With a surge in COVID cases creating teacher vacancies, states and school districts are scrambling to use state employees, police officers and military members as substitute teachers.
Gary Henry, Dean of the College of Education & Human Development at the University of Delaware, has examined issues of teacher turnover and shortages and can speak to some of the stop gap measures currently being used to keep adults in classrooms and keep schools open. He can speak to the tension between having an adult, any adult in the classroom and having a teacher in the classroom. He can also discuss how other policies in some states that affect health and safety may be a contributor to the problem that necessitates finding subs.
The College has set up a web portal for Delaware schools looking for substitutes and connecting them to teacher education majors. The College is also piloting a scholarship program for teacher education majors that is a promising solution for the lack of well-prepared teachers in classrooms.
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