You might think you want to be a teacher until you come face to face with 30 kids."There's nothing worse than getting to your junior year of college, being placed in your first observation, and going, 'I hate second graders.'"We talk with the teachers who lead the Southern Illinois Future Teachers Coalition about giving students early opportunities to see if the career's for them … and recruiting the next generation of teachers.

Because of new work requirements from last year's One Bill Beautiful Bill Act, more than 300,000 Illinois residents are expected to lose SNAP food benefits. Peter Medlin reports on how that could affect access to school meals …

Immigration enforcement is ramping up again in northern Illinois.The Illinois Head Start Association recently released a report sharing anonymous community stories about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, activity has affected children at Head Start centers.WNIJ education reporter Peter Medlin sat down with Illinois Head Start Executive Director Lauri Morrison-Frichtl to discuss the report.

A new report highlights the early childhood needs in Boone & Winnebago counties. Peter Medlin reports.

Every year, we bring you our classroom correspondents. They’re a group of students in a club or activity whom we interview every month through their season or semester!Over the years, we've featured an upstart esports team, a speech club, a school play and, this past fall, a student newspaper. This spring, our correspondents were students in the Whiteside Area Career Center's CEO Program, where they built their own small businesses from scratch!

A judge denied a preliminary injunction, which means the funding will be cut off starting July 1.

Every year here on Teachers' Lounge, we feature a "classroom correspondent" — a teacher we interview every single month to follow a school year in their life.

Illinois lawmakers just passed a bill banning students from using cellphones in class. It's now one of more than 35 states to restrict cellphones and other devices in school.

Schools in Illinois suspend Black students at much higher rates than white students. One school in the South Side of Chicago stands out for not doing that. Emily Hays reports in Part 3 of a statewide, three-part series on race in school discipline.

Schools in Illinois discipline Black students at much higher rates than white students. A Springfield high school under a consent decree to desegregate hands out more discipline violations per Black student than almost any other school in the state.Emily Hays reports on part two of a three-part, statewide series on Black student discipline disparities.