DuPage, Cook Counties Face Critical Substitute Shortages in Local Schools

Illinois has a substitute teacher problem.

It’s not that the substitutes aren’t qualified, or that they’re doing a bad job. It’s not a money shortage. It’s simply the fact that there aren’t enough of them.

According to a recent study conducted by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, or IARSS, schools across the state are unable to cover more than 3,000 teacher absences per week — 18 percent of total absences and 600 classrooms per day.

On average, the study found, Illinois school districts are looking to cover more than 16,500 teacher absences each week with substitutes. Although these problems are more of an issue outside of Chicagoland and in southern and western Illinois, DuPage County and Cook County are among the areas with the highest volume of absences each week.

The IARSS surveyed around 400 school districts on the subject, including 101 districts in the Chicagoland area. That space, which encompasses Cook, DuPage, Lake, McHenry, Kane, Grundy and Will counties, sees around 8,900 teacher absences per week, according to the study. That’s more than anywhere else in Illinois.

The study divided Illinois into six areas and tallied the counties’ school districts and total teacher absences per week that need to be filled with substitute positions. “Area 1” was the space that included Chicagoland counties and their neighbors. The rest of the data was collected as follows:

Area 2: Boone, Winnebago, Stephenson, Jo Daviess, Carroll, Ogle, De Kalb, Lee, Whiteside, Rock Island, Henry, Bureau, Putnam, Marshall, Stark, La Salle counties

• 61 districts reporting
• 2,146 absences per week

Area 3: Mercer, Henderson, Warren, Knox, Peoria, Woodford, Tazewell, Hancock, Adams, Pike, Scott, Morgan, Sangamon, Menard, Mason, Cass, Brown, Schuyler, McDonough, Fulton counties

• 83 districts reporting
• 2,114 absences per week

Area 4: Kankakee, Livingston, Ford, Iroquois, McLean, Logan, Vermillion, Edgar, Clark, Cumberland, Shelby, Macon, Piatt, DeWitt, Douglas, Coles, Champaign, Moultrie counties

• 48 districts reporting
• 1,878 absences per week

Area 5: Christian, Montgomery, Macoupin, Greene, Jersey, Calhoun, Madison, Bond, Fayette, Effingham, St. Claire, Monroe, Randolph counties

• 35 districts reporting
• 607 absences per week

Area 6: Jasper, Clay, Marion, Clinton, Washington, Perry, Jackson, Union, Alexander, Pulaski, Johnson, Massac, Pope, Hardin, Saline, Gallatin, Franklin, Hamilton, White, Wayne, Richland, Wabash, Edwards, Crawford, Lawrence counties

• 71 districts reporting
• 947 absences per week

“When teachers miss class time, schools need an assurance that qualified, prepared substitutes can step in and guide students’ learning,” IARSS President Jeff Vose said in a release. “Yet what we found here is schools often are scrambling to move personnel around or change plans to fill the gaps when those substitutes cannot be found.”

Vose said that with this new knowledge comes a new goal: making it easier for people to get substitute-qualified to teach in Illinois schools.

Earlier this month, the governor took a step in that direction when he signed legislation that will make fees to get substitute licenses cheaper.

“There is a great demand for substitutes,” one educator, who wasn’t named in the study, told the IARSS. “We are never able to fill our daily rates or even come close.”

“The lack of available substitutes requires the shifting of employees consistently,” another said. “This disruption causes a serious lack of consistency and disrupts core instruction. In my career, this is the most difficult period that I’ve had staffing substitutes. We need help with this issue.”

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