Miami-Dade schools scramble to address teacher shortage

Miami, Florida — According to Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, the school system is scrambling to cope with the toll that COVID-19 is taking on teachers.

He told that the problems were expected after the Christmas break.

In order to fill the void left by so many calling in sick, officials were reaching out to many people with educational certificates, Carvalho said.

“What I can tell you is that we were prepared for this,” he said. Carvalho said some 1,700 teachers called in sick on Tuesday and he expected that number to go down by the end of the week.

“Obviously, we anticipated this because of how contagious the virus is and how quickly it can spread,” he said.

According to officials, 2,100 instructional personnel were out sick on Monday compared with 1,333 teachers who were out sick last year on the Monday after the Christmas break.