r/SubstituteTeachers

My district in Florida uses Kelly for their subs (I believe most of Florida does) Minimum wage for Florida goes up to $15 an hour effective 9/1. The current daily rate of $115 for 7.75 hours of work subbing doesn’t meet $15 an hour. Will Kelly have to raise the daily rate to meet minimum wage? Not sure how it works with a daily rate but you’d think you still have to be paid minimum wage.

I have only subbed elementary and high school. Elementary is 7.75 hours, 7:30-3:15. High school is a little less, I think 7.5 hours. Usually 6:45-2:15. So high school jobs meet minimum wage if you break it down hourly, elementary does not.

hey guys! I just finished my A level. I had 9A*s in my O level ( Eng, Math, Phys, Chem, Bio, Global Perspectives, Pak studies, Islamiat and Urdu). I am going to uni this year and really need to finance it cuz my parents are struggling with the fees. I have taught my friends and sibling and I've been told im a good teacher. I can teach all subjects except Urdu (did manage to get an A* but i wouldn't risk your grade just cuz i need to tutor). I can guide you guys on the application etc if your giving private exams. If anyone wants an online tutor pls lmk. Trust me ill work really hard and make sure you get your desired grades IA🤞.

P.S i added only Math to the Flair cuz they only allow one subject.

I’m currently accruing hours in a helping profession, and the work is mentally demanding with low pay. There are also many undesirable changes happening within the industry which have contributed to my burnout.

There’s a decent demand for substitute teachers where I currently live, so I’ve been considering it as an alternative..

Has anyone here transitioned from another career or licensed profession into substitute teaching? I’m curious to hear about your experience and whether you’ve been happier with the change.

Thanks

Got a contract after subbing for 1.5 years. What’s the biggest difference between substitute teaching and full-time teaching?

Any advice?

I’m on the summer school sub list and the school secretaries call us the morning of if they need a sub or para. The last 2 times I got calls directly from different schools for paras but didn’t end up accepting the para assignment as I don’t feel comfortable and have never been a para before for high needs kids and said I would be available if they needed a sub. I got an email before that asking for a sub and I emailed back yes that I was available to sub but another sub had emailed back sooner. This time I got a call morning of from the district phone number but when I picked up and said hello, they immediately hung up without saying anything. They also didn’t leave a voice message so I didn’t know who it was. The district number is attached to everyone who works full time for the district with different extensions so it could literally be anyone. I called the district HR who said she didn’t make any outbound calls the same day and that she wouldn’t know who to transfer me to if they didn’t leave a voicemail. I wouldn’t know what school it is from either since it was from the district. What could the district call have meant and has something similar occurred to you? Would it be something like a butt dial or they changed their minds after calling?

So please make this make sense

So a little over a month ago, I subbed for a friend of mine’s colleague. She is a math teacher. When I accepted the assignment, it didn’t tell me what the classes were, only the subject (math). I show up and it turns out that I was doing 3 classes of remedial math (mostly seniors) and 2 Algebra 1 classes (mainly freshman and maybe 2 sophomore’s). First class was the remedial. I learn this is the class for the “troublemakers” (used by the aide). I read what they were doing off of the sub plan and almost IMMEDIATELY, the aide (bless her) took charge and was immediately enforcing the rules of phones in the class. Some did it, others didn’t.

Let me tell you, if I knew it included remedial, I wouldn’t have accepted it. Half these kids were insanely rude. When I walked around to check in on the students, I noticed a group of boys hunched together looking at the yearbook. I gave them about ten minutes before I walked over and asked about their progress. Their leader (who I will call “Travis” (fake name, senior boy) responded with a sharp “nope”. I asked if they maybe could so they could have no work for the rest of the day, and he responded with “don’t count on it”. I said in a backing off tone “okay fine… not my grade”. He apparently thought that was a form of saying a derogatory term because he then muttered something under his breath about my appearance. I couldn’t make out EXACTLY what he said, but I just kept my composure and kept walking. After a BRUTAL 60 minutes, that class ended. I wrote the sub report, which included “Travis and *insert rest of the groups name* refused to do any work today. Travis also muttered a very disrespectful and disturbing remark about myself” I had the aide confirm what I wrote was accurate and actually helped me add to more of what happened. I apologized to the aide because she really had to do a lot of the reeling in because this teacher left me ZERO NOTES on class rules and expectations. The rest of the day, even the other remedial classes, were great. Not outstanding, but good enough to get no bad notes from me

The very next day, I was back subbing for said friend on the other side of campus, and as I’m walking from her prep back to the classroom, one of the kids (not Travis) came up and said, “yo you’re the one who said I didn’t do my work”. I tried walking past, but this kid FOLLOWED ME, and I had to get a campus supervisor to distract him. I was talking to my friend today and APPARENTLY, the next day did NOT go well. Apparently, Travis and his friend group got in massive trouble for not doing their work and travis especially for the comment he made. He outright admitted to it but defended it claiming verbatim “yeah i said it. But he was being super disrespectful to me, and i don’t allow anyone to do that. No matter who they are” Apparently he was then sent to admin and got suspended from walking at graduation because he then compared this whole situation to a certain event that happened last century and compared me to a vile human. All this because he felt “disrespected”.

