SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — A new report highlights Illinois’ teacher shortage crisis.

Illinois schools saw almost a 10 percent jump in teacher shortages over the last year, according to an annual report from the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendent of Schools.

According to the report, 85 percent of the surveyed districts reported having trouble finding qualified teachers in 2018.

That’s up from 2017, where 78 percent of surveyed districts reported having problems.

Sangamon County schools had 30 open positions as of Oct. 1, 2018, according to data on the Illinois State Board of Education’s website.

There were 22 open teaching positions, two paraprofessional jobs, two nursing jobs, one psychologist job, one special education supervisor, one media specialist and one interpreter for the deaf.

Sangamon and Menard County Regional Superintendent Jeff Vose said a new law is helping to curb teacher shortages across the state.

Vose said the law allowing districts to accept out-of-state teaching licenses, so long as they’re comparable, is helping to get more teachers in classrooms.

Before, those teachers would need to be re-certified by the state of Illinois.

“They would have to take potentially three college courses or content tests for reading or the area that they were teaching in and they also had to take a basic skills test,” said Jeff Vose, regional superintendent of Sangamon and Menard Counties. “That is several thousands of dollars and time."

Sangamon County is working on a long-term fix to end the teacher shortage by encouraging students to go into the teaching profession.