Chalkbeat

Illinois quietly changes scholarship for teachers of color amid lawsuit, threats from federal government

2025-12-17T23:42:38+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

For 33 years, the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship’s mission has been to steer more people of color into the state’s teacher workforce, which is largely white. But in October, state lawmakers quietly stripped race and ethnicity requirements and made the program open to students of any race.

The changes are a response to a lawsuit by a conservative group that challenged the scholarship in 2024 and the Trump administration’s push against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at K-12 schools and higher education. A spokesperson for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission confirmed that the lawsuit was dismissed in court earlier this month. The motion to dismiss cited changes in Illinois’ law.

Illinois lawmakers passed House Bill 3065, which replaces the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship with the Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, during the General Assembly’s veto session by a vote of 96-0 in the House and 59-0 in the Senate. It was signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker in November.

Under the new law, students are eligible for the scholarship if they went to an Illinois K-12 school with 70% of students receiving free or reduced lunch and a 3-year average teacher vacancy rate or vacancy number at or above the state level. Students who receive the scholarship will be expected to teach at public schools where the rate or number of teacher vacancies is at or above the statewide average to fulfill their teacher requirement.

The changes make Illinois one of several states that have amended initiatives meant to help people of color and other underserved groups to avoid being targeted by the Trump administration’s anti-DEI — or diversity, equity, and inclusion — push.

The Pacific Legal Foundation, the conservative group that brought the lawsuit against the scholarship program on behalf of the American Alliance for Equal Rights, sees the changes as “positive.”

“Our whole goal was to eliminate these kinds of racial qualifications for grants from the government,” said Samantha Romero-Drew, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation. “We’re pleased to see that Illinois changed this law so that it’s open to everyone.”

Despite rolling back the scholarship for aspiring teachers of color, Illinois lawmakers say they want to continue efforts to diversify the teacher workforce, which is 78.9% white, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2025 report card. But they also want to protect the state from lawsuits from the federal government.

“It’s not us conceding. It is ensuring that the resources that are going to those who need it the most does not stop,” said House Rep. Maurice West, a Democrat representing Rockford and chief sponsor of HB 3065.

He added that he was worried that fighting the lawsuit would prevent students from accessing scholarship funds. The state paused the program in August 2025 as a result of the lawsuit.

A spokesperson from the governor’s office said he remains “fully committed in our efforts to build a teacher pool that better reflects the varied backgrounds and experiences of the people of our great state as well as our work to uplift historically marginalized communities throughout Illinois.”

Teaching scholarship now open to all

The Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship was created in 1992 to support students of color who want to become educators in Illinois schools. In recent years, the scholarship program offered up to $7,500 a year to help students pay for tuition, room and board, and other fees. Upon graduation, students were expected to work full-time at an Illinois school with at least 30% of students of color.

The scholarship was originally meant to help place teachers of color in classrooms with students of color. According to the Illinois 2025 Report Card, about 78% of Illinois teachers are white, while 6.3% are Black, 8.9% are Latino, and 2.1% are Asian American.

By contrast, white students make up 44% of students enrolled in public schools, while 16.3% are Black, 28.6% are Latino, and 5.7% are Asian American.

Research shows that having a teacher of color improves outcomes for all students regardless of race. Students, regardless of race, who had a teacher of color had an increase in reading and math scores and were less likely to be chronically absent, according to a working paper in 2021 from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University.

Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a Democrat who represents communities in Northern Illinois and was a co-sponsor of HB 3065, believes changing the language and eligibility requirements for the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship was “practical and necessary” because of attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at schools from conservative groups and the federal government.

The scholarship is a “real casualty of the current atmosphere that we’re in,” Faver Dias said.

“It is a lack of acknowledgement of the role that systemic racism and inequity has had that has led to a teacher of color shortage,” said Faver Dias. “When we change how people are eligible for it, we change what we’re acknowledging and what we’re willing to tell the truth about our history.”

Under the new law, scholarship recipients must be enrolled in a teacher preparation program in Illinois. The Illinois Student Assistance Commission said in an email to Chalkbeat that it will publish a list of districts and schools that meet the requirements for students interested in the program and for students who have to complete their teaching requirement.

The commission noted that students who have received the scholarship in the past and are trying to renew their grants will have to apply to the new Teachers of Illinois Scholarship. A spokesperson said they could roll out an application by the end of this year or early next year.

Illinois joins other states in changing diversity scholarships

Illinois joins other states, such as Missouri and Wisconsin, that have made changes to state-funded higher education scholarships in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University and University of North Carolina, which struck down race-conscious language in admissions policies.

In 2023, the University of Missouri system said it would no longer offer scholarships that consider race and ethnicity, a month after the state’s former Attorney General Andrew Bailey wrote a letter calling on colleges and universities to adopt criteria for scholarship excluding race and ethnicity.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is set to hear a case about that state’s Minority Undergraduate Retention Grant Program, a scholarship program created to serve Black, Latino, Native American, and Southeast Asian students from Laos, Cambodia, or Vietnam who immigrated to the U.S. after 1975, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. This comes after an appellate court ruled earlier this year that the scholarship program violated the constitution because it discriminated on the basis of race.

Wisconsin’s state-funded scholarship had been challenged in court by a family in 2021 as reported by Wisconsin Public Radio, prior to the Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court ruling and Trump’s second term.

Cedric Merlin Powell, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law at the Howard University School of Law, says states and institutions have taken the Supreme Court’s decision as a sign to erase anything that mentions race and argues that it is an overreaction.

While he understands that states and institutions are trying to be proactive, he said, “they’re actually neutralizing and limiting a broader way of approaches that they can look at that still considers the whole person.”

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago teacher Sharon Overton prepares students to perform ‘The Wiz’ before the holiday break

2025-12-15T22:52:22+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Ray Graham Training School’s gym buzzed with excitement on Friday as students in costumes rehearsed lines for a production of “The Wiz,” a musical that takes a soulful spin on “The Wizard of Oz.”

At the center of the tumult was Sharon Toi Overton, a special education and theater teacher who works with 12th graders at the school on the city’s South Side. She has put on plays with her students for the past five years.

At Friday’s rehearsal, she directed her students, going over their lines and making sure their costumes were perfect before their debut on Dec. 19 at King College Prep High School’s auditorium.

A student portraying Eviline performs in a production of "The Wiz" led by Sharon Toi Overton, the special education teacher at Ray Graham Training Center on Chicago's South Side on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025.

Overton is not new to acting or music. She is a Chicagoan who grew up in a musical family; her father played saxophone and her mother was a pianist. Overton took up singing and drumming, later becoming a lead singer and drummer in an-all girl rock and roll band in the 1970s.

Before she officially started her teaching career in 2000, she was an established actor in the city and performed with the Black Ensemble Theater, a theater company on the city’s North Side that puts on plays and has educational programs for students.

Overton became a teaching artist through the theater’s program and started to work with women with disabilities at the Ada S. McKinley Community Services, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago. Over the past 25 years, Overton has combined her love for the arts with working with students with disabilities.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I returned to Chicago in 1995 from Los Angeles to support my mom after she suffered a stroke. I auditioned and became a member of the Black Ensemble Theater as an actress. The founder of the theater, Jackie Taylor, who is not only an actress but also a former Chicago Public Schools teacher, and developed various educational programs. She trained interested artists to become teaching artists and placed them in schools around the city.

During that time, I decided to further my education as a special education teacher. One of my professors at Chicago State, Vinni Hall, recommended me for the special education program at University of Illinois-Chicago where I received my master’s. One of my professors, Abisola Bakare, was teaching at Ray Graham and suggested I perform my student teaching there with her. I completely fell in love with the climate and setting created by Principal Thomas and Vice Principal Buckner. The friendly yet professional and equitable standards set were outstanding. My colleagues are exceptional. In fact, the whole staff across the board was amazing. The students are extremely talented. I knew Ray Graham was the perfect fit for me.

What’s your favorite play to put on and why?

“The Lion King” is actually my favorite show to perform with students. “The Lion King” was so impactful. It was because it had drama, comedy, and tragedy. It showed every stage of life that you could possibly go through and still come out and triumph.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

My experience in school was wonderful. I loved school, except for math. I was raised in Hyde Park and I went to Ray Elementary School and Hyde Park Academy High School. I got a lot out of school as far as integration, because Hyde Park was so integrated. We had friends of all nationalities and races. My mom gave dinner parties like the United Nations was there. So school was fun, but there was also turmoil back in that day. There were a lot of sit-ins, walkouts, and strikes. It was a tumultuous time in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The Vietnam war was going on. There was always a cause that people were fighting for.

Did you participate in singing or acting at school?

Absolutely. I come from a musically-inclined family. My mom was a consummate pianist and enjoyed playing all genres from Beethoven to Motown. Her favorite was jazz. I can remember singing jazz songs before I started kindergarten. I was in the school plays throughout my early school years.

A student in a lion costume performs as the Cowardly Lion in a production of "The Wiz" led by Sharon Toi Overton, the special education teacher at Ray Graham Training Center on Chicago's South Side on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom?

Explaining and protecting the students from public scrutiny, restricted resources, time spent navigating politically sensitive topics, and diverting focus from instruction. The ICE situation when we go out on community-based instruction trips. We have students who did not understand what it was about. The safety while traveling on CTA when they hear the news regarding someone punching people on public transportation for no reason.

However, it’s not all negative. Ray Graham is a life skills training center that has professional and experienced educators who are involved with local businesses, college partnerships, and various programs designed to meet the students’ needs, to ensure a positive result. When businesses or local universities partner with our school, it provides real-world learning opportunities, mentorship programs, career days, and internships. This makes classroom lessons more relevant and engaging for students.

How do you approach news events in your classroom? Please provide an example.

I will share it with them and lay down the foundation of what’s going on, because they’re not just hearing it with me. If they’re at home, they’re hearing this news, and they know what’s going on. I ask them, what is the response at home? Because I don’t want to disrespect the parent’s point of view either. We have to maintain a good collaboration with the parents as well and a rapport with them. So, I tried to maintain whatever their parents are talking about, just expound on it, wherever each student is, where their understanding level would be. Then I allow them to turn and talk.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

My mom always said, “You can get angry, but make sure you don’t stay angry.” That’s a choice. You don’t carry resentment and anger with you. Go and get everything out, and then let it go.

What’s one thing you’ve read that has made you a better educator?

I have a philosopher that I really like to read, Jean Piaget. One of his philosophies is about putting the lessons right above the students’ level. Set your expectations high, but don’t make it unreachable.

How do you take care of yourself when you’re not at work?

Singing, dancing, massages, traveling, but mainly getting together with my friends that I’ve had since we were 3-and 4-years-old.

JB Pritzker signs bill aiming to protect immigrants at Illinois child care centers, public colleges

2025-12-09T23:50:15+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois has enacted new protections for families at child care centers licensed by the state and prohibited public colleges and universities from disclosing certain immigration and citizenship status, amid ramped-up federal deportation efforts.

Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday signed House Bill 1312, which restricts child care staff from disclosing the actual or perceived immigration status of children or their families, unless it is otherwise required by law. It also requires staff to use a child’s emergency contact if a parent is detained by law enforcement, and requires centers by Jan. 1 to create policies for how staff should interact with law enforcement and train staff on those policies.

The new law also requires the state’s Department of Children and Family Services or the Department of Early Childhood to provide information on their websites about parents’ constitutional rights. That information should include the form from Children and Family Services authorizing the appointment of a short-term guardian, in order to temporarily transfer custody of a child to someone the parent trusts, the law says.

Public colleges and universities are now also barred from disclosing the immigration and citizenship status of students as well as employees.

Illinois advocacy groups have praised the passage of House Bill 1312 for providing more protections to immigrant communities and providing clarity on what institutions should do to support immigrants. In January, President Donald Trump revoked a policy that previously restricted immigration enforcement at schools, child care centers, churches, and hospitals.

The law makes other sweeping changes. It restricts the arrest of people at or in courthouses if they are witnesses and under other circumstances, and requires hospitals to create policies for how staff will interact with law enforcement.

“We know that this new set of laws can’t mitigate all of the harm, but it gives us new protective tools, and is a symbol of our shared action against those terrorizing our communities and our state,” said Pritzker during a Tuesday press conference in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, where he was joined by state lawmakers, community leaders, and advocacy organizations.

“I am proud that in Illinois we are committed to fulfilling that obligation to every child and young person, despite their or their family’s immigrant status,” Linda Xóchitl Tortolero, president and CEO of the Latino Policy Forum, said on Tuesday.

“No parent should fear dropping their child off at childcare. No young person should worry about their safety on their college campus,” added Xóchitl Tortolero.

From mid-September until late November, the federal government stepped up immigration enforcement in Chicago under an effort known as Operation Midway Blitz. The operation has led to over 3,300 arrests over the past few months, according to the Chicago Tribune. This enhanced enforcement caused a chilling effect on local communities, small businesses, schools and child care centers.

In one case, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained an early childhood educator in front of children, parents, and staff at a private child care center on the North Side of Chicago in November, according to a report by Block Club Chicago.

Chicago advocates and attorneys have encouraged families to set up short-term guardianships in case parents are detained by ICE agents.

Illinois State Board of Education extends timeline for public comment on school accountability overhaul

2025-12-03T20:38:25+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders is extending the timeline for the public to weigh in on the proposed overhaul of the state’s accountability system for schools.

In early November, the Illinois State Board of Education announced plans to change what data is used to categorize schools and to tweak the five labels used to define performance.

Sanders wrote in a weekly message on Tuesday that the Illinois State Board of Education will keep the current public comment window open until Jan. 7, instead of Dec. 7. There will also be opportunities for the public to weigh in on the proposal’s drafts between January and April.

Under the new timeline, state board members would discuss the final plan during the March board meeting and vote on new accountability metrics in April, instead of discussing the plan in December and voting in January.

The agency plans to send a final draft to the U.S Department of Education by April 17 under the extended timeline. The goal to implement the new system in October for the state’s 2026 report card remains the same.

“We cannot stretch the timeframe further without jeopardizing our federal approval, but we are happy to extend our schedule to make sure we get such a significant change right,” Sanders wrote.

The announcement to extend the state’s timeline comes after state board members and community members raised concerns about changes to the accountability system during the November board meeting.

Advance Illinois, a nonprofit state education advocacy organization, asked the state board to allow more time for public comment during last month’s meeting. A spokesperson for Advance Illinois said the organization “applauds” the Illinois State Board of Education for taking more time to get feedback because it is “critical that the agency get it right.”

“This system is a tool that represents the state’s commitment to transparency, equity, readiness, and continuous improvement,” the statement read. “Done well, it focuses schools, parents, and communities on important outcomes and indicators in a way that supports good practice, identifies areas of strength and/or concern, and prioritizes those schools that need specific resources.”

In November, the Illinois State Board of Education proposed changing the five labels used to assign schools. The new system would label schools as Exemplary, Commendable, Approaching, Developing, or Comprehensive.

The current proposal also removes the 9th Grade On-Track metric from the calculation used to label schools. This metric measures the percentage of first-year high school students likely to graduate based on grades. While this metric will continue to be reported on the state’s annual report card, advocates were concerned about removing it from the data.

The agency plans to host several virtual listening sessions on Jan. 15, Jan. 21, Feb. 11, and March 16 between 4-6 p.m., according to Sanders’ weekly message.

Chicago Head Start providers are waiting for the federal government to approve funding

2025-11-26T20:23:40+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Three out of six of Chicago’s Head Start grantees have yet to hear from the federal government if their grant has been renewed for next year.

The federal government shutdown, which lasted from Oct. 1 until mid-November, delayed the process, causing uncertainty for providers and families across the country.

Tommy Sheridan, deputy director at the National Head Start Association, said the process to approve grants typically takes some time, but this situation is different.

“We’re so delayed that we need to make this a priority. We need the administration to make this a priority,” Sheridan said. “The fact that it hasn’t been done yet is something that, I think, we’re just kind of in a holding pattern. It does not feel good when there is the possibility of programs having to close down their doors.”

Head Start grantees have to notify the federal government about their plans for funding each year. Once those plans are approved, they receive a “Notice of Award” that allows them to start using federal funding to provide services to families. For grantees whose start dates were Oct. 1, Nov. 1, and Dec. 1, the process was postponed.

Overall, four Head Start grantees in Illinois have seen delays. One organization in southern Illinois had a Nov. 1 start date, while three Chicago Head Start grant recipients, including the City of Chicago, Carole Robertson Center for Learning, and Henry Booth House, have Dec. 1 start dates, according to the Illinois Head Start Association.

The National Head Start Association estimates that about 17 programs across the country and over 6,000 children have been affected by full or partial closures as of Nov. 20 because grant letters were delayed. None of those are in Illinois.

The City of Chicago and the Carole Robertson Center confirmed that they have not received a letter to renew their funding.

The Carole Robertson Center, which receives about $28 million in funding across two grants, said in a statement that uncertainty at the federal level has created some “administrative hurdles” for Head Start grant recipients.

“The start-and-stop conditions divert our attention from our main priority, which is to deliver high-quality programs and supports to the children and families we serve,” the statement said.

The organization said the federal dollars pay for services for about 1,350 children between birth and 5-years-old at their three flagship sites in North Lawndale, Little Village, and Albany Park, along with other services and community partnerships.

A spokesperson for the City of Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services said the city’s award amounts to over $82 million across three grants. The city’s Head Start programs serve about 3,400 children, but said the delay will not affect families. However, if the funding is not renewed they plan to work with the city’s Office of Budget and Management to develop a transition plan.

“We, as required by Head Start, will work with agencies to ensure children and families have access to continued services either at the current site or assist them in locating a new program,” a city spokesperson wrote in an email.

A spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families, housed under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement that the Office of Head Start is “working as quickly as possible to expedite awards” to grantees who were expecting to be renewed during the government shutdown.

“The office is in direct contact with affected grantees to process and approve their annual funding applications,” the statement said.

Head Start has been around for over 60 years and has had bipartisan support. In Illinois, Head Start providers serve around 28,000 children and families and employ almost 9,000 people, according to the Illinois Head Start Association. Across the nation, the program serves around 750,000 children and families between birth and 5-years-old, according to the National Head Start Association.

Head Start providers have faced many disruptions since the Trump administration’s second term started.

The Department of Health and Human Services declared that Head Start will be considered a public benefit in July. The move would have blocked undocumented immigrants from accessing Head Start, and it could have required providers to verify childrens’ immigration status. The guidance sowed uncertainty amongst Head Start providers in Illinois, but a federal judge blocked the motion in September.

In April, the federal government closed five out of ten regional Head Start offices around the country, including one in Chicago, that served states throughout the Midwest, raising concerns from U.S. lawmakers.

The Trump administration ordered a freeze on federal grants a week after entering the White House in January. Although the decision was reversed within a few days, many child care programs struggled to access funding in February, and some had to temporarily close their doors to families.

Chicago Board of Education members urge City Council to vote for proposed budget

2025-11-25T23:54:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago school board members, educators, and community advocates rallied Tuesday outside Austin High School to advocate for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $16.6 billion city budget, which would mean $552.4 million for Chicago Public Schools.

Their support comes after the mayor’s budget was rejected by a key committee last week, sending the City Council’s process back to square one. The mayor then launched an online portal to solicit more ideas for budget efficiencies from aldermen. Some aldermen are reportedly putting together an alternative proposal.

Jitu Brown, an elected school board member representing District 5A on the West Side, urged Chicago aldermen to vote in favor of Johnson’s proposed budget.

“The status quo is starving a school like Douglass, to where it goes from a school with 600 children, a thriving middle school to a school with only 35 children,” Brown said at the rally. “The status quo is getting rid of all the [career and technical education] programs that used to be in places like Austin and Dunbar and leaving those schools as shells of their former selves.”

Wallace Wilbourn Jr., a teacher at Oscar DePriest Elementary School on the West Side, said if the city’s budget is not approved, school staff could be cut and taxes could go up.

“A no vote on the mayor’s budget will support higher taxes and fees on us, the working people, and cuts to our schools and the services our families rely on,” Wilbourn Jr. said.

Several board members who spoke said there would be cuts at specific schools if Johnson’s proposed budget doesn’t pass. Their comments were based on calculations done by the Chicago Teachers Union.

But city budget officials have said the $552 million for CPS that would come from a surplus of special taxing dollars, known as TIF, are not allocated per school. They are provided to CPS by law as one amount that the school board would decide how to spend.

A spokesperson for the mayor said Tuesday the amount of the TIF surplus “is one of the least controversial parts of the budget.” If the mayor’s $1 billion surplus proposal is approved, the city would also get $223 million in revenue from those special taxing districts.

Depending on the final amount of TIF surplus approved, the district could likely maintain its current budget and avoid midyear cuts. The Chicago Board of Education approved a $10.2 billion budget for the 2025-26 school year in August with an assumption that it will get at least $379 million from the city. The City of Chicago’s budget is separate and operates on a calendar year from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2026.

After Johnson put forward his budget proposal, the Board of Education approved an agreement that said it would use additional TIF surplus funds to reimburse the City of Chicago for certain pension costs the city covers that became the center of heated debate this year.

This story was updated to include comment from a mayoral spokesperson.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Proposal to overhaul Illinois school accountability ratings gets mixed reviews

2025-11-21T20:29:31+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois state school board members are questioning officials’ proposed overhaul of the state’s accountability system. They want answers about why certain metrics could change and how the state will help schools and the public understand the new performance categories for schools.

The proposal currently before the Illinois State Board of Education changes the names of the five labels used to categorize schools and overhauls the calculation used to determine which category schools fall into.

Under the proposed system, schools would be listed as either Exemplary, Commendable, Approaching, Developing, and Comprehensive. These categories would be based on student attendance and how their students perform on reading, math, and science proficiency and how well they educate certain groups, such as students with disabilities and those learning English. High schools would also be scored based on graduation rates.

Currently, the top 10% of schools in the state are categorized as Exemplary while almost 70% of schools are labeled as Commendable. The remaining 20% are divided among the bottom three labels: Comprehensive, Targeted, and Intensive.