That kid is on my forever no list of names

My district uses frontline, this is my first year so im nit totally sure when postings start to become available for the 26/27 school year. When do yall normally start seeing the postings?

Just that! I’m so excited to get back into subbing after a summer of a soulless retail job that doesn’t allow me to choose my schedule, has the wackiest irregular hours, and deals with stupid adults. I can’t wait to be surrounded by kids again, in the comfort of a school, with REGULAR hours and CONSISTENT pay. I’m excited to improve myself and my subbing skills as well. I just can’t wait!

Now that we have all had a chance to rant about something we have no control over, here’s a suggestion:

Flood Frontline’s helpdesk with valid complaints about their app and why we felt we needed to use a third-party app in order to get work. I just sent them an email regarding slow loads, reboot, ghost notifications… If all the subs that were on here that took the time to complain ,including me, sent in these concerns to Frontline maybe something would get done. And take the same concerns to the district sub coordinators because I know they have frustration as well when Frontline goes down, which is more often than not.

Frontline probably doesn’t care about us lowly subs, but they sure do care about the districts retaining them.

Maybe collectively coming together as a group and demanding they do better might actually help.

Just got the following email from SubAlert. I've seen people here complain about the advantage subs who pay the $5 a month to use subalert have but as some one who has worked in an incredibly competitive district for the past 10 years subalert was worth its weight in gold and well worth the $5/month. Subbing is my full time job and I'm really upset by this news.

Dear Customer,

Recently several districts have been complaining to Frontline that subs that pay for SubAlert have a competitive advantage over those that don't, and that they aren't happy with that. As a result Frontline decided that we will have to do the following:

No new customers will be allowed to sign up for SubAlert starting today.

For existing customers, including you, SubAlert will continue to function exactly as it always has, with ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE, including giving you job notifications, job booking, calendar syncing, app use, and everything else... until Dec 31, 2026.

On Dec 31, 2026, you'll receive a refund for any remaining time you have left on your subscription, and SubAlert will shut down permanently.

Feel free to let your subscription expire over summer and resubscribe in the fall if you wish. Your account has already been marked as one that is allowed to use SubAlert until Dec 31, and you can unsubscribe and resubscribe as you see fit between now and then.

No action is required on your part, we just wanted to keep you all in the loop. Please accept our apologies, as this was Frontline's decision, and was completely out of our hands. We'll continue to run SubAlert exactly as we always have until Dec 31.

As always, if you have any questions simply reply to this email.

Sincerely,

SubAlert Support

Hi everyone,
I’m working in the NYC DOE Summer Rising program this year and had a question about payroll.
Last school year, when I worked as a substitute teacher, all of my pay was sent as paper checks instead of direct deposit.
For those of you working Summer Rising, are your payments made through direct deposit, or are they mailed as paper checks? I’m just trying to figure out what to expect this summer.

Is anyone worried about the upcoming year? I am! W/O subalert, it certainly is going to be tough.

Hey y’all, I’ve resigned to the fact I’m SOL, but hoping there’s some hope.

From 2017-2019, I subbed for Kelly Educational Staffing. It wasn’t until the fall of 2019 that my sub career was made harder.

It started with subbing at a school that more or less filed a complaint on me, saying I wasn’t attending to the students and I was on my phone. Reality is I subbed for a class that had like 10 teachers in it that more or less had everything under control and basically left me and a few of the other teachers with nothing to do. Apparently this was enough to fire me from Kelly, according to the head coordinator of the district.

I did my part where I wrote a letter explaining from my side what all happened and I emailed it to the coordinator. It wasn’t until after that we talked on the phone and essentially was not only going to continue to fire me, but it was over something completely different than what had been said.

My coordinator and I butted heads a lot, mainly due to issues pertaining to questions I addressed concerning some of the assignments and a ton of misunderstandings, but this was.. To say I was blindsided was an understatement. I ended up talking to a committee over the phone and more or less the decision was made final. At that point, I had a good paying job and didn’t see the need to substitute anymore, so I just let the decision be.

Fast forward to 2026, I’m looking for employment, and Kelly has practically taking over all the districts in the area (with an exception of a view districts that still handle things the old school way), which has made it difficult to get sub assignments in districts that I never had any issues with (and I had been subbing for nearly two decades).

Since the concept of sub hiring was new to me at the time they came into my area and I wasn’t aware how many districts they’d absorb, is there anyway to even appeal this firing? It’s even my understanding the coordinator is not even in their role anymore.

Are any of you SPED teachers or working on credentials (certification)? What do you like most about it? What don't you like? And, where did you go to school and do you feel like it prepared you for the job? Thanks!! 🙌