Ohio has experienced a significant rise in background checks for substitute teachers since the state loosened requirements for the role. While the number of licensed substitutes has remained relatively stable, requests for background checks have nearly doubled in recent years, putting a strain on the Ohio State Board of Education's resources.
Published: Jan. 10, 2025, 2:15 p.m. A certification in a grade or subject area means the teacher has a level of expertise in the content and how to present it to children and teens.COLUMBUS, Ohio - The number of background checks performed by the state for substitute teachers has skyrocketed in recent years after state lawmakers loosened requirements to enter the profession.
Ohio no longer requires subs to have bachelor’s degrees, and the Ohio State Board of Education, the state agency overseeing teacher licensing, has seen a nearly 40% increase in requests from schools and districts to perform background checks in recent years, said Paul Craft, the Ohio superintendent of public instruction, who runs the State Board of Education. “It’s really taxing to our staff, and we’re doing it with less staff than we had a year ago,” he said. “Our job is to make sure that Ohio’s 1.6 million kids interact with educators who make good decisions.”requirements due to teacher shortages. While Ohio hasn’t changed certification requirements for permanent teachers, four recent bills since 2020 relaxed sub requirements:, which passed in 2020, temporarily permitted public and private schools to employ substitutes according to their own educational requirements for the 2020-2021 school year., passed in 2021, extended the temporary flexibility to the 2021-2022 school year, saying the sub just needs to successfully pass a criminal background check., the two-year state operations budget that passed in 2023, permanently permitted schools to hire subs without a post-secondary degree. The Ohio State Board of Education had to create a one-year temporary substitute teacher license. Ohio has about 30,000 licensed subs. That number remained steady in recent years, even as minimum requirements changed. But what has increased is the number of requests to run background checks, either for new subs or requests to run background checks on currently licensed subs who may have had run ins with law enforcement, Craft said.-In the 2019-2020 school year, the State Board of Education received 2,400 requests to investigate or review the backgrounds of subs-In 2022-2023, it received 5,200 Craft said that it’s too early to determine whether removing the bachelor’s degree requirement is the sole cause of the rise in background checks for subs. However, it probably correlates to it. “If you make it through four years of college, what in many ways that shows is you can take something on and stick to it,” he said. “You can make choices consistent with future goals.”just 5.1% -- about one in 20 -- of Ohio teachers were improperly certified for their subject area or grade level, which is better than most states, The recent research was prepared by the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Education. It found that the national average for educators teaching with an improper or emergency, provisional certificate in 2020-2021 was 6.9%.Iowa had the lowest level of improperly certified teachers, at 1.9% that year, and Washington, D.C., had the highest level, at 27.7%. A certification in a grade or subject area means the teacher has a level of expertise in the content and how to present it to children and teens
SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS BACKGROUND CHECKS OHIO TEACHER SHORTAGES EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS
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