Substitute teaching at a private or charter school starts with the school rather than a district office: who keeps the sub list varies — it might be the school’s own front office, a diocese or charter network office, or a staffing firm.
The rules are set state by state, and the school adds its own screening on top.
This guide covers the day-to-day work, requirements by sector, how to get on a sub list, and where to find substitute teacher jobs.
Day-to-day, long-term and permanent subs
A short-term substitute covers a classroom for a teacher’s absence of a day or a few days.
The job is to follow the lesson plans the regular teacher left, take attendance, keep the class on the school’s schedule, and leave notes for the teacher’s return.
The rest of the day runs on the school’s own routines: arrival and dismissal, lunch and recess duties, and how the front office tracks attendance.
Ask the office for the school’s sub folder or handbook on your first day — it is where all of that is written down.
At a private school, subbing puts you inside one school’s culture.
A Catholic parish school, an independent lower school, a Montessori classroom and a charter campus can differ in dress, language and how faith or pedagogy shows up in the day; the school’s own handbook is where those expectations are written.
Long-term substitutes cover an extended absence — a medical or parental leave, or a resignation mid-year — and the job grows with it.
As the school defines the role, a long-term sub plans lessons rather than only delivering them, grades student work, and may carry the family communication the regular teacher normally handles.
Permanent substitutes — sometimes posted as building subs or resident subs — are employed by one school and cover whatever absences come up across the year.
The school keeps you on its payroll instead of calling you ad hoc, and you work as part of one faculty.
For anyone aiming at a full-time teaching job, the permanent route has a specific advantage.
The people who make hiring decisions see your work regularly, which is exactly the position you want to be in when an opening appears.
On pay, the federal numbers describe the occupation, not any one school’s rate.
BLS’s OEWS May 2025 estimate for Substitute Teachers, Short-Term (SOC 25-3031) covers all employers nationally, public and private schools together: a median annual wage of $41,670, a median hourly wage of $20.03, and employment of 524,770.
BLS’s separate series for privately owned elementary and secondary schools only — industry 611105, national, May 2025 — puts the median annual wage at $36,210 and the mean at $40,940.
That series groups schools by ownership, and whether any charter schools sit inside it is not established.
For the outlook, BLS’s Employment Projections for 2025 to 2035 — a count that includes the self-employed — project substitute teacher employment rising 2.0%, from 556.1 thousand in 2025 to 567.0 thousand in 2035, with 65.0 thousand openings per year on average.
None of these federal numbers is a daily rate.
A school or a staffing firm sets its own pay for substitute work, and its own posting is the number that applies to you.
Requirements by sector
Substitute requirements are state rules, and they are layered by sector: a public school district, a private school and a charter school in the same state can sit under different rules.
District rules show how specific substitute rules get.
The New York State Education Department issues no substitute teaching certificate, and an uncertified substitute who is not working toward certification may work no more than 40 days per school year in a school district or BOCES.
A district can extend that to 90 days or beyond when its superintendent certifies a good-faith search for a certified teacher, and New York City’s school district requires its own substitute license.
These are district and BOCES rules: they govern public district substitutes, not substitutes at private schools.
North Carolina sits closer to the open door.
The state does not require a state educator license to substitute teach, and each school district sets its own substitute requirements.
At private schools the rules look different.
In New York, the law does not require private or religious school teachers to hold a state teaching certificate: the compulsory-education statute (Education Law §3204) asks only that instruction be given by a “competent teacher”.
In North Carolina, private school teachers and staff are not required to hold a state educator license either — each nonpublic school sets its own faculty and staff qualifications.
Neither state’s answer stands for the country.
What a private school must require of its teachers — and what it may ask of a substitute — depends on the state and on the school’s category, so the school’s own answer and the state education agency’s are the ones that count.
Charter schools are a third ruleset, and each state’s charter law writes it.
North Carolina’s charter law, for example, requires at least 50% of a charter school’s teachers to hold teacher licenses, and every core-subject teacher — math, science, social studies and language arts — to be a college graduate.
The same law treats charter schools as public schools, whose employees are public school employees but not employees of the local school district.
What a charter asks of a day-to-day substitute follows its state’s law and the school’s own policy, so ask the school directly.
Whatever the credential rule says, screening and child-safety duties come with school work.
North Carolina has no statute requiring private schools to background-check their teachers.
The state’s Division of Non-Public Education strongly encourages a criminal background check on each new employee — $15 for a state-only check and $40 for state plus federal per person, which DNPE gives as approximate costs.
New York’s Education Law §3035 has the state process criminal-history (fingerprint) checks for prospective employees — submitted by school districts and charter schools, and also received from nonpublic and private elementary and secondary schools.
Our research could not establish from the sections read whether fingerprinting is mandatory for private-school hires, so ask the school what it runs.
Both states also name mandated reporters of child abuse.
New York’s Social Services Law §413 names school officials — school teachers among them — among the mandated reporters of suspected child abuse or maltreatment.
Under section 7B-301 of North Carolina’s General Statutes, any person with cause to suspect abuse, neglect or dependency must report it, covering private and charter school staff.
Rules change — confirm before you apply
How to get on a sub list
Private-school subbing runs through the school rather than a district application: you apply to the school itself, and the school adds its own requirements on top of whatever the state requires.
Where you are aiming at several campuses in a diocese or a network, start with the office that hires for those campuses.
These steps work in either case.
List the schools you could cover
Name the private, faith-based, Montessori, classical and charter schools within a commute, and note any diocesan school office or charter network that hires for more than one campus.Contact the front office or business manager
Ask how the school staffs substitutes: who keeps the list, what the school requires before a first day, and how absences get assigned.Ask what screening runs before day one
State clearances where they apply, the school’s own background check, and any training the school wants finished before you stand in front of students.Ask what the classroom expects
At a faith-based school, ask how the school’s religious character shapes a sub’s day, from prayer routines to dress. At a Montessori, classical or Waldorf school, ask how a substitute fits the classroom’s method.Consider a staffing firm as a second route
Kelly Education, a substitute-staffing firm owned by Kelly Services, calls itself the nation’s largest provider of education talent and says it serves 10,000+ schools and more than 1,000 school districts. A firm handles placement, but your state’s substitute rules still apply to you — confirm with the firm and the state agency.Keep your availability current
Sub lists work on short notice: be easy to reach, keep your calendar current with each office, and answer quickly when the call comes.
Expect the school’s own questions alongside any state form: a private school choosing someone for its own classrooms may ask about your references, your subject knowledge and how you handle a room.
Find substitute teacher jobs
Substitute openings at private and charter schools surface on school careers pages — the school’s own page, or a diocese’s or network’s page where one office hires for several campuses — through staffing firms, and on job boards that list school work.
Absences come up throughout the school year, so it is worth checking school job pages across the year, not only in hiring season.
For career changers and college students, subbing is a low-commitment way into a school you want to hire you: paid classroom days, references, and a view of the school from the inside before anyone signs a contract.
Browse substitute teacher jobs at private and charter schools on SchoolHires, and check back as schools add openings.
Hiring rather than applying?
Schools that need coverage can post a sub job on SchoolHires.
Career information, not legal advice — substitute requirements are set by state education agencies and by schools, so confirm the current rules with the agency and the school named before you apply or hire.