During the monthly board meeting held on Thursday, state Superintendent Tony Sanders said the fact that so many schools are lumped under Commendable is problematic.

“Not everybody can be Commendable and Commendable cannot be 0% of students proficient, all the way up to 72%,” Sanders said. “That’s just too wide of a band to be considered Commendable.”

Rae Clementz, executive director of data, accountability, and assessment at the Illinois State Board of Education, said sorting schools based on rank has made it difficult to understand the differences in school performance and what support schools needed.

“Our objective was to redesign the accountability system in a way that recognizes school strengths and supports school improvement in every school,” Clementz said.

But Donna Leak, board member and superintendent of Community Consolidated School District 168, worried some schools that were once considered Commendable would fall into the new, lower-ranked categories of Approaching or Developing. According to a presentation of the plan, about 56% of elementary schools would be labeled Approaching and Developing.

“I think it’s great that we’re delineating and we’re differentiating, because the commendable group was so huge. It really did not tell the community how your school was doing,” she said at Thursday’s meeting. “But this feels almost like it’s not even a rip of a Band-Aid. It’s like a rip of stitches.”

Sanders said his staff would work on creating a toolkit to help explain the changes in labels to school communities.

Another proposed change is the use of indicators to determine a school’s category. ISBE’s proposal removes the 9th Grade On-Track metric from the calculation used to come up with a school’s rating, though it will still be reported on the state’s report card. That metric measures the percentage of first-year high school students likely to graduate based on grades.

Local education advocates also shared their concerns about the potential changes to indicators in the state’s accountability model and timeline about the agency’s process during the public comment section of Thursday’s meeting.

“Eliminating the 9th Grade On-Track metric would diminish schools’ incentive to focus on ninth grade success and a pivotal year for students who are transitioning into high school and for English learners often navigating new language demands,” Erika Méndez, director of early childhood and K-12 education policy with the statewide advocacy group Latino Policy Forum, told the board Thursday.

Méndez also asked the board to consider strengthening attendance metrics and including post-secondary indicators, such as college enrollment and students taking advanced courses, including Advanced Placement and dual credit.

Perla Santoyo, senior government relations associate at Advance Illinois, asked the state board on Thursday to consider extending the public comment period to allow school communities to review changes in the proposal and provide feedback.

“Such transparency is critical to building trust and ensuring that the framework works as intended,” said Santoyo.

Sanders pushed back against some of the criticism.

“This has not been a rushed or non-transparent process. Everything we’ve done has been in the public view,” he said, noting that the agency asked educators and school leaders about changing the accountability system during feedback sessions regarding changing the cut scores for state standardized tests over the past year and a half.

The board will continue discussing the accountability system proposal in December and is expected to vote on it in the January meeting, according to a presentation by the state board. If approved by state officials, the board will submit it to the federal government for approval.

The current plan is to roll out the new accountability system and performance labels in October 2026.

The Illinois State Board of Education is hosting virtual meetings on the proposed changes to gather more feedback from the public on Nov. 24 and Dec. 1 between 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

School transportation funding a top request for Illinois State Board of Education’s 2027 budget

2025-11-20T23:40:03+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

What do Illinois teachers, families, and educators want the state’s Board of Education to prioritize? Reliable transportation funding and a $350 million increase toward K-12 education are the top concerns, according to budget requests submitted throughout the fall.

The Illinois State Board of Education held budget hearings in September and October to get input from the public regarding the budget for the next fiscal year. During a board meeting Thursday, officials said they received a total of 938 budget requests this year, up from 826 last year.

Eileen Turanchik, ISBE budget director, said 291 people submitted requests to keep transportation funding at the current level or increase it next year.

“Districts emphasized rising transportation costs, ongoing driver shortages, and challenges maintaining safe and reliable fleets,” Turanchik said. “Many described transportation as one of their most significant operational pressures, especially in rural and geographically large districts.”

Another 108 people submitted requests to increase the state’s evidence-based funding formula by at least $350 million. That’s how much lawmakers said they would add annually for at least 10 years after they overhauled the K-12 funding formula in 2017.

Others pushed for funding increases for career and technical education and alternative schools.

Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders is expected to present a budget plan for fiscal year 2027 to the state board at its January meeting. That plan will then go to Gov. JB Pritzker, who will propose a full state budget in February for approval by the General Assembly in late May. The state’s fiscal year starts July 1 and ends June 30.

In the fiscal year 2026 budget passed in May, the state’s General Assembly allocated an additional $307 million to the state’s K-12 evidence-based funding formula. The formula distributes state dollars based on districts’ enrollment numbers, the enrollment of student groups such as English learners, and how much money a district can raise on its own through property tax revenue.

When the formula was created in 2017, lawmakers promised to provide an additional $350 million a year to fund school districts around the state with the goal of fully funding public schools by 2027. However, a report found that at the current funding level, the state will likely not be able to fully fund schools until 2034.

The Illinois State Board of Education told Chalkbeat in June that this year the agency paused the Property Tax Relief Grant for schools, which received $50 million in previous years.

Overall, the state’s education budget grew from $10.8 billion in fiscal year 2025 to almost $11.2 billion in 2026. ISBE officials said Thursday the budget requests from the public for fiscal year 2027 amounted to $748 million in new money.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois education budget process for 2026-27 school year begins

2025-09-30T17:40:27+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

The Illinois State Board of Education is holding the first of three budget hearings on Tuesday to find out what educators, school leaders, advocates, parents, and students think the state board should ask lawmakers to fund for fiscal year 2027, which will cover the 2026-27 school year.

The hearing will take place in Springfield at 4 p.m. and two additional hearings will be held virtually on Oct. 16 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m and Oct. 21 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Written testimony can also be submitted online.

Illinois has increased spending on education by $2.8 billion since 2017 when lawmakers overhauled the formula it uses to distribute money to school districts.

Last fiscal year, the General Assembly allocated almost $11.2 billion to education out of the state’s overall $55.1 billion budget. The education budget included an additional $307 million to the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 schools, slightly less than previous year increases of $350 million. Illinois education officials said the state paused a roughly $50 million Property Tax Relief Grant program that school districts apply for to receive assistance from the state.

Education advocates have requested that the state increase K-12 spending by $550 million per year in order to more quickly get every district to adequate funding, by the formula’s definition. Currently, 222 of Illinois’ 866 districts are considered adequately funded, according to a budget presentation by the state board.

In recent months, the federal government has threatened to withhold funds from school districts, and in Chicago’s case, officials have already done so. Last week, the Trump administration said it would hold back $5.8 million this year from Chicago Public Schools for the Magnet School Assistance Program and would not award $17.5 million for the remainder of the grant award. Chicago Public Schools said the move created an $8 million hole in the current school year’s budget.

In an effort to ease the strain of the Trump administration’s economic policies, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order earlier this month requiring state agencies to identify 4% of state funding provided under the fiscal year 2026 budget that could be put into reserve, according to a press release. The statement noted that the K-12 funding will not be impacted.

In previous years, the state board made a recommendation for the next fiscal year before the end of January, right before the governor’s annual budget address. Usually, Pritzker’s State of the State address, which lays out his budget and legislative priorities for the spring legislative session, takes place in February.

The Illinois State Board of Education wants to hear from educators on how to change math education in schools

2025-09-25T15:53:17+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Five years after COVID-19 shuttered schools and disrupted learning, Illinois students’ math scores have yet to rebound from the pandemic fallout. Now, state officials are seeking educators’ input on how to rethink the way math is taught.

The Illinois State Board of Education is kicking off a statewide listening tour in October to get feedback from school leaders, educators, counselors, and others on the first draft of a “Comprehensive Numeracy Plan,” which will provide educators with evidence-based methods to help students succeed in learning math.

The first session is scheduled for Oct. 16 at 4 p.m. at the state board’s Springfield office. The plan has yet to be made public, but a spokesperson for the state said it will be available by the first listening session.

“Numeracy equips students to think critically, solve problems, and make informed decisions in daily life,” said State Superintendent Tony Sanders in a press release. “The Comprehensive Numeracy Plan will give educators the evidence-based tools they need to help students succeed, and it will ensure that every child in Illinois has access to high-quality math instruction.”

Students in third to eighth grades who took the Illinois Assessment of Readiness in spring of 2024 saw an improvement in their math scores from the previous school year, but scores were lower than they were in 2019, signaling that students had yet to rebound from the pandemic, according to the state’s 2024 report card. However, students’ reading scores increased from the previous year and were higher than before the pandemic.

State education officials attributed improvements in reading to the state’s Comprehensive Literacy Plan, which provides recommendations to educators on how to provide evidence-based reading instruction to students. Now, they are hoping a numeracy plan modeled after the literacy blueprint will help improve student outcomes in math.

The final draft of the numeracy plan will be presented to the state board for approval by June 2026, according to the press release.

All listening sessions for the state board’s numeracy plan start at 4 p.m. and those interested can sign up online. Here is a list of dates and location for each session:

Oct. 16: Springfield - ISBE Office, 100 N. 1st St.
Oct. 22: Naperville - Northern Illinois University Naperville Campus, NIU Conference Center, 1120 E. Diehl Rd.
Oct. 23: Rockford - Rockford Public Schools 205 Administration Building, 501 7th St.
Nov. 4: Virtual
Nov. 5: Champaign - Urbana University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 601 S. Lincoln Ave.
Nov. 12: Edwardsville - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Morris University Center, 60 Hairpin Dr.
Nov. 13: Carbondale - Carbondale High School, 1301 E. Walnut St.
Nov. 18: Chicago - Illinois State Board of Education’s Chicago Office, 555 W. Monroe St.

Illinois wants more students with disabilities to know about state savings account

2025-09-23T18:59:33+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois officials want more families to know about a government-supported savings account for people with disabilities. State lawmakers approved a new law this spring requiring schools to inform students with 504 plans and children receiving Early Intervention services about the Illinois Achieving a Better Life Experience, or ABLE, account.

For parents of children with disabilities like Alysia Townsend, a mother of five living in the suburbs of Chicago, getting that information through a school or during Early Intervention services would help save time and effort.

After Townsend’s youngest son, now 9, was diagnosed with Down Syndrome while she was pregnant and spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit when he was born, she started to worry about how to pay for future medical expenses.

She found out about ABLE accounts by listening to podcasts targeted to parents who have children with disabilities. The accounts allow families of children with disabilities to save or invest money for present and future expenses like housing, education, transportation, and assistive technology such as wheelchairs or hearing aids without being taxed. In 2017, she opened a state ABLE account and has been saving money since.

Illinois has required school districts to tell students with an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, about ABLE accounts since the 2023-24 school year, but a new law now requires schools to also tell students with 504 plans about ABLE accounts and requires state officials who run Early Intervention for young children to inform those families as well. Gov. JB Pritzker signed the law in August.

“The reason this is important for our school-based population is that our families need to start saving early,” said JJ Hanley, deputy chief officer of financial products at the Illinois State Treasurer’s office, in an interview with Chalkbeat. “They need to have a vehicle in which they can save that will protect their children’s benefits when their children become adults.”

ABLE accounts were created under a 2014 law passed during the Obama administration, which allows states to support families in opening a tax-exempt savings account for people with disabilities. ABLE accounts are similar to 529 college savings plans, the latter of which allow families to save money and withdraw it later for college-related expenses without being taxed.

There are two requirements to be eligible for an ABLE account: Someone can sign up for an account if the onset of their disability happened before the age of 26 and they are receiving Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Due to a change in federal law, the age limit will increase to 46 in 2026.

Saving money in an ABLE account does not affect a child’s ability to access federal benefits such as Supplemental Security Income, Social Security Disability Insurance, or Medicaid once they become adults. Families can save up to $100,000 without losing a child losing some of their federal public benefits. However if an account goes over $100,000, Supplemental Security Income payments will be suspended until the account is below the $100,000 threshold.

There are 49 ABLE account plans nationwide, with 46 states and the District of Columbia offering accounts, according to the ABLE National Resource Center. However, each state has some different benefits. For example, both Illinois and New York started their ABLE accounts in 2017. An Illinois taxpayer can donate up to $10,000, or $20,000 for a couple, to someone’s ABLE account and receive a state income tax deduction, but New York does not offer a tax deduction.

Under the new Illinois law, school districts must inform students with a 504 plan, a document that outlines accommodations for students with disabilities, about ABLE accounts during the 2026-27 school year. Families with children between birth and 3 who are receiving Early Intervention services will get information on ABLE accounts during the creation and review meetings regarding a child’s Individual Family Services Plan, which outlines the child’s needs, starting Jan. 1, 2026.

According to the law, the Office of the State Treasurer will create materials to give to the Illinois State Board of Education to distribute to local school districts. The office will also create materials to distribute to the lead agency in charge of Early Intervention services. Currently, the state Department for Human Services provides Early Intervention services but the program will transition to the state’s recent Department of Early Childhood by July 1, 2026.

Townsend, the mother of five living in the Chicago suburbs, said her son’s Individualized Education Program allows him to get therapy in his public school, so she and her husband are using the account to save for his adulthood.

“I didn’t need to immediately focus on spending ABLE money around certain needs, because I already had those needs met,” she said. “What I was seeing is that as he gets older he needs more things and different things.”

Correction: 9/24/2025:This story has been updated to explain that there are 49 ABLE accounts nationwide with 46 states and the District of Columbia offering accounts. The initial story said 49 states have ABLE account plans. It has also been updated to clarify that state officials who run Early Intervention, not schools, are responsible for informing families of young children in that program.

Chicago school board members question special education staffing changes

2025-09-18T23:37:02+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago Board of Education members are calling for more transparency from the district on cuts and changes being made to special education staffing positions.

“Our parents are saying that their children are not receiving their services,” said elected board member Jitu Brown in an interview with Chalkbeat. “So these cuts have hit the classroom, and it’s not acceptable to bake that into what education is going to look like this entire school year.”

Karen Zaccor, an appointed board member and former Chicago Public Schools teacher, told Chalkbeat in an interview that board members have heard concerns from parents and teachers about the impact of cuts to special education classrooms in previous board meetings.

She has also visited schools in her district where she’s heard from principals that schools are short on special education classroom assistants, also known as SECAs, and special education teachers.

Over the summer, the district’s Office for Students with Disabilities cut staffing and made changes within the department. In the second week of school, about 200 students with disabilities had yet to be placed in a classroom. CPS officials said Thursday that 285 are awaiting placements, including students who qualified since the start of the school year.

“You have schools where children don’t have a special education instructor after a month into the school year. You’ve seen the loss in the combination of special ed teachers and SECAs,” Brown said.

Chicago Public Schools said in a statement to Chalkbeat Thursday that 96% of students with disabilities who have Individualized Education Programs are receiving required minutes under law and that it is “working in earnest to ensure that all students receive their required services.”

“We got to figure out a better process,” said appointed member Michilla Blaise. “I’m sure they had grand reasons as to why they do things the way they do, but it’s not working, so we have to do something else.”

Several board members held a press conference downtown Thursday morning to request more information from CPS regarding special education staffing at schools. Earlier this week, WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times reported that the district cut 250 special education teacher positions along with almost 700 special education classroom assistants, but some of those positions were added back after the start of school on Aug. 18.

The report also found that principals tried to appeal special education staffing allocations over the summer, but 75% were turned down.

Zaccor wants the district to provide members with a report on some of the staffing concerns raised by parents, teachers, and school administrators at the next school board meeting on Sept. 25.

Josh Long, chief of the Office for Students with Disabilities, said that this year, the district used data from May 5 to help assess how many teacher and special education classroom assistant positions to allocate. Using an enrollment count from May helps because the number of students with disabilities tends to increase during the year, he said.

And, in a departure from the past, CPS did not use enrollment projections to allocate special education positions for the fall, Long said. Many principals appealed, but Long said they were rejected because the district waited until the fifth day of school this year to add staff.

Long said that students who are projected to show up on the first day of school, or who principals believe will show up, often do not make it. “That opens the opportunity for us to get that wrong, and by getting that wrong, that means that we are further perpetuating a system of inequity by overallocating in some places,” he said.

Long reiterated Thursday that the changes to special education are not related to the district’s budget deficit.

Placements happen on a rolling basis based on evaluations done by teams of specialists at schools, he said. This year, 110 students in the first 10 days of school were determined to need to be placed “in the most restrictive setting in CPS to receive their education,” Long said.

Correction: Sept. 19, 2025: This story has been updated to show that Chicago Public Schools sent a statement instead of a press release.

Chicago schools, educators brace for possibility of more federal agents in the city

2025-09-05T22:22:33+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago teachers and parents are bracing for the possibility that the Trump administration will increase immigration enforcement and deploy the National Guard to the city, even though it is unclear when or even if troops are coming.

Brenda Rivera, a Chicago Public Schools parent and a parent leader for Kids First Chicago, said she is feeling “extremely sad” about the prospect of the Trump administration sending more Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents or National Guard troops to the city.

“Families will keep their kids at home out of fear for their safety or for them being picked up, whether you know, by mistake or not by mistake,” Rivera said when asked if she thinks parents will keep their kids at home. “Students will miss out on their school. I have no doubt.”

In a message to families on Friday, interim CPS CEO Macquline King said the district has “strong protocols in place” to protect students and reiterated that ”school is still the best, safest place for students, especially in these early weeks of the year.”

Friday’s letter also included a new document with guidance for what families should plan for in case there is an increase in federal agents in the city. The Chicago Board of Education passed a resolution last fall to protect students regardless of their immigration status.

The Chicago Teachers Union announced at a press conference on Wednesday that teachers around the city would start handing out flyers on Friday to help families understand their rights.

Stacy Davis Gates, president of the teachers union, floated the idea of using remote learning as a way to keep students learning, referencing Los Angeles Unified School District. According to an article by ABC 7 Los Angeles, the district has had an increase in students enrolling in virtual classes this year.

“I’m not looking to relitigate online learning, but I’m also not looking to relitigate the Civil War,” Davis Gates said. However, she doubted that CPS is ready to make online learning available to families and the district’s Friday message to families did not include anything about remote learning options.

CPS said it does not collect students’ immigration status or coordinate with federal agents. The district does not share student records, except in rare cases when court order is issued or consent is provided by parents. It also does not allow federal agents access to schools without a “criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge.”

In a weekly message on Wednesday, State Superintendent Tony Sanders encouraged school officials across the state to review the state’s guidance on how schools should interact with federal agents.

“Let me take this moment to re-emphasize that all students deserve the comfort of knowing that they belong in our schools – without fear,” wrote Sanders. “Public schools should be safe havens, and parents should be assured that their children will be protected while in our care.”

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill in August called the Safe Schools for All Act, codifying protections from a 1982 Supreme Court case, known as Plyler v. Doe. The decision said students, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to receive a free public education.

Over the last few weeks, the Trump administration has threatened to send more federal law enforcement agencies to the city under the guise of reducing crime — even though crime in the city has dropped to its lowest levels since the 1960s, according to a report by WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times.

The Trump administration sent National Guard troops to stop protests against Immigration and Custom Enforcement, or ICE, raids in Los Angeles earlier in the summer. The federal government also deployed National Guard troops in Washington D.C. in August.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles violated federal law, according to a report by the Associated Press.

On the same day, President Donald Trump said at a press conference he wants Pritzker to call him and ask for support from federal law enforcement.

“I’d be honored to take his call. All he has to do is say, ‘Sir, we need help. It’s out of control,’ and everyone knows it is,” Trump said. “I would love to do it now. We’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it because I have an obligation to protect this country.”

Pritzker declined to do so later on in the day at a press conference in the city.

Pritzker said on Tuesday he believes the Trump administration has started to position federal agents and military vehicles at the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, the largest military base in Illinois. The Department of Homeland Security asked the Pentagon to host 250 agents and 140 vehicles at the base, according to a report by CBS News.

Pritzker speculated that the Trump administration was relocating troops from Los Angeles. He also said federal agents in unmarked cars and in masks are planning to raid Latino communities. Pritzker said he believes federal authorities chose the month of September to increase the presence of ICE agents because of Mexican Independence Day celebrations that take place in the city.

A popular festival in Chicago’s Grant Park celebrating Mexican Independence Day scheduled for next weekend was cancelled this week. Organizers told Block Club Chicago that city and state officials advised them to call off the celebration.

On Thursday, the governor said in a press conference that while he can’t “override” actions by the federal government in the state, he plans to “immediately go to court” if military troops are sent into the city to get a temporary restraining order or another court order to block the deployment.

Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order earlier this month to protest the deployment of National Guard troops or other federal agents to Chicago. The order requires city departments to support Chicagoans, bars federal agents from wearing masks and requires them to provide identification, and keeps the Chicago Police Department under the authority of the city of Chicago.

Becky Vevea contributed to this report.

About 200 students with disabilities in Chicago don’t have classroom placements as second week of school begins

2025-08-26T21:49:38+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

About 200 students with disabilities are still waiting for Chicago Public Schools to place them into a classroom that fits their needs, as schools head into the second week of class.

Although CPS added nearly 100 new cluster programs in the past two years with classes exclusively for students with disabilities, families were notified in an Aug. 15 letter that there are “limited seats available.”

District officials said the delay is not impacting all special education programs, just students slated for placements in cluster programs.

Cluster classrooms are only for students with disabilities and serve up to 10 students in early childhood education programs and 13 students from kindergarten up until a student ages out of the school district at 22, according to district officials.

After the latest expansion, CPS now operates about 775 cluster programs. The district said it added 69 programs in 2024 and another 32 programs in 2025. CPS also restructured its special education department over the summer.

“This is a common occurrence at the start of each school year, as some families may opt out of services or express preferences for different placements,” a spokesperson for the district said of the delays in a statement to Chalkbeat.

If a student with an Individualized Education Program does not receive a placement within 10 days of the first day of school or the date their IEP is finalized, parents should receive a letter from their case manager or the Office for Students with Disabilities. The letter informs parents which services in the student’s IEP haven’t started, the actions the school is taking to support the student, and how parents can request compensatory services — additional services to make up for lost services written into an IEP.

