In fact, during their school careers, students spend the equivalent of one full school year learning from substitute teachers, according to the Substitute Teaching Institute at Utah State University.
But who are substitutes? What are their qualifications and how are they screened? The arrest last week of a 19-year-old Granite School District substitute teacher, Christopher B. Page, for allegedly having an off-campus sexual encounter with a 13-year-old female student raises such questions. Police said Page had met the girl once before at a party, but that the relationship did not progress until they met again at the school.
"Whenever something like this happens you're always going to review your policies," said Granite district spokesman Ben Horsley.
Districts across the state have varying rules. All substitutes, according to state law, must undergo criminal background checks, but that's largely where the similarities between districts end.
In the Jordan School District, the minimum requirement is the equivalent of an associate's degree and training, said Stephen Dimond, Jordan human resources administrator. The Salt Lake School District requires a high school diploma, said spokesman Jason Olsen.
The Davis School District requires substitutes be at least 20 years old and either have a bachelor's degree or complete a 14-hour training program, said Chris Williams, district community relations director. In the Alpine School District, substitutes must be at least 21 years old with a high school diploma and undergo training, said Alpine spokeswoman Rhonda Bromley.
Granite schools require regular substitutes have at least 48 semester hours of college. But when Granite schools can't find regular substitutes they're allowed to turn to emergency substitutes, such as Page, Horsley said.
Emergency substitutes are those who might not meet the 48 hour requirement or who don't want to work regularly but pass criminal background checks, go through training and are well known by school officials. Page had worked as a sweeper at Granite schools for about three years.
Horsley said anywhere from 100 to 200 substitutes are employed throughout Granite schools every day. Since the beginning of this school year, the district has hired emergency substitutes about 30 times, he said.
"If there is a 19 year old in the classroom, it's typically to cover one or two periods, to just be there when we have no other options," Horsley said.
He said typically one-third to half of the district's substitutes on any given day are college educated and/or certified teachers.
State law encourages districts to hire licensed teachers as substitutes whenever possible, but Blaine Sorenson, acting director of the Substitute Teaching Institute, said it's not unusual for districts to have a lot of substitutes without credentials.
He said 28 states, including Utah, permit substitutes to hold only high school diplomas or GEDs.
Utah districts, however, might soon have wider pools of substitutes from which to choose, said Geoffrey Smith, former Institute director and current president of STEDI, which markets and distributes training materials and programs developed by the Institute.
"Most districts are seeing a swelling in their substitute pools because when [people] can't find work elsewhere, this is one area they can turn to," Smith said. "Districts can be a little more picky and a little more choosy if they need to."
Smith said STEDI works with about 40 percent of Utah school districts and about 900 districts nationwide. The training materials and programs are designed to teach substitutes how to manage classroom behavior, instruct and be professional, Sorenson said.
But providing training doesn't always mean substitute teachers, or workers anywhere, for that matter, will make the right personal decisions, Sorenson said.
"You can teach people what's right and what's wrong, but there's still an individual choice they have," Sorenson said. "They may choose, even knowing right and wrong, to act inappropriately."
