Ab 1224: Risks of unprepared substitutes in classrooms
A second grader shares a story he wrote with a teacher.
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education
Every morning, families entrust their children to our schools with a simple expectation: that they will be safe, supported and taught by someone prepared to do so. That trust is a cornerstone of public education, and it rests on a shared commitment to place a prepared educator in every classroom.
Assembly Bill 1224, introduced by Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, would compromise this trust.
The bill proposes to allow a substitute teacher to be the sole instructor in a classroom for up to 60 instructional days with no required preparation and no required support from an appropriately credentialed educator. That is one-third of a school year. It is one-third of a school year during which students struggling to decode written language may not receive the help they need. It is one-third of a school year during which a student who learns differently might remain misunderstood. It is one-third of a school year during which an English learner may be left to struggle quietly.
Although the most recent teacher supply report from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing showed an increase in the number of teaching credentials issued, California’s teacher shortage remains a serious problem. Educators leaving the profession before retirement continue to drive turnover in our schools, creating real and persistent challenges for districts to staff classrooms. But we cannot, and need not, respond to this shortage by lowering expectations for quality instruction. Students will not have the chance to redo these years, and the time they spend in our classrooms is too valuable to risk.
Research shows that, among school-related factors, teachers have the largest impact on student learning. Without a prepared teacher, students fall behind, and the learning gaps compound. A small gap in understanding can make the next lesson harder to access, and the one after that harder still. Over time, these gaps become barriers, and it is the students already most at risk — including students with disabilities, English learners and students from low-income families — who are hit the hardest. For them, 60 days without a prepared teacher is not just an interruption; it is a disruption that can alter their trajectory and opportunity for years to come.
AB 1224 would revive Covid-era emergency measures, reintroducing risk factors that contributed to student learning loss that California is still working to overcome. For substitutes, AB 1224 offers nothing better. It asks them to take on the responsibilities of a teacher without the preparation, tools or guidance needed for students to succeed.
It is false to suggest that districts must choose between an empty classroom and an unprepared substitute. We owe students continuity in their learning, and we owe substitutes the support they need when stepping in during staffing disruptions.
Consistent with its statutory charge to uphold preparation and licensure standards, the credentialing commission has provided technical assistance throughout the legislative process to identify alternatives that give districts flexibility while safeguarding students.
Proposed amendments to the bill include basic, required on-the-job training in classroom management, providing reading instruction, strategies for supporting English learners, and tools for helping students with learning differences. Proposed amendments also call for regular guidance for substitutes from an appropriately credentialed teacher to ensure continuity of learning during extended substitute assignments. With these changes, AB 1224 could provide schools with needed flexibility while keeping student learning at the center.
We can staff classrooms without failing kids. Solutions are available, and the teaching commission stands ready to work with the author and sponsors of AB 1224 to put them in place. Students deserve meaningful, quality instruction every day they are in school, and those who teach them deserve the preparation and support that make it possible.
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Marquita Grenot-Scheyer is chair of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and professor emeritus in the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach. Mary Vixie Sandy is executive director of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, an agency that awards over 250,000 credential documents per year and accredits more than 250 colleges, universities and local education agencies offering educator preparation programs.
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