When Kelsey Bridges left her third-grade classroom at Yankee Ridge Elementary School at the end of the school year last spring, she was pretty sure she wouldn't be back there this fall.

It was a hard way to end her first year of teaching.

"It was sad to say goodbye to my kids. It was sad to say goodbye to my co-workers," Bridges said.

As a first-year teacher, she was one of 33 classroom teachers to receive a reduction in force, or RIF, notice last spring. The Urbana school district laid off more teachers than usual, because of the uncertainty of whether they would receive state grant money that pays for some of their programs and teacher salaries.

Bridge found out in February she would be laid off and started looking for another teaching job, "but there was just nothing."

Her plan for this year was to substitute while she looked for something permanent. But if she didn't have a teaching job in a year, she would have to think about switching careers.

So she is pretty thrilled to be back teaching third grade again at Yankee Ridge this year. She found out on Aug. 9, a little more than a week before school started, that she would get her old job back.

The Urbana school district laid off a total of 139 employees in the spring. It has been able to hire 94 back, including 22 teachers and 72 support staff.

The rehiring has been done as the district has learned about state grants that will be intact for the coming school year, said Gayle Jeffries, assistant superintendent for human resources.

For example, the district didn't know if the state would provide early childhood grant money, so early childhood teachers were among those laid off. But if they were tenured, they could move to another building in the district and take the place of a non-tenured teacher, such as Bridges.

The Champaign school district laid off 96 teachers in March, and 62 have returned to work in the district. Seven more chose to resign, and 27 were not rehired.

In Champaign, attrition "played an equal or greater role" than grant funding in rehiring teachers, said Beth Shepperd, assistant superintendent for human resources.

She said the district made adjustments at its Early Childhood Center when it learned it would likely receive state grant funding again.

"However, it is more likely that if someone resigned a position, we rehired a teacher who had been RIF'd to the vacancy," Shepperd said.

Teachers who are rehired don't necessarily get to come back to their same building or grade level, though.

The district also laid off 49 support staff employees last spring, and 40 of them are again working for the district.

In Danville, there were 55 certified staff members laid off (including three managers), and 27 have been rehired, said Kathy Houpt, human resources director.

"In years past, we were usually able to bring back a higher percentage, but because of state funding, and in particular in pre-K, that's where several positions were not able to be brought back," Houpt said.

Whether the district will receive grant funding from the state has been the biggest driving force in both lay-offs and rehiring in the district, Houpt said.

Administrators are taking a cautious approach. Just because the state has said it will provide early childhood money "doesn't mean they're going to pay it," Houpt said.

The district also laid off 30 support staff, and 27 of them have been recalled to their jobs, Houpt said. Many of them were able to come back to work because of attrition, she said.

In the smaller school districts, enrollment drives the RIF/rehire process more than grant funding.

Laying off a teacher is a rare thing in the Tuscola school district, interim Superintendent James Voyles said. In his 15 years as superintendent, he doesn't recall ever laying off a teacher.

He said enrollment in the district – just over 1,000 students currently – has been fairly level for nearly 30 years.

But this year the district laid off two teachers, primarily because enrollment was a little lower. Normally, the district would keep those teachers on, because enrollment would likely go back up in a few years, Voyles said.

But now, "We're not in the financial position that we could do that kind of thing," he said.

One of the teachers has been rehired as a teacher aide.

The Tolono Unit 7 school district laid off two teachers last spring. One chose to retire rather than return to work when the district made her position half-time. The other was rehired.

Five teacher aides were laid off, and they all have been rehired, Superintendent Andrew Larson said. He said the main issue was whether the students requiring aides were returning to the district this year.

In the Rantoul City Schools, it's been four or five years since a teacher was last laid off, Superintendent Bill Trankina said.

"We've worked very carefully to not overstaff," he said.

School districts could be getting some help in retaining teachers this year, through a new federal program, the Education Jobs Fund program. It will provide $10 billion to states to save or create jobs.

The Champaign district hopes to use some of the money to avoid making as many cuts in the future, Shepperd said.