The Arkansas Department of Education will use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to get more substitute teachers into classrooms quicker in order to alleviate shortages caused by COVID-19, officials said.
Department of Education Secretary Johnny Key said $300,000 will be allocated for speeding up background checks for substitute teachers. The money is from the ARPA’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.
“One of the things we learned during omicron was the difficulty districts had in getting sufficient numbers of substitute teachers,” Key said earlier this week during Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s news conference. “But we learned that there are lifetime teaching license holders out there, retired teachers, who wanted to come back but needed to get a background check to adhere to Arkansas law. That process was too long.”
The $300,000 is earmarked to cover the cost of background checks and some computer programming-related costs to streamline the process and cut down on delays, Key said.
Teacher shortages have affected thousands of schools across the country. Burbio, a website that tracks pandemic-related public school disruptions, showed at one point in January 7,462 schools in the U.S. did not offer in-person instruction one or more days during that week.
Kimberly Mundell, the director of communications for the Arkansas Department of Education, told The Center Square that COVID-19 has impacted public schools in multiple areas.
“In instances where teachers have tested positive or had to quarantine due to exposure, schools have needed substitutes,” Mundell said. “Depending on the number of teachers affected by the virus, the number of available substitutes may not be enough to cover the need. It’s important to note that the pandemic’s impact has varied by school and district.”
The recognition each district faces varied challenges was echoed in Hutchinson’s announcement that the state is leaving it up to the individual school districts to decide whether to continue contact tracing and quarantining asymptomatic students.
In the meantime, on-site instruction for Arkansas’ students recently showed an encouraging trend.
“As of this week, we have not had any districts who reported any modifications of on-site instruction, which is good news,” Key said. “That continues the trend that we started seeing two weeks ago.”
Key said the department will continue to plan ahead in hopes of having a network of available substitute teachers at the ready in case of additional COVID-19 disruptions.
Other states also have taken steps to alleviate teacher shortages. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed an executive order allowing state employees to take up to 30 hours of paid administrative leave to substitute teach. In Minnesota, a senator has proposed changes to license regulations to help increase the pool of short-call substitute teachers and stave off school closures.
