A shortage of substitute teachers across California is the latest crisis to hit the state's school districts.
Some schools have pulled substitutes from other districts and used non-union staff to supervise students.
According to a report by CalMatters, the decline in substitute teachers in California has worsened year after year. This year, the decline was more than 25 percent.
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the agency that licenses full-time and substitute teachers, reported that for the 2018-2019 school year, about 64,000 substitute teaching permits were issued. In 2020-21, the Commission issued around 47,000.
Mike Teng, CEO of Swing Education, an organization which matches schools with substitutes said the pandemic made and already existing shortage much worse. It caused many experienced substitutes to leave teaching for good, at a time when more and more full-time teachers are calling out sick.
Still, Teng said there may be strategies California schools can employ to reverse the trend and attract substitutes back into the field.
"I think we can have better pay rates for substitutes," Teng told KNX. "I think it can be a more friendly environment, making sure schools are doing everything they can to make it a nice thing to be a substitute teacher."
