Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District miss an average of 12 days a year, an absence rate that the teachers union calls "frightening" and that disrupts learning by forcing the widespread use of substitutes.
With the call for substitutes so high--at least 1,000 a day, more on Fridays and Mondays--some classrooms go begging. Even when substitutes are available, the quality of the school day suffers, say principals and teachers.
"I don't care how good a sub is, there's no replacing a regular classroom teacher," said Charles Baldwin, principal at Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, where teachers missed an average of 18 days last year. "A sub comes in and it's like a neon sign comes on (in the room) saying 'Day Off, Day Off.' "
The effects can be far more significant than a lost instructional day or class period. Althea Woods, the principal at 99th Street Elementary in Los Angeles, where teachers missed an average of 21 days last year, blames dramatically lower sixth-grade test scores on the high number of absences.
"Positively, those scores were abominable," Woods said. "I attribute that largely to the fact that these children had substitutes. It's very disruptive."
A new incentive program designed to give teachers cash for staying in their classrooms was forgotten almost as soon as it was written into the last teachers contract. Instead, the system encourages teachers to miss school by giving teachers 10 fully paid sick days a year and up to 90 half-paid days. Most teachers work about 180 days a year.
Sick time cannot be cashed out at the end of the year, so there is no financial incentive to stay on the job. Many teachers say they use the time for "mental health" days, doctor's appointments or when their own children need child care.
Of the district's 33,000 teachers, just over 18,000 missed at least seven days of school last year. More than 8,000 missed 13 or more days. Just 5,364 teachers had perfect attendance.
"As you may have heard before, our absentee rate is frightening," said Sam Kresner, the director of organizational services for United Teachers-Los Angeles, in a recent edition of the union's newspaper. "This absenteeism creates huge expenditures we would like to avoid."
Teachers argue that the profession is stressful, that they do get sick and that little can be done to curb those who abuse the system.
"We're supposed to be the cure-all for everything--social needs, parental needs," said Eileen Avneri, a teacher at Olive Vista Middle School. "It is extremely stressful. In every profession, you're going to have people who take advantage of the system and you'll have people who have 200 days banked. . . . It bothers me as much as it bothers the parents."
And parents are definitely bothered by the profusion of substitute teachers.
Janice Vassil, a Northridge parent, was so frustrated by the parade of substitute teachers in her daughter's fifth-grade classroom that she nearly pulled out of a highly prized magnet school.
"I put my kids in school to learn," said Vassil, who kept her daughter at Lorne Street Magnet in Northridge after a new permanent teacher was assigned. "When a sub comes in, it's just not the same in the classroom. There's just not a lot of learning."
Jan Schneider, whose granddaughter attends a San Fernando Valley high school, said teacher absences have become more than an annoyance; they are affecting students' work. "The kids basically learn nothing that day unless the teachers leave detailed work plans. Most of the time, I think they (the substitutes) sit up there and read and ignore the kids."
The average of 12 sick days a year in Los Angeles Unified has remained steady for several years, but district officials do not know how it compares to other large school systems. Most school districts around the country have focused on reducing student absences and paid little attention to teacher absenteeism, and don't track teacher absences from year to year.
Other districts exclude from their statistics teachers on maternity leave or long-term sick leave. On that basis, for example, in Dade County, Florida--the nation's third-largest school district--teachers miss an average of about six days a year. By the same accounting, San Diego Unified teachers missed an average of 5.5 days.
The Pasadena Unified School District stopped paying teachers for jury duty to cut down on absences. Supt. Vera Vignes, who said the decision was reached in contract negotiations, said the result has been fewer substitutes and more teachers on the job. In Los Angeles, the union contract encourages teachers to defer jury duty to vacation time, but they can be paid for up to 20 days of service.
"Obviously, teaching is a difficult and stressful job," said Gene Tucker, the former superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and a professor of education at UCLA. "But teachers only have about 180 days with children. I always felt these days are precious."
