substitute teachers – A Denver program is placing trained older adults in early learning centers—covering classroom staffing and providing business support—to ease teacher shortages and keep care stable.
The early childhood classroom runs on steady staffing, yet breaks, appointments, and even routine coverage can become complicated when substitute teachers are scarce.
In Denver. the Early Childhood Services Corps (ECSC) is tackling a problem many childcare directors feel daily but rarely see solved: the lack of qualified adults who can step in quickly enough to meet legal staffing expectations.. When full-time teachers can’t safely leave the room. centers lose flexibility—whether that means a bathroom break. a short off-site need. or longer appointments like a doctor’s visit.. ECSC pairs trained older adults with childcare providers. not only as potential substitute teachers. but also as “business advisers” who help centers with the behind-the-scenes work that keeps programs running.
At the program’s core is a practical understanding of early care and education as skilled labor, not informal babysitting.. Elizabeth Pufall Jones. director of preparation and work environment programs at the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. frames the issue this way: the field is often treated as easily replaceable. when in reality classrooms require trained professionals.. With ECSC members. centers get adults who have been prepared for the work—able to move into classrooms without turning coverage into guesswork.
ECSC was founded in 2022 by Lisa Armao. a veteran of early childhood education who had spent more than three decades in the sector.. Her effort was inspired by a documentary. “The Growing Season. ” that showed a similar concept in Seattle. where a senior center and daycare operated under one roof.. Armao initially planned a comparable standalone facility in Denver, but the pandemic disrupted those plans.. Instead, she redirected the model and focused on recruiting and training older adults for roles inside existing childcare centers.. With support from state and local funding, she says the program has raised over $440,000 to build and sustain the corps.
Over the last three years. ECSC has placed roughly 150 volunteers across Montessori programs and other childcare settings in the Denver area.. Participation is structured around training pathways.. Those seeking to substitute as teachers complete three to four months of online classes offered by Red Rocks Community College.. Those who want to work with children but prefer not to take on the extra training complete 19 hours of ECSC training modules.. For “business advisers,” the program provides a seven-hour training covering early childhood regulations before they are assigned to centers.
Family Star Montessori. which serves 230 children from 8 weeks to 6 years old across two schools and a home-based learning program. illustrates how coverage can change the day-to-day experience for staff.. When Alexander is in the classroom. teachers can step out without the constant worry about whether another adult can legally and safely cover the space.. Armao points to a detail that may sound small but carries real weight in a job built around children’s needs: “We don’t talk about bathroom breaks enough.” Without appropriate coverage. teachers face an uncomfortable tradeoff between human needs and classroom staffing requirements.. Addressing the practical needs of adults can also influence morale, which matters in environments where burnout can drive turnover.
There is also a broader community angle.. ECSC members don’t arrive as blank slates; they bring career histories that shape how they support centers.. The program has drawn media attention. which is how many older adults learn about it. yet the supply of corps members still doesn’t fully meet the demand.. Armao says she has received inquiries from outside Colorado. including people asking how the model could be replicated in California. Ohio. Oregon. and Washington state.
At the same time, childcare centers are adapting in more ways than staffing.. Family Star executive director Lindsay McNicholas relies not only on classroom support, but also on administrative help.. One corps member, Jean Townsend, provides that support through her business background.. Before retiring, Townsend ran a local economics consulting firm and helped launch initiatives such as the Colfax Marathon.. When she joined Family Star. she brought both a practical “roll-up-your-sleeves” approach and a network of contacts across business and political circles—assets McNicholas says have helped the organization move forward as it considers selling one site and purchasing another with more modern heating closer to where families live.
ECSC’s emphasis on life experience shows up in the way some members talk about the work.. Kit Karbler. 72. a glass artist whose work is displayed at the Denver Art Museum. substitutes at a child care center based at Temple Emanuel.. He says what keeps him in the role is not just income or scheduling. but the “emotional return” he gets from stepping into classrooms.. Kamal Fakhouri. 68. brings a different background—work in education and business across the Middle East—and describes connection as the prize.. At Monarch Montessori. she fills in as a substitute teacher and recalls a moment when a child she hadn’t been around in a while hugged her and shared what they were working on.
For centers, the visible presence of older adults can also set a tone.. Bethanne Rodriguez. executive director of the Thrive Preschool network. values “older faces and older energy. ” but she also links the idea to workplace culture: corps members model what it means to show up for work. even when life isn’t effortless.. Rodriguez frames it as a form of stability—experience that helps the whole team understand the stakes of early childhood education.
That stability isn’t abstract.. Yvonne Wilder. 57. works with children at Thrive’s Littleton location and describes what it means physically to shift from wetlands fieldwork into eight-hour days of diaper changing and hands-on care.. She says her first year was difficult. and she fell sick often. which led her adult children to question whether she should continue.. Eventually. she says her body adjusted—and what surprised her was how much she came to enjoy the work. germs included.. Wilder captures a kind of classroom belonging that many educators chase: children asking whether she is their grandma. and her responding that she can be their “school grandma.”
Programs like ECSC also speak to a larger education challenge—how systems handle staffing shortages without pushing responsibility solely onto already strained teachers.. When substitute coverage is unreliable. early learning becomes more vulnerable to disruptions that affect children. families. and employee retention at the same time.. By building a pipeline that trains older adults and places them into both instructional and operational roles. Misryoum sees a model that could influence how communities treat workforce planning in early childhood education: not as a temporary fix. but as a way to protect care quality while supporting the people who deliver it.
Looking ahead. the biggest question may be whether enough trained corps members can be recruited to meet ongoing demand across multiple centers.. Armao’s program is already drawing interest beyond Colorado, suggesting the approach resonates.. If that momentum translates into more partnerships and sustained recruitment. early childhood classrooms may gain something they often lack—predictable coverage—along with a broader sense of community investment in the work of raising children.
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