Eli5 – How do schools use substitute teachers? How do substitute teachers make reliable income?
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As how they make a reliable income… most substitute teachers I have known have been part-time. Sometimes it’s someone in grad school who works part-time only while they focus on school. I have known a few that were full-time moms but did substituting once or twice a week. I have also known a few retired folks who worked as substitute teachers. I don’t think people necessarily do it for the great income, but do it because it works well with their life situation or circumstances.
my old substitutes worked at multiple schools as they were needed, and some worked as a custodian or assistant while they were not being a sub
It varies from district to district, but generally a school board has a “call list” of substitute teachers. When regular teachers need a day off, because they are sick or have an appointment or whatever, they let the school board know that they need a substitute teacher. The school board then contacts people on the sub list, by phone or internet, to find one who is available. Many school boards allow teachers to contact substitute teachers directly, and then inform the school board about the arrangement so the sub gets paid.
As far as reliable income goes, it’s not usually that reliable. A substitute teacher with good availability and a good reputation might get quite a bit of work, but many substitute teachers are lucky to get more than a couple of days of work each week, and have to have a second job on weekends/evenings to make ends meet.
People don’t become substitute teachers to make a reliable income.
To become a substitute you get a background check, and sign up to be on the list along with all the other basic employment documentation. You get called if they need you / want you, and if you do a good enough job they will call you back later. If you didn’t do a good job, or they caught you logging into your account in a swinger website while you were babysitting the special needs class, they wont call you back ever.
Source: IT staff of a school.
It depends. For short time substitutions such as if a teacher calls inn sick they make sure that other teachers can cover for them. Teachers do not have classes in all periods as they need time to plan future classes and to score tests and such. But this work can be deferred to later if there is an accute need for a substitute teacher. It is therefore preferred if the techers are not completely filled up with classes as they might not have any spare time during working hours for this kind of unexpected events. Some schools might even hire dedicated substitute teachers for this purpuse who normally do not have any classes. I do also know of schools where they have teachers working as administrators and can step inn as substitute teachers. For longer periods of time it may be necisary to hire a temporary worker to work as a substitute teacher for a class while the teacher is unable to attend.
Payment of these substitute teachers does depend on their work contract. It is reasonable to expect that any work would be counted as overtime. For dedicated substitute teachers they might have two different hourly rates for when they have classes and when they are just sitting idle. Or they may be paid full time anyway and just given other tasks when they are not substituting.
As a substitute it’s very rarely your only income. I also work as a bus driver and my husband works so it is just extra money for things like vacation or remodeling. In my district after you get accepted by the board of education, you personally give your contact information to each school you wish to sub at. So if you only want to work with grade school kids you only give your information to the P-6 schools.
If you’re in a populated metro region, then substitute teachers are generally going to be qualified teachers who do not have a permanent position. They are getting teaching hours this way to help them get seniority to get a permanent position. Being in a metro region also means there is so many schools in the system that the amount of positions that need to be filled is pretty constant.
In a remote region, where the need for substitute teachers isn’t as high, they aren’t necessarily going to be the same type of substitutes. This is where you’ll find the stay-at-home moms or retirees picking up the occasional substitute day here or there. This is not a primary source of income, but basically occasional extra income.
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.
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.
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.
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