LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A requirement that substitute teachers get a license is included in a bill introduced Thursday at the Nevada Legislature. It revises current Nevada law that requires substitutes to hold a “K-12 Special License” with a teaching endorsement.
Assembly Bill 182 (AB182) creates the new substitute license and seeks several new restrictions related to teacher qualifications at a time when the state is struggling to attract teachers to vacant jobs. And it comes as Gov. Joe Lombardo is asking state agencies to remove barriers in regulations to hiring employees.
Among other restrictions in AB182, there is a regulation requiring a person to obtain a baccalaureate degree before participating in “an alternative route to licensure.”
Qualifications for teachers were altered during the pandemic as teachers left in droves and remote learning created different kinds of problems across the state. Clark County schools have increased pay substantially in an effort to get teachers, along with instituting retention bonuses.
The state’s restrictions on hiring substitutes were relaxed during the pandemic, but Clark County and Washoe County (any school district with at least 9,000 students) cannot authorize an emergency substitute. AB182 appears to eliminate emergency substitutes in all the other counties.
AB182 flatly prohibits anyone from obtaining a license to teach without first obtaining a baccalaureate degree, but puts the extra “substitute” license in place.
The bill also requires a person who holds a teaching endorsement in certain fields of specialization to teach only in that specific field. For example, a language specialist would not be allowed to teach a math class and vice-versa.
