Schools across the country are struggling to find staff. Here's why

Paying students to serve lunches during school hours. Bringing retired teachers back to the classroom. Hiring bus drivers for janitorial duties. Shortening in-person instruction to four days a week.

Across the country, these are some of the short-term solutions to a nationwide shortage of school staff at all levels – teachers, administrators, food workers, custodial staff, bus drivers and more – school districts have put into place as they struggle with a combination of sick outages brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, a wave of teacher retirements, employee burnout and back-and-forths with unions.

The crisis will worsen as some states begin to head into colder temperatures and flu season, begins, administrators in Midwestern districts say. Regardless of geography, superintendents and other school leaders all concede there are not enough workers in any pipeline to readily replace outgoing or sick school employees.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/schools-across-the-country-are-struggling-to-find-staff-heres-why