Chronicles of A Substitute Teacher: How Many Times Do I Have to Give The FBI My Fingerprints??
There are many different setups you can follow to become a substitute teacher. I have worked for two different temp agencies that are contracted with local area school districts to fill absences for their staff. Some school districts nearby require that you become an employee of their district to substitute. There are pros and cons to each situation for full-time staff and the substitutes alike. I found that as an employee for the two temp agencies, I had no problem working regularly in classrooms and schools where I could experience a range of classroom management styles and teaching strategies.
Some requirements for substitute teaching in my region are that you have at least 60 credit hours of college courses, have completed an FBI fingerprinting and background check, applied and received a substitute certificate within the state, and maintain up to date insurance coverage with one of the teaching unions. Some school districts require that you have your Bachelor’s degree before substituting for them, but it is not usually the case in my area I have found.
In the last blog I mentioned that becoming a substitute was fairly straight-forward since I was graduating from a local university with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. That was not entirely true. For every agency where I applied to become a substitute, I had to submit individual FBI fingerprinting so each district had documentation that I was not a criminal. If you have ever done this for a job, then you know it’s not all that fun. You pay the contracted fingerprinting company a fee of around 50 dollars (every time) and then you go stand in line at a UPS store(every time). Why? I honestly don’t know. Maybe my fingerprints change over time? Perhaps they just want to be ab-so-friggin-lute-ly certain that you want to become a substitute. I will have to research it one day, I guess. In all, I have completed this process 3 times.
Fortunately, one sub job here in the metro area ranges in 75-95 dollars per day depending on the district and position you are substituting. It is also nice that they pay weekly and provide frequent bonus opportunities for fulfilling certain numbers of placements each month. You can also download an app (for a small fee-you gotta speculate to accumulate folks) that will notify you instantly of any available jobs for your assigned districts. It can be annoying, but it is WAY preferable to the 5 a.m. phone call from a robot, or worse, a fully-caffeinated-cheery-voiced human, asking you to take a job.
So that’s my overview of the requirements to become a substitute teacher. If there are other teachers out there reading this, does this sound similar to the process in your area? What are the differences if there are any? Is there anything you have always wondered about substituting or teaching in general or that you would like me to post about about in the future?
You can see my previous blogs for Chronicles of A Substitute Teacher below:
June 11, 2017- Where Are My Fellow Educators?
June 12, 2017- How Did I Even Get Here?
Stay awesome,
I can understand your frustration with the cost as well as the time investment in submitting your fingerprints. I do however appreciate that the school system has some fairly strict standards they enforce for teachers before they give them access to any children.
Absolutely! I would do it as many times as I need to in order to ensure parents, staff, and students all felt safe. In fact, I will be required to do it again for my full time position in the Fall. I just wish it would be possible to transfer the previous submissions somehow.
I remember that early AM phone call. A real positive and negative. "A job, yay, so early, yuck". Amazing you have to do the fingerprints each time. Is that for each district too? That would add up.