Understanding the true ROI of your substitute teaching program

In today’s educational landscape, where every dollar and minute counts, school districts are increasingly re-evaluating how they manage their substitute teacher programs. One option gaining traction is outsourcing substitute staffing. But does it pay off? From a Return on Investment (ROI) perspective, the answer is often yes, and here’s why. 

At a recent Kelly Education gathering of district leaders, only one out of 800 attendees reported having more than enough substitute teachers. This widespread shortage creates a ripple effect of consequences that impact everything from administrative workloads to student outcomes. To navigate these challenges effectively, districts must look beyond the surface-level costs of their substitute teaching programs. By assessing both direct and indirect expenses, educational leaders can develop more strategic approaches that minimize disruption and maximize their return on investment (ROI).

The power of partnership.

When districts partner with a dedicated staffing organization like Kelly Education, many of the financial risks shift away from the district. This transfer of liability represents significant potential savings, particularly for districts with high rates of absenteeism or complex staffing challenges.

For growing districts, the administrative burden of substitute management increases with each new school or classroom. The infrastructure required to recruit, onboard, and deploy an adequate substitute pool becomes increasingly complex. At the same time, school districts across the country face persistent pressure to do more with less. Many districts simply cannot afford to build and maintain a comprehensive staffing infrastructure while also meeting their core educational mission.

A specialized staffing partner reduces these scaling challenges, allowing existing administrative roles to focus on teaching and learning rather than the daily mechanics of substitute deployment. A strategic staffing partnership offers districts a flexible, cost-effective solution that minimizes disruptions and optimizes resources. Beyond simply filling vacancies, the right partner can:

• Reduce administrative burden by shifting recruitment, background checks, scheduling, payroll and benefits administration, onboarding, and daily management to specialists;
  
  • ROI angle: Outsourcing reduces overhead in HR, payroll, and scheduling, allowing for redirection of staff to higher-value tasks.
• Improved Fill Rates - Expand your substitute pool by drawing from a broader candidate base than most districts can access independently;
  
  • ROI angle: Higher fill rates = less lost instructional time = better student outcomes. It also reduces the need for last-minute coverage by other teachers (which incurs indirect costs like burnout and reduced prep time.)
• Scalability & Flexibility - Outsourcing allows a district to scale up or down quickly based on demand (flu season, teacher shortages, etc.) without having to maintain a large substitute roster year-round.
  
  • ROI angle: You only pay for what you use - reducing sunk costs.
• Compliance & Risk Management - Kelly will handle credential verification, legal compliance and liability
  
  • ROI angle: reduces legal and compliance risks - saving potential costs from lawsuits, fines or PR damage.
• Access to technology & Tools - Kelly can provide platforms for scheduling, tracking, and evaluating substitutes.
  
  • ROI angle: More efficient management = better data, faster decisions, and improved staffing outcomes.
• Enhance quality control to provide consistent training and performance monitoring; and these advantages translate into both immediate savings and long-term value. 

The most successful districts view substitute teaching not merely as a requirement to fill classroom vacancies, but as a strategic investment in educational continuity and administrative efficiency—an investment with returns that extend from the budget office to the classroom.

The ripple effects of classroom coverage.

Schools and districts have come up with a number of solutions that call on current staff to cover empty classrooms, but each has a downside:

• Reassigning teachers: When teachers give up planning periods to cover classrooms, instructional quality suffers as educators lose crucial preparation time.
• Administrator coverage: Principals and assistant principals pulled into classrooms can't fulfill leadership responsibilities, creating a leadership vacuum with long-term consequences.
• Using retired teachers: While these educators are experienced, this solution may trigger additional retirement contributions in certain states, creating unexpected financial obligations for them and the district where they work.

These stopgap measures might solve immediate coverage needs, but often create downstream costs that not only impact budgets and educational outcomes but create administrative challenges as well.

Quantifying administrative impact.

An essential step in calculating your substitute teaching program's ROI is identifying who manages the daily scramble to fill vacancies. Kelly Education conversations with school districts typically begin with asking specific questions, including: “Who is making calls in the mornings and evenings to fill open positions?” and “Are your bookkeepers, secretaries, or assistant principals being pulled away from their primary responsibilities to handle this task?”

These seemingly simple operational questions have significant financial implications. If hourly employees are making these calls outside regular hours, districts incur overtime costs. When salaried staff handle this responsibility, they're diverted from their primary duties—creating opportunity costs as high-value work goes uncompleted.

The true expense of this administrative burden often goes uncalculated. Consider the cumulative hours spent by office staff contacting potential substitutes, processing paperwork, and managing last-minute scheduling changes. These hours represent a substantial investment that could be redirected toward work that more directly supports student achievement.

Consider a typical scenario: It's early afternoon in a high school when you discover your calculus class won't be covered. Now you're not only facing a staffing gap, but also the likelihood that many high schoolers will simply choose to skip class altogether. When substitute positions remain like this unfilled, district leaders have to take into consideration how this taxes their HR staff and office administrators. There are other, less obvious costs to consider as well. 

Evaluating the hidden costs of substitute staffing.

Districts may underestimate the financial costs of substitute teachers by focusing exclusively on their daily rates. This limited view fails to account for significant related costs, including:

• Training and onboarding to prepare new substitutes;
• Administrative processing including background checks, certification verification, and ongoing compliance management; and
• Stipends and incentives to existing staff who cover unfilled positions.

Additionally, there's the often-overlooked impact on workers' compensation costs. Your “mod rate”—the percentage of salary allocated to workers' compensation—increases with each incident. The more workplace injuries or issues that occur, the higher your mod rate climbs, affecting costs for everyone from your superintendent to maintenance staff.

While the financial benefits are clear, outsourcing substitutes also delivers value in harder-to-quantify areas: reduced burnout among full-time staff, better student engagement, and the ability to reinvest time and focus into academic priorities.

Substitute teachers play a critical role in the educational continuity. Research consistently shows that instructional interruptions negatively impact student achievement. A quality substitute teacher program provides learning continuity, boosts students’ engagement, and contributes to the maintenance of a robust teacher pipeline. Kelly Education is dedicated to providing substitute teachers who are well-trained and ready to step into a classroom and immediately support learning and student care—a real value that’s difficult to measure in dollars.

These educational benefits, while less immediately quantifiable than budget items, represent a crucial component of the ROI of your substitute teaching program. Understanding the educational and financial impact of substitute teaching allows you to make strategic rather than reactive staffing decisions. By calculating both direct and indirect costs, you can create more effective, sustainable approaches to your substitute teacher needs. Ultimately, when viewed through a true ROI lens - encompassing cost, time, performance, and risk - outsourcing substitute teacher services presents a compelling strategy for districts looking to do more with less.

----

About the author: Heather Bills is the chief financial officer at Kelly Education. She can be reached at heather.bills@kellyservices.com.