In one particular case, the principal of an elementary school in Fort Bend made a verbal agreement with a substitute to work from the beginning of the semester until the end of the year. This teacher was doing everything that a certified teacher would do - grade papers, go to conferences, after school duties, parent teacher meetings. The district, however, responded by hiring the teacher (who was certified in the area in which they were teaching) for consecutive periods of under 10 days or under thirty days at a time, and claimed they did not have to pay the teacher more than the minimum $85 per day. The district quoted "policies" and "guidelines", gave the principal and teacher the runaround and did everything they could to keep from paying the $150 per day that a certified, long-term substitute should receive. In the mean time, that particular elementary school class has gone through seven substitutes in one year and the students continued suffering academically.
The district frequently hires long term substitutes for 29 days, one day short of the 30 days required to receive the long term pay.
Other substitutes have reported similar issues of questionable hiring practices for certified substitutes.
Anyone who is interested in working in Fort Bend as a long term substitute should read the handbook and then be aware that it may be altered at any time.
Fort Bend ISD in Sugar Land, Texas has a substitute policy states:
Certified Long Term
Assignments 30 days or more for the same teacher require that the substitute be certified in the same subject area as the teacher on leave. The pay is $150/day for assignments 30 days or more. If the assignment is less than 30 days, the certified substitute receives $85/day for the first 10 days and $110 for days 11-29.
A Certified Long Term substitute teacher who substitutes for a teacher on leave for at least 30 consecutive days will work on a temporary basis for the duration of the leave as follows:
1. The substitute must be Texas certified in the same subject area as the teacher out on leave and hold a current valid teaching certificate - Probationary, Standard, Provisional and/or Lifetime.
2. Certified Long Term substitute teachers shall not be eligible for employee benefits, such as
hospitalization and life insurance.
3. The salary starts on day one (1) of the 30 consecutive-day assignment. The principal is responsible for submitting a Long-Term Substitute Request Form to Human Resources. However, sometimes a campus may not let us know until after the substitute started the long-term assignment. If a principal asks you to take a long-term assignment and you agree, the HR Coordinator for Absence Management will send you an email indicating the paperwork has been submitted and completed. ...
