Kyle Gerdes News Today

The public school system provides a lot of services for students with developmental disabilities. What happens once they age out?

More than $5.8 billion of the $7.8 billion in federal funds awarded to Illinois schools since March 2020 has been spent. In Chicago, the school system faces a $391 million shortfall for the 2024-25 school year.

DeKalb School District 428 this week approved a $1.86 million lease-to-purchase agreement with Northern Illinois University as the latest step in a $33 million plan to turn NIU’s School of Nursing building into a new elementary school.

Cortland Elementary teacher Viviana Castillo longs to pursue a career that more closely aligns with the Bachelors degree in psychology she received a couple years ago from NIU. She's set to be part of a pilot program meant to address school psychologist shortages in Illinois.

During the pandemic, schools received an influx of federal funding many used to support students’ mental health.That federal funding will soon expire. But student mental health challenges aren’t going away anytime soon.