Taking a Chance on Success

Like school districts everywhere, this Greater Lansing school district saw their substitute fill rates plummet after the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at the three schools where they found it hardest to place subs.

So they tried a bold experiment in October 2021: They temporarily raised their substitute pay rate at those schools from $150 to $300 per day to attract more subs.

The results were dramatic: Fill rates jumped by an average of 30 percentage points for the rest of the school year.

But equally dramatic was the fact that raising the daily pay rates didn’t cost the district more money.

When they added up the costs of paying administrators and teachers extra to cover the classrooms with no sub, they found the move had been cost-neutral.

Even after the temporary pay increase ended the next school year, and pay rates went down to $200 per day, the fill rates remained much higher. In fact, the rates stayed virtually the same at two of the three schools. Once they had the people in place, the people stayed.

District administrators said the pay increase was a win for everyone. More classrooms had a substitute, teachers and administrators felt less burned out when they didn’t have to cover for absent teachers, and it didn’t break the district budget.

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