Presidential Perspective
By: Dr. Jyoti Koloziej
ISPA President
Greetings, Friends and Colleagues!
My hand is on my heart for all of you going through difficult and contentious times. Collaborating for Advocacy includes listening to each other as we go through times of strife.
As we settle in, being in the midst of the Spring Evaluation Fever Season is
enough to put a further toll on our withered bodies. When we get to this
point in the school years, the empathy and compassion fatigue may really
intensify and cue us to our inner signs of burnout. Please remember to try to
find some time for self-care and be kind to yourselves. You are all amazing
and true warriors for each other, our students, families, and communities!
I was fortunate enough to share the end of January with you, ISPA
Members, for our ISPA 2025 Winter Convention, which invigorated me to get
further along towards spring break with a full bucket. While NASP cannot
provide ISBE-approved professional development hours, ISPA continues to
provide both ISBE and NASP approved professional development. If you
missed this conference, always keep ISPA in mind for your next conference!
Some of us also were able to get some more revitalization and passion for our
field for the 2025 NASP Convention, mid February, as ISPA members showed
up and advocated for Illinois School Psychologists and educators in
Illinois! Illinois and ISPA have been advocating with times of
difficulty across the state. Check out Illinois’ House Resolution 0117
with the Illinois General Assembly (CONDEMNS-TARGETING DEI)!
ISPA will also show up this April 30th in Springfield to advocate for
all of you, school psychologists, related service members, educators,
parents, family, friends, colleagues, and community members, to
share our daily strife with our shortages, concerns about retirement,
and fully supporting children’s mental health with best practices in
mind.
More information about the trainings a few weeks and then a few
days before April 30th will be coming out to you in our
communications and our social media!
ALL of you are invited to come join ISPA, with the support of NASP,
to advocate for all of you and with all of you!
Please share your stories with us and your legislators! Tell them about your
fears and concerns, with the battle wounds and saddening state of mental
health in our schools. Share your hopes and dreams of what our schools
could do with more of us to support children’s mental health. Your voice
matters and is necessary to continue to be the change agents you continue to
be in the field.
https://www.durbin.senate.gov/contact/email
https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/connect/email-tammy
Governor JB Pritzker had already issued an official proclamation that
recognized the National School Psychology Week (shareable on the ISPA
website) - we really are Collaborating for Advocacy in Illinois! In
November 2024, we shared the exciting news that the U.S. House Resolution
82 passed in the U.S. House by a vote of 327 to 75 with 1 voting present.
This is the legislation that has been worked on for many years that would
allow those with certain pensions in certain states -- educators and other
public employees in Illinois-- to also draw their full Social Security benefit. If
you have not done so yet, you can still send a message to Senators (Durbin/
Duckworth) to support these efforts.
From NASP
Advocacy Action Center-Message Center
Advocacy Action Message Center for CARES
NASP has created a system in which you may write to your
legislators with the links above in their message center.
You may also include:
I urge you to support legislation that addresses these key policy
solutions. It is critical that we increase the number of mental health
professionals in our schools. To ensure that all students feel safe,
are supported, and reach their academic potential, school-employed
mental health professionals must be available and accessible in
every school to respond to children’s social, emotional, behavioral,
and academic needs. Please support programs like these that
provide access to learning support programs and services in all
public schools. If you would like to learn more about these policy
proposals, please contact Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach
([email protected]) NASP Director, Government Relations.
Thank you for your service to our country and for consideration of
this request.
[Your Name and Address]
You can always also complete a legislator lookup here to reach out to your
legislator with advocacy efforts.
Serving as your ISPA President, with the historical vantage since 1979, I am
in awe. ISPA has worked hard to support you as our members and change
agents in the field and trenches, in practice, teaching, training, and those in
training. ISPA, the Governing Board, and I will stand with and for you as we
cheer and work to make sure that legislators know that school psychologists
are vital to our children’s mental health and educational success in Illinois as
we all raise decent humans together.
The work of ISPA’s Governing Board is to serve all of you as school
psychologists. Remember that all of you have a great vital voice that can
work to join our Governing Board.
Are you interested in being a part of this change at the Governing Board
level? Reach out! Our governing board has our hands in many aspects of
Collaborating for Advocacy. We welcome your ideas/inspiration to make
our Governing Board, our profession, and our state the best it can be! An
easy first step is to Join a Committee. Click here to see a list of committee
options. Please remember that you’ve got some SKILLS that would be
beneficial to the ISPA Governing Board. We are excited to meet you.
Thank you to all of you, members, school psychologists, educators, ISPA
Governing Board members, for your dedication.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or want to share
your perspective to enhance the work of our association and your stories as
we continue our year of Collaborating for Advocacy at
[email protected].
As educators and school psychologists, you are part of the backbone of our
society with a commitment to children in the field and your amazing skill set,
while undervalued, is integral in all of the lives that you touch each day. As
always, thank you to all of you, members, school psychologists, educators,
ISPA Governing Board members, for your dedication.
Jyoti Kolodziej
Your ISPA President
In addition, we have two (2) more Governing Board meetings that
we hold each year, in which members are welcome to attend as
guests!
Governing Board Meetings -
Saturday, April 26, 2025 - 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (in-person /Location is TBD)
Saturday, June 7, 2025 - 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (in-person / Locationis TBD)
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