Legislature passes health care stipends for substitute teachers

The Nevada Legislature has passed a bill that provides long-term substitute teachers who work for 30 or more days with a $450 monthly subsidy to purchase health care. 

The state Senate voted 16-4 Tuesday to approve the bill. It passed the Assembly in April by a vote of 31-11. Assembly Republicans Gregory Koenig, Heidi Kasama and Toby Yurek and Senate Republicans Pete Goicoechea, Scott Hammon, Ira Hansen,  and  Heidi Seevers Gansert voted for the bill. 

Assembly Bill 282, if signed by the governor, would allow more than 1,000 educators to buy health care, according to the ACLU of Nevada.  

The state has an ongoing teacher shortage and substitute teachers have been used more frequently, at pay capped at $120 per day with no benefits. The $450 stipend is based on the average monthly cost of non-Medicare/Medicaid insurance plans in the state, according to a report submitted by the ACLU of Nevada.

“The teacher pipeline shortage has only continued to grow, and substitute teachers have become a lifeline to many of our schools,” said ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah in a press release.

The Nevada State Education Association supported the bill. 

The Nevada Association of  School Superintendents, Washoe County School District (WCSD) and Clark County School District (CCSD) opposed the bill. 

“It is absolutely ridiculous that our state’s two largest school districts, CCSD and WCSD, actually opposed a health insurance subsidy for full-time substitute teachers and refuse to provide them with health insurance,” said Haseebullah in a press release on Tuesday.