Missouri’s school districts are struggling not just with a teacher shortage but a scarcity of bus drivers, custodians and other essential personnel.

In the 2022-2023 school year, teachers with inadequate teaching certification taught over 8% of Missouri public school classes, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The crisis has led larger school districts to consider adopting four-day school weeks to address teacher retention and recruitment problems.

Sen. Rusty Black, R-Chillicothe, has been working on one way to address the problem for four years. And last week, the governor signed a bill into law, set to take effect Aug. 28, that will allow retired public-school staff to work full-time for a district for up to four years without losing retirement benefits.

“It’s not like on Aug. 29 everything’s gonna be fine… but it is going to have an impact to help schools continue to get along somehow until there’s a better solution or they can find people to come back to schools and work again,” Black told The Independent.

Prior to Black’s legislation, teachers and non-certificated staff could work full-time for only two years post-retirement without losing benefits.

The bill includes a provision to help prevent too many staff from taking early retirement, limiting school districts to 30 retired teachers working full time.

Black said the four-year timeframe seemed like the best fit because it allows a student to attend college and earn a...

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