Miriam Bhimani, a special education advocate and parent, said this isn’t a new problem for the district.

“It seems to continue a trend where CPS is not serving students with disabilities and is excluding them from the public institution,” said Bhimani. “If you don’t have a school placement, you’re not going to school.”

Barb Cohen, a policy analyst at the advocacy organization Legal Council for Health Justice, said a larger question is whether students are being appropriately placed in cluster programs.

“However, that doesn’t change the fact that their IEP teams decided cluster was the right placement and the district needs to follow the law,” Cohen said. “The law says you need to follow the IEP team’s recommendations.”

CPS serves about 54,000 students with disabilities, who make up about 16% of the student population. Around 8,300 students were recommended for cluster programs for the 2025-26 school year, according to district officials.

In the statement to Chalkbeat, a CPS spokesperson said the delay in placing students is primarily due to difficulty in predicting how many students need a seat in a cluster program.

“Although CPS uses data and historical trends to inform decisions, the actual number of students requiring services fluctuates throughout the year, making it difficult to predict with certainty,” the statement said.

The district also pointed to budget challenges and said it has been “cautious not to overestimate or underfund resources” for cluster programs. District officials say they are trying to strike a balance between staffing, program costs, and providing students with services.

Lack of transportation could be another reason students have not received a placement, district officials said. Schools officials have to consider commuting times when assigning students who have transportation in their Individualized Education Programs to a cluster program, according to district officials.

In 2021, students with Individualized Education Programs who were guaranteed transportation experienced long bus rides or did not receive service at all, issues the district attributed to a bus driver shortage at the time.

The district was placed under a corrective action plan by the Illinois State Board of Education in 2022 after it found that students with disabilities were on buses for more than 90 minutes. The state ended that oversight in 2024.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois students can no longer be ticketed or fined by police in school under new state law

2025-08-21T21:11:08+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

A new law in Illinois prevents law enforcement from ticketing students at school, ending a practice that state education officials and lawmakers say disproportionately impacts students of color.

The law, which Gov. JB Pritzker signed Wednesday, also requires districts to have a “memorandum of understanding” with local law enforcement agencies for schools using school resource officers by July 1, 2026. The agreement must prohibit school resource officers from ticketing students, as well as outline the responsibilities of the resource officer, ensure officers have been trained, and provide review and evaluation of the school resource officer program.

The ban on ticketing and fining students for incidents that happen on school property during the school day takes effect immediately.

The changes build on a law passed 10 years ago that prohibited schools from directly issuing fees and fines as a disciplinary consequence.

The new law also includes data collection requirements for local school districts and the Illinois State Board of Education. Beginning with the 2027-28 school year, school districts will be required to report the number of K-12 students referred to law enforcement and the number of referrals to law enforcement. The State Board of Education will report data collected from school districts across the state by Jan. 31, 2029.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders said in a press release Wednesday that the state board advocated for the law during the General Assembly’s spring legislative session and he is “proud to see this law cross the finish line.”

“Ticketing students for disciplinary offenses has not been shown to improve student behavior or address underlying causes and student needs,” said Sanders. “The practice has disproportionately impacted students of color and harmed low-income families, forcing them to pay exorbitant and unnecessary fines instead of buying groceries and other household needs.”

The law does not prevent schools from contacting local police departments when a crime has occurred on school property or safety threats.

The new law came in response to a 2022 investigation by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune that found schools in Illinois referred students to local police departments for disciplinary infractions, rather than issue fines themselves. Students were often ticketed for issues such as truancy — or when a student misses about 5% of the school year without a valid excuse. Black and Latino students were more often ticketed or fined by local enforcement, reporting found.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, who represents neighborhoods on Chicago’s West Side and suburbs and was the House sponsor of the bill, said in a press release that the law is a “responsible measure” to protect students.

“We want to keep young people out of the criminal justice system, not unnecessarily introduce them to it by including law enforcement in school matters that should be handled by teachers and principals,” said Ford. “Excessive penalties can push a student away from the classroom instead of helping them, which is why it’s so important we’re choosing a better path forward today.”

New Illinois law aims to protect access to public education for immigrant students

2025-08-19T21:39:48+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois state legislators and immigrant advocates gathered outside a Chicago elementary school on Tuesday to celebrate a new state law meant to enshrine a child’s right to public schools regardless of their immigration status, a step they said is necessary in the face of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

The law, known as the Safe Schools For All Act, also pushes school districts to adopt policies outlining how schools should respond if federal immigration agents come to a campus. The law, passed at the end of May and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last week, goes into effect Jan. 1, 2026.

Roughly 100 people flanked elected officials and supporters of the law during a press conference held outside Lloyd Elementary School in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood, which is home to many working class immigrant families. Some held signs that said “Education Not Deportation” and “ICE out of Chi,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Young students occasionally passed by a second-floor window at the school and looked down at the press conference.

“Parents have always counted on the supports from our principals and our teachers here at Lloyd; they protected our kids and made them feel safe,” Maria, a parent of a third grader at Lloyd who did not share her last name, told reporters in Spanish. “But now all of our communities are able to see that their schools and their families are protected, as they should be, from ICE.”

The new law says all children have the right to a free, public education regardless of their immigration status, effectively codifying the protections established in a 1982 Supreme Court case, known as Plyler V. Doe. Other states have taken the opposite approach, such as in Tennessee, where lawmakers attempted to allow school districts to ban undocumented children from attending public schools.

Advocates said it’s a “first-of-its-kind” state law because it also prevents schools from adopting policies that have a “chilling effect” that could discourage kids from attending school.

In addition to the education provisions, the new law prohibits schools from adopting policies that could exclude or discourage students from attendance, such as requesting immigration status or a Social Security number. It also requires schools to adopt policies for how to handle immigration agents who show up to schools, including provisions around reviewing warrants or other documentation the agents might have.

Chicago Public Schools requires staff to contact district law department staff if immigration agents show up to a school, and staff is told not to let such agents enter without having a judicial warrant. The previous Chicago Teachers Union contract also codifies those policies, including prohibiting staff from asking for a student’s immigration status. A copy of the new contract is not on the union’s website, but union leaders have said that the new contract keeps those provisions.

The Illinois State Board of Education provided districts with guidance on what to do as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies increase arrests or other actions near schools. This was announced in a weekly message by State Superintendent Tony Sanders earlier this year.

The law signed last week drew some opposition while it was being debated in the legislature, including from sheriff’s departments, as well as the Illinois Association of School Boards. The IASB took issue with a provision of the law that allows people to sue school districts if they feel their rights were violated.

“The potential increased risk of litigation and new financial liabilities for school districts was the basis for IASB’s opposition,” the association wrote in its end-of-session report.

Lawmakers felt it was important to require all districts to draft policies that comply with the new law, said State Rep. Lilian Jimenez, one of the main sponsors of the bill.

“People thought, ‘Oh immigration is too confusing. If somebody comes to our school, what do we do?’” Jimenez said. “Well you create a policy, and you all train on the policy and everybody knows what to do.”

Jimenez and State Sen. Karina Villa, another bill sponsor, said during the press conference that they introduced the measure after President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations.

Just a few days after Trump’s second inauguration, the administration rescinded the federal “sensitive location” policy, clearing the way for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, known as ICE, to make arrests at places like schools, child care centers, hospitals, and churches. Federal immigration agents then arrested about 100 people in the city and suburbs in January.

In February, ICE arrested a father who was dropping his children off to school in Gage Park on the Southwest Side.

In the winter, some parents decided to keep their children out of schools, and attendance dipped even as school administrators tried to support families and train staff on immigration protections. Local advocacy groups stepped up to provide support and ‘Know Your Rights” training to students.

State lawmakers drafted this legislation with the help of immigrant and bilingual education advocacy organizations, including the Latino Policy Forum, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, or ICIRR.

Even if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Plyler V. Doe, states like Illinois “would still be within their rights to enact their own policies” — and that’s what the new law does, said Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel for ICIRR.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois proposes lowering scores students need to be deemed proficient on state tests

2025-08-12T20:15:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

More students in Illinois would be considered proficient on the state’s annual math and reading tests under a proposal to change cut scores, which the Illinois State Board of Education is set to vote on Wednesday.

Cut scores are the scores that separate students into broad categories of achievement, now defined as below proficient, approaching proficiency, proficient, and above proficiency.

Under the proposed changes, 53% of students would be considered proficient in English language arts, 38% would be proficient in math, and 45% would be in science, according to a presentation shared by state education officials Tuesday. Last year, 41% of students were proficient in English language arts, 28% were proficient in math, and 53% were in science.

But the numbers cannot be compared year-over-year because the cut scores changed.

For example, third grade students currently must score 750 out of 850 on the math section of the Illinois Assessment of Readiness to be considered meeting proficiency standards. But under the proposed changes, they would only need to score 732 to be labeled proficient.

On the ACT, a college entrance exam all Illinois high schoolers must take, juniors would need to score an 18 in English language arts and a 19 in math and a 19 in science to be labeled as proficient. In the past, students needed to score a 540 on the SAT in both math and English languages arts.

Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders said the current cut scores “do not reflect the reality of student progress.”

“We’ve told a whole generation of our students who were college ready that they were not, and we potentially identified the wrong students for additional support and missed students who could have benefited from acceleration,” Sanders said ahead of a committee meeting Tuesday.

Sanders said the state will not be providing proficiency data using the old cut scores in order for schools and families to make comparisons to previous years. For instance, local school district officials will not be able to compare the fourth grade reading scores of students in 2019 to those who took the exam in the spring of 2025.

Illinois is not the only state to change the cut scores of its standardized tests. States such as Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Alaska, and New York have made similar adjustments to their assessment systems, according to a report by The 74.

The overhaul comes as schools are still bouncing back from the achievement declines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, also known as the “nation’s report card” found most students across the country have yet to catch up with their pre-pandemic peers and the gap between high performing students and low-performing students has grown wider. The fourth and eighth graders who took the state standardized test in spring 2024 had their learning impacted by the pandemic in earlier grades.

Illinois elementary school students had been seeing progress in reading — even exceeding pre-pandemic proficiency levels — but math scores still lag behind past years, according to the state’s 2024 report card. Illinois’ scores on the most recent NAEP were stagnant.

Still, Sanders said Illinois had some of the highest cut scores in the nation — even exceeding the proficiency score for NAEP. He also emphasized that proficiency is not the same as being on grade level.

“Being not proficient does not mean a student can’t read or can’t do math,” Sanders said.

Illinois educators helped adjust cut scores

Illinois launched its effort to redefine performance after the state switched the high school exam from the College Board’s SAT to the ACT last year.

In the past, there were different proficiency levels for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, taken by third to eighth grade students, the Illinois Science Assessment, taken in fifth and eighth grade, and the high school college entrance exam, taken by students in 11th grade.

The proposed changes would create consistency in the language used to measure performance on the various tests.

Illinois educators played a role in changing the cut scores and crafting performance level descriptors, or a rubric, for each grade and subject explaining what knowledge or skills students should have based on their proficiency level.

Comfort Agboola, a middle school English language arts teacher in Chicago Public Schools who participated in the process to change the cut scores, said the way the state labels kids based on test scores and performance “can shape the way students see themselves.”

“These updated proficiency standards and performance levels don’t lower the bar,” she said. “They more accurately capture the full spectrum of skills students are developing. They acknowledge growth in ways that can motivate rather than discourage.”

Tyler Chance, an assistant principal at Carbondale Community High School, worked on crafting the English language arts performance level descriptors for high school students taking the ACT. The former English and governance high school teacher said he wanted to get involved in the process to get students ready for college and career opportunities.

Justin Harrison, a 15-year eighth grade science teacher at Vandalia Junior High, worked on the eighth grade science cut scores for the Illinois Science Assessment. The process to create the new cut scores includes using the performance level descriptors and requiring teachers to take the exam. Harrison said the descriptors were helpful to understand what teachers should be assessing their students on.

“I hope that educators can take the time to see what these tools can do,” Harrison said. He really hopes the state provides professional development to educators on the new performance level descriptors.

Dale Chu, a consultant and senior visiting fellow at education think tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute, is not a “big fan” of states like Illinois lowering cut scores. He feels it can have consequences for students in the future. For example, a student could have been at the top of their class in high school, but then has to take remedial courses when they got to college.

“To me, state tests and having cut scores that are rigorous that actually do show whether kids are proficient or not are a big part of being honest with parents,” Chu said.

Chu said states and the federal government have to provide a “credible check” on schools and local districts.

State education officials said the Illinois Learning Standards, which provide educators with information on what students should know in each grade across different subjects, remain the same.

Sanders said the next step in this process for the Illinois State Board of Education is to change the labels the state uses to define school quality by 2026.

Based on students’ test scores and other metrics, such as attendance, schools are labeled as Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted, Comprehensive, and Intensive. How a school is labeled can determine what resources and support they will receive from the state. The state has yet to release more details on these changes.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago will receive a larger share of state dollars for K-12 schools this year

2025-08-04T23:57:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago Public Schools will receive an additional $76 million from the state this fiscal year for a total of $1.9 billion, according to new data released by the state on Friday.

The new figures indicate Chicago had a significant drop in local tax revenue and an increase in the number of English learners, giving it higher priority for additional state dollars. The new calculations also show that CPS is less adequately funded under the state’s formula than it was last year and will now need about $1.6 billion to reach adequate funding.

CPS had projected receiving an additional $25 million in state funding for the upcoming school year through the evidence-based funding formula, according to an April budget presentation leaked to Chalkbeat the district provided to the Chicago Board of Education. At the time, the district believed the budget gap was $529 million.That projection assumed the district would receive the same increase from the state as it did last school year.

Instead, the district will get about $50 million more than expected in April. A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the state’s recent evidence-based funding formula calculations accurately reflect the challenges the district is facing such as the decline in local tax revenue and inflation.

“That increase will help schools and students but unfortunately does not keep pace with inflation, the rising costs of operating our schools, addressing capital needs, and proudly serving a greater percentage of students who require more services and programming,” said Mary Fergus, spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools.

The state prioritizes districts for additional money using a tier system, with those most in need designated as Tier 1 and Tier 2 and those able to use local revenue sources to adequately fund schools falling either in Tier 3 or Tier 4. Chicago has been categorized as a Tier 2 district since 2022, when the city experienced a dip in the number of students from low-income families and a bump in property tax revenue. CPS’s return to Tier 1 this year is the reason for the funding boost.

Chicago Public Schools is dealing with a budget gap at $734 million. The district has announced several reductions, including cutting 480 custodial jobs and end private custodial contracts to help lower costs.

The state’s second largest district serving almost 34,000 students, Elgin’s U-46, dropped from Tier 1 to Tier 2 and will receive less than last year due to a decline in average student enrollment and students from low-income households. The district will receive an additional $4.8 million, almost $14 million less than it received last year in new money.

Rockford School District 205, the state’s third largest district serving about 26,418 students, is expected to receive an additional $19.7 million in state dollars — $9.5 million more than last year. The district has seen an increase in average student enrollment, English learners, and a significant decrease in local property tax revenues.

The Illinois General Assembly approved the fiscal year 2026 budget at the end of June. The budget included an additional $307 million for K-12 schools around the state, less than the usual increase of $350 million. At the time, a spokesperson for the state board said the agency has paused the Property Tax Relief Grant, a program school districts applied for to receive assistance from the state. The program is being reevaluated.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders said in an email to Chalkbeat that adding an annual minimum of $300 million to the funding formula for schools received a “broad consensus” among advocacy groups and education stakeholders.

“That consistency has been critical in allowing districts to plan long-term,” Sanders said, adding that “ISBE continues to advocate for a sustainable and reliable annual increase of $300 million for tier funding.”

This year, the Illinois evidence-based funding formula currently sits at $8.9 billion. The state’s funding formula has grown by $2.1 billion under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, according to a press release from the Illinois State Board of Education. The state’s overall education budget, which includes the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 districts, an early childhood education block grant, transportation, career and technical education programs, and other grants is $11.1 billion.

The state board said in a press release that the number of districts at or above 90% adequacy increased from 194 to 313 between fiscal years 2018 and 2026.

State formula works, but needs more funding, advocates say

When lawmakers created the funding formula in 2017, they set a deadline to get schools “adequately” funded by 2027. The law guarantees all Illinois school districts the same funding as the previous year and then distributes new money based on a variety of metrics, such as the number of students from low-income families, the average student enrollment, the number of English learners, and how much a district can raise through local property taxes. The formula calculates an “adequacy target” or how much each district needs to educate their students.

The districts most in need of help funding their schools, or Tier 1 districts, get the largest increases while those with less need, Tier 4 districts, get smaller increases.

While the state has allocated more funding to the funding formula, many advocates say more is needed.

Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, who was involved in the creation of the evidence-based formula, said that while the formula is working as it is intended, it is time for the state to rethink adding only an additional $300 million into the formula each year.

“There’s no way a flat bump on a year-to-year basis is going to get you to the level you need to be, unless that flat bump is significantly greater than year to year inflationary growth,” said Martire.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, some education advocates have been calling on the state to invest an additional $550 million annually into the evidence-based funding formula.

Bravetta Hassell, director of communications for advocacy organization Advance Illinois, said in a statement to Chalkbeat that while the organization appreciates the commitment to honoring the annual minimum increase for the formula, it joins other education advocates in saying “it’s not enough.”

“We cannot wait another generation to get to full funding,” Hassell said, “The minimum investment of $350 million a year simply won’t cut it for our students.”

A 2022 report from Martire’s group estimated that if the state continues to add only $350 million a year to the formula, districts will not be adequately funded by 2034 — seven years past the original deadline of 2027.

Districts around the state anticipate doing some belt-tightening for their local budget since the $7 billion in federal emergency COVID relief funds have dried up. In addition, the Trump administration has threatened federal funding to schools and, in early July, withheld funds meant to go to schools but redistributed them later in the month.

Reema Amin contributed to this report

Illinois lawmakers offer no quick solutions for CPS during district finances hearing

2025-07-31T22:44:33+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois state lawmakers did not express willingness Thursday to help Chicago Public Schools close its $734 million budget gap in the coming weeks.

Although some lawmakers agree they want to boost education spending, they did not commit to doing so during a public hearing held in downtown Chicago just a few weeks before the start of the school year on Aug. 18. Chicago’s school board has until the end of August to pass a balanced budget for this fiscal year, which began on July 1. The board is expected to vote on a spending plan at its Aug. 28 meeting.

“I’m hopeful that we can move past the rhetoric, the talking points and unrealistic demands, and get down to business about how we can do better by CPS and its students,” said Illinois Democrat Rep. Ann Williams, who represents neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago and chairs the House Executive Committee.

Illinois has increased funding for K-12 schools across the state by more than $2 billion under a funding formula created eight years ago, of which $1.1 billion has gone to CPS. The state set a goal to “adequately” fund all school districts by 2027, but they’re projected to miss that deadline. According to the state’s formula last year, Chicago schools need almost $1.2 billion to be considered adequately funded.

The hearing was called at the urging of Democrat State Rep. Curtis Tarver, who filed a bill during the spring legislative session to reinstate the Chicago School Finance Authority, which oversaw CPS’s finances from 1980 until 2010. It made financial decisions for the district and had the authority to borrow money, issue bonds, levy taxes, and approve school budgets instead of the Chicago Board of Education, according to the Civic Federation, an independent, nonpartisan research organization.

During the hearing, Tarver sharply criticized the mayor’s popularity and his legislative team. School Board member Michilla Blaise, who was appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, defended the mayor by highlighting his background as a teacher, to which Tarver said, “Part of the reason we are where we are is because of the ineffectiveness and sometimes ineptitude of the fifth floor,” a reference to Johnson’s City Hall office.

Chicago’s budget deficit is driven by multiple things, including rising costs and the district’s use of onetime federal COVID relief dollars to hire thousands more staff.

For weeks, the Chicago Teachers Union and some school board members have pushed the state to call a special session to address school funding issues and other impacts of federal cuts to social safety net programs.

State lawmakers and the governor have not said whether they’ll hold a special session before the regular fall veto session. Thursday’s hearing didn’t reveal an appetite to do so. After the hearing, Williams told Chalkbeat that she is interested in progressive tax ideas for raising revenue, but that calls for a special session are “gimmicky” and designed for “media attention.”

“Demanding special sessions when [the city and CPS] really weren’t there in May, when we were actually working on the budget, seems disingenuous to me,” Williams said.

The district, board members, unions, and civic groups have all floated various solutions for closing CPS’s projected $734 million budget gap. Those include borrowing money, more state funding, using more surplus dollars from a city pool of tax dollars meant to spur economic development, and forgoing a $175 million pension reimbursement to the city.

During her testimony to state lawmakers, interim CPS CEO Macquline King outlined current impacts of the shortfall, including cuts to crossing guards and hot meals.

“We cannot completely cut our way out of this situation,” King told lawmakers. “To do so would have a devastating consequence on the day-to-day operations of our schools and therefore the quality of our students’ education.”

Asked why lawmakers didn’t ask CPS officials more questions about the budget issues, Tarver said state lawmakers were “really just trying to better understand, as opposed to drill them with questions.”

Appointed Chicago school board members Blaise and Debby Pope, along with elected members Jennifer Custer and Ellen Rosenfeld, also testified about why funding cuts would negatively impact students and classrooms. But their joint testimony revealed differing opinions among the 21-person board on how CPS should solve its financial problems.

Blaise and Pope pressed state lawmakers to help CPS. Rosenfeld and Custer echoed calls for collaboration, but Rosenfeld said she’s not calling for a special session and doesn’t want the school board to take out a loan or reimburse the city $175 million for a municipal pension payment that covers some school staff. Custer said she’s not expecting the state to give CPS “a handout,” but wants lawmakers to work with the board on a solution.

Joe Ferguson, president of The Civic Federation, said a School Finance Authority might be an acceptable solution, but it wouldn’t need to operate as it did in the past. For example, it could have partial decision making power over budgets or veto power over contracts, but otherwise leave those powers in the hands of the school board, according to a report from the Civic Federation.

