Catch-22 in our Classroom: Why State Rules Must Evolve to Survive the Teacher Shortage

By: Dr. Michelle Aquino, Superintendent of North Plainfield Public Schools

A No-Win Situation

Imagine the following scenario as a parent, administrator, or citizen of New Jersey. Two days before the start of school, the school district receives a call that a certified science teacher for a credit-bearing, required course suffered a medical incident and needs a seven-week leave of absence. The district has two options: place students with a substitute with little to no science background, or provide instruction from a certified science teacher remotely while arranging for in-person supervision of students in the classroom.

A recent final Decision by the New Jersey Commissioner of Education highlights the regulatory Catch-22 we find ourselves in. The ruling highlights a painful disconnect between rigid, pre-pandemic legal frameworks and the ground-level realities of running a school district.

Superintendents in New Jersey wake up with a common mission: to provide a thorough, compliant, efficient and high-quality education for students. When state law mandates a course students need to graduate, and no qualified teacher can be found despite extensive recruitment efforts, what realistic options remain for a school district?

The Crisis: Mandates Without Mandated Workers

Consider the impossible situation faced by the North Plainfield Borough School District, and many others across the state. New Jersey regulations and local district policies mandate that schools provide a minimum number of credits in world languages and biology for students to graduate. In addition, other mandates, like elementary world languages, exist for schools. If a district fails to offer these courses, it risks state sanctions and compliance consequences. However, these consequences are largely bureaucratic in nature. What matters most is that students need instruction by teachers certified in the content areas of the courses, not substitute certified educators who may have little to no knowledge of the subject. It is worth noting that standard New Jersey substitutes require only 60 college credits or 30 if currently enrolled in a college.

Yet, despite undertaking strenuous effort in posting vacancies and actively recruiting, the district received zero (0) qualified applicants for critical openings in Spanish, French, American Sign Language, and Biology.

What is district leadership supposed to do? Cancel the course? Tell high school seniors they cannot graduate because an in-person teacher is impossible to find in the local applicant pool?

Is it reasonable to hire someone with little to no content knowledge to teach a credit-bearing course? That may look good on paper; however students would not be receiving a thorough and efficient education.

The Solution: Good-Faith Innovation

Faced with this staffing emergency, North Plainfield found a temporary, student-centered solution that has already been successfully implemented in other school districts and educational settings across the country.

The Board contracted with a reputable, well-regarded provider of virtual instruction with certified teachers, coupled with board-approved, New Jersey-certified staff members who are physically present in those classrooms during instructional periods.

To understand why this worked, it helps to look at how the classroom actually functioned:

• Environment: Students were not sitting at home on laptops. They were physically present in their public school classrooms.
• Supervision: A local district-certified and board-approved staff member was physically in the room to assist and monitor the students.
• Academics: The virtual instructors taught a curriculum fully aligned to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.
• Labor Impact: Not a single local union member was displaced, laid off, or supplanted.

In short, the district acted in good faith to fulfill its educational promises to its students.

New Jersey districts have long relied on contracted professionals such as nurses, therapists, and athletic trainers without controversy. The question is why temporary emergency academic instruction should be treated differently. These contracted, specialized professionals often work alongside our staff, navigate the same educational ecosystems, and can even be dues-paying union members subject to TEACH NJ evaluation frameworks. If outsourcing critical medical and therapeutic support services is widely accepted, why is an emergency academic bridge treated like a systemic violation?

The Bureaucratic Handcuff

In the April 28, 2026 Final Decision (EDU 14056-25), the Commissioner confirmed that the Board acted reasonably and within its legal authority (not ultra vires) to operate schools during an emergency.

Yet, in a classic case of “no good deed goes unpunished,” the Commissioner ultimately ruled that because these remote instructors handle teaching, grading, and testing, they must be legally classified as traditional “teaching staff members.” This single definition triggered a mountain of compliance requirements that significantly undermine the viability of virtual partnerships:

• Certification: Instructors must hold a valid certificate issued specifically by the New Jersey State Board of Examiners, regardless of their out-of-state credentials.
• Fingerprinting: Despite passing other background checks, instructors were required to be vetted specifically through the New Jersey State Police.
• Board Votes: Instead of approving a single vendor contract, the Board must conduct individual, recorded roll-call majority votes for every single remote teacher.
• Observations: The district must evaluate these private contractors three times a year using the local rubric—a requirement designed for evaluating district employees and tracking tenure-eligible performance, not private contractors.

The Commissioner closed by warning that future third-party contracts will face “close scrutiny” regarding local recruitment efforts. While the decision reflects legitimate regulatory concerns, state leadership views this emergency solution through a compliance-focused lens that fails to account for practical realities districts face during severe staffing shortages.

The Path Forward: Facing Reality and Modernizing Rules for Modern Classrooms

No superintendent would choose virtual instruction over a certified teacher physically present in the classroom. But when recruiting efforts fail to produce qualified candidates, districts need practical options that keep students learning and on track for graduation.

The question raised by the North Plainfield case is not whether virtual instruction is ideal. It is whether districts should be permitted to use carefully supervised, temporary virtual solutions when no qualified teacher is available. If the answer is no, then the state must provide another workable solution. Until then, districts remain responsible for meeting mandates without being given the tools necessary to fulfill them.