<p>Often a teacher who is leaving a school will be perfectly willing to write a recommendation for a student, but you do need to make sure you can stay in touch with them.</p>
<p>My son asked a retired teacher for recommendations - he had to do it on paper - and one college lost the LOR three times! It was so embarrassing to have to ask him to resend.
I think it is fine to ask a retired teacher, but warn that teacher of this possibility since it will most likely be on paper and will rely on humans to sort and file.</p>
<p>My D ended up with 6 recs total. (Two were not able to get them in time for ED) They can be used for scholarships too. When D was deferred from ED to RD she sent in the rest of the LORs with a letter of recent accomplishments. </p>
<p>Get the teachers that are leaving. D found the teachers more than happy to write them.</p>
<p>My S used his 10th grade English teacher. She is also the head of the English department at his HS. He didn’t have any further classes or involvement with her, but felt that she was the best choice for him – apparently a lot of kids in our HS use her as one of their recommendations. It seems to have worked out fine for him.</p>
<p>Question to Cptofthehouse was the stickler LAC for your friend’s a super selective school. My gut is that actually the super selective schools are generally LESS sticklers for the rules than a more mid range school</p>