Complain about sub frequency?

[Anonymous]

I believe that one teacher in my kid’s grade (who covers 2 subjects) is currently interviewing for jobs and her homeroom teacher is not returning next year and also obviously interviewing. Her homeroom teacher has had subs at least 20 times since January, and the other teacher has had subs ~8 days in the last two months plus is apparently out all this week.

I only know this from what DD tells me, but she’s in 5th so it’s not like she’s unreliable or anything. They don’t do much on sub days except a lot of reading or catching up on math homework.

In the past, she’s had teachers who needed to deal with chronic health conditions and had semi-frequent absences that were announced in advanced to parents. It was really transparent and well-planned. Other leaves for FMLA have always been communicated by the school.

In this case, it feels like the school is just hoping we won’t notice that our child has not received instruction for a huge chunk of this semester.

Who do I even bring this up with? Is it normal? It feels really dismissive of our kids’ needs to have so many unstructured sub days, but I don’t know how to bring it up without sounding like a jerk.

[Anonymous]

There is nothing you can do. Teachers have the right to interview for other jobs. These days that often requires a full day touring campus and teaching a demo lesson. As long as the students have a substitute teacher, their needs are being met.

[Anonymous]

Do you ever interview for other jobs? Do you think teachers should be able to do the same?

[Anonymous]

What are you going for? What do you want complaining to achieve? That’s not a trick question. I’m really asking, because I’m not seeing what it would help.

If this is two teachers, it sounds like your school is in trouble. But it seems unlikely to me that you complaining will do anything. It’s too late in the year to switch teachers, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you ever interview for other jobs? Do you think teachers should be able to do the same?

I’ve never missed multiple weeks of work or missed client-facing work for interviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are you going for? What do you want complaining to achieve? That’s not a trick question. I’m really asking, because I’m not seeing what it would help.

If this is two teachers, it sounds like your school is in trouble. But it seems unlikely to me that you complaining will do anything. It’s too late in the year to switch teachers, right?

My concern is that the missed instructional time means that there are probably big learning gaps in the second half of the year but I have zero insight into what those gaps are or how they’ll affect my kid next year. Maybe spring ERB results will clarify things, or maybe not.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't complain about subs. I'd express concerns that the administration hasn't done what it needs to to hold on to good teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you ever interview for other jobs? Do you think teachers should be able to do the same?

I’ve never missed multiple weeks of work or missed client-facing work for interviews.

What percentage of your job is client facing? In my job as a teacher, I never go more than about 20 minutes without something client facing, and I literally have no way to reschedule anything. So, there’s no way to interview for a job without missing something client facing. If your job lets you set aside blocks of time then it’s not the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you going for? What do you want complaining to achieve? That’s not a trick question. I’m really asking, because I’m not seeing what it would help.

If this is two teachers, it sounds like your school is in trouble. But it seems unlikely to me that you complaining will do anything. It’s too late in the year to switch teachers, right?

My concern is that the missed instructional time means that there are probably big learning gaps in the second half of the year but I have zero insight into what those gaps are or how they’ll affect my kid next year. Maybe spring ERB results will clarify things, or maybe not.

You are paying for private that was a mistake

[Anonymous]

Parents perceiving themselves as my clients is why I left my position at a private and went to public.

[Anonymous]

A sub is a qualified person who receives a daily plan on what the class is doing. They should be teaching your kid.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher changing jobs to go to another school. My choice. Also, financial need.

Call the principal.

Tell them that you love Ms. or Mr. _____ and were wondering if you should start a meal train of take a collection for gift cards if they have been ill. You don't mean to pry, but they have been out a lot.

The subs are sometimes people who do something else in a school (like a librarian or school counselor) so the trickle down impact is that the other students are not receiving help from the specials teacher either and the other teachers are missing out on breaks, or the kids miss music, art, etc..

My co-workers are spread incredibly thin covering of others and admin is oblivious to the impact of chronic absenteeism, and sometimes they create the issue by offering really low salaries and not rewarding those with more to offer.

A day here and there is fine, but I wish more were done to help new teachers to get better (I am not a new teacher) than to cut bait & try again with another person. There is no union or recourse for those who are treated poorly, and if there are a lot of interviews to attend, there could a problem at your school. The problem could be mean parents or kids who are allowed to get away with too much-driving teachers away-and if that is the case, try to advocate to the parents to be kinder, but admin may need to know that your child notices when it is worksheet and "read on your own" day.

If teachers are retiring, they are encouraged to use all of their leave, because schools don't want to buy back that time. You are not out of line to feel a little bit short-changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A sub is a qualified person who receives a daily plan on what the class is doing. They should be teaching your kid.

As a teacher, I can tell you that it is really challenging to get a sub who can teach new content adequately. And it is really difficult for a sub to walk into a room, pick up the lesson plans, and fully understand the content. When I have a sub, I typically leave work/activities that students can do independently b/c writing out everything that needs to be taught is more time consuming than it's worth. So I fully believe OP when they say their child is mostly doing review work/catching up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher changing jobs to go to another school. My choice. Also, financial need.

Call the principal.

Tell them that you love Ms. or Mr. _____ and were wondering if you should start a meal train of take a collection for gift cards if they have been ill. You don't mean to pry, but they have been out a lot.

The subs are sometimes people who do something else in a school (like a librarian or school counselor) so the trickle down impact is that the other students are not receiving help from the specials teacher either and the other teachers are missing out on breaks, or the kids miss music, art, etc..

My co-workers are spread incredibly thin covering of others and admin is oblivious to the impact of chronic absenteeism, and sometimes they create the issue by offering really low salaries and not rewarding those with more to offer.

A day here and there is fine, but I wish more were done to help new teachers to get better (I am not a new teacher) than to cut bait & try again with another person. There is no union or recourse for those who are treated poorly, and if there are a lot of interviews to attend, there could a problem at your school. The problem could be mean parents or kids who are allowed to get away with too much-driving teachers away-and if that is the case, try to advocate to the parents to be kinder, but admin may need to know that your child notices when it is worksheet and "read on your own" day.

If teachers are retiring, they are encouraged to use all of their leave, because schools don't want to buy back that time. You are not out of line to feel a little bit short-changed.

OP and I appreciate the time you took to write this. These are younger teachers and one of them is definitely being driven out by bad kid behavior and over the top parents, and the other is seemingly a contract non-renewal but that teacher was given a really rough group of kids. All of the kids with neurodivergence and higher needs (to the extent that they exist in a private) were put in that teachers’ section two years in a row. I think that teacher really needed support and didn’t get it, but that’s only from what I heard from families who had them in the past and from my observations.

Subs are sometimes instructional assistants from another grade, sometimes a specialist teacher, and sometimes random people. They aren’t being given lesson plans from what I can tell, but one of the IAs is good about figuring out what the kids have been doing and running with it.