The school year is well underway here, but some districts are still facing large teacher shortages.

In some cases, that's translated to bigger class sizes or courses being cut from the curriculum.

In Paterson, in Jersey City, two of the state's largest districts, the vacancies are so high, officials have turned to virtual teachers to fill the gaps.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports.

Our preference, hands down, is to have in-person teachers.

This is a Band-Aid.

Jersey City Superintendent Norma Fernandez says her school district was left with no other choice than to use a virtual teaching model to fill the 45 or so teacher vacancies they have this year.

Explaining how it works, she says.

They're able to sit through a virtual class in their building for a period where there will be a paraprofessional with the students assisting as the teacher is on the monitor remotely interacting with their students.

And these are certified teachers in the content area.

Jersey City is just a few days into using this virtual teaching company called Edmentum as a substitute for classroom teachers.

They partnered with them last year to bring high intensity tutoring into the school and expanded the partnership.

When they learned that Edmentum had teachers with New Jersey certifications.

Paterson is starting its third year using a similar program called Proximity.

We have right now over 2000 teachers.

What we're missing is about 149 teachers.

We have those vacancies.

The contract with proximity to fill about 75 of those vacancies comes at the cost of $2 million for this year.

Paterson Schools paid the same amount last year as well.

What I believe is that we should have a certified teacher in every single classroom teaching in person.

The next best is, well, if we have a certified teacher who can work with our students virtually, then we will take that too, without having that as an option.

I would literally have almost 150 vacancies just filled with substitutes.

And so, you know, I'm grateful for the innovative thinking that we have this online platform.

How are you going to measure the success of this program, this virtual teaching option?

Are you are you parsing out any of that data specifically to make sure that it's working?

So we have the leadership team working very closely with the principals.

You know, we are able to look at each and every classroom to see the effectiveness of everything, not just the program, but to see how we are working with all of our teachers.

Leaders in education, including the NJEA the largest teachers union in the state, and an underwriter of NJ Spotlight News.

So this has to be a last resort, even though they're hearing of more and more districts utilizing the option.

It's problematic, though, on a number of fronts.

Number one, we're all, you know, as we come out of COVID here, we're all, you know, cognizant of the fact that virtual learning, while important to keep someone safe, is not the best way to to engage in instruction.

Right.

And that being said, we're also saying, oh, you know, we can't fill positions, so we're going virtual here.

Paterson is using proximity across upper and lower grade levels in the district where Jersey City is using it only in the high schools.

Part of the reason for that, says Fernandez, is that it's simply easier to find teachers for the lower grades.

But chair of the Senate Education Committee, Senator Vin Gopal, is not a big fan of the solution.

I get Paterson's situation very, very difficult.

But the district needs to show that they really work to try to find those teachers and they haven't been able to.

Could you envision districts continuing in this way because it just becomes a convenient option and is it a good option?

No, it can't be.

It needs to be.

You know, after they have tried every thing possible.

And I have had districts that say, listen, we've done sign up bonuses, we've done everything.

We still can't get them for temporary solutions.

I understand we have to do it.

But Gopal and the other education leaders feel there's so much more that needs to be done to attract teachers into the profession.

In Paterson, I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.