Tarver said he thinks the state “should have some say” over how the district spends its money. The state provides flexible education funding to all districts in Illinois and Chicago is the largest.

“I don’t know that [a School Finance Authority] needs to be in the same iteration that it was before,” Tarver said. “That was obviously 40 years ago. Things have changed.”

Multiple organizations, including the Chicago Teachers Union, called for more state money for public services in Illinois.

Half of the room was packed with members of the Chicago Teachers Union, which held a rally before the hearing along with other progressive organizations to pressure state lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to raise revenue through new taxes, including on the state’s highest earners and corporations.

“Illinois has a Democratic super majority,” said Diane Castro, the CTU’s financial secretary, during the rally. “We are a blue state. We need that to mean something.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools restructures special education department

2025-07-30T22:06:27+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago Public Schools is restructuring its department for students with disabilities and planning to reassign 65 central office positions, according to an internal email obtained by Chalkbeat.

The changes, outlined in an email from Joshua Long, the chief of the Office for Students with Disabilities, also include the elimination of the Department of Procedures and Standards and the Department of Instructional Support, which focused on complying with federal and local policies and instructional support for schools, and the creation of a new department called Academic Access. Among the roles being phased out during the restructure, two — district representative and special education administrator — will be replaced with a special education coordinator to work directly with schools.

A CPS spokesperson said in a statement that there will be “no net loss of full-time positions” as roles are redefined. Employees impacted by the restructuring were able to reapply for the new role; out of those who applied, about 85% were hired, the spokesperson said. The district is still reviewing applicants.

“This shift is not motivated by budgetary concerns or cost-cutting,” the spokesperson said in the statement. “Instead, it is a strategic, values-driven decision grounded in research, best practices, and a belief in the limitless potential of every student.”

Last school year, CPS served nearly 54,000 students with disabilities, who made up 16.4% of the district’s student body. Their share of the population has grown by about three percentage points in the past decade.

The latest departmental changes, coupled with other staffing changes related to special education, including reductions and reassignments impacting special education classroom assistants who work directly with students, are raising some red flags for special education advocates. Of particular concern is the timing of the changes, which come less than three weeks before the start of school on Aug. 18.

Frank Lally, education policy analyst at Access Living, an advocacy organization for people with disabilities based in Chicago, questioned whether the new positions would be fully staffed by the start of the school year.

“I worry that that will create chaos, let’s say, when it comes to school assignments and making sure that students have their accommodations set for the coming school year,” Lally said.

CPS is also currently revising the guidelines schools are supposed to use to develop students’ Individualized Education Programs, legal documents outlining academic supports and educational goals tailored to the needs of each student with disabilities. CPS is also planning to add 120 new case managers who oversee special education services at schools and 100 more clinicians, such as speech pathologists and occupational therapists, in accordance with the new Chicago Teachers Union contract.

Some advocates think the department restructuring is not necessarily a bad thing. Mary Fahey Hughes, a former Chicago Board of Education member and longtime advocate for people with disabilities, said she likes the idea of combining staff roles and placing central office staffers in schools. Fahey Hughes said there’s a “deep need” for more support in classrooms that serve students with disabilities.

“These are professionals with deep Special Education knowledge, but parents rarely see them at work unless there is some sort of problem,” she said in a text message to Chalkbeat.

Barbara Cohen, senior policy analyst with the nonprofit Legal Council for Health Justice, said two of the roles that the district is phasing out never made much sense to her. Cohen said some staff who worked directly with families were not equipped to support families and turnover has been an issue.

“Some [staffers] facilitated effective relationships between families and schools, but some seem to be unfamiliar with the requirements of state and federal law,” said Cohen. “My question, though, is how the restructuring will improve the situation.”

District shifts away from compliance-first philosophy

Chicago’s overhaul comes at a time when the federal government has fired staff at the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which is responsible for investigating special education complaints. Under the Trump administration, the Office for Civil Rights dismissed over 3,400 cases between March and the end of June, according to a report by Politico.

In the internal email obtained by Chalkbeat, Long, the chief of the Office for Students with Disabilities, noted that the changes represent a shift in philosophy for his office.

“For more than two decades, our office has operated under the belief that compliance must come first — and that strong instruction and student growth will follow,” Long wrote. “We respectfully — and confidently — offer a different view. We believe that when students receive strong, inclusive instruction, their learning will grow — and compliance will follow.”

Some special education advocates worry that the district’s internal restructuring could signal to schools that instruction, rather than compliance, is the top priority.

Matt Cohen, a lawyer at Matt Cohen & Associates and special education advocate, said working on academic support for students is a good priority but worries it could send a message that compliance isn’t a priority.

“I think you’re giving permission to schools to not focus on compliance at all,” said Cohen. “In the context of everything that’s happening at the federal level, I think what they’re saying is we’re not going to worry about these rules so much.”

The last time CPS overhauled its special education department in the 2016-17 school year amid budget challenges, an investigation by WBEZ found services for students were being wrongly delayed or denied. The investigation prompted special state oversight that lasted from 2018 until 2021.

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said staffers from the agency have been in several meetings with Chicago Public Schools about the restructuring and staffing changes. In a statement, the spokesperson said ISBE will “continue to provide oversight and guidance to ensure compliance and safeguard services for students with disabilities.”

Christine Palmieri, a long-time special education advocate and works with Matt Cohen & Associates, hopes that compliance, procedures and standards, and policies are “still highly met” by the district.

Palmieri hopes the district will fill all the new positions, quickly train employees in the new role, continue to work with the state’s monitor to have ongoing training, and ensure these new roles are accessible to families.

District officials said the district is providing training before the start of the 2025-26 school year and will continue to train staff on an “ongoing basis.”

Reema Amin contributed to this report.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Trump administration’s changes to Head Start sow uncertainty among Illinois child care providers

2025-07-23T15:58:38+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

In DeKalb and Kane counties west of Chicago, more than 240 low-income families depend on Two Rivers Head Start Agency for child care, a food pantry, car repairs, baby items, and other services. But over the last six months, since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, Executive Director Kelly Neidel has seen families stop coming out of fear of being deported.

Now, she worries that a new Trump administration directive, which bars undocumented children from accessing Head Start, will further erode the bonds between families and providers.

“Head Start is all about building trust,” said Neidel, whose organization operates three centers across the two counties and receives funding from Head Start and the Community Service Block Grant among other funds. “And I think this will do the opposite.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced earlier this month that it is rescinding an almost 30-year-old guidance from the Clinton administration that allowed undocumented immigrants to access Head Start and other programs because they were not considered federal public benefits. Under the change, Head Start is now classified as a public benefit, meaning undocumented immigrants do not qualify for the program.

The change has caused confusion among Illinois Head Start providers and advocates who are concerned for the families they serve, unsure what they are expected to do, and worried about a drop in student enrollment that would mean losing funding.

Head Start serves almost 29,000 children and pregnant women across Illinois, according to the Illinois Head Start Association.

Under current Head Start rules, providers are responsible for checking a family’s eligibility to enroll in the program. But they’ve never been required to collect citizenship data, according to some Illinois Head Start providers. While the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has yet to say how Head Start providers should check for immigration status, some providers are concerned that it will place an administrative burden on staff at child care centers.

Nadia Gronkowski, program manager of advocacy and policy at Start Early, an early childhood advocacy group and Head Start grantee that distributes federal funding to community-based organizations, worries about the consequences of having this policy and its impact on staff.

“It sort of all depends on how it’s implemented, but there’s a possibility that [staff] would now need to be checking out citizenship verification for every student,” said Gronkowski. “That’s a significant amount of staff time and costs to do that sort of verification.”

Other Head Start providers are concerned about a possible drop in enrollment. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, Head Start rolled out a “full enrollment initiative,” which required providers to keep enrollment levels at or above 97% every year. If enrollment drops below that, the federal Office of Head Start can reduce annual funding.

Brenda Berman, spokesperson for the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, a Head Start grantee that reaches over 15,000 children and adults through direct service and community partnerships and runs three child care centers in Chicago, said withholding funding could create a “spiraling effect.” If the Carole Robertson Center loses funding, it would lose slots for children, impacting families and communities.

For now, Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association, said her organization is encouraging Head Start providers not to implement any new policies until there is further guidance from the Trump administration. However, she doesn’t know when that will happen.

“From what we hear, the Office of Head Start has been told by the administration to work on guidance,” said Morrison-Frichtl. “It’ll be weeks before any guidance comes out, or months. I’d be surprised if we have it by the end of the summer.”

There has been pushback to the Trump administration’s policy changes. The Illinois Head Start Association along with other state Head Start associations are a part of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union arguing that changes to Head Start are “unconstitutional and unlawful” and requesting a stop to all “actions to dismantle Head Start.” The lawsuit was originally filed in late April, and the ACLU is seeking to amend the lawsuit this month to include a challenge to the recent directive barring undocumented children from the program.

Additionally, 20 states, including Illinois, and the District of Columbia announced on Monday they are suing the Trump administration over new rules to restrict undocumented immigrants and some visa-holders from federal programs that provide early childhood education, health care, and other services saying the administration did not follow procedures to establish new rules, misinterprets federal welfare laws, and puts an excessive burden on Head Start providers to verify immigration status of students and their families.

Head Start has provided access to child care, preschool, and other services for low-income families for 60 years and historically received bipartisan support. Now, the program is facing challenges under Trump’s second term and is at risk of being eliminated.

Earlier in April, the federal Department of Health and Human Services closed five of ten regional Head Start offices around the country, including one in Chicago that served Illinois and states throughout the Midwest.

When Trump ordered a freeze on federal grants in January, child care programs were unable to access funds used for their day-to-day operations. Even when the decision was reversed within days, child care providers still struggled in February to access funding. Some even had to close their doors temporarily to families.

Despite the uncertainty, some child care providers and advocates are staying optimistic.

“Earlier this year when Head Start was proposed for elimination, the Head Start community rallied like we have never seen it rally before,” Gronkowski said. “They stood up and said, ‘You can’t do this, this is important to our communities, and this is important to our families.’”

She hopes people will continue to rally around the program.

Neidel, of Two Rivers Head Start Agency, said she wants to ensure kids are safe and to maintain relationships with families, but it’s hard with the changes happening at the federal level.

“You just want to, sometimes, break down and cry,” said Neidel, describing her worries about the families she serves. “Because you’re looking at them and thinking, ‘God, what’s going to happen to them?’”

Correction 7/23: This story has been updated to include the full name of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning and clarifies how the center reaches 15,000 children and adults.

Illinois Gov. Pritzker and 16 state leaders demand the release of $7 billion in federal funds for schools

2025-07-17T20:37:50+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, along with 16 other Democratic governors, sent a letter Thursday to federal education and budget officials demanding the Trump administration release almost $7 billion in funding for K-12 schools that was expected to go out by July 1.

The billions of dollars was approved by Congress in March as a part of a continuing budget resolution. However, the Trump administration told state education officials on June 30 it was halting funding meant to be released the next day, pending further review of how funds are being spent.

The White House Office of Management and Budget told Chalkbeat in early July that initial findings show funds were being used to “subsidize a radical leftwing agenda.”

In a press release announcing the letter sent by the group of governors, Pritzker said, “The Trump administration is not only openly flouting the law, they are abandoning their responsibility to our students.”

The letter, sent to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, called the Trump administration’s freeze in funding “unacceptable.” In addition to Illinois, the 16 other states whose governors signed onto the letter were Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The funding freeze “disrupts school operations, undermines student services, and violates the Department’s obligation to administer funding in a timely and responsible manner,” said the letter.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sent a similar letter to McMahon and Vought last week, urging the federal officials to distribute the money to prevent delays in “critical services” for schools.

Several states are also suing the federal government over the halting of the education funds. Twenty-four states, including Illinois, and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit earlier this week claiming that withholding these funds violates the Constitution and federal laws and calling for the money to be released immediately.

Illinois was expecting to receive about $218.7 million in federal funding for services supporting English learners, migrant education, teacher professional development, student enrichment programs, and after-school programs, according to a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education earlier this month.

The federal funding now frozen included $160 million for Michigan, $70 million for Colorado, $118 million for Tennessee, $230 million for Pennsylvania, and $107 million for Indiana.

Around the country, state education officials have also called out the Trump administration for withholding funding. Earlier this month, Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders called the move “deeply disruptive.”

Becky Vevea contributed to this report.

Report: Illinois graduates who earn college degrees make more money, but racial disparities persist

2025-07-16T05:01:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois high school students who went on to obtain a college degree earn more money than their peers with only a high school diploma, but those from low-income households, students of color, and women who graduate from college are likely to be paid less than affluent, white male counterparts, according to a new report.

Sarah Cashdollar, one of the authors of the report, said the researchers found that “education pays” regardless of how much a student’s parents earned. Other factors such as obtaining higher levels of education and what industry people go into matter as well.

“College and career choices do shape student outcomes,” said Cashdollar. “They do provide some opportunity for students to be upwardly mobile, but they don’t entirely erase those disparities.”

The report by the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative looked at education and employment outcomes for Illinois high school seniors who graduated between 2008 and 2012. It found disparities persist along race and ethnicity, socioeconomic backgrounds, and gender on who obtains a four-year college degree, what careers students go into, and how much people were able to earn.

The collaborative worked in partnership with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research along with the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, and the Illinois State Board of Education to analyze data from the Illinois High School 2 Career dataset, according to a press release. This data collects information on high school students, whether they enrolled and graduated from college, what industries they enter, and their wages.

The report found that students from low-income households were less likely to obtain bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, doctoral degrees, or professional degrees than their peers from higher-income households.

The report also found that the state’s high school students whose parents were among the highest earners went on to earn about 48% more than those whose parents were in the lowest-earning group. Among those who came from the same socioeconomic background, Black and Latino students earned less than Asian American and white students, the report found.

Students in the study’s sample from low-income families were underrepresented in high-paying careers such as computer information sciences and engineering. They were more likely to work in accommodations and food services.

Regardless of whether students had the same levels of education, degrees from the same type of program, or worked in the same industry, students from high-income households earned more than their peers who came from low-income households. On average, the gap in earnings between students from high-income households and low-income households was $5,815 even if they had the same degree.

Despite some of the disparities across race, class, and gender in education and employment, the report found that a student’s level of education was more related to their wages than their parents’ income. Students with higher degrees, such as a master’s or professional degree, earned 2.5 times more than students with only a high school diploma, with a gap of $39,966.

There are some limits to the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative’s report. For instance, many of the students in the study’s sample had higher rates of going to college and becoming employed. Also, the students in the sample graduated high school between 2008 and 2012, right after the great recession but before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cashdollar noted that higher education and the labor market have changed. However, she said, there is value in a college degree.

But getting students to enroll into college can present a challenge. Illinois’ postsecondary education enrollment rate slightly dipped after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, according to data from the state’s annual report card. Students who enrolled in college within 12 months after graduating high school went from 68.6% in 2018-19 to 66.1% in 2021-22 school year.

The report notes that more work needs to be done to expand access to education and employment opportunities for students to help aid upward socioeconomic mobility.

Over the years, Illinois has increased funding for state scholarship and grant programs and made changes to laws to help more students access higher education. This year, the state increased the Monetary Award Program grant by $10 million. The grant helps support students from low-income families to go to college. Students can receive an award up to $8,604.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker last month signed several bills to increase access to college, according to a press release. He signed the Public University Direct Admission Program Act, which allows public colleges and universities to offer admission to students based on their grade point average by the school year 2027-28. Two other measures ensure that high schools have a point person for students who are filling out the federal financial aid form known as FAFSA and require schools to set aside time for students to fill out the form; both bills take effect during the 2025-26 school year.

Another measure also increases access to dual credit programs, for students by requiring that school districts and community colleges work together to create the programs, which allow high school students to take college courses and earn credit for high school and college.

In previous years, student participation in dual credit programs in Illinois increased, but students from low-income households, students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities were less likely to take those courses.

Correction: July 16, 2025: This story has been updated to reflect that students from low-income families were overrepresented in the accommodations industry and food services, not that most students from low-income families worked in those jobs. Professional licenses were corrected to professional degrees.

Illinois tried to regulate homeschooling. But the backlash was huge.

2025-07-10T20:57:01+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

When Illinois state Rep. Terra Costa Howard filed a bill in early February requiring families who homeschool their children to notify school districts, she expected some opposition. But she could not have predicted that tens of thousands of people would come out against it.

House Bill 2827, also known as the Homeschool Act, received 40,536 witness slips in opposition to the bill — a way for members of the public, government officials, and advocacy organizations to share their position on proposed changes to state laws. Usually, bills get around a dozen witness slips; the most controversial ones might get a few hundred.

Homeschool families and supporters showed up to the capitol to rally against the bill, as reported by Capitol News Illinois. During a committee hearing in March where the bill was presented, debate lasted for over two hours as Republican lawmakers spoke against the bill and people testified against it.

The proposal — which received the backing of the Illinois State Board of Education — would have required parents who are homeschooling their kids to have a high school diploma and would have allowed education officials to request evidence of learning materials and homeschooled students’ work.

It did not pass the House and never made it to the Senate.

Opponents of the Homeschool Act said it infringed on parental rights to educate their children and homeschooling does not need any more regulations. They say parents know what is best for their children and high-profile cases of child abuse are not enough for the government to add more restrictions.

The parental rights movement in Illinois has been slowly building up momentum over the past few years with debates at the statehouse over the now defunct tax-credit scholarship and Republican lawmakers filing bills to advance school choice and curriculum transparency. The debate over homeschooling is the latest issue galvanizing the movement.

Costa Howard and supporters of the bill wanted to add more restrictions to homeschooling after an investigation by ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois found the lack of laws around homeschooling in Illinois made it harder for the state to follow up on cases of students not receiving an education or being abused and neglected. Right now, families who homeschool their children do not have to notify the Illinois State Board of Education that they are doing so nor do they have to provide information on what students are learning throughout the year.

State regulations around homeschooling vary across the country. Illinois is one of a handful of states, including Michigan, New Jersey, and Connecticut, that have little to no regulations.

It’s unclear how many Illinois students are being homeschooled because of the lack of data collection.

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said in a statement to Chalkbeat that homeschooling in the state is “almost entirely unregulated,” but that the state’s compulsory attendance laws require parents “ensure their child is being educated whether in a traditional or other setting.”

The bill would also have allowed regional offices of education to start truancy proceedings if needed for children who are not being educated while being homeschooled — the same oversight as for children enrolled in traditional public schools.

Illinois truancy law considers a student to be truant if they miss about 5% of the school year without a valid excuse. Students’ cases can be referred to truancy officers hired by the district to look into cases and taken to court. The law says punishment can include a misdemeanor charge or a fine for a parent or guardian.

The fact that HB2827 would subject homeschool parents to truancy laws is one of the main concerns of opponents.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, William Estrada, senior counsel for the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, a conservative homeschool advocacy group based in Virginia, called the bill the most “draconian anti-homeschool bill that we’ve ever seen in our 44-year history.”

Costa Howard said that she heard the opponents’ concerns and carefully crafted the bill to ensure there were no curriculum requests.

But, Costa Howard said, “I don’t think we should ever back down when we have kids and their education and their safety at risk.”

Supporters believe paperwork will ensure students are educated

One piece of the Homeschool Act would have required parents to keep a portfolio of curriculum, students’ work, assessment of student progress, and other materials to ensure homeschool children are receiving a complete education.

Whitney Evans Harrison, a supporter of the bill, believes that if her parents had to show what they were teaching her throughout the school year, she might not be struggling with math as an adult.

Harrison said she believes her learning gaps in math education started when she was pulled out of public school in central Illinois and homeschooled throughout elementary school. Harrison said her mother had a teaching certificate, but was hands-off when it came to teaching. She explained that when it came to math, her mother handed her a teacher’s manual and workbook and sent her to study alone and bring back what she worked on.

In high school and college, she said she barely passed math classes, and the gaps in her math abilities still show up as an adult.

“I struggle to do basic budgeting on a daily basis. I don’t understand numbers,” said Harrison. “It took me three, four years to pass basic math competency to graduate college.”

Supporters of the bill such as the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, an advocacy organization based in Massachusetts, say they are not against families deciding to homeschool students. They understand that families have good reasons why they want to do so.

“We want all children to have education in all of the main subjects,” said Emily Allison, who worked with the group and was homeschooled as a child in Illinois. “We want children to be prepared to enter the workforce, right? We want kids to be able to grow up and be positive, contributing, educated members of society who are prepared for the realities of life.”

But opponents argue that it is a “misconception” to say there aren’t any regulations when it comes to homeschooling kids, since they have to teach certain subjects.

“Homeschoolers are required to teach their kids in the English language. They’re also required to teach them the current grade level that they’re at, and the current subjects that they would get in a public school setting,” said Arkasia Cox, a member of the Peoria Area Association of Christian Homeschoolers and a homeschooling parent.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s homeschooling guidance outlines those requirements. But there are few rules about what subjects parents can teach their children, the length of the school day or year, and using state standardized tests. Parents are not required to keep records on their child’s attendance or what schoolwork and homework they did throughout the school year.

States like New York, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania require parents to notify their local school district that they will be educating their child at home. New York state requires parents to have an Individualized Home Instruction Plan that includes syllabi, curriculum, textbooks, and the number of hours on a subject, and to submit quarterly reports.

A piece of paper isn’t enough to stop abuse, opponents say

Supporters of the bill, such as the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, say they want protections for children against abuse and neglect. The group keeps a database of cases where homeschooled children have experienced abuse and neglect or have died.

The investigation by ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois last year centered on a child who was abused by his parents and pulled out of school to be homeschooled. There aren’t any laws in Illinois that would prevent parents from pulling a child out of public school if they are suspected or being investigated for child abuse and neglect.

Jennifer Roland, the director of public policy and government affairs at the Illinois Collaboration on Youth, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that works on issues such as child welfare, said the organization supported HB 2827 because it wants some accountability in place to ensure that kids are doing well and learning.

