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AIRSS 2026 Rural IL Teacher of the Year Award Application

AIRSS is excited to open nominations for our 2026 Rural Teacher of the Year Award! Rural teachers can be nominated by a community member, student, co-worker, school or district administrator, or county leader. To be considered for the award, the nominee must be a full-time certified teacher working in a rural school in Illinois, and they must be under contract with a rural school for the 2026-2027 school year.

The deadline for nominations is 11:59 p.m. April 30, 2026. A selection committee will review all nominations and come to a decision by May 15, 2026.

Our winner will be recognized with a feature story - AIRSS will set up an interview with the winner to create an article for our website and social media. View last year's article here!

Our winner will be nominated as a state semi-finalist for the NREA Rural Teacher of the Year Award - AIRSS is the official Illinois State Affiliate of the NREA, so we are able to name our state's semi-finalist. Once our Illinois Award winner is chosen, they will be asked for additional information in order to be submitted to the national Award.

All information from the winner must be submitted by June 15, 2026, so we can send the nomination form to NREA. You can learn more about the NREA Teacher of the Year Award process here.

If you have any questions about the Illinois Award, please contact AIRSS Director of Communications Hailey Winkleman at info@airssedu.org or Program Director John Glasgow at john@airssedu.org.