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Schools are obviously going to have lots of challenges during the next school year (see A teacher predicts what his classroom (and others) will look like in the fall).

An additional issue is going to be getting substitute teachers.

One challenge is going to be that – if we are teaching in a physical school – there will be far more teacher absences than there have been in the past.  All of us teachers have gone in when we’re not feeling well, and that’s not going to be happening again until there’s a vaccine.

Secondly, getting subs in our district has gotten increasingly more difficult in recent years, and it’s going to get a lot harder.  Many subs are retired teachers, and I suspect retirees are not going to want to put themselves in a potentially risky situation.  I also wouldn’t be surprised if district’s put age limits on subs.

I’m assuming districts will be taking this issue into account when making plans for the fall, but who knows?

I don’t have a clue what the solution might be.

Of course, if districts only open, for example, elementary schools and keep secondary schools online, that would reduce the need for subs so it wouldn’t be less of a problem.

But, other than that, I just don’t see how you get around the problem.

Anyone have ideas?