Requesting Substitutes

A month ago I posted about our district policy that required that teacher absences be filled from the "laid off teacher list", whether or not that teacher knew anything about the subject matter of the class they're supposed to teach that day.  Being blunt like I usually am, I noted that if I were absent a laid-off third grade teacher could cover my class but I couldn't call a retired teacher who I know would actually teach.

Today we got the following information from our school secretary:

As of today HR has removed the restriction of not being able to request and confirm subs of your choice. Hurray!

Guess that means there are no more laid off teachers in my district?