent , and honestly sometimes they may simply not be good enough to get a permanent job. Often but nit always the work is provided and all they have to do is go sit in the class room and let the kids get in with it or not. You have to have a pretty thick skin since most places the kids will give them no respect unless they happen to be one of the real stars. But if you didn’t really care whether kids listen to you or get in with the work, and can at least keep a lid on too many problems then you get paid a lot. I would consider becoming a sub in a school I was already known in as a semi retirement but couldn’t put up with all the BS and abuse you might get in a school that didn’t know you – unless as I said you really treat it as a challenge to win over different classes everyday. Generally here if you can at least nit increase the problems the school and head of dept have to deal with then you would get regular income because schools will have you back constantly.
So here is how it works where I’m from. There is the main list of substitute teachers. These guys are all people with full teaching credentials, either newer grads from teachers college or retirees. They are guaranteed to average 4 days a week over the school year. If they don’t get 4 days a week average the board pays them the difference at the end of the year. They keep the number of people allowed on this list limited so they can guarantee them regular calls. There is a second list for emergency supply. This list gets no guarantees of getting any calls and only gets a call if no one from the main list is available. Usually this is people who did teachers college but couldn’t get on the normal sub list so are working another job and retirees who want occasional calls but are not willing to take the minimum number of calls required to stay on the main list.
Obviously as a substitute teacher if you want to make an income you have to harness the musical abilities of your class to win music competitions. Source: jack black.
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