The Illinois Settlement Landscape

What 1,682 Ratified Collective Bargaining Agreements Show About 2026-27 Negotiations

Prepared by David Gaus | CollBar Settlement Intelligence | July 3, 2026

Data current as of July 3, 2026. Source: 1,932 publicly available collective bargaining agreements from 865 Illinois school districts, obtained through public records and Illinois State Board of Education filings.

---

Executive Summary: Three Findings From This Cycle

Finding 1: Retirement enhancements appear in roughly three-quarters of current settlements

Retirement incentives and TRS pickup provisions appear in 74.3% (n = 35) of settlements ratified in 2024-25 through 2026-27 to date, compared with 50.0% (n = 16 — preliminary, small sample) in 2023-24, a change of +24.3 pts. This is the largest movement of any clause tracked in this edition.

The median first-year base salary schedule increase was 3.3% (n = 838) in the current window and 3.3% (n = 16 — preliminary, small sample) in 2023-24. The interquartile range ran from 2.5% to 4.0% (n = 838), so half of settlements in the current window fall inside that band.

Finding 2: Agreements of four years or longer fell by roughly half

Four-year and longer agreements represent 22.9% (n = 35) of current settlements, compared with 50.0% (n = 16 — preliminary, small sample) in 2023-24, a change of -27.1 pts. Term length determines how many years a given base increase compounds over and how long both parties are bound before the agreement reopens.

Finding 3: Over half of tracked agreements expire within two years

Among 583 districts with a tracked expiration date, 322 agreements expire by the end of 2027-28, or 55.2% (n = 583). Extending to 2028-29 brings the three-year total to 394 agreements, or 67.6% (n = 583).

---

1. Why This Report Exists

Every negotiation in Illinois turns on the same question: what did comparable districts settle for? Answering it today means pulling PDFs district by district, or commissioning a study that arrives after the session where it was needed. This report, and the settlement database behind it, exists to close that gap for every party that comes to the table.

2. Data and Methodology

Every agreement in this dataset is a public record. Documents were collected from district websites, board agenda attachments, and Illinois State Board of Education filings, then processed through a structured extraction pipeline that captures salary schedules, insurance provisions, duration, and clause-level contract language. Commercial use of ISBE-filed agreements has been confirmed through a Freedom of Information Act response.

Extraction accuracy: each settlement's key economic terms are extracted through a structured pipeline that retains page-level source references for verification against the original document. Districts are classified by enrollment band (under 1,000 students; 1,000 to 3,500; over 3,500), region (Chicago collar counties (Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Will); northern Illinois outside the collar; central Illinois; southern Illinois and the Metro East), and organizational type (elementary, high school, unit).

A note on what this data is not: it is not legal advice, and no comparability set in this report substitutes for counsel's judgment about which districts a fact-finder or arbitrator would accept as comparable. The data makes that judgment faster and better armed, not automatic.

2.1 Data Coverage

Figures in this report rest on different subsets of the data, because not every agreement reports every field. Four denominators appear:

• 1,932 agreements collected. Every collective bargaining agreement document obtained for this cycle, whether or not economic terms could be extracted from it.
• 1,682 settlements analyzed. Agreements from which economic terms were successfully extracted. Findings about settlement behavior draw on this set or a subset of it.
• 855 agreements with insurance terms. Agreements that report board premium share or cost-sharing language. All insurance figures use this denominator.
• 583 districts with a tracked expiration date. Districts whose current agreement has a known end date. All expiration-horizon figures use this denominator.

Per-field subsets are smaller than these totals, because a given agreement may report salary terms but not insurance terms, or duration but not a codable first-year increase. Where a statistic rests on fewer than 30 observations it is marked preliminary; where it rests on fewer than 10 it is not published. Every statistic below carries its own sample size inline.

The denominators below were inferred rather than reported directly by the extraction run. They are published as estimates, and the figures resting on them should be read with that in mind:

• Settlements with a codable first-year increase — estimated n = 838. Inferred from the enrollment bands, which sum to 838. The regional segments sum to 833, so the true subset may be marginally smaller. Applies to the median year-one increase and both percentiles.
• Prior-period salary comparisons — estimated n = 16. Not reported separately for the prior year; matched to the prior-period clause denominator, which may cover a different subset. If the true count is 30 or more, the preliminary marker on those figures would not apply.
• Median BA Step 1 salary — estimated n = 838. Assumed to share the salary-schedule subset. A starting-salary figure may be coded from a different set of agreements than a schedule-increase figure.

3. Salary Settlement Trends

3.1 Base Schedule Movement

The statewide median year-one increase was 3.3% (n = 838) in the current window (2024-25 through 2026-27 to date) and 3.3% (n = 16 — preliminary, small sample) in 2023-24. The interquartile range ran from 2.5% to 4.0% in the current window, against 2.3% to 4.5% in the prior year (n = 838 current). The band narrowed on both ends, meaning settlements are clustering more tightly around the median than they did in the prior cycle.

Total-package medians cover the full term of each agreement. The current-window figure is 11.4% (n = 17 — preliminary, small sample). The prior-year comparison rests on 8 agreements, below the threshold for publication, so no change figure is reported for this row.

3.2 Starting Salary

The median BA Step 1 salary in ratified agreements stands at $42,200 (n = 838). The statutory minimum salary schedule continues to compress the bottom of the lane.

