Lehighton Area School District is planning to increase its substitute teacher pay rate for the first time in eight years.

Acting Superintendent Jack Corby said Monday night the new rate for a substitute teacher will be $110 per day for up to 20 days. If a substitute works for 20 or more cumulative days, the rate will increase to $120 per day and continue at that rate for any year after that.

Retired teachers in the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System can earn $130 per day as a substitute.

The previous daily rate for substitute teachers in Lehighton was $90 per day.

“This is hopefully a move in the right direction as we try to be more competitive with surrounding districts,” Corby said. “I think we can all agree we want kids in the classrooms receiving instruction and not in a study hall because we don’t have enough substitutes.”

Local districts have been grappling with a substitute teacher shortage dating back before 2020. The crisis, administrators said, hit a breaking point when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Neighboring Palmerton Area School District pays its substitute teachers $120 per day and announced additional measures earlier this year to try to attract more candidates.

Palmerton is looking to fund temporary long-term substitute positions using Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money.

Unlike a day-to-day substitute, who gets paid $120 per day, a long-term substitute would receive a regular salary and benefits. Palmerton Superintendent Dr. Jodi Frankelli estimated in February that each long-term substitute would cost the district around $80,000 when you factor in salary and benefits.

“It costs us more, but I think this gives us our best chance at finding some substitute candidates,” she said at the time. “We lost one person who was subbing for us because they could go sub somewhere else and get benefits. In a perfect world, we’d like to find one long-term sub for each building.”

Lehighton will take an official vote on increasing its rate at its July 25 board meeting.