SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Illinois state lawmakers passed several plans this year to address the concerning teacher shortage across the state. Although, legislators also know they must focus on the other dire shortages like school psychologists and nurses.
National experts say schools should have one psychologist for every 500 students. However, Illinois schools have an average of one psychologist per 1,290 students. Dr. Katherine Campbell, president of the Illinois School Psychologists Association, told the House Elementary & Secondary Education Committee Thursday that many psychologists are also pulled out of their office to attend unnecessary meetings or assist teachers and school administrators.
"It is demoralizing for school psychologists to have the skills to dramatically impact the outcomes and wellbeing of all students but not have the opportunity to use those skills," Campbell said.
She explained Illinois should fund innovative school psychology graduate programs. Campbell believes the state can also provide scholarships for young people willing to work as psychologists at schools in underserved school districts. Although, she noted that the largest problem for school psychologists starts at the college level.
"Training to become a school psychologist is long and rigorous. Beyond course work, it requires many applied experiences and those experiences require dedicated faculty to supervise," Campbell said. "There's simply not enough faculty and not enough training slots in the university training programs."
Illinois is also in need of more school nurses, something evident throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Districts who had nurses were in a better position to translate public health guidance and allow students to safely return to school in the fall of 2020," said Dr. Eileen Moss. "Others did not. Many districts scrambled to put a registered nurse on their team to help deal with contact tracing, vaccination and testing."
The Illinois Association of School Nurses told a House education committee Thursday that there is currently no accurate data to show who is caring for children in schools. Members stressed that the Illinois State Board of Education needs to collect data during the 2023-24 school year to understand who is caring for the health needs of students and what their credentials are.
Meanwhile, teachers believe lawmakers should continue to help improve retention and recruitment efforts.
"Teachers are now not encouraging their own children to enter the profession because they have concerns about the trends that they're seeing and what teachers are expected to do, and the behaviors that we're seeing increase in our student populations, and in the overall expectations of the profession," said Julie Hagler, president of the Unit 5 Education Association.
Hagler told lawmakers that the problem won't be solved by putting unqualified and unprepared teachers into classrooms. She believes that the General Assembly should eliminate the controversial Tier 2 retirement system, streamline the process for educators to move from state to state, and eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision to make it easier for people to enter the teaching field as a second career. Hagler also suggested the state can provide financial support and debt relief for students becoming teachers.
"We don't have a shortage of individuals in the state with the appropriate credentials to teach," Hagler explained. "What we have is a shortage of people who are willing to do this required and critical work for the limited pay and respect that comes with that."
Lawmakers hope to continue discussions with stakeholders to craft legislation to address these issues during the next session.
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