Winning Buy-In & Budget: A Principal’s Roadmap to Substitute Teacher Training

As a principal, you face the challenges of your district-managed substitute teacher and paraeducator pool every day. And even when your pool is full, chances are that the quality of available educators remains a consistent worry.  

 Quality of student instruction should never be in question—even when a classroom teacher is out. Yet, inconsistencies in substitute teacher and paraeducator readiness, classroom management tactics, and lost instructional time are often the reality.  

 That’s where the right training program becomes essential.  

 Kelly Education Learning Pathways offers a powerful solution: A scalable, research-backed training platform designed specifically for substitute teachers and paraeducators—without the complexity of designing and managing the training program yourself.  

The need is evident, the solution is simple. Now, how can you get your district leaders aligned on a training investment? Read on for 5 strategies to change the focus of your district’s substitute teacher and paraeducator conversation from quantity to quality — and solve your district’s training equation once and for all.  

1. Link the Investment to Student Success 

Your district’s superintendent and CFO are laser-focused on student learning. Framing substitute teacher and paraeducator training as a strategy for reducing learning disruption makes it easier to connect the dots: Capable, well-trained educators ensure that teachers’ great work is continued while they are out.   

Kelly Education Learning Pathways establishes national substitute teacher and paraeducator teaching standards and includes training on classroom management, instructional techniques, legal compliance, and working with students with special needs—all essential for maintaining instructional continuity.  

2. Position Training as a Cost-Effective, Scalable Solution 

Training substitutes and paraeducators can sound like a heavy lift—but it doesn’t have to be. Kelly Education Learning Pathways is online, self-paced, and scalable, giving districts the ability to onboard and upskill their temporary workforce without pulling staff away from other priorities.  

Unlike full-service staffing partnerships, the cost is based on per-user access, making it easy for finance teams to model ROI.  

“We looked at what we were spending on rework—resetting classrooms after ineffective sub days, complaints from parents, disciplinary follow-ups—and realized training was a far more proactive and cost-effective approach,” a director of schools shared.  

3. Show How It Supports Broader Talent Goals 

A consistent training program signals to substitute teachers and paraeducators that they’re valued contributors—not temporary placeholders. This can improve recruitment, retention, and fill rates in hard-to-staff schools. 

It also supports full-time teachers, who are more likely to leave behind lesson plans and trust the classroom experience when they know their students are consistently in capable hands. 

“It changed the culture,” one principal said. “Teachers stopped trying to reschedule absences because they knew our subs could handle it.”  

4. Offer a Targeted Implementation as a Low-Risk Pilot Approach 

Many district leaders find success by starting small. Identify places where substitute teachers or paraeducators are most needed or where their impact is magnified and suggest a pilot program with this population. Running a pilot program in a high-need school, with a cohort of long-term substitute teachers, or with paraeducators working with high needs populations can help produce a measurable positive impact, generate local buy-in, and build success stories before scaling district-wide.   

5. Lean on a Trusted Partner 

As the nation’s leading provider of education talent solutions, Kelly Education brings unmatched expertise in substitute teacher readiness and classroom workforce challenges. Even for districts managing their own talent, Kelly Education Learning Pathways allows you to leverage best-in-class training, developed by Ed.D.-credentialed educators and learning designers. 

A self-managed substitute teacher or paraeducator program doesn’t mean going it alone. With the right training solution in place, districts can improve student outcomes, improve staff morale and retention, and strengthen the teaching experience from day one. 

 Learn more: talk to our team about piloting the platform or scaling it across your district.