Frequently Asked Questions

To help you determine if subbing with STEP is the right fit for you, we have compiled a list of frequently asked questions and answers.

3-6 of ECE (early childhood education) units and interested in working with children ages 0 to 5. If you are going to work with infants or toddlers, you need to have infants and toddlers units as well.
18 years old and up.
Ages between 0-5 years old.
(Infants, toddlers, and preschool groups).
It ranges from $16.50 to $20, depending on educational and permit level.
HRA (Health Reimbursement Account), PTO (Paid Time Off) and prorated holidays. For every hour you work, you will accrue $0.04615 PTO hours and receive $3.68 HRA funds. You also receive paid trainings, tuition reimbursement, and internal 1 on 1 English tutoring.
We provide ongoing paid trainings, learning community, and career counseling. We have experienced internal and external trainers in the ECE field.
It all depends how soon you submit the required hiring documents. We require you to have fingerprinting clearance and obtain health screening report, TB test, MMR, Tdap, and flu shots. Then after you are cleared, we schedule you for orientation.
It ranges from 4 to 40 hours, it depends on your availability and the needs of the childcare centers. Working days are Mondays through Fridays during regular business hours.
All locations are in San Francisco
-Kai Ming Head Start
-Mission Neighborhood Centers
-Cross-Cultural Family Center
-Wah Mei School
-Felton Institute
-Wu Yee Children’s Services
and more...
Our system works like Uber. After you are hired, you create a profile in our website and you put your availability there. Our partner agencies/non profit childcare centers will contact or book you if they need a substitute teacher. You could accept or reject through text.
You can reject the job and state the reason why.
Yes, when you receive a higher permit or education level.
We would like you to speak basic English, able to say hello to children and teachers. But English is not a requirement for this job. We have staff who speak Chinese (Cantonese & Mandarin), Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Spanish.
Yes, you could get hired by one of our partner agencies after you complete 500 hours with STEP.
You can call us at: 415-960-1351 or email us at: info@ecestep.org.
Submit a request on our website: www.ecestep.org by clicking the “STEP IN” button.
STEP will interview, conduct references, run a background check, and obtain a complete health and immunization records on all of our new hires before they can start working. We also verify and ensure the new hires have completed their ECE units.

All Substitute Teachers will go through a series of ongoing trainings and professional development opportunities.
It depends on how fast the Substitute Teacher respond to your request. Generally speaking, it should be from a few minutes up to a few hours
We charge way less than for profit childcare staffing companies. We have an affordable and non profit model. Please contact us for more details.
Yes, but they have to commit to at least 500 working hours from our STEP program. Then they are able to get hired by any partner agency.
You can call us at: 415-960-1351 or email us at: info@ecestep.org.