Safety is the part of the job that matters most, and it is also the part where a sub should do the least on their own. Schools have nurses, counselors, principals and written plans for exactly these moments. Your job is to keep students supervised, know the plan, and bring in the right adult quickly.
This lesson covers the questions subs ask most often about safety: leaving the room, drills, the nurse and medicine, injuries, food, who a student goes home with, touching, a student who tells you something worrying, and behavior that turns unsafe. The rules for most of these are set by each state, district and school, and they differ. This is not legal or medical advice. It gives you safe defaults for the moments before you know the local rule, and the questions to ask so you find out.
The rule under every rule: when you aren't sure, choose the action that keeps every student supervised and brings in the adults whose job it is to decide. You are never wrong to call the office.
Questions for your first morning at a school
You won't have time for all of these every day. Over your first few visits to a school, work through them, and write the answers in your sub log so you don't need to ask again.
- If I need to leave the room, who covers my class, and how do I call them?
- How do I reach the office from the classroom?
- How do students go to the nurse, and should younger ones be walked?
- What is the school's phone rule for students?
- What should I do if a student's behavior is unsafe or won't stop?
- How do students leave early for a pickup, and who releases them?
- Does the school have a policy on touching students?
- Where are the drill procedures and the class list for drills?
- If a student tells me something worrying, who do I tell?
- Is there a written handbook for substitutes I should read?
If your district gave you a handbook, read it before your first day and bring it. Where it answers a question in this lesson, follow the handbook.
Never leave the class alone
The first job of any adult in a classroom is to keep students supervised. That default never changes. Warren Township Schools puts it simply: no classroom is left without a teacher.
That means not stepping out to make copies, not running to the office, not walking one student down the hall and leaving the rest, and not standing in the hallway for a long conversation. If you need to leave, call the office or the teacher next door and wait until another adult is in the room. If you feel unwell yourself, call the office. They would much rather send someone than have a class left alone.
- Count heads at every door: going out, coming back.
- Follow the room's pass system for the bathroom and errands, and the school's rule on one at a time or with a buddy.
- On a recess or lunch duty, stay where you can see the students you are responsible for.
- Stay where others can see you, and avoid being alone with one student behind a closed door.
Drills and emergencies
Before students arrive, find the evacuation map by the door and the class list for drills. Warren Township tells subs to find the evacuation map and the crisis handbook, which holds class lists, before students come in. Know the route your class takes and where it gathers outside.
In a drill, lead your class through the school's plan and account for every student. Dysart Unified tells subs to stay calm, walk the class to the evacuation point, take the attendance list, check every name, and go back in only when told. Warren says the teacher leaves the room last and stays with the class the whole time.
Many schools use the Standard Response Protocol from the "I Love U Guys" Foundation. It has five actions, and the words are worth knowing.
- Hold: stay in your room and keep teaching.
- Secure: get inside and lock the outside doors.
- Lockdown: locks, lights, out of sight, and stay quiet.
- Evacuate: move to another place, as directed.
- Shelter: a named hazard, and the strategy for it.
Each school's plan is its own, even when the words are the same. When you sign in, ask where your exit route goes, how lockdowns are announced, and where the class list is kept. If a student has a health need or a plan that affects drills, the teacher's notes or the office will tell you what to do. Follow it exactly.
Take the class list with you every time you leave the room as a group, even for a fire drill you were told about in advance. A list in your hand is how you know everyone is out.
The nurse handles health
Medicine is the clearest example of something to leave to the school. Don't give a student any medicine, even something that seems harmless. That includes a pill, an inhaler, a cream or a cough drop, and it includes one a student or a parent hands you. Send the student to the nurse or the office instead.
Here is one state's rule, as an example. New Jersey's Department of Education lists who may give medicine to students: the school physician, a school nurse, a substitute school nurse, the parent, the student when approved, and staff who volunteer and are trained for specific emergency medicines. A substitute teacher is not on that list. Rules vary by state and district, but the safe step for a sub is the same everywhere: call the nurse or the office.
Read any health notes the teacher left when you arrive. Warren Township says a sub should use any medical information the teacher left to help decide what help a student may need from the nurse or the office, and to keep it confidential. That information is for keeping a student safe today. It isn't for sharing.
