Current & Historical School Library Staffing in Oregon
As of the 2020-21 school year, there are 147 FTE licensed school librarians and 668 FTE library support staff in Oregon's 1256 public schools that serve a total of 560,917 students. That is a drop from 818 FTE licensed school librarians during the 1980-81 school year. This
document contains three charts that show the history of school library staffing from 1980-81 through 2018-19. Data is from staff at the Oregon Department of Education staff and from their publications,
Oregon Statewide Report Card (p. 13 for 2020-21) and
Oregon School Directory ("Facts" section at end). For a snapshot of the number of licensed librarians that individual districts employ, view the Oregon Department of Education's
At-A-Glance District Profiles.
Recommended Staffing & Materials Expenditures Levels
The Quality Education Model (QEM) guidelines recommend the following library staffing and materials expenditure levels per prototype school. Materials refers to books and periodicals, both print and electronic formats. These figures are based on the 2020 cost model from the Oregon Department of Education. It is the School Library Consultant's understanding that the base funding amount accounts for actual spending by schools, and the fully-implemented amount is an ideal.
- Elementary School: unknown FTE licensed librarian and unknown FTE support staff (was an estimated .5 FTE each in 2016); $18 (base) or $28 (full) per student
- Middle School: 1 FTE licensed librarian and .5 FTE support staff (was 1.0 FTE support staff in 2018); $20 (base) or $34 (full) per student
- High School: 1 FTE licensed librarian and 1 FTE support staff; $23 (base) or $40 (full) per student