Missouri lawmakers have extended a rule allowing retired teachers to serve as substitutes without losing their retirement allowance. This measure is part of efforts to fill classrooms during a statewide teacher shortage.
The state legislature first took notice of the issue in 2022, when the COVID-19 pandemic chiseled away at the teacher workforce. They passed a law that, among other provisions, encouraged retirees to become substitutes and set an expiration date of June 2025.
In May, lawmakers voted to extend the sunset to 2030 as part of a bipartisan education package currently awaiting the governor’s signature.
State Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly and chair of the House Education Committee, was part of the effort to pass the legislation in 2022.
“It is definitely something that needed to happen,” he told The Independent. “And really needed, this year, to be revisited.”
Lewis credits state Rep. Stephanie Boykin, a Democrat from Hazelwood, for bringing the issue to his attention. Boykin was one of a handful of lawmakers who filed a bill to extend the law’s sunset, and she got the legislation added onto a large Senate bill during committee work.
“It is a win for that retired teacher that doesn’t have to be concerned about being penalized or having to come out of retirement,” she told The Independent. “And, of course, it is a big win for our students to have a teacher with knowledge and with an educational background.”
This provision is different from a statute allowing retirees to work full-time. Since 2003, retired teachers have been able to return full-time for two years, which lawmakers increased to four years in 2023.
Missouri has been loosening requirements for substitute teachers while it struggles to find educators, reducing the amount of college credit required to be certified as a substitute and providing an alternative certification course online.
Many of these efforts emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the shortage remains today. At the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, there were over 12,000 vacant teacher spots of which 9% went unfilled and 12% were filled by teachers without the proper certification, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
But veteran teachers are stepping up. In the 2023-24 school year, 4,500 retired educators served as substitutes, according to data from the Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri.
The average monthly benefit for retirees in the Public School Retirement System is around $3,800 a month. With most substitute gigs paying $101-$125 a day, retirees would lose money to come out of retirement to substitute.
Over two-thirds of Missouri substitute roles were filled by those ages 50 and older in 2024, according to a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education survey.
“It makes a difference when you have that experience there, versus someone that might like children but they are just looking for a job and they don’t mind being there,” Boykin said. “But nothing can take the place of an experienced teacher.”
“We want to remove any barriers from experienced teachers filling that gap,” she said. “And that is what this bill does.”
This story originally appeared here.