“If a child is not going to school, and the state is not aware of where the child is being schooled, there is this possibility of harm,” Roland said. “I don’t think the idea was to say parents are going to use that as a means to harm their children or that parents are going to harm their children in the process of homeschooling them, but it does leave a gap.”

Another case highlighted in the ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois investigation and cited by supporters of the bill is that of 9-year old Zion Staples of Rock Island, Illinois. The young boy died due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2022, according to a coroner’s report obtained by the two news organizations. Zion’s mother did not report what happened and hid his body in a trash can for months, until a friend of the mother reported the incident, according to officials. According to the news report, no one noticed when Zion, who was homeschooled at the time, went missing.

Opponents say submitting a piece of paper to a local school district would not prevent children like Zion Staples from being abused and that other state departments should be responsible for monitoring cases.

Kathy Wentz, of the Illinois Homeschool Association, said child abuse should be addressed by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

“If there is abuse in the home, that’s a DCFS issue. That is not a homeschooling issue,” Wentz said, referring to the state department responsible for investigating child abuse.

Both sides say they are not giving up yet

Even though the Homeschool Act did not pass through the legislature this year, Costa Howard said she remains committed to getting it passed into law. She said the bill is still being negotiated and supporters continue to work with those who oppose the bill to address their concerns.

“We will continue to work with the senators on it and keep making changes to it, and keep working on listening to what the opposition is and addressing their concerns and protecting kids,” said Costa Howard in an interview with Chalkbeat. “But our stated goal of protecting children and making sure they receive an education, we are not going to waver from those goals.”

Costa Howard said she does not know if the bill will come up in veto session this fall or if she’ll have to bring it back up during the spring legislative session in 2026.

Whitney Evans Harrison says she will continue to support the bill.

“It matters that we have rules, because rules are there to try to help us from not getting hurt,” she said. “If someone cuts themselves on the knife, you make sure that the next person who has the knife knows this side of it is sharp, and you want to hold it by the handle.”

The Illinois State Board of Education said in a statement it does not anticipate any changes to how data is collected on students who are being homeschooled without passage of legislation. “Without a legal requirement, any data collected would be incomplete,” the statement said.

While supporters of the Homeschool Act are looking forward to the next chance to present the bill in the state legislature, opponents say they are also prepared to stop it.

“We will fight it just as we fought it last year,” said Wentz, of the Illinois Homeschool Association. “There is, quite literally, no version of this bill that we will not fight.”

Illinois schools chief denounces Trump administration decision to withhold federal education funds

2025-07-02T21:19:30+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois schools chief Tony Sanders called the Trump administration’s decision to withhold almost $7 billion in federal education funds “deeply disruptive” for the state’s 1.9 million public school students.

The U.S. Department of Education notified states on Monday about the hold on funds, Sanders, the state superintendent of education, said in a weekly message Tuesday. According to news reports, most of the funding was to support English learners and children of migrant workers, while a smaller part was supposed to go to afterschool programs, teacher training, and enrichment programs.

The funds were approved by Congress earlier this year and were expected to go out by July 1. However, the Trump administration claimed that the money was being used to “subsidize a radical leftwing agenda” and ordered a halt, pending a review.

Sanders said the administration’s move “forces local districts to deal with unnecessary uncertainty and places an undue burden on teachers, administrators, and families alike at the exact moment when they should be focused on preparing for the next school year.”

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said in a statement to Chalkbeat on Thursday that the board expected to receive around $218.7 million in federal funding across five programs on July 1.

Afterschool advocates have also voiced concerns about the withholding of federal funds for afterschool and summer programs. Susan Stanton, executive director of the ACT Now Coalition, said in a statement on Tuesday that the decision was a “profound and direct attack on children.”

“It is a cold, calculated move to rip away the vital network of high-quality services from diverse communities,” Stanton said. “We can’t hold hostage the safety and future of our children in the name of partisan politics.”

School districts around the state already have to deal with tighter budgets for the coming school year since federal COVID relief dollars have expired. The state’s overall education budget increased slightly, with $307 million more going to the state board’s evidence-based funding formula to support K-12 schools. This fiscal year the state board’s education budget increased to almost $11.2 billion, from $10.8 billion in fiscal year 2025.

In recent years, school advocates have been asking for the state to put in an additional $550 million to help schools reach “adequate funding” sooner.

Without more state funding, and with federal funding at risk, school districts will have to adjust to a new fiscal reality. Chicago Public Schools recently reported having a $734 million budget deficit. The district has so far decided to lay off about 161 employees, including many crossing guards, and will not fill over 200 vacant positions. More cuts could be in store.

A district spokesperson said CPS does not yet know the impact of the federal funds being withheld. For the last school year, CPS was expecting to receive at least $90 million in the federal funding streams that the state said are currently on hold, according to CPS’s website.

Updated July 3: This story was updated with new information from the Illinois State Board of Education on the amount of federal funding that has been withheld, and a clarification on changes to state funding for the current fiscal year.

Reema Amin contributed to this report.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois lawmakers failed to pass a school cellphone ban – for now

2025-06-25T20:51:18+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois students don’t have to worry about a statewide school cellphone ban — for the time being.

State lawmakers failed to pass a proposal that would have restricted the use of cellphones in classrooms by 2026-27, but they could revisit the bill again in the fall veto session.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for cellphone restrictions in classrooms during his State of the State address in February and his office filed witness slips in favor of Senate Bill 2427 during the session. The bill garnered bipartisan support in the Senate, where it sailed through with a unanimous vote of 55-0.

But once it entered the House, momentum stalled. While the bill was on the House’s schedule, it was not called to the floor for a vote before the end of session, raising questions about what happened behind the scenes.

SB 2427 would have required school districts to create a policy, with input from the school’s community, that limits the use of cellphones during instructional time and incorporates guidance for safe and secure storage during the school day.

State legislators who worked on SB 2427 say they saw overwhelming support for the bill, but ran out of time to push the proposal over the finish line. Some believe it got lost in the shuffle as lawmakers spent the final hours of the spring legislative session negotiating the state’s $55 billion budget for fiscal year 2025, which starts on July 1.

State Sen. Cristina Castro, the chief sponsor of the bill, said in an interview with Chalkbeat that she did not hear strong opposition to the bill, but believes the language of the bill needed some “fine-tuning.”

Teachers unions, administrator groups, and state lawmakers had expressed concerns about schools’ ability to enforce cellphone restrictions and what schools would do about cell phone access in emergency situations such as an active shooter scenario.

Bryen Johnson, director of political activities for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the largest unions in the state, said the union generally supports the idea of removing cellphones from classrooms so students can remain focused on their lessons. But the union did not file a witness slip in support of the bill because of unanswered questions, including one regarding liability.

“If a device breaks, who’s responsible for said device? What role, what responsibilities does the teacher have in that?” said Johnson.

State Rep. Michelle Mussman, a House sponsor of the bill and chair of the House’s education policy committee, said in an email to Chalkbeat that lawmakers brought up several concerns such as access to phones in an emergency situation, who would be responsible if a phone was stolen or broken, and enforcement of a policy and whether it would be disproportionately applied to students of color.

Mussman said negotiations over the bill will continue over the summer. Castro says that she and Mussman are committed to getting the bill over the finish line. The bill could return during the fall veto session.

A statement from the governor’s office emailed to Chalkbeat signals that Pritzker is still invested in working with the General Assembly to pass a school cellphone ban bill.

“Like many pieces of legislation, this effort may take time, but regulating cellphone use in schools is a crucial step toward improving student focus and academic performance,” the statement said.

The bill language, as it stands now, allows exceptions for students who might need to keep their cellphone close. Those exceptions could include if a student had a medical reason, to fulfill an Individualized Education Program or a Section 504 plan, to support English learners, in case of an emergency, or if a student is told by a teacher to use a cellphone in class.

School districts would not have been able to enforce their new cellphone policies with fines, fees, or by deploying school resources officers or local law enforcement agencies, according to the proposed legislation. The legislation also would have required school boards to review their cellphone policy every three years. School districts would have been required to either post the policy on their websites or hand out the policy to families.

Illinois is not the only state looking to curb cellphone use in schools with legislation this year. Half of all states have either banned or restricted the use of cell phones in classrooms and many others have proposals to do so. Colorado, Indiana, New York, and Tennessee are among the states that have successfully passed cellphone bans. Michigan and New Jersey have proposals being discussed by lawmakers.

Research shows that the use of cellphones and social media can have negative impacts on students’ mental health. According to a 2023 survey, about 51% of teens spend at least four hours on social media. Another study found that the use of social media makes teens more depressed and anxious.

A Pew Research Center survey found about 68% of adults support cellphone bans and 65% of adults who have kids in K-12 were more likely to support a ban. Those who support restricting cellphone use in schools say students would have fewer distractions during class time.

On the road: This Illinois teacher spent a year asking educators what belonging means to them

2025-06-16T20:38:57+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Rachael Mahmood has been on the road for the past year asking educators across Illinois about what belonging means to them and what school districts can do to support educators.

Mahmood, a veteran elementary school teacher at Indian Prairie School District 204, was named Illinois Teacher of the Year in 2024. One of the perks of the title is being able to take a year off to pursue professional development. Mahmood decided to spend the year traveling around the state facilitating conversations about belonging, known as World Cafes, with educators and school communities.

As a student of color growing up in a predominantly white suburb outside of Chicago, Mahmood always felt like an outsider and has been on a search to figure out how to ensure students and educators feel like they belong.

“Right now, a lot of people are talking about how do we attract teachers to the field, how do we attract students to become teachers, and how do we retain teachers,” said Mahmood regarding the idea behind her project. “And so I kind of married that need right now in the community with this idea of belonging.”

Throughout the year, Mahmood organized about 50 meetings across Illinois, which attracted crowds ranging from 30 to 600 people. All told, thousands came to the gatherings, held at schools, colleges, and education conferences. About 2,500 of them took a post-workshop survey, and almost 2,000 of the respondents work in schools. The meetings were open to educators, students, and families. Mahmood traveled all over the state, visiting school communities in rural, suburban, and urban areas.

Mahmood would ask participants to sit in small groups, and she would provide them with discussion topics, such as how they define belonging, what their schools strengths and challenges are when it comes to making people feel like they belong, and what action steps they want to see their school take to increase a sense of belonging. Right after, she would survey the groups.

Mahmood took the data she received from participants and ran it through an artificial intelligence program that helped her understand what participants wanted. She found that many of the teachers’ answers differed based on their racial or ethnic background and their years of service.

In an interview with Chalkbeat Chicago, Mahmood shared her findings and what educators told her about their experiences at these World Cafes.

This story has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How did educators define belonging in the meetings?

So the first thing I learned about defining belonging is that it’s deeply personal, and it’s different for everybody. School districts need to know how their educators define belonging, how their students define belonging, and how their students’ families define belonging. And the only way to find that out is to ask them, right? Because school districts can be taking many well-intentioned steps towards inclusion, but it’s ultimately our feelings of belonging which show them those steps have actually landed. No matter what demographic you came from, safety and security were a big theme that came out of how we define belonging.

Were there differences between how teachers defined belonging?

Hispanic participants did have a priority on safe and secure environments. They were emphasizing more words that involve psychological safety and being free from judgment. African American participants predominantly defined belonging through school culture and community. They were emphasizing words like “authenticity,” “affirmation,” and “visibility,” and they referred to the school being like a home. White educators tended to mirror the overall trend about safe environments, empathy, and voice. Asian American educators frequently named empathy and team connection — looking at interpersonal relations, like warmth, knowing each other’s name, greeting each other, those types of one-to-one kind of connections.

Our early career educators, those with between one to five years [in the classroom], prioritize safe and secure environments and school culture, but they had a heavy influence on belonging and celebrating diverse cultures. But those who are mid and later career educators had a stronger emphasis on hearing all stakeholders’ voices in the way they define belonging.

What did teachers say when you asked them what their greatest strengths were when it comes to creating a space of belonging at school?

The greatest strength that educators talked about was basically this idea of being empathetic and responsive to each other. They really named their colleagues as their greatest strengths. They said things like “My colleagues are supportive. My colleagues are welcoming. My school is welcoming. My colleagues are kind. We take care of each other.” This idea of trust and teacher care.

What were the barriers to belonging in schools for teachers?

The most frequently expressed barriers, this is ironic, was the way staff engages with each other. Our greatest strength is our colleagues; we have the power to lift each other up and support each other, and that means a lot to us as educators. But at the same time, we have to be careful with each other’s hearts. We have to know each other’s stories.

Black teachers said staff diversity was their dominant concern. They talked about diversity in the sense of themselves being from a diverse background, as well as how we treat students. Hispanic educators focused more on staff engagement, how we talk to each other, how we treat each other. But they talked about how we treat them as Hispanic teachers, and they talked a lot about how we treat and support families. Asian American staff members frequently cited a lack of cultural knowledge about students and families, which is not surprising, because Asia has so many different cultures and languages and traditions and religions. For white staff, their biggest challenge was barriers to feeling included, but they were mostly talking about barriers that their students and families face.

What actions did educators suggest to make teachers, students, and families feel like they belong?

Staff engagement again. A lot of actions around building teacher trust and care. Even some actions around how do we empower students, and how do we increase communication? Those were kind of the four themes.

What were some takeaways you had from the conversations that you hosted so far?

What’s most important is if we want people to feel a sense of belonging, we gotta ask them what belonging means to them. We have to honor what it means to them, and we have to strive and align our actions towards those outcomes. Otherwise, we may be doing many things to help people feel [a sense of] belonging, but they may not be feeling it because that’s not the way they define it, or it may not be landing in the ways we’re hoping that it would land.

How did educators feel about the meetings?

Once I started sharing my story, the vulnerability in the way that I share my story, it primed the conversation in a way that everyone was an engaged participant. They left affirmed in the whole experience. People were coming up afterwards and saying, ‘This was the most amazing professional development we’ve done all year. This was the best institute day we had all year. We should start every year with an activity like this.’ People felt heard.

With all the information that you gathered through these conversations, what do you plan to do now?

I’m working on writing a book right now. Well, I don’t know if it’s gonna be a book, but, like, a manual/light reading book that talks about what I learned from this experience. I’m going to talk about the need to center educator voices in spaces where educators are impacted. The need to center the voices of our community, having more community-driven definitions, and community-driven actions.

Correction: June 20, 2025: A previous version of this reported that about 2,500 attended Mahmood’s World Cafes. This story has been updated to reflect that about 2,500 participants took a post-workshop survey.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Inside Illinois’ FY 2026 budget: little to no new funding for K-12 schools, early childhood education

2025-06-03T22:43:08+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois lawmakers passed a $55 billion budget with slim increases to early childhood education programs and K-12 schools. The lack of new dollars for programs comes as schools grapple with smaller budgets since federal COVID-19 relief expired.

It’s a challenging time for the state government, local school districts, and child care providers. As state lawmakers negotiated the budget during the legislative session, there was fear that federal funding tied to schools could be stripped away. The U.S. Department of Education threatened federal funding for schools that it deems as promoting “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The administration revoked an extension on spending down $77 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds for Illinois schools, but later walked back the decision after a judge ruled against it.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker praised state lawmakers and leaders in the House and Senate for passing a “balanced budget” in a statement on Sunday.

“Even in the face of Trump and Congressional Republicans stalling the national economy, our state budget delivers for working families without raising their taxes while protecting the progress we are making for our long-term fiscal health,” said Pritzker.

However, local advocates and teachers unions were hoping to see more investment in schools this fiscal year.

Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers unions in the state, said in a statement on Monday that while the approved budget maintains funding levels for programs, it “doesn’t reflect the urgency of students’ needs.”

“Our students in public schools deserve a bold, comprehensive investment, not another year of the status quo. Reducing Evidence Based Funding (EBF) falls short of what is needed to stay on track,” said Montgomery.

Illinois changed how it funded schools in 2017 and promised to get all schools to a higher level of state funding by 2027. But the state is no longer on track to get school districts to their so-called adequacy targets in the next two years. Montgomery suggested it would now take until 2042 and previous estimates suggested it would take until 2030 or later.

The state’s fiscal year will start on July 1.

Here are the highlights from the fiscal year 2026 budget:

Funding for early childhood education remains largely flat

Early childhood education has been a priority for Pritzker’s administration. After winning a second term, Pritzker created the Smart Start Initiative to increase funding for child care programs across the state with the goal of expanding access to child care and preschool programs. Now, there is some concern about what will happen to these programs since many did not receive an increase in funding this year.

The lllinois State Board of Education’s Early Childhood Block Grant, which supports publicly funded preschool school seats, received flat funding this year. The state board was hoping to receive an additional $75 million to support publicly funded preschool seats through the state to bring the program to a total of $823 million. For the state Department of Human Services, Early Intervention, a program for children with disabilities between the ages of 0 to 3, did not receive an increase in the budget approved by lawmakers. Funding for the department’s Home Visiting Program will also remain flat next year.

However, some programs received new funding to support child care for low-income families and child care providers. The state’s Child Care Assistance Program, which provides low-income families with financial assistance to access child care, received an additional $85 million to support more families who will need the program and increase rates for providers. The state’s Smart Start Workforce grants will receive an additional $90 million to help increase pay for child care workers. The state’s Early Childhood Department received a $7.5 million increase for operations.

Jonathan Doster, director of legislative affairs at Start Early, a local early childhood advocacy organization, acknowledged that this was a difficult budget year for the Pritzker administration and the state’s General Assembly.

“With flat funding, it’s difficult to increase wages and benefits for staff. It’s difficult to expand access to early childhood programs. It’s hard to increase the quality of existing programming,” said Doster.

At the federal level, early childhood education programs have been hit by the Trump administration’s actions over the past several months. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services closed a Chicago-based regional office that provided technical support and funding to child care providers throughout Illinois and several other Midwestern states in April.

K-12 schools receive smallest increase since 2020

The General Assembly’s budget for the Illinois State Board of Education will increase from almost $10.8 billion to almost $11.2 billion.

The final budget includes a $307 million increase for K-12 school districts around the state through the state’s evidence-based funding formula. This is the first time since 2020 that the General Assembly did not increase the budget by at least $350 million.

In previous years, about $50 million of the state’s evidence-based funding formula went towards the Property Tax Relief Grant, a program school districts applied for to receive assistance from the state. A spokesperson from the state board of education said that the grant has been paused and is being re-evaluated to ensure that it is providing relief to local residents.

Illinois’ funding formula for K-12 schools was changed in 2017 to distribute money to school districts based on metrics such as the number of students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and English language learners, and other factors like how much a district can raise through local property taxes. State lawmakers made a bipartisan promise to increase funding by at least $350 million annually for 10 years in order to get school districts to an “adequate funding.” The state is not on track to meet that deadline.

Local education advocates and school finance experts did not believe the state could reach its 2027 deadline by only adding $350 million to the formula each year. Some advocates have been asking for $550 million a year to at least get schools adequately funded by at least 2030.

Advance Illinois, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Chicago, said that while the state has made efforts to increase evidence-based funding for K-12 schools over the years and more districts are funded well, there is more work to be done.

“Over 1.3 million students still attend schools in underfunded districts – districts that are disproportionately rural and urban and that serve students from low-income households, English language learners, and Black and Latinx students,” said the statement.

Modest increases for higher education scholarships

Illinois lawmakers approved Pritzker’s proposal to increase a scholarship program for college-bound students by $10 million. The latest boost to the Monetary Award Program will support students from low-income families who are planning to attend or already in school. The increase would bring the program up to a total of $771.6 million.

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship did not see an increase this year. The total budget for the program is $8 million, the same as the year before. At the end of the session, state lawmakers tried to rush through a proposal to change the name and eligibility requirements for the scholarship in response to a lawsuit filed by a conservative group in the fall and backlash to diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarship programs from the federal government.

If the proposal had been successful, House Floor Amendment No. 1 to Senate Bill 1331 would have changed the scholarship name to the Teachers of Illinois scholarship. In addition, to be eligible for the scholarship students would have had to have attended a public school district where at least 70% of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch or have gone to a school district that has a three-year teacher vacancy rate at or higher than the state’s average. This bill could be revived in the veto session in the fall.

This story has been updated with a comment from the Illinois State Board of Education and clarification about the components of the evidence-based funding formula.

Illinois lawmakers pass bill aimed at expanding dual language programs

2025-05-27T17:58:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois lawmakers have passed a bill that will help school districts expand dual language programs, in which students are taught in English and another language throughout the school day.

House Bill 3026 passed the Democratic-controlled Senate along party lines with a 43-12 vote on Thursday. The proposal now heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office for final approval.

The bill requires the Illinois State Board of Education to create guidance for school districts interested in establishing new dual language programs or expanding existing programs. The guidance must be completed by Dec. 15, 2026 and would be required to cover topics such as curriculum, instruction, assessment and accountability, and professional development for staff.

State law currently requires school districts to educate English learners through bilingual programs that are designed to help them become proficient in English, but school districts can also implement dual language programs, in which students are taught in both English and another language. This bill does not add requirements, but helps to provide a framework and best practices for school districts thinking about starting a dual language program.

Under the bill, the state board’s Equity Journey Continuum, a data tool used in the state report card to highlight gaps in students’ academic performance, would include dual language education and standards for dual language teachers that focus on hiring, retaining, and professional development. These changes would have to be made by July 1, 2029.

HB 3026 also would require the state board to create new pathways to biliteracy by July 1, 2027 for students before they enter high school. The pathways are a way for districts to acknowledge students who are proficient in English and another language and receive the state seal of biliteracy.

State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, the sponsor of the bill and a Democrat representing southwest Chicago neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs, said in an interview with Chalkbeat that dual language programs are personally important to him because he grew up in a multilingual household speaking Spanish, Arabic, and English. In addition to the academic and economic benefits of being bilingual, he said “simply being proud of your heritage” and keeping one’s language are important.

“I believe that it’s something that would help uplift students across the state, if we’re able to offer them these opportunities,” said Rashid.

