Guest Teacher Program

The Guest Teacher Program is designed to provide individuals with limited or no teaching experience with the necessary training required to become day-to-day substitutes. Any individual with a bachelor’s degree (in any content area) from an accredited university is eligible to apply to participate in the program. Upon completing the program, participants will receive an emergency permit used by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), enabling them to substitute in any participating district and career technical institute on a day-to-day basis.

Guest Teacher Training is for individuals with a bachelor’s degree in any field who are interested in serving as substitute teachers. The training program will enable participants to substitute in DCIU classes as well as classes within participating school entities in Delaware County.

For information on the permit, please refer to the section on Day-To-Day (type 06) permits found in PDE's Certification Staffing Policy Guidelines.

Please note, this permit is ONLY eligible for people who hold either permanent residency or citizenship in the US.

A mix of live and at-your-own-pace training sessions will provide strategies for effective instruction and management of traditional, non-traditional and special education classrooms, as well as professional responsibilities.

The training consists of:

• 7.5 hours of asynchronous online work (to be completed independently)
• 4.5 hours of live virtual instruction

Participants will learn about:

• Responsibilities of being a substitute teacher
• Lesson planning
• Classroom management and behavior techniques
• PDE mandates
• Instructional strategies to engage learners
• Special education overview
• Professional ethics
• Communication and collaboration strategies

In order to register for the training, the following paperwork must be submitted to DCIU Human Resources: 

• Complete online application (see links to open online applications for each scheduled training)
• $50.00 registration fee (check, money order, or online payment). For questions regarding payment, please contact Paula Coons at pcoons@dciu.org or 610-938-9000 x 2132.
• Official transcripts (sent via e-mail to jcaton@dciu.org)
• PA mandated clearances and forms
  • Child Abuse History Clearance
  • PA Criminal Background Check
  • FBI Background Check information
    • Click uenroll.identogo.com to schedule an appointment  and find a fingerprinting location
    • The service code to use is: 1KG6XN
• All guest teachers must register on PDE’s system, Teacher Information Management System (TIMS). Instructions on doing this step will be part of the training, this step need not be done in advance.