How 3 DeKalb School District 428 educators are making the jump from teacher to school psychologist

DeKALB – Viviana Castillo longs to pursue a career that more closely aligns with the bachelor’s degree in psychology she received a couple years ago from Northern Illinois University.

The Cortland Elementary School teacher said she doesn’t think her dream would’ve been made possible in the absence of some logistical help.

“I had my license where I can only teach for five years and then after that, I have to get my Masters to either continue teaching or find another direction,” Castillo said. “I was already looking into other directions because I always knew school psychology was what I wanted to do. This offer couldn’t have come at a better time for me.”

Preparing Educators as School Psychologists in Northern Illinois, a new program headed up by Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, wants to make a dent in the youth mental health crisis.

The project enlists working educators into a three-year program in which they will pay no tuition or fees in lieu of studying to become a licensed school psychologist.

The university in March received a $5.1 million federal grant to help fund and make this new program possible, which Christine Malecki, the director of NIU’s psychology program, said is exciting.

[ NIU awarded $5.1M federal grant to launch school psychology program for area public schools ]

“NIU, in so many different ways, engages with, serves and collaborates with the broader community surrounding NIU,” Malecki said. “This grant really explicitly does that by helping to meet the needs of our local and regional school districts.”

“There’s a great need for [a school pyschologist] for the little ones, too. I have an older daughter in high school that has gone through a lot of mental health stuff over the last few years. I also see the need there, too, community-wise, not just the littles. Even the families that are supporting these youngest learners, too, I think they all just need support, just ideas and ways to help themselves.”

—  Adrien Fell

Kyle Gerdes, DeKalb School District 428′s director of student services, said this new program is a huge deal.

“The shortage is not just in DeKalb but everywhere, especially in the northern Illinois region,” Gerdes said. “It is so big that to have a university be willing to think really innovatively to come up with a way for current educators to go school while still working and become school psychologists. As far as I know, I don’t think there’s anything like this happening across the country. It’s really cool that NIU is being a trendsetter and that we get to be a part of it.”

Educators from DeKalb School District 428, Belvidere School District 100, Harlem School District 122 and the Northwest Special Education Cooperative, which covers 11 rural school districts in Carroll, Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties, are among those eligible to participate in the program, which has a June 19 start date.

The program’s goal is to aid 24 prospective school psychologists that would fill what, Malecki said, is a growing need throughout both northern Illinois and across the state. Malecki said a number of districts throughout the state have had vacant positions for school psychologists and no luck filling them, some for a several consecutive years.

“In this case, we’re taking teachers or other educators within those districts that might have thought about going back to school to become a school psychologist but really would not be able to do that given the requirements of most traditional school psychology programs,” Malecki said. “A lot of times classes are during the day. Even if you could do a program where all the programs would be in the evening or online, when it comes that, there’s practicum requirements.”

Some of the perks of the program, Malecki said, is it allows participants to take part in practicum and the internship component all while maintaining their teaching job.

“They will be out of their classroom, out of their traditional positions doing that practicum one day for the entire second year,” Malecki said. “The grant is providing money for that, subs to replace them while they’re doing that. Similarly, for the final year, together with the grant and the district’s they will be getting their educator salary during that internship year. Because even if they could take classes at night, most people would not be able to give up their full-time salary to do a full-year school psychology internship. That really reduced a barrier for individuals.”

It’s a barrier Castillo said she’s felt herself, as she wanted to pursue a masters degree and become a school psychologist before landing a spot in this new program.

“I was already putting so much into teaching program, and I was already getting discouraged because it was so much money,” Castillo said. “It was something that I wasn’t really sure I wanted to do. So, I was already thinking of just going into something completely different just to make the money that I needed to make. If this wasn’t offered, I would still would have to find my way to be a school psychologist, but with my own money, with my own time. That would be very difficult for me just because I’ve been through so much school already and so much financially.”

Castillo – along with Early Learning Development Center teacher Adrien Fell and Huntley Middle School teacher Rebekah Moore – are all DeKalb School District 428 teachers named as participants in the first Preparing Educators as School Psychologists in Northern Illinois project cohort.

Fell said she knows firsthand that some of the students she works with need more support than what she can give them as a teacher.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 10-year look at high school student mental health data showed student experience with violence, mental health and suicidal thoughts, and behaviors worsened significantly from 2011 to 2021.

“Personally right now in my classroom, I have multiple children who’ve lost parents over the last few years,” Fell said. “You know, they’re 4-year-olds. They need support. They need that one-on-one time that it’s hard to do right now with that many. They have seen a lot. Or I was saying even [COVID-19.] These 3-year-olds … they’ve never been out of their houses. So, this is their first time coming to school and their first time seeing what it’s like even out of their houses. They do need a lot of support.”

Fell said that seeing how great the need for school psychologists is isn’t a deterrence for her.

Fell said she believes that becoming a school psychologist will allow her to have the type of impact on little ones she hopes to evoke on a greater scale.

“We had a school psychologist that was with us at our building part time for a few years, and then we lost our school psych this year,” Fell said. “There’s a great need for one for the little ones, too. I have an older daughter in high school that has gone through a lot of mental health stuff over the last few years. I also see the need there, too, community-wise, not just the littles. Even the families that are supporting these youngest learners, too, I think they all just need support, just ideas and ways to help themselves.”

Moore said the timing seemed right for her to consider making the leap from teaching to school psychology. She said she had been exploring her options for a Masters degree program with an internship program, when she ultimately settled on Preparing Educators as School Psychologists in Northern Illinois project because it provided the best value and was most feasible in her view.

“With the internship, I knew I was looking into possibly counseling as well as school psychology, but I knew I would have to take a full year off in order to do the internship,” Moore said. “And then, after that what do I do the next year? At least I’ll be within the district. I’ll still be able to do the internship … I’ll still be able to work and still work with my same populations.”

Moore said the location of this new program was another huge selling point for her.

“I did like the fact that we’re NIU-based,” Moore said. “Sometimes when you’re going through a Masters or a second-degree program, for those grad programs you’re all over the place. You [might be] in Naperville. You might be in Vernon Hills. You might be at NIU in DeKalb. So, I like the fact that it’s stationed in one location, that I can work with the same group of people, also working with other teachers that are currently doing what you’re doing. Especially having two other people in my district, it’s helpful.”

Malecki likened the new program as a way to begin fostering a teacher-to-school psychologist pipeline.

“It creates individuals already committed to those district and in most in cases live in those school districts,” Malecki said. “They’re really invested community members and want to stay and continue to serve the students in that district. So, when they’re done, they will be able to move right into that new role.”

It remains, however, unclear how the program may be funded going forward.

Gerdes said he remains optimistic that the program will not make for a one-off for NIU and participating districts.

“My hope moving forward is that this program is really successful not just for our district but for the other partnering districts and that those who have the ability to allocate funds to programs like this will consider reinvesting in it,” Gerdes said. “Maybe there’s another grant or another program that a year or two from now or three years from now that is expanding upon what is currently happening with the roughly $5 million grant that’s been awarded now.”