3.3 Regional and Size Variation

Median first-year increases vary by roughly half a percentage point across regions, with Chicago collar counties at 2.9% (n = 291) at the low end and Central Illinois and Southern Illinois / Metro East both at 3.5% (n = 229 and 178) at the high end. By enrollment, districts under 1,000 students recorded 3.4% (n = 486), while districts in the 1,000 to 3,500 band and those over 3,500 both recorded 3.0% (n = 231 and 121). Region and enrollment band therefore both track with settlement level, which is why a comparable set drawn without regard to either will produce a different central tendency than one that matches on both.

4. Health Insurance

Salary movement is visible on the schedule; insurance cost is not, which is why the two are often negotiated on different tracks.

• Settlements modifying cost-sharing terms: 17.5% (n = 855)
• Median board share of single premium: 91.5% (n = 15 — preliminary, small sample)

Insurance provisions changed in 17.5% (n = 855) of agreements reporting cost-sharing terms — 150 of 855 agreements — so most agreements in this cycle carried existing cost-sharing arrangements forward unchanged. Among agreements reporting a board premium contribution, the median employer share of the single premium was 91.5% (n = 15 — preliminary, small sample). At that sample size the figure indicates a direction rather than an established market rate, and it should be read alongside the district's own plan experience. Because premium contributions sit outside the salary schedule, a change in employer share alters total compensation cost without appearing as a schedule movement.

5. Contract Duration and the Expiration Horizon

Expiration timing across tracked districts:

Of 583 districts with a tracked expiration date, 168 agreements expire in 2026-27 — 28.8% (n = 583) — and 154 expire in 2027-28 — 26.4% (n = 583). Together those two years account for 55.2% (n = 583) of tracked districts.

The mechanical consequence of that clustering is sequencing: agreements ratified earlier in a cycle enter the comparable sets available to every party that reaches the table later. Where expirations concentrate in a short window, that effect reaches a larger share of the population than it would in a cycle with expirations spread evenly.

This is the negotiation pipeline for the next three years, and it is knowable in advance, district by district, today.

6. Emerging Clause Language

Beyond headline economics, clause-level coding shows where contract language is changing. Prevalence figures in this section are coded from a smaller subset than the salary figures above, and each carries its own sample size.

Retirement incentives and TRS pickup. Present in 74.3% (n = 35) of current settlements, against 50.0% (n = 16 — preliminary, small sample) in the prior year — +24.3 pts. These provisions offer a defined financial inducement for eligible employees to retire within a stated window, and in some agreements include board payment of a share of the member's TRS contribution. Mechanically, they shift compensation for senior staff forward in time and open positions that are typically refilled lower on the schedule. Net cost depends on the size of the inducement relative to the salary differential between departing and replacement staff, and on how many eligible members elect to participate; both the inducement and the participation rate are terms the agreement itself determines.

Off-schedule bonus payments. Present in 40.0% (n = 35) of current settlements, against 31.3% (n = 16 — preliminary, small sample) in the prior year — +8.8 pts. An off-schedule payment is a one-time amount that does not fold into base salary, so it does not compound into subsequent years, and depending on plan rules may fall outside pensionable earnings. The median payment where the provision appeared was $750 (n = 14 — preliminary, small sample). Mechanically, an off-schedule payment raises current-year cost without raising the schedule floor that later increases build on — which also means it delivers cash in the current year without carrying forward.

Planning time and duty-free periods. Present in 14.3% (n = 35) of current settlements, against 6.3% (n = 16 — preliminary, small sample) in the prior year — +8.0 pts. These provisions specify minimum planning or duty-free minutes and locate the scheduling of that time in the agreement rather than in administrative discretion. Mechanically, they fix a portion of the instructional day: scheduling changes that touch it become subject to the contract's grievance procedure rather than being handled administratively.

Paraprofessional and support-staff agreements. Support-staff settlements recorded a median first-year increase of 3.5% (n = 27 — preliminary, small sample), against the statewide teacher median of 3.3% (n = 838) — a difference of +0.3 pts.

7. What This Means at the Table

Five observations follow from the data above. Each states a finding and its mechanical consequence for cost or timing.

1. The settled range is narrow. In the current window the interquartile range for first-year increases ran from 2.5% to 4.0% (n = 838). Half of settlements fall inside that band; a quarter fall below it and a quarter above it.

2. Insurance moves cost outside the schedule. The median board share of the single premium was 91.5% (n = 15 — preliminary, small sample). A change in employer premium share alters total cost in the year it takes effect without registering as a salary schedule increase.

3. Coverage of the comparable set. This dataset covers 1,682 settlements across 865 districts enrolling 1,370,442 students, representing the most comprehensive view of the Illinois K-12 labor market currently available.

4. Duration determines how an increase compounds. Agreements of four years or longer moved to 22.9% (n = 35) from 50.0% (n = 16 — preliminary, small sample). Term length sets how many years a given base increase compounds over, and how long both parties are bound before renegotiation.

5. Expiration timing concentrates in the near term. 168 districts have agreements expiring in 2026-27, or 28.8% (n = 583) of tracked districts. Settlements reached earliest in a cycle are the ones available as comparables to everyone who follows.

8. About This Data

CollBar maintains a structured database of Illinois K-12 collective bargaining agreements, updated continuously as districts ratify and post new settlements. For any district in the dataset, a full settlement comparability analysis covering salary schedule movement, insurance terms, duration, and clause-level language against a user-defined comparable set can be produced within 48 hours. The database is available to school districts, union locals, and neutrals on the same terms.

Inquiries: hello@collbar.com | collbar.com