How the Frontline substitute job board actually works

Most subs learn Frontline by poking at it. This is the tour you did not get at orientation: what the board is showing you, who else can see it, what the buttons and messages mean, and the handful of settings that quietly decide how much work you get. It describes what subs commonly see; every district configures Frontline a little differently.

Aesop, Absence Management, Frontline: same thing

The system was Aesop for a long time, then became Frontline Absence Management after Frontline Education acquired it. Districts, school secretaries and most subs still say Aesop. The website is the same, the phone line is the same, and the free Frontline Mobile app is the newer way in. When this guide says “the board,” it means the Available Jobs list in any of those places.

What a posting shows you

Every job on the board carries the same core information:

• The teacher’s name and position title. The title is whatever the district typed: “Grade 3,” “5TH GRADE DLA,” “Teacher Special Ed,” “Vacant Position Roving Sub.” It is the only clue you get about what the day will be, and spellings vary wildly between districts.
• The school, and for multi-district accounts, the district in front of it.
• Dates and times. A single day, or a multi-day span. Start and end times, and the duration Frontline computes from them.
• A notes indicator. Some teachers attach notes (“sub plans on the desk,” “must be able to lift,” “bilingual preferred”). You have to open the job to read them.

What a posting does not show: who else can see it, how long it has been up, or whether anyone is about to accept it.

Who sees a job, and when

This is the part most subs never hear about. When an absence is entered, Frontline does not necessarily show the job to everyone at once. Districts can configure:

• Preferred substitutes. A teacher or school can keep a list of favorites. Districts can give those subs a head start, from minutes to days, before the job becomes visible to the general pool.
• Direct assignment. A teacher or secretary can assign a specific sub outright. The job never hits the board at all.
• Qualifications and restrictions. You only see jobs you are marked as qualified for (grade bands, certifications, specific schools). If you never see high school jobs, that may be a setting, not bad luck.
• Visibility windows. Some districts limit how far in advance jobs appear, or hold same-day jobs for the phone system first.

So when a job “appears,” it may already have been offered to a shortlist. Understanding this is the beginning of getting onto those shortlists, which we cover in how to get more sub jobs.

Accepting a job

You open the posting and press Accept. If you are first, Frontline gives you a confirmation number and the job moves to your schedule. If you are not, you see one of two messages:

• “A substitute has already been assigned to this absence.” Someone else got it. Final.
• “This record is currently locked. Please try again later.” Someone else is accepting it right now. Frontline briefly locks the record while it processes their click. Occasionally their acceptance fails and the job is still open, so one retry is worthwhile.

Once you hold a job on a date, Frontline hides other jobs on that date from your board. That is why your list looks thinner once your week fills up.

Multi-day jobs

A teacher out for a week posts as one job spanning several dates. You accept all of it or none of it. Some districts let the teacher split a long absence so different subs can cover different days. If you already hold a job on one of the dates, you cannot accept the span.

Cancelling

You cancel through Frontline or by calling the school, per your district’s policy. Districts track cancellations, and many have a rule (often something like “not within 24 hours, not more than a few per semester”). Late cancellations are the fastest way to fall off a preferred list. The get-more-jobs guide has more on that.

Notifications

Frontline can reach you several ways, and you choose in your profile:

• Phone calls from the automated system, during hours you set (“call me between 6:00 and 9:00 PM”). You can accept a job by pressing a key during the call.
• Email for confirmations and some job notices.
• Push notifications from the free Frontline Mobile app, with an optional sound. This replaced the retired Jobulator app; see the Jobulator replacement guide.

Independent services also exist that watch your board and notify or act for you. Alert apps (SubAlert, SubSidekick) tell you; Sub Concierge accepts matching jobs for you according to rules you write. All of them work through your own Frontline login.

Settings worth checking once a semester

1. Availability and non-work days. If your calendar says you are unavailable, you will not see jobs. Subs forget a blocked date from last spring more often than you would think.
2. Call times. Wide enough that the phone system can actually reach you, narrow enough that it does not call at 5 AM on a day you cannot work.
3. Schools and positions. Whatever the district let you set. A school you excluded years ago may be a school you would happily take now.
4. Contact info. An old phone number means silent alerts.