Tuition Waiver Distribution Procedures
(for hosting a pre-student or student teacher)

Tuition waivers are generated when teachers or professionals in other settings host a pre-student teacher or a student teacher in their classroom/agency for a clinical experience associated with a teacher education course. There are distinct differences in the way the tuition waivers are distributed, dependent upon whether the clinical experience was for a student teacher or a pre-student teacher.

Hosting a student teacher

• A cooperating teacher may choose to receive three one-credit hour graduate tuition waivers or a $65 stipend. The cooperating teacher should notify the University Supervisor or the Lauby Teacher Education Center at (309) 438-5416, early in the semester of his/her choice to avoid record keeping errors or delay in distribution.
• Depending upon how the contract is arranged between Illinois State University and the school district, the stipend or the waivers are issued to either the teacher or to the district.
• The tuition waivers or stipend are issued at the end of the nine week session or semester in which a student teaching experience occurred. Tuition waivers in this case are only good for two semesters following distribution, as the semester in which they are issued has passed. If cooperating teachers are enrolled in a graduate course at Illinois State during the semester they are hosting a student teacher, they should not plan to utilize tuition waivers earned in that same semester to pay for tuition owed that semester. Distribution cycles do not correspond with tuition payment deadlines.

Hosting a pre-student teacher

• School districts or agencies whose teachers or other professionals host clinical experiences receive one-credit hour graduate tuition waiver for each pre-student teacher hosted per semester.
• Tuition waivers are issued only to the district or agency for which the teacher or other professional works, and the district is responsible for setting its own distribution policy (e.g, seniority, lottery).
• Pre-student teaching tuition waiver distribution cycles:
  • March — tuition waivers are generated from clinical experiences hosted in the previous summer or fall semester
  • July — tuition waivers are generated from clinical experiences hosted in the previous spring semester
• Our distribution cycles are set based upon the time it takes at the end of each semester to collect and process thousands of students' clinical experience documentation forms rather than the tuition bill cycles.
• We do not collaborate with the Student Accounts Office to send out tuition waivers in time to meet tuition bill payment deadlines.
• Tuition waivers are good for three semesters after the semester in which they are distributed (as they are newly printed for that distribution cycle).