Overseen by the IEA Professional Development Committee
Purpose:
IEA allots $40,000 to be spent on professional development to meet the specific needs of its members across the state. The IEA Professional Development Committee oversees distribution of these funds.
Criteria:
- The primary focus of the event must be professional development eligible for Professional Development Hours. For events containing multiple sessions, a majority of the sessions must qualify for Professional Development Hours.
- Requests must be submitted no later than 30 days prior to the event date.
- You must be an active IEA member to apply.
- Professional development must take place in Illinois.
- Funding does not cover personal travel.
Possible Funding Uses:
Individual
- Funding to attend a workshop, training, or conference hosted by other organizations
- Funding for supplies/materials for a training/workshop (e.g. books)
Local
- Funding for locally hosted professional development
- Funding to host a book study
- Presenter stipend
Region
- Funding to host a mini-conference
- Funding to host a single or multi-session training
- Funding to host a book study
Possible Expenditures:
- For applicants attending a conference or professional development offering outside of your local school district:
- Registration fees
- Materials directly supporting learning (i.e. required text, supporting materials)
- For applicants planning to bring a professional development offering to their school district:
- Presenter fees
- Printing costs
- Presentation resources
- Food and non-alcoholic beverages
- For applicants planning their own locally or regionally hosted professional development:
- Presenter fees
- Printing costs
- Presentation resources
- Food and non-alcoholic beverages
- Meeting space fees
All expenditures submitted to Mary Jane Morris for reimbursement must include Professional Development expense form and all receipts to be submitted within 90 days. Every effort should be made to use direct billing whenever possible. Please contact Mary Jane Morris if assistance is required.
Approval Process:
Plans will be considered by the Leadership Training Institute Committee and approved or denied within 15 school days with notification via email. Denied plans may be resubmitted with revisions. Submissions will be considered on a first come first serve basis. Contact the Leadership Training Institute Committee with any plan revisions. The goal of the committee is to benefit as many members as possible; this will be taken into consideration as funding is approved.
Post Event(s) Requirement:
- A reflection survey should be submitted to the Professional Development Committee, within 30 days of the event, including:
- A fiscal accounting of all expended funds and how many participants were in attendance.
- A survey on the area plan including successes, areas for improvement, and summary evaluation data.
- Failure to submit the reflection survey will result in no funding for the following year.
IEA Professional Development 2025
For more information, contact IEA Professional Development Committee Chair Stephanie Suerth.
Committee Members
- Stephanie Suerth, Committee Chairperson
- Judith Babcock-Hutchinson
- Holly Gallagher
- Kathleen Malloy
- Spring McDaniel-Churchill
- Rhonda Powell
- Mary Jane Morris, IEA Staff Contact