No matter their size or location, school districts everywhere are scrambling to find qualified substitutes for absent teachers. When substitutes aren't available, students and staff suffer. Teachers may be reluctant to take deserved time off, or they may lose planning periods to cover others’ classes. School administrators may be pulled away from their other duties to scramble for a last minute sub. Students may be shuffled into a gym or combined classrooms to be monitored, but not educated—and therefore educational continuity suffers. However, the situation is far from hopeless. School districts across the country have started creating targeted marketing campaigns to recruit much-needed subs to their schools. 

Genoa-Kingston CUSD #424 (GK) is a small school district among the cornfields of Illinois, named for the two communities it serves. Its size (1,500 students) and rural position had made it difficult for the district to recruit an adequate supply of subs, so with the help of Director of Communication and Community Outreach Alyssa Edwards, the district launched a multichannel campaign that highlighted the happiness of their existing subs and the quality of their students. The approach worked—it led to a 20% increase in their sub pool over just three months. Below, read more about the tactics they used that might help you fill out your own roster of qualified substitutes.

Talk to Existing Subs

Before launching any recruitment campaign, successful districts first understand why they're struggling to attract and retain substitutes. At GK, Edwards began by surveying their existing substitutes—specifically those who had stayed in the pool for a longer amount of time.

The responses Edwards received helped identify the district’s unique strengths to highlight in recruitment materials, and uncovered pain points that needed addressing before they could successfully attract new candidates. Not only that, these surveys showed their current subs that their experiences and their opinions really mattered to the district. 

GK discovered their biggest strength was the quality of their students. “The subs consistently said they loved working with the students at GK,” Edwards says. She realized that showcasing how actual substitutes felt about their students would help differentiate Genoa-Kingston from larger, better-resourced districts nearby. So this became the cornerstone of their recruitment messaging. Edwards designed a flyer featuring a photo of one of their subs with her response:

Key questions to ask your current substitutes:

• What do you enjoy most about working in our district?

• What challenges do you face that make the job difficult?

• How do we compare to other districts you've worked for?

• What would make you more likely to recommend substitute teaching here?

Improve Policies & Processes

Before investing in marketing materials, though, the GK administration also reviewed district policies and practices that might have made recruiting and retaining subs more difficult. Here are some changes they made at GK which could also benefit your district’s sub recruitment plan. 

Streamline Applications

While requirements for substitute teaching vary by region and state, more strenuous application processes can be a barrier to entry. In DeKalb County, Illinois, the Regional Office of Education (ROE) manages job applications for eight different districts, including Genoa-Kingston. Applicants must complete a background check, get fingerprinted and show proof of Tuberculosis vaccinations and other tests. They even have to provide a “Physician’s Statement of Good Health.” Once applicants in DeKalb County jump through those hoops and gain access to the job portal, they can then see every open substitute position in all eight districts it supports. In other words, once people are qualified to work at GK, they’re also qualified to work for other school districts, creating an added challenge to attracting new subs. 

Of course, we’re not arguing that safety requirements should be eliminated. However, ask how you can make these preliminary processes as easy as possible—and how you can keep the focus on your district in particular.

To stand out from the crowded field, Edwards decided the district should host two registration events at their high school. They invited a ROE representative to help applicants complete paperwork on-site and provide guidance on meeting medical and background check requirements. This transformed a scattered, confusing process into a supported, single-day experience while keeping the spotlight on the benefits of working at GK.

Increase Compensation

This one is obvious but hard to do. As a small district, Genoa-Kingston couldn’t afford to pay the substitutes the same rate as larger ones nearby. However, GK wanted to shrink the pay gap as much as possible to at least make it competitive with other districts. Otherwise, even candidates who live very close to a GK school might travel to a farther district for more pay. 

Not only did GK increase their starting rate, they also tiered their pay rates to encourage substitutes to stay with the district. After 10 total days, subs there start to receive nearly 10% more pay per day. After 20 total days, they receive nearly 70% more than the starting rate for each day they sub. While budget constraints are real, if your district is badly in need of more substitute teachers, you should consider raising their pay as much as financially possible. If you have trouble keeping subs once they start, you might reward them for coming back. 

Provide Clarity

Inconsistent policies between schools in the same district create confusion and frustration for substitutes. For instance, at Genoa-Kingston, substitutes complained that varying cell phone use between classrooms made it difficult for them to know—and therefore enforce—the rules. The high school responded by adopting a clearer policy, in part so that subs could more easily understand expectations.

Help provide clarity for your substitutes by placing a school handbook in every classroom with easy-to-access guidance on issues such as your cell phone policy. To help create even more clarity for subs, ask teachers in every classroom to create guides specific to covering their classes. It’s extremely helpful if they also provide some emergency lesson plans in the event of last-minute absences. 

Decide Your Target Audience

Effective substitute recruitment, much like any other form of marketing, requires authentic messaging that speaks to target audiences. Generic appeals rarely work. Genoa-Kingston narrowed its target audience down to three main groups and crafted messaging that would appeal to each of them.

