Chicago Public Schools / School Nurse
Role across Chicago Public Schools
School Nurse
Provide direct patient care — assess conditions, administer treatment and medication, and coordinate with physicians.
243 people hold the School Nurse role across 1 department in Chicago Public Schools, with a median total compensation of $119,584. Among 4 jurisdictions where this role is reported, Chicago Public Schools ranks #1 by median pay.
- Employees
- 243
- Median pay
- $119,584
- Departments
- 1
- Cross-jurisdiction
- #1 of 4
Compared with the local labor market
School Nurse pay vs. the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN area
Across all employers in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN area, the median wage for Registered Nurses — about 100,240 people — is $100,490. Chicago Public Schools pays a median base salary of $93,190 for this role, 7% below that figure — about the 40th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where Chicago Public Schools sits in the local pay range
The bar is the range of annual wages for Registered Nurses across every employer in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Chicago Public Schools’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Registered Nurses — about 3,379,720 people — is $97,550. Chicago Public Schools’s median base salary is 4% below that national figure, about the 44th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at Chicago Public Schools is $119,584, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
School Nurse pay in other jurisdictions
Where School Nurses are paid most
Median total compensation for comparable School Nurseroles in other jurisdictions (highest first). Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not by identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for this role.