While English learners are not the only students to benefit from dual language programs, the number of English learners in the state has grown and now make up 16.4% of Illinois’ student population, roughly 303,166 students, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 report card. In 2023, there were 271,983 English learners, or 14.6% of the state’s student population.

Guide for schools to expand dual language programs

Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro, vice president of education policy & research for the Latino Policy Forum, a Chicago-based advocacy organization supportive of the bill, said the groundwork for HB 3026 started in 2023 when lawmakers passed a bill requiring the Illinois State Board of Education to publish a report on dual language programs.

The final report, published in the fall, looked at no-cost, low-cost, and high-cost recommendations to expand dual language programs. HB 3026 has incorporated the no-cost recommendations from the report by requiring the state board to create guidance, adding in new requirements for the state board’s Equity Journey Continuum, and creating new pathways to biliteracy.

“What we wanted to do is write something that could be a resource for someone on the ground to take to their board, to either start or expand dual language,” said Vonderlack-Navarro.

Jorge Macias, a senior advisor for the Latino Policy Forum, worked to establish dual language programs across Chicago Public Schools as the former chief officer of bilingual education.

Macias said the district was “fortunate” to be able to use grant funding for partnerships and to pay for coordinators to work at schools to train educators where programs were launched. He said he hopes funding for schools improve so districts can provide training for teachers in dual language programs.

Chicago Public Schools currently offers dual language programs in 37 elementary schools and three high schools around the district, up from 12 elementary schools with dual language programs in 2016. A spokesperson for the district said in a statement to Chalkbeat that dual language programs often start in preschool or kindergarten and continue through eighth grade with a few options for dual language courses in high school.

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said in a statement that the board is in support of HB 3026 because it won’t add costs to districts.

“These programs promote bilingualism, biliteracy, high academic achievement, and cross-cultural competency—skills that are critical for college, career, and civic life,” the state board said in the statement “Being bilingual is a superpower, and the expansion of dual language programming will strengthen schools, communities, and the state as a whole.”

Support for English learners dries up at federal level

As the state board, state lawmakers, and education advocates continue to promote policy supporting English learners and literacy in more than one language, the federal government is taking a turn in the opposite direction.

In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the U.S., which rescinded a policy made under the Clinton administration requiring federal agencies and organizations receiving federal funds to provide language assistance to English learners, according to a White House fact sheet.

The U.S. Department of Education also fired nearly all of the staff working for the department’s Office of English Language Acquisition, an office overseeing support for nearly 5 million English learners in K-12 schools and in higher education, and plans to merge the office with the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, who represents Illinois’ 4th District, which includes Chicago and nearby suburbs, along with three other Democratic Congress members said in a letter to the Education Department that the administration’s recent action for the Office of English Language Acquisition was “an outright attack” on English learners.

Still, Illinois advocates hope that dual language programs will have bipartisan support, since they serve all students and have some academic benefits for students.

“In a time when programs that are solely for English learners might be under attack, dual language is a program that we can reframe the conversation and bring people from all walks of life into the conversation,” said Erika Méndez, director of pre-K to 12 education policy at the Latino Policy Forum.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois poised to end mandate that educator evaluations include student test scores

2025-05-21T17:14:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois lawmakers have approved a measure to undo a requirement that schools must evaluate teachers and school administrators based, in part, on students’ test scores.

The House voted 92-21 to pass Senate Bill 28 on Tuesday. Most Illinois House Republicans voted against the measure, while a few others voted in favor with the majority of House Democrats.

With the passage of Senate Bill 28, the state will allow school districts to decide whether or not students’ test scores evaluate teachers’ and school administrators’ performance in schools. The newly passed bill weakens the Performance Evaluation Reform Act, known as PERA, which was passed in 2010 and required schools to use student growth metrics to evaluate teachers, principals, and assistant principal evaluations.

Senate Bill 28 would take effect on July 1, 2025 if signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a Democrat who sponsored the bill in the House, said it was really easy to move the legislation throughout the General Assembly since it received bipartisan support. The bill also received support from teachers unions and school management groups, which came together to say that using student test scores as a significant factor in teacher evaluations hasn’t been working and is overly burdensome for educators and school administrators, according to Faver Dias.

“We have to have a comprehensive approach to determine if students are learning,” Faver Dias said to Chalkbeat on Wednesday. “Senate Bill 28 does not take away any of that. It just allows that option and discussion to happen at the local level,”

These changes are being made more than a decade after the Obama administration encouraged states to link student performance to teacher evaluations. With the federal government at the time dangling money as an incentive, many states changed their teacher evaluation systems to include student test scores as a significant factor in a teacher’s overall rating.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers, the largest teachers union in Illinois, was a proponent of Senate Bill 28. Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, told Chalkbeat that the union is happy to see Senate Bill 28 pass because using standardized tests for teacher evaluations have been problematic in the past.

“Teachers, students, parents will tell you there’s just too much standardized testing going on in schools. I always think to myself, as a teacher, I taught my school English, you need some time between assessments, right?” said Montgomery. “You’ve got to work with the kids. You have to do certain kinds of interventions to help them learn better. So just repeated testing is usually not very functional.”

Between 2009 and 2013, the number of states linking test scores and teacher evaluations jumped from 15 to 41.

But since then, there’s been backlash to including student test scores in educator evaluations. Research in Chicago found Black teachers in schools serving high populations of low-income students were more likely to get poor ratings after the changes went into effect.

A 2024 report commissioned by the Illinois State Board of Education written by the American Institutes for Research notes that other factors outside of a teacher’s control can impact student learning such as family issues, health concerns, or limited access to resources. The report recommended that the state either remove the use of student test scores or reduce how much student test scores count in an educator’s overall evaluation.

Illinois has company when it comes to states shifting away from the Obama-era policies. As of 2022, only 30 states still required test scores to be included in teacher evaluation, down from 43 in 2015, according to a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Some states have modified their laws to decrease how much student test scores factor into an educator’s overall rating. For instance, Colorado revised its teacher evaluation laws in 2022 to reduce the student growth requirement from 50% to 30% of an educator’s overall rating.

Illinois considers lowering scores students need to be considered proficient on state exams

2025-05-15T21:29:19+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois education officials are considering lowering the scores students need to get to be classified as proficient in a subject on a state standardized test.

They say the current benchmarks are too high and the results often don’t accurately reflect whether high school students are college and career ready.

“Our system unfairly mislabels students as ‘not proficient’ when other data — such as success in advanced coursework and enrollment in college — tell a very different story,” state schools chief Tony Sanders wrote in a message to school leaders this week.

The Illinois State Board of Education agreed Wednesday to move ahead with a process to change the state’s testing system, though the exact details still are being worked out. That process will include creating new “cut scores,” or the lowest score needed for a student to be sorted into broad categories of achievement on state assessments.

If approved in August, the new cut scores would be applied to the tests taken by students this spring and reported publicly in October. The changes are likely to send the public a very different message about how students are doing on reading and math tests.

Proposed changes to the state’s testing system come at a time when schools in Illinois and around the country are still dealing with the academic fallout of the COVID pandemic. Other states, including Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Alaska, and New York, have made similar changes to their testing systems, according to The 74.

Third to eighth graders in Illinois saw progress in reading last year — even exceeding proficiency levels pre-pandemic — but math scores still lagged behind past years, according to the state’s 2024 report card. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, remained stagnant.

State officials acknowledged Wednesday that it would be difficult to compare proficiency rates on the October 2025 report card to previous years if the benchmarks are lowered. The move would likely result in more students across the state being considered proficient on state standardized exams. For instance, if a test has 1,000 possible points a student can score and last year a student needed to score 700 or above to be considered proficient and they scored 680, but the following year the cut score moved to 650 that student would be considered proficient.

Sanders argued, however, that changes to the state’s testing system are long overdue.

In his message to school leaders this week, he said the state’s current benchmarks are some of the highest in the nation. He pointed to a 2022 study by the National Center for Education Statistics that looked at how state accountability systems match up to NAEP, a national exam given periodically to a representative sample of American students in fourth and eighth grade. Illinois was among the states whose cut scores aligned with higher levels of performance on the national exam.

Sanders said in an interview with Chalkbeat that the cut scores for the college entrance exam have been higher than what the College Board, an organization that created and administers the SAT and Advanced Placement courses and exams, recommended as “college ready” on the SAT test in previous years — and that “it just does not make sense.”

“When we look at how actual students are performing, we have so many examples of kids who have graduated, gone on to college, and persisted and been successful in college, yet, if they made decisions in their life based on the data that we gave them, they would never have gone to college,” said Sanders.

Given that Illinois switched the high school test to the ACT, Sanders said the state board wants to ensure scores on the October 2025 report card accurately reflect where students are.

In changing the state’s testing system, state officials said they are aiming for greater “coherence” between assessments. Currently, there are different proficiency levels for the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, an exam taken by students in third to eighth grade in reading and math, the Illinois Science Assessment, taken by students in fifth, eighth, and 11th grades, and the high school college entrance exam, taken by students in 11th grade.

State officials also noted in documents from Wednesday’s board meeting that the state’s academic standards, or what students are expected to learn, would not change.

Jennifer Kirmes, director of policy at Advance Illinois, a nonprofit statewide advocacy organization, said that she believes there was a real call for change from school leaders, especially those teaching high school students, because some students were excelling in advanced classes but were classified as not proficient on state standardized tests.

“But in fact, those students have lots of other indicators that they are, in fact, college and career ready, which is ultimately what we’re trying to measure at the high school level,” said Kirmes. “They might have taken and passed several AP courses and exams, they might have dual credit.”

Kirmes said getting proficiency levels right matters because schools are judged based on the results of standardized exams. In Illinois, schools can be labeled as Exemplary, Commendable, Targeted, Comprehensive, and Intensive. Based on what a school is labeled can determine what resources and support they will receive from the state. Federal law requires states to provide summative designations to schools based on students’ test scores since the early 2000s. Sanders also told Chalkbeat that the state is working on changing the school accountability system for 2026.

Educators, testing experts, and advocates have mixed feelings about changing the state’s assessment standards. Some worry the new changes will not have any significant effect on teaching and students’ learning.

Monique Redeaux-Smith, from the Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the state’s largest teacher unions, said the union is not opposed to changing the cut scores, but they are concerned about the weight placed on state standardized assessments. The tests don’t provide enough information for teachers about where students might need a helping hand, she said.

“What teachers do in the classroom is more valuable because they’re actually seeing students explain. They’re actually seeing students show their work. They’re actually able to see where students might be getting stuck in their understanding,” said Redeaux-Smith.

Paul Zavitkovsky, instructor and leadership coach at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said he doesn’t think the changes will affect student learning if teachers are not given good information from the tests.

“Until we start reporting information from whatever kind of testing we do in a way that teachers, school level people look at and go, … ‘This is much more useful in terms of helping me better understand what I am and am not doing well,’” said Zavitkovsky.

In response to the criticism, Sanders said in an interview with Chalkbeat that state assessments are meant to generate the state report card and show how Illinois is performing. But he agrees that state assessments “will likely never be a useful tool to teachers to be able to improve their teaching.”

The Illinois State Board of Education is hosting listening tours around the state for school leaders, educators, parents, students, and others interested in changes to the state assessments. The next one will take place in Chicago from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on May 22 at the Chicago World Language Academy.

From cellphone bans to teacher evaluations: Illinois lawmakers are considering several education issues this session

2025-04-28T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

With just over a month left in the spring legislative session, Illinois lawmakers are advancing a number of education-related bills, including ones that would restrict the use of cellphones in classrooms, no longer require student test scores to be a part of teacher evaluations, and protect federal rights for students with disabilities in the mediation process with districts.

Other proposals, such as new regulations for homeschooling and a task force related to artificial intelligence, appear to be stalled.

In addition, state lawmakers are expected to negotiate and approve a budget for the fiscal year 2026, which starts on July 1. According to a spokesperson from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office, a budget bill has yet to appear in the legislature.

The legislative session is scheduled to end on May 31.

Here are some education bills we’re continuing to follow.

Bills moving quickly through the legislature

Limiting the use of cellphones in schools: During Pritzker’s State of the State address in February, he said cellphones in classrooms contribute to cyberbullying and can be a distraction from learning. Senate bill 2427 would require Illinois school boards to create a plan around the use of cellphones by the 2026-27 school year. Plans must lay out how to prevent students from using phones during class time, create guidance for accessible storage, and allow some students to keep their phones in the case of medical reasons or required in an Individualized Education Program or Section 504 accommodations. Currently, the bill is in the House’s education policy committee.

Limiting school districts from asking families of students with disabilities to waive their rights: When disputes arise regarding a child’s Individualized Education Programs, Illinois school districts will often ask parents to sign waivers during mediation. For example, a parent could waive their child’s right to transportation in exchange for a placement at a private therapeutic day school. Recently, special education advocates who support parents during mediations with districts say they have seen districts slip in language requiring parents to waive their right to bring complaints against a school district for 10 years in exchange for additional support. To fix this issue, House Bill 2337 would require school districts to use waivers that are limited to the child involved in the mediation process, only related to claims raised in the complaint that initiated the process, and limited to a reasonable amount of time. The bill is currently in the Senate.

Unlinking teacher evaluations and student test scores: Under the Obama administration, states were incentivized to use student test scores in teacher performance evaluations. More than a decade later, many states and lawmakers have changed their minds. In Illinois, Senate Bill 28 would undo a requirement passed in 2010 and now allow school districts to decide whether students’ test scores should be a part of teacher evaluations. The bill passed an education committee in the House on Wednesday.

Ensuring teacher professional development matches literacy standards: The Illinois State Board of Education created the state’s comprehensive literacy plan in 2024 after education advocates pushed for legislation to help change how reading is taught in schools. Now, lawmakers are considering House Bill 1368, which would require companies that provide professional development to teachers related to literacy be aligned with the state’s literacy plan. It’s currently in the Senate’s education committee.

Ensuring children in the NICU receive Early Intervention support:The Illinois Early Intervention program, a statewide initiative that ensures children between birth and 3 are given therapy to help with disabilities, has been plagued by funding issues, staffing shortages, and service delays. However, lawmakers are looking at a bill, House Bill 3772, that would allow parents who have a child in a hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, to receive information and referrals to the state’s program before being released. The bill is sitting in the Senate’s child welfare committee.

The future is uncertain for these bills

Requiring parental notification for homeschooled children: In response to a Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica investigation of homeschooling in Illinois in 2024, lawmakers filed House Bill 2827. It would require parents who plan to homeschool to notify their local school districts or regional office of education before Sept. 1. Even though the Illinois State Board of Education supported the bill, there was a lot of pushback from parents and other local organizations. The bill has stalled in the House.

Creating a statewide AI taskforce: Teachers are asking the state to create guidance around the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom. House Bill 2503 and Senate Bill 1556 would have required the Illinois State Board of Education to create an advisory board to work on guidelines around the use of AI and other emerging technology, require local school districts to include how schools are using AI in an annual report, and include information about AI in their internet safety curriculum. Neither bill has moved.

Pushing back high school start times: Illinois high school students testified in front of the House’s Education Policy committee in March about pushing back start times to 8:45 a.m. and the positive impacts it could have on students’ education. The bill they were advocating for, House Bill 2951, has not moved in the House since their testimony.

What we’re watching for in the 2026 budget

Looming over lawmakers’ as they piece together next year’s budget is the threat of losing federal funding under the Trump administration.

The U.S. Department of Education recently threatened to cut funding to schools if school education leaders do not certify within 10 days that K-12 schools are not participating in diversity, equity, and inclusion practices it deems illegal. However, federal judges in two lawsuits issued injunctions on Thursday that prevent the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from states and school districts that employ National Education Association members and temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing new interpretations of civil rights law.

Early childhood education is under threat as well. The Trump administration is reportedly considering a budget proposal that would eliminate Head Start, according to a report from USA Today. That news came after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services closed a regional office based in Chicago that supports child care providers around the Midwest. In January, when Trump decided to pause all federal grants, child care providers were unable to access funding for their day-to-day operations.

In February, Pritzker proposed an additional $350 million for K-12 schools, a $10 million increase for Early Intervention services for young children between birth and three years old, and an additional $85 million for the state’s Child Care Assistance Program, a program to help low-income families access child care. It’s unclear what the state will be able to do if federal funding is frozen or disappears.

Democratic lawmakers want to restore federal office that serves English learners

2025-04-22T19:40:32+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

A top Illinois congressman is calling on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reverse recent changes to the U.S. Department of Education office that provides support to over 5 million English learners nationwide.

In a letter sent Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García from Illinois, along with Democratic Reps. Juan Vargas of California, and Grace Meng and Adriano Espaillat of New York, called the recent firings of nearly all staff in the department’s Office of English Language Acquisition and the department’s plan to merge the department with the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education “an outright attack” on English learners. The “reduction in force” happened in March when the Education Department announced it was cutting staff by half.

The letter also called the abrupt change to the office “legally dubious” since the office was created by statute. In federal law, the Education Department is required to have a director over the Office of English Language Acquisition to oversee bilingual education programs and report directly to the department’s secretary. While the Education Department can shrink the office, it is not able to eliminate the office without congressional approval.

The Democratic lawmakers not only want the department to reverse the firing of the staffers in the Office of English Language Acquisition, but they also want to see the office operate as an independent office as it has in the past and to ensure that the office is enforcing federal Title III requirements, which are meant to ensure that English learners gain proficiency in English and meet academic standards.

The group of lawmakers wrote that merging the Office of English Language Acquisition with the already “stretched thin” Office of Elementary and Secondary Education “signals a blatant disregard for the needs of English Learners and will have catastrophic consequences.”

According to the letter, the office of English Language Acquisition was responsible for allocating $890 million in funding to schools through Title III and oversight into programs such as the Native American and Alaska Native Children in Schools grants to help native children learn English alongside indigenous languages, the National Professional Development grants program to address the bilingual educator shortage, and the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, an online resource with data, research, and best practices for schools to support English learners.

Education Department officials told state education leaders in March that money for Title III will continue to flow to schools and there would not be any disruptions to programs.

English learners make up 16.4% of Illinois’ student population, roughly 303,166 students, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 report card. The state received $56 million in Title III funding this school year.

Nationwide, there were over 5 million English learners in the fall of 2021, according to the National Statistics for Education Statistics. The federal government appropriated $890 million in Title III funds in fiscal year 2024.

The lawmakers who signed the letter want McMahon to answer their questions by April 30 regarding next steps for the Office of English Language Acquisition.

Glitch with ACT prevented 11,000 Illinois students from finishing the test

2025-04-18T18:53:03+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

About 11,000 Illinois high school students couldn’t complete the ACT, a college entrance exam required for graduation and used by the state to measure school performance, after a technical issue disrupted testing earlier this month.

The students who could not finish the test on April 8, the first day of testing, have to retake the exam within the testing window, which ends May 2. The testing window between April 8 and May 2 is to ensure students fulfill the state’s graduation and accountability requirements.

The hiccup made for a rocky start to the state’s shift back to the ACT as the test required to graduate from high school. Illinois used the ACT for 15 years before switching to the College Board’s SAT in 2016. The problem delayed the start of the exam for thousands of other students. But state education officials and the company that administers the ACT said there have been no issues with testing since April 8.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders wrote last week in a message to school district leaders about the testing glitch, saying he’d expressed his concerns to the president of ACT.

According to a spokesperson for ACT Inc., a malfunction to the company’s servers delayed the start of the test for some students and prevented others from moving to another section of the exam. Some schools opted to resume testing April 8 while others decided to reschedule.

ACT said that on the same day, students completed 38,500 ACT with Writing tests for 11th and 12th graders, and 22,000 PreACT Secure or PreACT 9 Secure for 9th and 10th graders.

The Illinois State Board of Education is required by federal law to administer accountability assessments to high school students. The College Board’s contract with the state board ended in June 2024. Prior to the end of that contract, the board started a procurement process that took bids from ACT and the College Board. Ultimately,

ACT Inc. received a $53 million testing contract for six years, after the state’s procurement process ranked the company’s application higher than the College Board’s SAT.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said that the majority of high school students in the district who were taking the exam on April 8 were impacted by the ACT glitch.

“While the technical issues were reportedly resolved by 9:30 a.m., the experience varied across CPS schools — some students were able to complete testing without issue, while others were unable to finish,” said the CPS spokesperson. The district said due to the disruption students were given options to complete testing during the day or to retest at a later time.

High schoolers in Rockford School District 205, the third largest school district in the state, were also impacted by the technical issue.

“We, as a district, responded very quickly to the ACT issues last week and our students were able to test the same day. We were able to provide transportation to those students who started later,” said a spokesperson for the school district.

Rockford says students will not have to retake the ACT, but the district plans to have a makeup day for students who did not test. That makeup day usually includes students who were absent the day the exams were given.

“ACT sincerely apologizes for the disruption and knows the impact any technical issues have on schedules, student experience, and instructional time,” the company said in a statement to Chalkbeat.

ACT is offering vouchers to students for a national test date in June or July. Those weekend tests do not meet state graduation requirements but could allow students to improve the scores they include in college applications for free.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois Head Start providers worry about the future as Trump eyes potential cuts

2025-04-15T22:53:05+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Amy Blythe stays up at night thinking about what will happen to kids and families if federal funding is cut for Head Start, an early childhood education program serving low-income families.

Blythe is the assistant vice president of Early Learning Services at Easterseals, which serves 1,500 kids throughout Chicagoland and Rockford. Some of those children receive Head Start services through community-based programs her organization partners with.

Head Start providers such as hers are able to support families with formula, diapers, and food throughout the day and in cases of an emergency, such as a house fire or when a family can’t find transportation to get to work, Blythe said. But since President Donald Trump took office in January, there have been disruptions to child care services for families and kids.

“That’s what keeps me up at night, what will happen to those children and those families if we’re not there?” said Blythe.

Blythe and other Head Start providers in Illinois are concerned about the future of the 60- year-old federal program that serves children from birth to 5. Almost $500 million flowed from the federal government directly to Illinois Head Start providers during fiscal year 2024, according to the Illinois Head Start Association.

