Bills signed to reduce teacher shortage

 


–Capitol News Illinois

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a package of bills last Wednesday aimed at easing the state’s shortage of teachers and other education professionals.

“In Illinois, schools still have more than 2,100 unfilled teaching positions statewide,” Pritzker said. “With new funding at their disposal, districts all across the state are working to find new ways to bring people into this profession and to encourage them to stay there.”

Pritzker signed four bills Wednesday, including House Bill 4246, which lowers the cost of renewing a lapsed educator license to $50 instead of $500; House Bill 4798, allowing currently enrolled teaching students with at least 90 credit hours to be licensed as substitute teachers; Senate Bill 3988, lowering the minimum age to become a paraprofessional in grades eight or below to 18 instead of 19; and Senate Bill 3907, allowing short-term substitute teachers to teach up to 15 consecutive days in a classroom instead of just five.

Those bills come on top of numerous other measures the state has taken in recent years to lure more people into the teaching profession.

Pritzker noted that starting next year, the minimum annual salary for first-year teachers will increase to $40,000 due to a bill he signed in 2019.

ISBE’s most recent Unfilled Positions Survey, released April 21, shows Illinois schools hired a record 5,676 new teachers in the fall of 2021, the most ever recorded in a single year and more than in the past five years combined. That was enough to lower the statewide vacancy rate to just 1.5 percent.

A survey conducted in 2021 found 88 percent of local school districts believed they had a teacher shortage problem while 96 percent reported problems finding enough substitute teachers.

 

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