- Ask where the nurse is and how to send a student there.
- Check the plan for allergy information and follow it exactly.
- Don't hand out food the teacher didn't leave or the school hasn't approved.
- If a student seems seriously unwell, call the office right away. Don't wait to be sure.
When a student gets hurt
Get the nurse or the office involved right away, and stay with your class. Warren Township says students who are ill or injured should go to the nurse at once, or to the office if the nurse isn't there. Whitko Community Schools asks subs to tell the principal's office immediately when an accident happens.
Don't treat the injury yourself. How a student gets to the nurse, and whether someone comes to the room, is a school rule. Some schools want a phone call, some want a buddy to walk the student. Dysart Unified asks subs to learn these procedures from the front office when they sign in. Afterward, write what happened, when and who you told, in plain facts. The school may ask for its own incident form. Ask which one.
Who a student goes home with
Who a student leaves with is one of the most important things in a school day, and it is not a sub's decision. Schools keep lists of who may pick up each child and handle changes through the office. Release students only the way the school's dismissal list says, and send every question to the office.
- Know before the end of the day how every student goes home.
- If an adult you don't know comes to the room to take a student, send them to the office.
- If a student says their plans have changed, check with the office before you let them go a different way.
- If anyone is missing at dismissal, tell the office right away.
Try: "I'm sorry, I need the office to check that first. They'll sort it out quickly. Could you stop by the front desk?"
Nobody reasonable will be upset with a sub who checks. Families and schools both want the adult in the room to be careful.
Touching students
Schools have different policies about physical contact, and the right answer can change with the age of the children. Ask the office whether there is a policy and follow it. Until you know, keep to safe, common-sense defaults.
- Use words and gestures first: point, show, model.
- Keep any help with coats, zippers or shoes brief, in view of others, and only when a child needs it.
- Don't block a doorway or physically move, hold or restrain a student. If a student is unsafe and won't respond to words, call the office.
These defaults aren't meant to make you cold. Warmth comes through in your voice, your patience and your attention.
When a student tells you something worrying
Now and then a student may tell you something that worries you about their safety, at home or at school. Listen calmly. Don't ask a lot of questions, and don't promise to keep it secret. Thank them for telling you, and tell the office or the principal that same day, before you leave the building.
Schools and states have their own rules about who must report and how. Rules vary by state and district, so ask the office on your first morning who to tell and how. Write down what the student said in their own words, with the time, and give it to the person the school names. Don't put it in your note to the teacher, and don't discuss it with anyone else.
When behavior turns unsafe
Most hard moments on a sub day are noise and refusal, and Lesson 4 covers those. A few are different: a student is putting themselves or others in danger. Call the office at once and say plainly what is happening. Whitko Community Schools says that if a student is putting themselves or others in danger, the sub should move the other students to a nearby room or hallway and notify the office at once.
Keep your voice low and your words few. Keep the other students away from the situation. Do not try to handle it physically. Trained staff will come. When it is over, write down what happened, when, what you did and who came.
Phones
Phone rules differ widely, and more states now limit them. The New Jersey Department of Education said in January 2026 that a state law requires every local school board there to adopt a bell-to-bell policy on students' non-academic phone use. Even inside one state, districts choose how phones are stored and how the rule is enforced.
So follow the school's phone rule, and ask the office if you don't know it. Ask whether subs are expected to collect phones. Some students may have a phone for a health reason or under a plan, and you won't always know who. If a student says they are allowed, don't argue it out in front of the class. Check the teacher's notes or ask the office. Your own phone counts too: keep it away during class.
Visitors at the door
Adults who come to the classroom door during the day should have checked in at the office first, and most schools give visitors a badge. If someone you don't recognize comes to the door without one, stay calm and polite, keep the door between them and the class, and ask them to check in at the office. Then call the office to let them know. Don't let an unknown adult into the room or hand over a student, however friendly they seem.
The office is on your side
New subs sometimes worry that calling the office makes them look like they can't cope. It's the opposite. A sub who calls early, says clearly what is happening and follows the school's plan is the sub the office trusts. San Ramon Valley Unified tells its subs that calling on staff is not a reflection on their ability.