Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Bill Could Offer Fix To Substitute Teacher Shortage

Karen Kasler
/
Statehouse News Bureau

Ohio schools are not just suffering with a bus driver shortage, but also a shortfall of substitute teachers. State lawmakers are considering a bill that schools hope will relieve that, at least in the short term. 

Danny Holbrook has been a juvenile probation officer and a school social worker. Last year he was substitute teaching and coaching track at a school in Waynesfield near Lima – and he wants to do it again.

“I applied for my license through the state, and it’s been on hold for forever, and they’re telling me I’m not qualified to do it because I don’t have the bachelor’s degree.”

Though the state requires substitute teachers to have four year degrees, Holbrook was working under a law allowing districts to set their own standards for substitutes, which expired at the end of last school year. A House committee voted to extend that law till May with a bill that also requires high school students to take a financial literacy class. It still must be approved by the full House and Senate.

 

Related Content