status of the substitute teacher delivery system in the sixty-seven Florida Public School Districts and the perceptions of administrators, teachers, and substitute teachers toward the substitute teacher delivery system in the Polk County, Florida, Public

The primary purpose of this study was to find the status of the substitute teacher delivery system in the sixty-seven school districts in the State of Florida. The use of substitute teachers by Florida school districts has increased each year in alignment with the national trends found in the professional literature. Since July 1990, Florida law requires no academic preparation or teacher training before beginning work as a substitute teacher. The 67 Florida School Districts now issue substitute teacher certificates with the only Florida law requirement being fingerprints prior to employment. Substitute teacher delivery system identifies the preparation, selection, training, support, and evaluation of substitute teachers in a school district. Issues related to substitute teachers were substitute teacher pay, substitute teacher credentials, and substitute teacher training. The corollary purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of selected administrators, teachers, and substitute teachers concerning the Polk County Schools substitute teacher delivery system, one of Florida's sixty-seven school districts. A review of the literature provides a national summary of teacher pay, substitute teacher role, substitute teacher status, and administrative procedures used to recruit, select, place, orient, and train substitute teachers. The analysis of data from the 1993-94 state survey provides the teachers per substitute teacher ratio, students per substitute teacher ratio, and state average of these values. In addition, the percentage of the total budgets used for substitute teacher pay is calculated. Daily pay rates and academic requirements for short-term and long-term substitute teachers were collected and state average values calculated. Seven research questions concerning the substitute teacher delivery system are answered. The district perception instrument was conducted in Polk County School District at 20 schools using a stratified random sample and analyzed with the chi-square analysis technique. Seven null hypotheses were rejected using the significance level of chi-square value indicating significant differences in perception in the survey participants; school-based administrators, teachers, and substitute teachers. The combination of the state survey results and district perception instrument can be used to assist a district in developing an action plan for improving a district's substitute teacher delivery system.