Clark County public schools are in need of more teachers.

As they look to fill openings here in Nevada, the state Department of Education is taking its own steps to help speed up the process.

Staffing shortages in schools have led to combining classes, extra workloads for employees, and burnout for teachers over the last few years.

While many are leaving, there are also educators applying to help with shortages.

"I recently resigned from a full-time teaching job with Clark County, A Clark County Charter School, in Henderson, for personal reasons," said Lisette Garcia-Kohler, who has been an educator for decades.

She recently left a teaching job at a local non-Clark County School District charter school to help her family.

But she still wants to give back to the community as a substitute.

"I thought subbing would be a really good way for me to continue to help children and students," said Garcia-Kohler.

So, she is in the process of applying.

The application process to become a licensed substitute or teacher goes through the Nevada Department of Education.

"Currently within the state, we're approximately one month out from the time an applicant submits their application through completion," said Crag Statucki, interim deputy superintendent for the Educator Effectiveness and Family Engagement Division of NDE. "But that does make the assumption that when the outcome submits their initial application, it has all the materials that we need to complete the review."

The department says at the same time your application is being processed, the Nevada Department of Public Safety is also running a background check that also takes about 30 days.

While NDE officials say this is a solid processing time to get educators in front of students, Garcia-Kohler wishes it was faster.

This is while CCSD shows over a thousand licensed professional openings on its website, including teachers.

"I think it's still lengthy," said Garcia-Kohler. "We have over 1,000 vacant jobs in CCSD that are being serviced by subs or classes are being doubled. So, to me, if I had- if I have a valid license already, the only thing that I should be doing is the background check. And that shouldn't take that long."

There is good news according to NDE.

The state legislature recently approved hiring more staff in the licensing office to improve response times.

"We think that the additional staff that we that we got in October that you know that we're in the process of hiring, will help speed up that process to make it easier for current applicants and future applicants," said Statucki. "We believe that the two additional staff will increase our productivity by about 40%."

Garcia-Kohler is still weighing her options as she says the processing has been a lot faster applying to substitute at local private schools.

But she also wants to help students who need her the most.

"My initial reason for doing this is to help the children of our district," said Garcia-Kohler. "But my fingers are crossed."

One thing key NDE points out is that anyone who has a current Nevada teaching license does not need a separate substitute license to be able to substitute.

For anyone interested in applying for a teaching or substitute license in Nevada, click here.

Continue sending your tips on issues important to you in our schools to the Crisis in the Classroom tip line: schooltips@news3lv.com or call 702-805-0489.