ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — On the First Coast, and around the country, not only are school districts dealing with a teacher shortage, but there is a substitute teacher shortage as well.
It's keeping some teachers on the job when they, or their own children, are sick.
Morgan Mousley teaches mostly 12th grade English at Tocoi Creek High School in St. Johns County. She has taught for 13 years.
In the last three years, she said her experience with getting a substitute teacher is increasingly difficult.
"It’s one of those things where you don’t ever know if when you have to put in for a sub, you’re going to a get a sub."
There is phone number and online system teachers can use to notify they will be out for the day and a sub is needed. However, St. Johns Education Association President Michelle Dillon said that sometimes teachers have had to find their own substitutes.
So what happens if enough substitutes can't be found?
Mousley says students are sometimes split up into other teachers’ classroom and that can lead to exceeding the number of students per class mandated by the state.
Other times, students are sent to the auditorium.
"... because we don’t’ have enough subs," Mousley said. "And I think teachers are at a point where we don’t have the energy to cover other teachers classes."
Mousley said sometimes school administrators have had to become substitute teachers.
They are "essentially babysitting in the auditorium," Mousley said. "Sometimes it’s one teachers’ class or five to ten teachers' classes."
Dillon said, ""Subs – even though I don’t represent them – are an integral part of our success in the county."
District spokesperson Christina Upchurch said the district is currently able to fill 80 percent of the requests for substitute teachers.
In St. Johns County, substitute teachers are paid $15 an hour.
"It’s not enough," Mousley said. "We have fast food workers making $15 an hour. So to have someone we are entrusting with our children to be in a class all day and only make $15/hr... I personally wouldn’t do it."