First, since there are two college campuses nearby, they decided to target current college students and recent graduates who might not have picked their next job or life steps yet. Second, they chose to target students’ parents, both because they lived in the area and because they already knew the district’s merits. Third, they chose to target retirees because they tend to have more available time than other adults. (Plus, conveniently enough, there’s a retirement community right next door to GK’s high school.) Decide who your district should target and tailor your marketing response to those groups. If you want to target similar groups to GK, here’s a glimpse at ways to do that.

Recent College Graduates

Many new graduates don't consider substitute teaching as a viable option. The key is meeting them where they are and highlighting aspects of the job that would appeal to them. You can target this group by:

• Attending college career fairs

• Partnering with education departments at local universities to emphasize that subbing provides valuable work experience for aspiring teachers

• Calling attention to work requirements and flexible scheduling that accommodates other commitments

• Clearly stating the pay rate

At GK, anyone with 60 college credits or an associate’s degree can apply to become a short-term sub—a fact which they highlighted on campaign flyers and in newsletters.

Parents & Families

While many parents are involved with their children’s schools—whether by baking cupcakes for the class, joining the PTA or volunteering at events—they might not have considered subbing as a means of supporting them. The good news is you’re already in contact with your parents, so the key here is taking advantage of all the touch points you have with them. Reach them by:

• Asking teachers to identify good candidates among their most engaged parents

• Training teachers on subbing requirements and providing materials they can give to parents

• Distributing recruitment materials at school events

• Making substitute teaching info prominent on your school or district website

• Including a call to action in school or district newsletters and social media

Retirees

Retired professionals offer experience and availability. But you’ll likely have more success if you meet them where they are and use mediums they are more likely to consume, such as print. Edwards successfully convinced a 55+ community located next to their high school to include substitute recruitment information in their newsletter, directly reaching their target demographic. Try connecting with your retirees by:

• Offering info sessions at 55+ community centers, senior organizations and retirement communities

• Reaching out to retired teacher associations

• Posting flyers at community spaces

• Going door-to-door in your community or mailing materials to residents’ homes

Consider Your Channels

Remember, successful campaigns use multiple channels to reach their target audiences. At GK, Edwards used a combination of: 

• Physical flyers at community locations and school events

• Email campaigns to school families and staff

• Social media posts across school and district platforms

• Dedicated Webpage accessible from and prominently placed on school and district websites that includes a direct link to the application

• Word-of-mouth recruitment through trained staff and existing subs

• Community partnerships with the city, education, senior-focused and other local organizations

Of course, what you put on paper or online is extremely important, too. On their materials, GK didn’t just present a smiling sub with a personal recommendation. Flyers and cards included information that would be essential to budding substitutes, like GK’s pay rate, minimum qualifications and next steps—including the dates and locations of their in-person recruitment events and a QR code linking to their ROE’s job portal. 

Measure Gains 

In the aftermath of the campaign, Edwards says, “I learned we shouldn't stop any campaign just because we're in the green.” You have to maintain ongoing recruitment efforts to account for natural attrition and changing needs. So pay attention to recruitment metrics such as these to understand what's working:

• Number of new applications received

• Conversion rate from application to active substitute

• Retention rates of new substitutes

• Sources generating the most successful candidates

Genoa-Kingston's campaign generated 19 new substitute applications between January and April 2024—a 20% increase in their total pool and three times their previous year's recruitment success. But in gathering the right metrics, GK should be able to continue growing their sub pool in the 2025-26 school year.

Build Retention

As we all know, recruitment is only one aspect of maintaining a healthy workforce. Retention is just as important. So Edwards decided to show their existing subs some appreciation, too. Not only does it keep them engaged, it makes them more likely to recommend the position to others. “It's not easy going into a classroom of students that you've never met before, especially if it's their first time,” Edwards says. “It can be scary.”

If you’ll remember, GK asked their existing subs what they liked and disliked about working there, showing them the district cared how they felt. Subs’ feedback wasn’t just used to recruit new subs, either—it was used to improve conditions for existing ones. GK also implemented a simple, but meaningful system to show their subs appreciation going forward. School secretaries started to mail thank you notes to substitutes after each assignment. Some additional retention strategies you might consider include:

• Throwing substitute appreciation events

• Providing professional development opportunities

• Offering preferential scheduling for reliable substitutes

• Offering increased compensation for reliable long-term substitutes

• Recognizing substitutes in newsletters or on social media

Although Edwards and GK were incredibly successful in their substitute recruitment campaign, building a healthy and reliable sub pool is an ongoing commitment to creating positive experiences for both students and substitutes. When substitutes feel appreciated, supported and valued, they become ambassadors who recruit others through word-of-mouth recommendations.

Districts that approach substitute recruitment strategically, authentically and consistently will find that even with limited resources, they can build the reliable substitute pools their teachers and students desperately need.

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