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And let’s talk about this talking point from @chicagosmayor ‘s contract negotiator, because I keep seeing this come up. #Twill 
Fact: there is a social worker with a PEL shortage. If you tried to hire all 800 more social workers this year it couldn’t be done...but that isn’t what is being proposed. Not even remotely.
Illinois is graduating 2000+ social workers a year. If they have advance standing their Master’s program takes a year to get their Master of Social Work (MSW) - if not it takes 2 years. Workforce ramp up is possible.
Getting the PEL is a specialty area of the MSW, it is almost an identical education as the general clinical tract except graduates take a couple different courses and do their Master’s internship in a school setting.
CPS is a good paying job with benefits for an MSW who doesn’t have their LIcensed Clinical Social Work license (LCSW) - a process that takes another two years after graduation).
So why aren’t social work students choosing the school social work specialty? There aren’t jobs and those that do exist are always at risk of being cut.
So rather than take the quicker path, social work students are taking a harder and 2 year longer path because the demand for clinical social workers is high.
Which brings me back to this ear splitting talking point that they can’t fill the jobs - put the jobs in writing and students will get their PEL. Put it in writing and a percentage of the nearly 15k LCSWs in IL will take the bridge curriculum to fill those jobs.
My employer, NASW-Illinois is already waiving all fees for CPS to improve their recruiting efforts. We stand ready to work with ISBE and IL legislators to improve the bridge requirements and ease the shortage.
We are willing to work with our partners at Illinois social work schools to push more PELs.
However fixing the shortage requires the social work increase request from @CTULocal1 to be put in writing by this administration. We can tell them to persue a school social work PEL - but if there are no jobs at the end of it —-why would they? #Twill
