Searching for Subs (excerpts)

Advanced electronic substitute management systems make scheduling easier for teachers, substitutes and administrators.

By Kevin Butler [District Administration]

July 2007

[Excerpts from article, highlighting ours]

Before Colorado's Eagle County schools purchased an electronic substitute management system in 2003, the job of filling last- minute teacher absences fell to a part-time employee who started calling potential substitutes one by one from home at 4 a.m. to fill that day's absences and resumed at 5 p.m. that night for future absences . . .

Nuts and Bolts

... The advanced Internet-telephone systems make it easier for a teacher to call in and manage absences, as well as help prepare substitutes for that day's lesson plan. Teachers can notify the systems of absences by logging on to a Web site from home or at work. When registering an absence through the Web site, teachers must select from a predetermined list of reasons for the absence, such as personal leave, illness or training. Teachers can also leave notes or lesson plans for the substitute on the online system so that the substitute will be prepared before walking through the classroom door. Alternatively, teachers can also register their absences, including a reason, by using a touch-tone phone.

Helping Subs

... systems allow substitutes to use a Web site to search for and accept jobs, change availability dates and review teachers' notes. They can do the same functions by telephone, where they can hear a teacher's voicemail explaining the day's lesson.

... It's really very, very customized and automated to the point where we are having 100 percent fill rates most of the time," says Christopher, adding that the system has been so successful that some substitutes complain the assignments are snatched up too quickly by others after being posted on the Web.

Administrators also may find the systems to be powerful tools. They can access their system by telephone or Internet to see which teachers are going to be absent that day and whether the absence has been filled. Not only can this information bring peace of mind to administrators, but it can help them plan for faculty meetings, professional development or rearranging teacher classroom assignments during the absence, Christopher says...

Online Only

Not all the systems on the market combine phone and Internet. Substitute Online, produced by a company of the same name, is an online-only system that can be accessed via a computer or a wireless phone with Internet access, as touchtone is considered obsolete, according to Chuck Bernasconi, president and founder of Substitute Online, Inc.

For last-second assignments, the system generates a list of available subs for a staff member to call, he says. In a last-minute absence situation, not all of the desired substitutes may be online. So why not have an automated phone call in that situation? Bernasconi says that phones suffer the same problem in that situation. People hang up, or they don't answer the phone or they take the phone off the hook.

... Sandy Houston, human resources manager of the Cascade School District in Leavenworth, Wash., which uses Substitute Online, says that in those last-minute situations the school staff calls subs they know or arranges to have another teacher cover the class by juggling class schedules.

Even with an automated phone option, "no calling machine is going to make you feel at ease sitting there waiting," says Houston, whose district filled all of its 245 assignments of classroom teachers, counselors, librarians, administrators and other personnel in March with the help of the system.

And a human caller also can stress the urgency of the situation in a way an automated system can't, she says.

Bernasconi says his system shows that having phone capability is unnecessary. He cites his product's performance as proof. "Most of our districts hit 100 percent [fill rate] every day," he adds, without the automated calling.

Advanced Management System

Many of the newer substitute management systems allow districts to set preferences on which types of subs are first contacted for the assignment openings. The district can set up the system to try to contact first a preferred substitute who has had positive experiences in particular schools-in other words, giving desired substitutes the fist priority.

... Districts may prefer a certain substitute for a certain position because of the substitute's aptitude. "Say a sub is just a bad sub for kindergarten ... and a principal doesn't want that person again..."

... the substitute also will be unable to find that assignment while searching for openings over the Internet or through touch-tone phone search.

Using the advanced substitute management systems, the district can decide what subjects or grade levels the substitute should be eligible to teach. The systems also can keep track of each substitute's preferences for subjects and grades they want to teach. Using Substitute Online, teachers who plan to be absent in the Cascade School District can prearrange substitutes. The teacher can contact her favorite substitute beforehand and, if the sub agrees to the assignment, the teacher can book the substitute in the system herself, Houston says.

Data Reports

In addition to making easier the process of registering absences and filling sub openings, the systems can allow district administrators to produce detailed reports on absenteeism, which administrators can use to strengthen district decision-making and increase accountability.

... "Within about two minutes we can click and upload all of the information into our payroll." - Sandy Houston, human resources manager, Cascade School District, Leavenworth, Wash.

... Another value for Conway is the ability to analyze attendance patterns to help the district schedule professional development times. For instance, if many school sites are planning to hold professional development at the same time and day, say a Wednesday, that could strain the available sub pool, she says.

The information from the system "allows us to change [professional development events] to a different time if we see we have a lot of stuff on Wednesday," she says. The system allows Conway to take into account the effect of district events, such as professional development days, as well as patterns of absenteeism when planning calendars.

The Cascade School District uses Substitute Online to produce reports to quickly monitor and categorize expenditures for substitutes by program, Houston says. For example, the district could call up a report showing how much money was spent on substitutes that year to free up teachers for science curriculum committee meetings.

The system is "loaded with accountability," Houston says. "There is not one superintendent who doesn't have a program like this [who] is able to get a report every day on what's going on in every building. Every day [the superintendent] can go in and he can see what absences are in the district, who is filling them and what the reason is."

Payroll Interface

Advanced substitute management systems on the market also can interface with district human resources and payroll systems to update those databases when teachers log absences and substitutes take assignments.

... For the Cascade School District, which began using Substitute Online in 2005, the system has curtailed that laborious manual data entry. "Within about two minutes we can click and upload all of the information into our payroll," Houston says.

Houston says that her district has been more than pleased with the substitute management process. "Why would either a large, small or in-between district do anything different?" Houston wonders. "Why would they miss [the] opportunity to see what's going on in their districts on a daily basis?"