(105 ILCS 30/2-3) (from Ch. 122, par. 2003)
Sec. 2-3. Program description. The University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, the several
universities and colleges under the governance of the Board of Governors of
State Colleges and Universities, and the several Regency Universities under
the jurisdiction of the Board of Regents are hereby authorized to become
participants in the Illinois Peace Corps Fellowship Program. Any such
participating public institution of higher education may conduct and
administer this program to augment the number of Illinois public school
teachers by bringing the teaching skills of recently returned United States
Peace Corps volunteers to those school districts, including the school
districts situated within the City of Chicago and the City of East St.
Louis or any other school district designated by the State Board of
Education, which enter into cooperative agreements required for
implementation of the program. In designating such school districts, the
State Board of Education may consider districts that have a high proportion
of drop-out students, a high percentage of minority students, a high
proportion of low income families and high truancy rates. The program
shall utilize former United States Peace Corps volunteers with two years of
Peace Corps experience by placing them in the designated cooperating school
districts as full time teachers or teacher aides. In return for making a
two-year commitment to teaching and being placed in a full-time salaried
teacher aide or certificated teaching position at a public school located
in a designated cooperating school district, the former Peace Corps
volunteer may be awarded a fellowship to the participating public
institution of higher education to complete (in the case of teacher aides
who are not yet certificated) the courses required for issuance of a
teaching certificate under Article 21 of The School Code, or to pursue a
master's degree program in education. The fellowships may consist of
tuition waivers applicable toward enrollment at the participating public
institution of higher education to complete required courses for teacher
certification and to pursue a master's degree program in education; and the
award of such tuition waivers may be supported by funds and grants made
available to the participating university or universities through private
or public sources. A participating university may also consider an
authorization under which all fellowship recipients are allowed to pay
in-state tuition rates while enrolled for credit in a master's degree program.
An annual salary for the fellowship recipient to teach in a designated
school district for a period of two years may be provided by the designated
cooperating school district at which the fellowship recipient shall teach,
and may be set at an amount equal to that paid to other teacher aides and
certificated teachers in a comparable position.
(Source: P.A. 95-331, eff. 8-21-07.)
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