CENTRAL ILLINOIS (WCIA) — Administrators and state leaders alike are reacting to the 2024-2025 Educator Shortage report.

The annual data comes from the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS). The report shows slight improvements this year compared to last.

For example, this year’s report noted 3,864 teacher positions were open in Illinois. In 2023, the data showed there were 4,096 unfilled teaching positions.

The map on page four of this linked report breaks down the openings by school district. No matter where you live, several administrators agree and have the same goal. They want students to be in a quality learning environment with teachers who support them along the way.

“No student, no child, should be in a classroom where there isn’t a highly qualified teacher,” Scott Woods, Rantoul City School District’s superintendent, said.

He is one of many school officials feeling the challenge of job openings in their buildings. Of his 4 openings listed in the 2024-25 report, two of those include a social worker and speech-language therapist.

“Sometimes those more specialized positions are harder to fill,” Woods said.

In Livingston County, the latest data shows the Prairie Central School District has 10 unfilled teaching positions, but Paula Crane, the superintendent, said they’ve gotten creative to fill most of the spots. She credits the Teacher Vacancy Grant.

“We were able to through the grant offer to pay for people to be certified to be a teacher if they had a four-year degree,” Crane said. “We got really some amazing results from that.”

At Woods’ district in Rantoul, they recently started a new mentoring program in hopes of strengthening the pipeline and retention rate.

“Every new teacher is placed with a more experienced teacher, that’s their one-on-one mentor whose job is to help them be successful in the district,” he explained.

While the new results are encouraging, educators know there is room for improvement.

“I think it’s still a significant problem in Illinois,” Woods added.

No matter what, administrators aren’t stopping until every gap is filled and each student is in the hands of a top-notch teacher.

“It’s not a Prairie Central problem, it’s not a State of Illinois problem, it’s very global,” Crane said. “There’s going to have to be some things at a higher level that happen that can help us out.”

The report shows Champaign Schools have 47 openings at this time. Ken Kleber, the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, said the district has recently increased the number of positions to meet the community’s growth. They’ve started a “visiting teacher program” to bring in educators from other countries. The district also includes new signing bonuses for certain positions.

“It takes a special person to go into teaching,” Kleber said.

In Urbana, the recent data shows 29 vacancies.

“Teacher retention and recruitment are priorities for USD #116 and we continue to problem-solve ways to retain and recruit staff, especially in hard to fill positions. We have several incentive bonuses for incoming teachers as well as for staff who refer new employees to the district. The teacher shortage is not unique to Urbana, which is part of the reason why Illinois introduced the Teacher Vacancy Grant, which we hope will be renewed.”

Katherine Tellez, Communications Director

Decatur Public Schools currently has 52 openings. In response, the district has participated in several job recruitment events and hosted two job fairs in hopes of attracting qualified educators. The district was also awarded a Teacher Vacancy Grant to support recruitment efforts.

“The district continues to focus on our Teacher Ready program, which assists current staff in becoming certified teachers, yielding twelve successful participants to date. We recognize the challenges posed by this shortage and deeply appreciate our certified teaching staff who continue to dedicate themselves daily to our students. District #61 is committed to working with local and state educational partners to address this issue and ensure our classrooms are led by passionate, skilled teachers.”

Maria Robertson, Communications Director

If you’d like to see where your school or district stands, click this link and visit page 3 and 4. You can also see trends from previous years by scrolling to the hyperlinks below.