Since the end of COVID-19, there has been a consistent shortage of available substitute teachers in SFUSD, causing classes to go untaught for months and students to miss out on the education they come to school for. Despite many new hires between last year and this year, some classes still don’t have a permanent teacher. Ms. Karlovic’s class is one example of a wider problem affecting schools across SFUSD.

One student from Ms. Karlovic’s Film as Literature class, when interviewed about his experience with substitutes in English classes, said, “I’ve only had a constant teacher for the first two years,” adding that it “was a similar situation with English class last year, and we didn’t have a solid teacher till spring.”  dents in these classes are often left without meaningful work or are assigned busywork just to have something to be graded on.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, SFUSD has faced a persistent shortage of both teachers and substitutes. Many educators left the profession due to health concerns, and state regulations now limit substitutes to serving only one long-term contract per career — leaving classrooms across the district understaffed.

However, efforts are being made by the school and the English department to assign a long-term substitute to these classes so students can get back on track. When interviewed about the situation, Mr. Brinton, head of the English department, explained that the school had found a long-term substitute for Ms. Karlovic over the summer. “Dowaliby was going to be the substitute for the semester,” he said, “but after the first few days he stopped showing up.”

Despite Mr. Dowaliby’s sudden absence, the English department has managed to find a new substitute. “I reached out to a student teacher who we had three years ago,” Mr. Brinton said, “and he was very excited to come back to Washington and work.” The delay in his arrival, Mr. Brinton noted, is due to SFUSD’s human resources department, which he described as “notoriously slow.”

In California, a substitute teacher can only serve one long-term contract in their career. During the pandemic, many teachers also left the profession due to health concerns or to care for vulnerable family members. Together, these factors have created an extreme demand for substitute teachers statewide — and a shortage of people qualified or allowed to fill that role.

As of Oct. 9, the official long-term substitute, Mr. Plowman, has begun teaching the Film as Literature class. Mr. Plowman plans to teach until the spring semester, when Ms. Karlovic returns from maternity leave.