In New York, substitute coverages were assigned by an electronic system hiring substitutes from outside. If there were non available (which was the usual case), teachers were assigned an "emergency" coverage. It was awful, and I would have paid NOT to do it, BUT there were some rules that governed this by union: we were paid time-and-a-half, we couldn't be assigned more than two periods in a row and no more than 5 or 6 periods in a day.
In Minnesota - I was a part of an electronic sub system. My names was in four different districts, and when a teacher was absent - the system rang my phone and I was assigned a school. It was also online, so if I happened to be online, I could choose a place to cover. I was so desperate for money - as were others - that I would wait by my computer, refreshing the screen repeatedly - looking for a coverage from the highest paying district in hopes I could cover my bills for the month. Those were hard days...
At my old school, the English department covered each other. There were 17 of us, and this was usually enough to cover. We were covering our friends - and it was usually volunteered because there were things we needed to teach. We were paid about $3 for an extra lesson.
Here, it's a mess. Our principal is responsible for assigning the coverages. She hates doing it, and she's really bad at it. There is no regulation and there is no extra pay. I was assigned a coverage and it made my teaching day 8 out of 10 periods... but I got out of it because of a parent-teacher conference I had scheduled. The person sitting next to me at lunch was teaching 9 out of 10 periods today, had his lunch out, was eating his lunch - and got called to his coverage that had been assigned while he was teaching and he didn't know about. Brining his teaching day to 10 out of 10 and making his lunch cold.
We definitely need a system here.
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