Requirements

Each county or city school system sets their own requirements for substitute teachers. New this year, the requirements to sub in Gwinnett County (GA's largest school system) are to:

hold either a valid or expired professional Georgia Educator Certificate or out-of-state teaching certification

or

obtain a Bachelors degree and provide passing scores for both sections of any GACE Content Assessment.

It seems that those who were already subbing were grandfathered in and are still able to sub. The sub coordinator at one of the two schools I sub at regularly recently told me that due to this, there is a shortage of subs.

My path to being hired by the county took much longer than I had anticipated. I applied to the job posting which became available on July 5th. The county had made the information on this date and the requirements of the position available prior to this date. As this was during the summer break I waited a few weeks before contacting anyone; I wasn't sure how long the process was supposed to take. I called the county three times over the period of two months, leaving voice mails each time. The last time I was finally given a return phone call and was able to get the ball rolling. After the phone call it took less than a week to receive a letter acknowledging my ability to begin subbing.

Luckily, I know an Assistant Principal who was able to help me start subbing quickly in his school, and my student teaching mentor was also able to help me quickly begin subbing at his school as well. My first day subbing was September 30th, and at this time I usually sub at least three days a week. Three days a week is a pretty comfortable number of days as I work Friday nights and Sunday mornings at my other part time job. There have been quite a few days for which I was asked to sub for multiple schools for the same day due to shortages.

I understand why the county would put such stringent controls on who they will hire to sub. The idea being that students can learn even when their teacher isn't there because the sub know the content. However, most teachers still leave work that, if not exactly busy work (which some do), is not rigorous either. The only true teaching I have done is for my student teaching mentor (which I really, really enjoy).