The Trump administration is reportedly considering a budget proposal that would eliminate Head Start, according to a report from USA Today published Friday. That comes after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services closed the Chicago-based regional office that provides technical support and funding to child care providers throughout Illinois and several other states in the Midwest earlier this month.

Early childhood education providers are increasingly on edge after many were unable to access funds for their day-to-day operations when the federal government put a freeze on all grants in January. Even when the decision was reversed after a few days, child care providers were still having issues in February. In some states, providers had to temporarily shut their doors to families.

The Illinois Head Start Association noted that the Head Start program serves over 28,000 children and has employed almost 9,000 people across the state. Across the country, the Head Start program was funded to serve about 780,000 children during fiscal year 2023.

Most kids who are enrolled in Head Start programs come from low-income families whose income is at or below the poverty level or receive Temporary Assistances for Needy Families, Supplementary Security Income, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. For a family of four, the income would have to be $32,150 according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2025 rules.

Julissa Cruz, vice president of community-based advocacy at the Carole Robertson Center which receives Head Start funding, said she believes there is “a lack of understanding on what early learning is and how it impacts a child’s life, how it prepares young children for kindergarten, how it supports families to be able to participate in the workforce.”

The Carole Robertson Center serves about 15,000 kids and families across Chicago through partnerships and at three centers in Little Village, North Lawndale, and Albany Park. Despite recent changes to the federal government, there has not been a disruption in services. Cruz said she remains hopeful that lawmakers will continue to see the importance of Head Start.

“This is a program that exists in urban communities, suburban communities, and rural communities, so every elected official likely has a Head Start program in their community,” said Cruz.

Marcy Mendenhall, chief executive officer of SAL Community Services based in the Quad Cities near the Iowa border, said the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle Head Start “has nothing to do with best practice, nothing to do with children outcomes, and nothing to do with best interests of children.”

Mendenhall’s organization provides Early Head Start services to almost 168 kids in Rock Island, Henry, and Mercer counties out of the 700 kids they serve. She said she is not concerned about child care centers that her organization operates closing because of their partnerships. However, Mendenhall feels like this is “the time for advocacy” because child care programs are important for student learning and provide a safe environment while children are developing.

For over six decades, Head Start has received bipartisan support in Congress and around the state. However, Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, executive director of Illinois Head Start Association, worries whether Republican lawmakers in Congress will continue to speak up for Head Start under the current administration.

“When it comes to push and shove and Trump hanging over them, will they actually stand for what they believe in and know it’s good for their district? ” she said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been an advocate for increasing access to child care for families across the state. He created the Smart Start Illinois initiative to expand early childhood education programs. Pritzker’s $53 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 included a $10 million increase for child care programs in the state, such as Early Intervention, which serves children with disabilities and $85 million for Child Care Assistance Program, which helps low-income families pay for child care.

However, it would be hard for the state to come up with the money to fund Head Start programs in Illinois if the Trump administration eliminates the program, according to Morrison-Frichtl Illinois is facing a $3 billion budget deficit and the situation could get worse if federal funding is pulled from the state.

In Illinois, state lawmakers last year approved a plan by the governor to create the Illinois Department of Early Childhood to streamline funding and coordination around all early childhood education and child care programs.

A spokesperson for the Governor’s office said that while Head Start providers are able to access federal funding now, the office is “deeply concerned about the potential for disruption moving forward based on the actions of the Trump administration.”

Illinois schools chief pushes back against Trump administration’s anti-DEI push

2025-04-10T01:03:36+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois’ schools chief pushed back against the Trump administration’s demand to certify that school districts are eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, saying the state is already in compliance with federal law.

In a letter on Wednesday, State Superintendent Tony Sanders challenged the U.S. Department of Education to prove which programs and activities violate federal civil rights law and to identify “illegal DEI” activities.

The U.S. Department of Education last week ordered state education officials to certify within 10 days that their school districts do not engage in any practices the administration says illegally promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, which it claims would violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and nationality in programs that receive federal funding.

The administration threatened to pull federal funding from schools in states that failed to do so. Illinois would lose about $6.4 billion in federal funding if the administration follows through with its threat.

“We are concerned that USDOE seemingly seeks to change the terms and conditions of the Illinois State Board of Education’s award without formal administrative process,” Sanders wrote.

The Illinois State Board of Education already complies with Title VI and regularly submits “applications certifying compliance with all required assurances for federal programs, all of which have been approved by the U.S. Department of Education,” Sanders wrote.

He also noted that the administration’s current stance reflects an “abrupt shift” from its previous policy on diversity, equity, and inclusion and cited Betsy DeVos, who served as secretary of education in the first Trump administration.

DeVos “opined that ‘embracing diversity and inclusion are key elements for success’ for ‘building strong teams,‘” Sanders wrote.

The U.S. Department of Education asked state boards to report the status for each school district, compliance issues, and proposed enforcement plans, according to the state board’s letter on Wednesday. In response, Sanders asked the department to “provide the legal authority permitting USDOE to require a State Education Agency to obtain individual certifications from each of its [local educations agencies], report on their signature status, and propose enforcement plans to USDOE for approval in connection with a Request for Certification of this nature.”

This is not the first time Sanders has pushed back against threats made by the U.S. Department of Education to pull state funding. In February, Sanders told school districts to continue teaching Black, Asian American, and LGBTQ history, and to provide education to students regardless of their citizenship status as required by state law.

New York and Pennsylvania have also challenged the Trump administration’s push to end DEI initiatives. Indiana, by contrast, said Wednesday that it will abide by the administration’s order and will collect signed forms certifying that the state’s schools and districts do not use or promote DEI.

U.S. lawmakers want to know what is next for Head Start amid Chicago office closure

2025-04-09T18:35:39+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Democratic U.S. senators from the Midwest want to know the Trump administration’s plans for Head Start programs in their districts after it closed a key office in Chicago this month that provided support and funding to workers and families.

Six senators — Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both of Illinois, Gary Peters and Elisa Slotkin, both of Michigan, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — sent a letter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , secretary of Health and Human Services, on Wednesday. They said that federal employees and grantees did not receive any notice that the Chicago-based regional office, which serves several states, was closing, or receive any guidance for what’s next.

The senators worry that the abrupt closure of the office will lead to disruptions in service for families, many of whom are low-income, relying on Head Start for child care.

“Head Start centers run on tight budgets, and without a regional office, grantees will not be able to receive approval to draw down funds, forcing many to consider laying off staff — or even shuttering their doors,” they wrote in the letter.

The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, closed five of its 10 regional Head Start offices in several cities, including Chicago, last week, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. According to the letter from the Midwestern senators, the Chicago-based regional office served 125,000 children, employed 40,000 child care workers, and provided support and funding to 2,600 Head Start centers across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

The senators asked HHS to provide more information about whom child care providers should reach out to for guidance and accessing federal funds. They also asked if federal workers will be given the option to relocate to one of the five remaining offices.

Lawmakers want a response from HHS by April 22.

As mentioned in the letter, prior to HHS closing the regional Head Start office, the federal program experienced challenges to funding at the start of the year. President Donald Trump froze federal grants in January through an administrative order, which was rescinded a few days later. For Head Start providers, it meant that they were unable to access funds needed for daily operations.

However, child care providers still struggled to access funding throughout February, impacting around 21,000 students. Some Head Start providers in New York and Wisconsin had to temporarily shut their doors to families.

Illinois teachers unions are pushing changes to the state’s pension system this spring

2025-04-08T11:00:01+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Courtney Billittier comes from a long line of educators, including her father who recently retired after 35 years of teaching. But Billittier, who has been teaching for the past 14 years, will have to work longer than her father to earn a smaller pension.

That’s because state lawmakers passed pension reform legislation to deal with a budget crisis in 2010 that created new standards for public sector employees hired at the start of 2011. The result is a two tiered pension system: Employees hired before 2011 were able to retire as early as age 55 and with more financial perks, while employees hired after that year were eligible to retire at age 67. This is often referred to as Tier 1 and Tier 2 benefits.

Billittier said her father has always encouraged her to have a separate retirement savings account because of the change in state law.

“I think it really ingrained in me right away that I should not be banking on the pension at the end of this career being something that I can live off of entirely, and that there has to be some actions that I’m taking on my own,” said Billittier.

Teachers unions, including the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Illinois Education Association, alongside other public sector employee unions are advocating for state lawmakers to make a change to retirement benefits for newer educators. They say it is unfair to current educators who pay the same amount into the pension system but do not receive the same benefits and have to work longer. They also fear that the current system will deter new educators from entering the profession at a time when the state is struggling with a teacher shortage.

But there’s an even bigger issue: The lower tier retirement benefits could soon fall below what is provided by Social Security.

In Illinois, public school educators and other public sector employees do not pay into Social Security and are also not eligible to receive those federal benefits when they retire. Still, Illinois must ensure that benefits are at least equal to Social Security.

The Civic Federation, a nonpartisan research organization, said state lawmakers will have to make a change to the tiered retirement benefits soon or the state will risk falling out of compliance with federal laws, known as Safe Harbor — a standard set by the Internal Revenue Service assessing several factors to see if state pension benefits are equivalent to Social Security benefits — which could be costly for Illinois.

Illinois Sen. Robert Martwick, who has proposed legislation in the past and this year to change the teacher retirement benefits system, said it could get expensive for the state, local municipalities, and even school districts if the state’s pension systems do not comply with federal law. Martwick said the lower tier pension benefits could open school districts up to costly lawsuits — if teachers prevailed, settlements could eat into districts’ operating budgets.

“That would sink Illinois overnight,” said Martwick, adding that failing to correct the situation is not an option for the state.

Teachers unions, state legislators, and finance experts all agree that the lower tier pension benefits need to be addressed. However, they differ in how to fix the problem. Here are five things you should know about Illinois’ two tier pension benefits and what they mean for educators and classrooms.

Why did Illinois create a second tier pension benefit?

State pension funds were hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis, often called the Great Recession, since pension systems have investments in the stock market. Public pensions across the nation saw their investments fall in value by $889 billion between 2007 and 2008, according to numbers by the Federal Reserve.

Amanda Kass, assistant professor at DePaul University, said the health of the pension system determines how much money the state and employees must contribute to the system in order for it to have money to pay retirees. When the market crashed, the amount Illinois lawmakers needed to contribute went up significantly. To help offset ballooning pension payments, state lawmakers passed a bill in 2010 that changed retirement benefits for all public sector employees who started working on or after Jan. 1, 2011. They believed the plan would save the state money over time.

Annie Rojas, lead policy analyst at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said the state’s pension problems started before 2010. She pointed to policy changes in 1995 under Republican Gov. Jim Edgar when the state created a pension ramp, known as the Edgar Ramp, that would require the state to get pension funds to 90% funded by 2045. This ramp set the state’s pension contributions very low at the beginning of the 50-year plan, leading to higher pension costs later on. According to Crain’s Chicago Business in 2010, the state was not contributing enough funding to the pension system even before Edgar’s Ramp was created. Since the 1980s, lawmakers have cut funding to pensions to deal with budget shortfalls.

Pension payments make up almost 20% of the state’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026. The Teachers Retirement System’s funded ratio is at 45.8% as of fiscal year 2024.

What do Tier 2 pension benefits mean for educators?

All pension funds in Illinois have two tiers now. This includes the Teacher Retirement System, which covers all teachers in the 800-plus school districts outside of Chicago, and the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.

Al Llorens, president of the Illinois Education Association, said a key difference between the two tiers is that teachers in the second tier must work until age 67. For educators who might have started as a teacher right out of college at the age of 22, they will have to work about 45 years. However, teachers in the first tier could receive retirement benefits at age 55, having worked for roughly 33 years.

Once teachers in Tier 2 retire, their pensionable salary is capped and calculated differently than Tier 1 teachers. That calculation takes their highest salary of eight years in the 10 years before retiring, rather than four of the last 10 years, which results in a lower final average salary, according to the Civic Federation.

Regardless of the difference in benefits between the two tiers, all teachers pay the same amount into the pension system, which Llorens said is leading teachers to leave the profession.

“If you’re paying a lot more than what your pension is returning, that’s not an incentive to stay either,” said Llorens. “We do have to deal with something that not only allows us to attract but to retain teachers, because we’re in the middle of a shortage that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.“

Could smaller retirement benefits steer people away from the profession?

It’s unclear whether smaller retirement benefits are steering people away from the teaching profession in Illinois. However, finance experts, educators, and teachers union leaders believe it could be an issue for hiring and retaining educators.

Tom Moore, a science teacher at Hoffman Estate High School at Township School District 211, who is in Tier 2, said he thinks it could be hard to retain some educators who might not have realized they were going to have to work longer than some of their colleagues.

“I’m 13 years in now, and I still have 35 more years to go,” said Moore. “At this point, if I was Tier 1, I would already be a third away or almost half the way through my professional career.”

Hiring and retaining teachers are a major concern for local school districts, especially since the state is dealing with a teacher shortage. A joint report from the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools and the Illinois State Board of Education found that the shortage of teachers is easing across the state, but it has been difficult for districts to fill certain teacher positions, such as roles in special education and bilingual education.

When education leaders were asked about the top three issues leading to teacher shortages, 143 of the 694 leaders who responded said it was due to difficulty hiring and retaining teachers, according to the report.

“While the pay during their career may not be great there was always a good retirement to work towards,” said a quote in the report. “Now they don’t have either.”

Can the state undo its two tiered pension system?

The short answer is probably not. It would be expensive for the state to put all of its teachers and other public sector employees into Tier 1.

Pension costs for the state are already high: In fiscal year 2025, pensions accounted for roughly 19% of the state’s overall operating budget. According to a report by the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs, it would cost the state almost $30 billion by fiscal year 2045 to match Tier 2 retirement benefits to Tier 1. This would require the state to add $1.3 billion dollars to pensions by the end of 2027.

Annie McGowan from Civic Federation said the state does not “have the revenue stream” to make larger payments to the pension system. Especially at a time when there are other pressures on state funding.

Illinois’ pension system also could be affected by the dramatic decline in the stock market that has followed President Donald Trump announcing tariffs, or taxes on goods from other countries, last week. The last time the market took such a hit was at the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

What are the proposals to change Tier 2?

State lawmakers, teachers unions, finance and budget officials, and even Gov. J.B. Pritzker have different ideas for how to improve the teacher pension system. But they all agree that the main constraint is cost.

The Civic Federation called on the state in a report from 2023 to comply with federal laws and ensure the second tier remains equal to or better than Social Security benefits. Rojas, from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said compliance with federal law isn’t enough when the difference in pension benefits between tiers is inequitable for workers.

The Illinois Educators Association would like to see the retirement age for Tier 2 workers reduced from 67 to 60 years old — still more than workers in the first tier — and an increase in retirement benefits, said Llorens.

State lawmakers filed House Bill 2711 and Senate Bill 2 to change part of Tier 2 in this spring’s legislative session. Martwick said his proposal in the Senate will ensure that the state is in compliance with federal law and will make some changes requested by state employee unions. However, he said the bill is likely to change before being voted on since there are ongoing negotiations around how to address the lesser tier pension benefits.

Last year, Pritzker announced proposals to fix the state’s pension crisis. Among his plans were to increase the funding goal to 100%, more than the 90% approved in the 1990s, to ensure pensions are fully funded. Since moving the funding target would increase state pension contributions, Pritzker proposed moving the target year to 2048, instead of 2045.

Also, Pritzker wants to change the state’s pensionable wage cap to match Social Security to comply with federal law. To achieve this part of the plan, Pritzker proposed an additional $78 million in the fiscal year 2026 budget on top of the state’s required contributions.

Biden gave Illinois schools another year to spend $77 million in COVID relief. Trump wants the money back.

2025-04-02T15:30:09+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Dozens of Illinois schools believed they had another year to spend a collective $77 million remaining in COVID-19 relief funds. But the U.S. Department of Education told states last Friday that they would not uphold extension deadlines for remaining dollars, according to state education officials.

While this federal funding was set to expire in September 2024, the Biden administration issued a “liquidation extension” to Illinois allowing school districts to spend remaining funds by March 28, 2026. But late Tuesday, the Illinois State Board of Education said in a press release that the Trump administration reversed course and would no longer reimburse the remaining money, some of which was already distributed to schools and contractors.

The move impacts 27 school districts, two Regional Offices of Education, and three grantees, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. The programs now at risk served students experiencing homelessness, students with disabilities, teachers who work with English learners, and after-school tutoring programs, the state board said.

Affected Illinois districts will either have to reconcile their spending by either finding new funding or reapplying to the federal government for another extension, Illinois education officials said. But they said that requiring states to do this would place an “unnecessary and duplicative administrative burden” on schools and grantees and hinder access to important programming.

This latest decision handed down by the federal government puts $3 billion in remaining pandemic relief money allocated to states and school districts around the country at risk, according to a report by The 74. Other states, such as Maryland, had already reimbursed school districts $305 million that they expected would be reimbursed by the federal government, and schools around the state had a remaining pot of money worth $113 million. In New Jersey, 20 schools stand to lose around $85 million. About 27 schools in Michigan could miss out on around $40 million meant for school construction projects.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told state education officials that extending deadlines “years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities.”

State Superintendent Tony Sanders called the decision a “devastating block to students and schools.”

“School districts depend on stability in funding to plan effectively and ensure continuity of services for students. The abrupt reversal of this extension disrupts stability and jeopardizes essential programs that support students’ learning recovery,” Sanders said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the district received the last of its federal emergency relief dollars in January and will not be harmed by the U.S. Department of Education’s recent decision.

Illinois received almost $8 billion in emergency COVID relief funding and 90% of funds went to local school districts through Title I. Across the nation, the federal government provided over $190 billion in pandemic relief funds, a majority of which came from the American Rescue Plan passed during the Biden Administration.

In the early days of the pandemic, schools used these funds to buy technology for students learning from home and to train educators working remotely, among other COVID-era needs. The last round of federal funding required schools to focus on academic recovery for students.

Illinois had used some of its federal dollars to create the Illinois Tutoring Initiative, providing high-quality tutoring to school districts. That program ended in the fall when funding dried up.

Mila Koumpilova contributed to this report.

Illinois advocates push for new bill to limit waivers signed by parents of students with disabilities

2025-03-28T21:35:29+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

While helping families get services for their child with disabilities, Alexandra Kuske says she has seen school districts slip in language requiring parents to waive their children’s rights to bring claims under state and federal laws.

Recently, one district proposed that a parent waive all claims related to her 12-year-old’s education for the next 10 years in return for a six-month placement at a therapeutic day school, said Kuske, a state attorney at Equip for Equality, a federally mandated protection and advocacy organization for Illinois.

Now, special education advocates from organizations including Equip for Equality, Access Living, and Legal Council for Health Justice are pushing state lawmakers to pass House Bill 2337, which would require school districts to limit waivers to students involved in the mediation process. Under the bill, waivers would have to be “limited in scope and duration and narrowly tailored” to the student’s case.

HB 2337 is in the process of moving through the Illinois General Assembly and currently sits in the House.

Mediation is a cost-effective method to help resolve disputes between local school districts and parents, when a school cannot provide services required in a child’s Individualized Education Program, according to advocates.

Barb Cohen, policy analyst for Legal Council for Health Justice, said mediation agreements contain a section where parents waive the right to bring more complaints about an issue that was resolved.

“If your problem is that your kid didn’t get speech therapy for a year and the settlement is that you’re going to get speech therapy outside school hours twice a week for the next six months, when you sign on to that, you sign also saying, ‘I’m done complaining about how we didn’t get speech services last year,‘” explained Cohen.

However, Kuske and other advocates have recently seen districts put language into agreements that require parents to waive away their right to bring claims against the district related to the Illinois School Code, Title IX, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and other federal and state laws, as well as waiving rights for the child’s siblings.

Many of these parents do not have legal representation. In addition, language in waivers can be difficult to read and parents cannot contest the waiver once signed unless they take legal action, which often costs a lot of money, advocates say. Once these waivers are signed, parents give up the right to make a complaint to the Illinois State Board of Education unless they go to court.

Cohen said some parts of the waiver between school districts and parents might not even be enforceable in court, but it’s hard to tell since going to court is costly.

“Mediation is free. Due process can be free. Going into state court is never going to be free,” said Cohen. “You’re going to need an attorney, so unless you’ve got the money and they know how, doesn’t matter if they’re not enforceable.”

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said the state offers mediation to parents and school districts that voluntarily agree to participate. The state board has received 413 mediation requests for the 2025 fiscal year, but not all requests result in a mediation hearing, the spokesperson said. Among the mediations that occur, 71% reach an agreement. However, the state board does not track waivers placed in agreements.

Chicago Public Schools declined to comment on the bill. The district has a Know Your Rights website for parents who have children with disabilities that outlines resources for parents looking for ways to resolve disputes.

The use of waivers have been controversial in other states as well. In December, the New York City education department offered private school students with disabilities vouchers to cover the cost of special education providers but told families they would have to waive their right to file a legal complaint against the city department.

Illinois Rep. Laura Faver Dias, vice chairperson of the House’s education policy committee and sponsor of HB 2337, thinks waivers could come up more often for parents who have children with disabilities as schools try to navigate special education services under the Trump administration, which is seeking to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Also, it is unclear if there will be cuts in federal funding to support students with disabilities.

“I think this is going to be even more important in this environment as we navigate all of the unknowns,” said Faver Dias. “As a mom of a child with an IEP and another child with a 504 and as someone who taught many students with special needs, we have to protect them.”

Under President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, he recently announced the U.S Department of Health and Human Services will oversee services for students with disabilities. It is unclear how the change will impact state and local school districts.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced mass layoffs earlier this month. The entire staff of the Chicago office of the Office for Civil Rights, which investigates claims regarding special education services, was laid off.

Cohen hopes parents won’t have to choose between an appropriate settlement and signing away their child’s rights in the future. She advises parents to carefully read through their settlements and to contact local protection and advocacy organizations for help navigating the process before they sign a waiver.

Faver Dias said she hopes the bill will help parents who go through the mediation process to receive a waiver that is “more tailored and addresses the issue at hand and isn’t an overreach on the district’s part.”

