First-Come, First-Served, One-Time $4,000 Teacher Excellence Retention Incentive for two consecutive years for Illinois National Board Certified Teachers/Counselors at Low-Income/Hard-to-Staff Schools

NBCTs must complete and submit the $4K Incentive application to confirm their eligibility:

1. Search for your school on the FY24 4K Incentive - All Eligible Schools by County
2. If you see your school building (not your district) listed on the FY25 4K Incentive - All Eligible Schools by County document, complete the application here . Applications are due by midnight on March 30, 2025. Late applications will not be accepted. All eligible and approved NBCT applicants will be notified and posted on the Approval List in May 2025. 
   * If you have issues opening the application, please try another browser before contacting our office.
3. The NBRC will contact you per your eligibility. If you are found eligible, we will email you documents that require immediate completion--by May 11, 2025, at midnight at the latest.

IMPORTANT: After your application information is verified in May, you will receive an email outlining the steps to fill out and submit an affidavit/attestation form.

After you are found eligible, you can check for your name on the  Approval List, which will be available in May .

NOTE: Funds are available on a first-come, first-served, one-time basis for two consecutive years for those NBCTs that are approved. Continuation of this incentive is based on approved funding from ISBE each fiscal year.

_{All required documentation must be submitted by midnight on May 11th, 2025.}

_{No late documentation will be accepted.} 

_{Be sure to check your email often in the event that your documents need to be corrected or information verified.} 

*If you used your school email address as a form of contact, please be aware that your institution's email security firewall may block correspondence from our office*

Approval List Updated: 

FAQs for Eligible Applicants Required Documents

I submitted my Attestation, W-9, and/or ACH Forms; now what?

Once you have submitted your documents, the W-9 and ACH documents are sent to the Comptroller's Office at Illinois State University, not the NBRC.

Please allow 2 weeks for a confirmation download receipt from the Comptroller's Office as they process the 1,200+ submissions in addition to their daily duties. If any information needs to be corrected or verified on your W-9 and/or ACH forms, you will receive direct email correspondence from the Comptroller's Office. They will include a due date for corrections to be resubmitted.

Please continue to monitor your personal/school email, including junk/spam folders, daily in the event that your documents need to be corrected. Midnight on June 1, 2025, is the final deadline for accepting changes and approving payments.