Facing a shortage, Seminole to offer incentives to substitutes

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — The Seminole County School district has, on average, 400 teachers call in sick each day.

On any given day, the county is only able to fill about half of those positions with substitutes.

It is a problem schools are seeing nationwide due to the pandemic.

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Now the district is using an incentive program to get those substitutes to report for work.

Schools communications officer Michael Lawrence said that although there is a large pool of substitute teachers, many are not coming in to work.

“It’s definitely worse than when we had pre-COVID, we’re at about a 60% fill rate for our substitute teachers when we need them,” Lawrence said.

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Substitute teacher William Lockhart, who has been with the district for two years, said he has been filling in a lot.

“Well, I’ve been quite busy, almost every day. So, I sub most of the times, when I don’t have any personal business to take care of,” Lockhart said.

Now the district is using an incentive program to get those substitutes to come in and work.

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Substitute teachers, on average, make $80 a day.

For January, the district said it is offering up to an extra $30 a day to substitutes in an effort to entice them back to the classroom.

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