Illinois advocates call on state to release $50 million for after-school programs

2025-03-19T23:52:05+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois advocates gathered in Springfield on Wednesday to push the state to release $50 million budgeted for after-school programs this year, saying the delay has cost some workers their jobs and caused parents to lose child care.

The Afterschool for Children and Teens Now coalition, known as ACT Now, is asking for the Illinois State Board of Education and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to distribute the money to after-school providers as soon as possible and continue funding programs in the state’s next budget.

The coalition is also advocating for two bills — House Bill 3081 and Senate Bill 2036 — that would create an Out-of-School Time advisory council to consider how federal and state policies and funding affect after-school programs.

Since funding has been delayed to after-school programs throughout the state this year, over 27,000 students have missed programming and more than 2,000 staff members have lost their jobs, according to the coalition.

Susan Stanton, executive director for ACT Now, told Chalkbeat that the coalition is seeing a “ripple effect” from after-school programs shutting down, with parents losing child care.

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said the agency is waiting on “further guidance” from the General Assembly regarding how to distribute the $50 million appropriation since it was “not tied to an existing statutory program.” The funding was not part of the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning grants, the spokesperson said.

This is not the first time that after-school programs have struggled to receive funding from the state. In 2023, the ACT Now coalition called on Pritzker and state lawmakers to help fund after-school programs after the state board noticed a projected $12.4 million shortfall for 2024 caused by an accounting error. The error impacted 68 locations. Advocates said at the time affected programs largely served Black and Latino students and students from low-income families.

At a press conference at the Capitol Wednesday, after-school program managers, advocates, lawmakers, and families talked about how the delay in funding has harmed their programs and why after-school programs matter to families.

Syerra Meadows-Haynes, a network manager at the East St. Louis Youth Development Alliance, said her community is “facing a crisis” because of the delay.

“Some program sites have been forced to close their doors, leaving youth without safe, reliable spaces to learn and grow,” said Meadows-Haynes. “We need the government to act now and release the necessary funds.”

Marcela Marquez, a seventh grader from Unity Junior High in Cicero, Illinois, said the after-school program at her school has helped her in many ways, not just academically.

“I have been able to improve my grades, make new friends, and feel like I’m part of something important. They teach us skills that we can use in the future, such as teamwork, responsibility, and caring for others,” Marcela said through an interpreter.

State Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Democrat representing neighborhoods on the southwest side of Chicago, said she sponsored Senate Bill 2036 because she is worried about future funding for organizations in her district that provide programs that largely serve Black and Latino students.

“Without state support, their ability to provide these critical services are at a risk,” said Villanueva at the press conference “With uncertainty at the federal level, Illinois must take the lead in protecting and strengthening after-school programs by investing in high quality out of school time opportunities.”

The budget for fiscal year 2026 begins on July 1 and ends on June 30, 2026. The state general assembly will have to pass a budget by the end of the spring legislative session. The session is scheduled to end on May 31.

Correction 3/20/2025: This story has been updated to show that afterschool advocates went to the state capitol on Wednesday. A previous version of this story said they went on Tuesday.

Conservative groups file complaint against Illinois and Chicago over policies protecting LGBTQ students

2025-03-18T23:26:13+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Two conservative groups filed a federal civil rights complaint on Tuesday against the Illinois State Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools for extending Title IX protections to include gender identity, which they say clashes with Trump administration policy.

In their complaint, filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies and the Liberty Justice Center allege that the state board and CPS are violating Title IX by “forcing students to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations with members of the opposite sex, based solely on self-declared ‘gender identity,’” according to a press release.

The complaint names the Illinois State Board of Education’s guidance from 2020 and Chicago Public Schools’ interim guidance from 2024 and alleges that both documents misinterpret Title IX by arguing that the clause protects against discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity.

The complaint also claims that the state board prevents schools from notifying parents about a student’s gender identity and does not factor in other students’ rights to privacy. In the complaint, the groups say that the Illinois state board policy creates a “regime of secrecy” that “prioritizes gender ideology over privacy and safety interests and, as discussed below, violates Title IX and the right of parents to raise and educate their children.”

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said the agency “cannot comment on matters pending before Office of Civil Rights.”

Chicago Public Schools declined to comment on the complaint.

Title IX is a federal law that protects students against sex-based discrimination. Under the Biden administration, new rules were created to include gender identity. Under those rules, if schools prevented students from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity or if teachers did not use a student’s chosen name and pronouns, they would be violating a students’ rights. However, Republican-controlled states sued the Biden administration for changing the rules.

After a federal judge overturned Biden’s Title IX rules in January, schools reverted back to rules under the first Trump administration, which do not include protections for LGBTQ students.

In addition to Trump’s Title IX rules, the complaint by the conservative groups cites executive orders limiting the rights of LGBT people. An executive order issued by Trump in January stated that the United States only recognizes two sexes, male and female, and the Executive branch will “enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality.” Another Trump executive order aims to prevent transgender women and girls from participating in sport teams that align with their gender identity.

In January, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into Denver Public Schools for converting an all-girls restroom at a local high school into a gender-neutral bathroom.

Illinois Republican lawmakers have filed several bills in the legislature to align with Trump’s policy agenda. One bill, HB 1204, would prevent transgender girls from participating in sports teams at school that align with their gender identity. However, that bill has yet to make it out of the House’s rules committee.

Illinois lawmakers weigh new proposal to set guardrails around AI

2025-03-17T14:56:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois educators are asking state lawmakers to create guidelines around the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms, as AI-powered tools are becoming a part of our daily lives.

State lawmakers have proposed two bills in the House and Senate that would create an advisory committee to create and distribute guidance on using artificial intelligence. Both bills — HB2503 and SB1556 — would require school districts to include how students, teachers, and districts are using artificial intelligence to the Illinois State Board of Education in their annual report on the use and policies of education technology.

A mandated unit of study for schools already includes teaching students internet safety. The current proposal in the General Assembly would ask schools to add information on how artificial intelligence is used to create and spread false information and images.

Rep. Laura Faver Dias, vice chair of the House’s Education Policy Committee and chief sponsor of the House proposal, said this legislation is important now because of how rapidly AI-powered tools are changing and emerging in classrooms.

“Our teachers are on the front lines and spend hours with our students every day,” said Faver Dias. “We need to equip them to be able to have those conversations and teach students how to use it responsibly and ethically and the same for administrators and teachers.”

Educators and advocates believe it is time for Illinois to put in guardrails around artificial intelligence as it becomes more a part of the classroom. Educators and students are already using AI-powered tools, but advocates want to ensure that those tools will protect students’ data and are ethical.

Twenty-five states have issued guidance on the use of artificial intelligence to local schools, according to AI for Education — an organization that provides AI literacy training to education. Some of those states include Indiana, New Jersey, and Colorado.

Chicago Public Schools has created a guidebook for educators to use to help navigate generative AI.

Bill Curtin, policy director at Teach Plus Illinois, who helped authored the bill, said there has been a lot of attention on students using AI tools to cheat, but the bills are more focused on how to support educators.

“We’re really focused on empowering teachers with the guardrails to know that experimenting is safe,” said Curtin. “Teachers will be able to innovate new ways of learning for students, and that’s where the focus of this bill is, and our intent is to unlock that potential for teachers.”

Joe Brewer, an educator and a fellow with Teacher Plus, testified during the House’s education policy committee last week about his experiences with AI in the classroom. Brewer said while teaching his students about a local poet named Edgar Lee Masters, he used an AI tool to help students to connect with the poet’s words.

“We used AI tools to reimagine the poems in modern teen slang, and suddenly the language clicked,” said Brewer. “Students began exploring deeper things, simulating interviews with the poet and making meaningful connections in their own lives.”

The proposal in the House passed the chamber’s education policy committee on Wednesday with a 9-4 vote. Faver Dias says she is still negotiating the details of the bills with the Illinois State board of Education and plans to bring an amendment back to committee before bringing the bill to the House floor.

Loading…

Correction 3/18/2025: Bill Curtin is the policy director for Teach Plus Illinois. An earlier version of the story referred to the program as Teacher Plus.

USDA cuts $26.3 million grant for Illinois schools, child care centers to purchase food from local farmers

2025-03-13T19:43:36+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

This story has been updated with a statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has canceled a $26.3 million federal grant that would have helped Illinois K-12 schools and child care centers purchase food from local farmers for school meals and snacks, the Illinois State Board of Education said Wednesday.

The federal government canceled funding for the Local Food for Schools and Child Care Cooperative Agreement on March 7, the state board said in a press release. A termination letter from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago said the department “determined this agreement no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate.”

The state board said in the press release that it signed an agreement with USDA for the grant on Jan. 30. The board said the grant would have gone to over 4,000 schools and 1,200 child care centers, with $17.8 million going to schools and $8.5 million to child care institutions over the next three years.

A USDA spokesperson said in a statement that the end of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program “isn’t an abrupt shift” and that last week, the department released over a half a billion dollars for local fund purchasing programs.

“With 16 robust nutrition programs in place, USDA remains focused on its core mission: strengthening food security, supporting agricultural markets, and ensuring access to nutritious food,” said the statement.

The cancellation of funding for the Illinois food program is part of nationwide cuts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Politico reported that the USDA halted about $660 million of funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement, which helped local schools around the country purchase fresh food from local farmers.

The Trump administration has terminated federal contracts and slashed staffing at federal offices since taking office in January. In February, billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — which is not a federal agency — terminated dozens of U.S. Department of Education contracts meant to support education research. Just a few days ago, the Trump administration announced that it is cutting the U.S. Department of Education workforce by almost half.

In Wednesday’s press release, State Superintendent Tony Sanders called the decision to cut the USDA grants “deeply disappointing.”

“These grants were designed to ensure that students in our schools and child care centers have access to fresh, locally-sourced food while also supporting our state’s agricultural economy,” Sanders said. “This funding was essential to provide Illinois schools and child care sites with nutritious meals that fuel learning and growth.”

However, in the press release, the state board said its “Local Food for Schools” grant for $7.4 million is still available to schools through Jan. 31, 2026. According to the state board, the grant has helped over 2,000 schools to purchase food from 138 local farms and ranches.

New report finds Illinois teacher shortage is easing, but school leaders are still concerned

2025-03-11T23:13:29+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois schools are seeing more teachers enter the classroom, but school leaders still believe the teacher shortage is an issue, according to a report released Monday.

The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools and the State Board of Education, along with the Illinois Workforce of Research Collaborative and Goshen Consulting, collaborated to collect data on staffing shortages across the state for the two surveys contained in the report.

In its survey of unfilled positions, the state board found that Illinois had 1,877 more classroom teachers in the 2023-24 school year than in the previous school year — for a total of 136,092 educators. As of Oct. 1, 2024, the state board found 3,864 unfilled positions for the current school year, a 5.6% decrease from the previous year. The state’s vacancy rate for the current school year is 2.8%, down from 3% in 2023-24.

But, despite the increase in teachers, 87% of the 734 school leaders surveyed by the regional superintendents association in the fall of 2024 believe there is a problem with teacher shortages. Forty percent of the leaders who responded, 281 out of 698, said their need for educators has increased from last school year, and 64% of those who answered a question about the needs for the next school year believe their need for more educators will grow.

About 92% of school leaders — or 1,029 out of 1,120 school entities — responded to the state board’s unfilled positions survey and 71% — or 790 out of 1,120 — responded to the superintendents association’s Educator Shortage Survey.

The state’s unfilled positions data also found that special education teacher and bilingual education teacher positions were often unfilled. The unfilled positions data found that English language arts, math, and science were among the top three subjects where classroom teachers were needed.

School leaders reported using “alternative measures” to bridge the gap in services. Some of these measures included hiring retired teachers and substitutes, changing classes offered to students, or shifting teacher responsibilities. About 26% of those who responded to a question about solutions used to make up for the unfilled special education teacher slots reported increasing the caseload of existing employees.

There is a need for more substitutes, according to the association of regional superintendent’s survey. About 91% of school leaders who responded to this question reported having a severe substitute teacher shortage.

Some barriers to increasing the number of teachers include not having qualified applicants or having few people apply for open positions according to the survey. Around 43% of school leaders who answered said no or few qualified applicants applied for open positions, while 71% of respondents say they had few to no applicants for classroom teacher positions. The survey reports school leaders citing salary and pension benefits, poor working conditions, location, and difficulty with recruitment or retention as other causes for the teacher shortage.

The regional superintendents association’s survey also looked at what school districts did with federal COVID-19 relief funding. The state received more than $7 billion in emergency funding that was largely distributed to school districts to help students recover from the pandemic. Those funds dried up in the fall of 2024.

About 362 of 722 education leaders said they did not use funds to create or support staffing positions. However, some schools used the funds to create full-time positions, additional pay for current staff, and part-time positions. A small number of positions and benefits will be cut next school year, according to school leaders who responded.

Gary Tipsord, executive director of the regional superintendents association, said in an interview on Tuesday that despite the progress highlighted in the report, school leaders still have some concern when it comes to teacher shortages.

“We still have an overwhelming majority of educational leaders in the state that feel like the problem is persistent,” said Tipsord. “Even when we’re able to fill the jobs, there’s this sense that that problem is still lurking around the corner.”

The state board, local school districts, state lawmakers, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker have increased funding, changed policy, or created programs to increase the number of educators in classrooms in previous years.

The state created a $45 million grant, known as the Teacher Vacancy Grant, to support 170 school districts that struggled to fill in teacher positions. Recent reports from the state and the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative found that the grant has been successful in hiring about 5,400 new educators and retained around 11,000 additional teachers. Pritzker’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 also includes $45 million for the program.

In previous years, Chicago Public Schools funded efforts to recruit and support aspiring educators and especially teachers of color, including Teach Chicago Tomorrow, which recruits CPS students into the teacher pipeline.

Pritzker has also increased funding for the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, which awards grants to students of color in college and universities who aspire to be teachers. Recipients have to teach at an Illinois school with at least 30% of students of color for one year after graduating from college. However, the scholarship program is currently being challenged in court.

Illinois students lobby for state law about high school start time

2025-03-05T21:31:47+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Early morning swim practice, a full day of school, evening swim meets, and homework after school is a lot to manage for Maya Anderson. It’s even harder when she doesn’t get enough sleep.

Anderson, a student at Libertyville High School in a suburb north of Chicago, said not getting enough sleep can impact her focus, mood, and performance after a long day. She often struggles to stay awake in class and craves a few more minutes of rest.

It’s why Anderson and two other Libertyville High students — Benjamin Ratner and Addie Krupinski — are advocating for a bill in Springfield that would require public high schools to start no earlier than 8:45 a.m.

Libertyville High School starts at 8:45 a.m., and Anderson acknowledged that she still struggles to balance sleep and her daily activities. But she told state lawmakers at the House Education Policy Committee on Wednesday that her school has seen an overall increase in academic performance and students’ well-being since pushing the start time back in the fall of 2018, although she didn’t highlight particular academic data.

“Later start times are not a panacea. They don’t solve all health problems, nor all sleep problems. As you are well aware, social media, homework and extracurricular activities all impact the quantity and quality of sleep for high schoolers as well,” said Krupinski, who also acknowledged logistical challenges for districts. Nevertheless, she said, “the challenge is well worth the extra sleep it affords Illinois public high school students.”

For over a decade, researchers have been calling attention to sleep loss in teens and advocated for later school start times. Teens like Anderson are supposed to sleep between 8.5 to 9.5 hours, according to a paper from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2014. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey from 2024 found that in 2021 that 77% of students were not sleeping enough.

Without enough sleep, students are more likely to miss class time and be unable to focus on complex tasks, and are at greater risk of depression.

In its paper, the American Academy of Pediatrics called on schools to start class after 8:30 a.m. There is no Illinois law governing school start times. States and school districts across the nation have recently enacted later start times for high school students.

Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a Democrat whose district includes Libertyville High School, introduced the bill after being persuaded by the Libertyville High School students, she said.

The students were able to find interesting research on how later start times could affect students’ academic outcomes, safety, and mental health, according to Faver Dias.

Faver Dias pointed to the results from a high school in Jackson Hole, Wyoming that changed its start time from 7:35 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. in 2012. Students reported sleeping more, the high school saw students showing up to class on time, and the later start time might have helped reduce car accidents.

California passed similar legislation in 2019 that took effect in 2022. Florida passed a law in 2023 that required later school start times for high school and middle school students by 2026, but now lawmakers are trying to reverse course.

Lawmakers on the House committee expressed a lot of support for the presentation from Libertyville High School students Wednesday. However, some shared opposition to the idea.

Alison Maley, government and public relations director for the Illinois Association of Principals, said she “reluctantly” opposed the proposal because of school busing schedules and high school graduation requirements.

“I think busing, extracurriculars, and then trying to make it all work when it comes to the high school curriculum, are things that we would want to continue to look at,” said Maley during the Wednesday committee meeting. “In general our position is that sometimes a one-size-fits-all answer may not work for every single district in the state.”

Rep. Dan Swanson, a Republican on the committee, said that a local board of education in his district switched to a later start time but then reversed that decision. Parents complained to the board that the later time didn’t align with their work schedules.

“It was about students and parents' schedules aligning so students could get on the bus while parents were heading off to work,” said Swanson.

Rep. Joyce Mason, a Democrat also on the committee, noted Woodland School District 50 changed its start times for middle schoolers, but there were issues related to busing as well as parent work schedules, and teacher concerns.

Mason said the teachers acknowledged that “‘yes, we know this is a good idea for the kids, but we have our own work schedules that we signed up for and established, and we have our own families to take care of.’”

The school district was able to figure out how to make it work: They changed their busing schedule to allow for young students to start earlier and for older students to start later, Mason said. She encouraged the Libertyville High School students to keep advocating for later start times.

It’s not clear what will happen to the bill next. Faver Dias said the goal of Wednesday’s committee hearing was to show lawmakers that the issue is important to high school students’ well-being.

Faver Dias said there are logistical hurdles for districts. But she said she wanted “to start the conversation around educating legislators and district leaders that it really matters and it can actually show benefit across the board.”

Illinois schools chief tells districts to follow state law, not Trump threats

2025-02-21T21:17:14+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders told school districts to continue teaching Black, Asian American, and LGBT history, and to provide education to students regardless of their citizenship status as required by state law.

In his weekly message sent Wednesday, Sanders said Illinois law prohibits discrimination against marginalized groups. “Black history is American history,” wrote Sanders, who noted that these and other topics are required by Illinois mandates for classroom instruction. “The study of events related to the forceful removal and illegal deportation of Mexican-American U.S. citizens during the Great Depression is American history. The study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people is American history.”

Sanders' message to school leaders was a response to a “Dear Colleague” letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s top acting civil rights official warning K-12 schools and universities that they risk losing federal funding if they continue with diversity initiatives, even those that do not use race as a criterion for consideration.

Under the terms of the letter, Illinois and Chicago both have programs that could be targeted by federal officials, including efforts to diversify the teacher pipeline and improve academic outcomes among students of color.

In the first month of his second term, the president has taken several steps to impose his vision on K-12 schools. The “Dear Colleague” letter follows a Trump executive order from January that seeks to root out “radical indoctrination” in schools. He’s also given the green light for immigration arrests at schools amid a wider crackdown on migrants.

The Feb. 14 letter from Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department, threatens schools with the “potential loss of federal funding” if they do not comply. But the letter notes that the new “guidance does not have the force and effect of law.” and does not bind the public or create new legal standards.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker also spoke out against the Trump administration on Wednesday during his budget and State of the State address by alluding to the “fashion at the federal level right now to just indiscriminately slash school funding” among other things.

The “Dear Colleague” letter notes federal officials could “take appropriate measures to assess compliance” within 14 days of the letter’s release. But in his message, Sanders downplayed the letter’s practical impact.

“In Illinois, we strive to affirm, uplift, and support all our students and their families,” Sanders wrote. “Nothing in any executive order or ‘Dear Colleague’ letter should change that.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2026 budget proposal includes increases for K-12 schools and early childhood education

2025-02-20T15:57:11+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal for next fiscal year includes increases to early childhood education and additional funding for K-12 schools even as federal COVID-19 relief funds have dried up and schools worry about federal funding under the Trump administration.

Pritzker presented a $53.9 billion spending plan for the state to the General Assembly on Wednesday. The plan would increase funding for the state’s K-12 schools by $350 million, early childhood education programs for low-income families by $85 million, and the state’s scholarship program for college bound students by $10 million.

However, there were some parts of the proposal that kept funding flat for certain programs, such as the state’s Early Childhood Block Grant, which has helped expand public preschool.

In his seventh budget address since becoming governor, Pritzker touted the success of Illinois students. He cited the gains the state’s eighth graders made in reading and math on the nation’s report card in 2024 and high school graduation rates reaching an all time high as represented on the state’s report card.

“I believe in building on what works,” Pritzker said. “So, despite the challenge we are facing this year, my budget proposal increases our commitment to evidence-based funding for public education so that we put new resources in underfunded schools first.”

State legislators must negotiate the final details of the fiscal year 2026 budget – which begins on July 1. The general assembly is scheduled to end on the last day of May, according to the general assembly’s calendar.

The state’s budget process could take on heightened importance with President Donald Trump’s administration cutting or scaling back federal funding. When it comes to education. Trump has vowed to dismantle the federal Department of Education, which administers federal funds to K-12 schools, collects data, and ensures schools are following federal laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Education gave Illinois $1.2 billion for Title I funds, money allocated to schools serving a majority of children from low-income families, and almost $1 billion for educating students with disabilities.

Since taking office in January, Trump has filed executive orders that resulted in the department placing employees on paid leave, cancelling contracts, and removing documents and data from its website. Linda McMahon, the president’s pick to head the Department of Education, said in her confirmation hearing last week that she would not cut billions of dollars in funding to schools, but did not say whether schools would lose federal funding if they teach African American history.

Lt. Gov. Julia Statton told Chalkbeat earlier this week that Illinois officials are watching developments at the federal level closely.

“No matter what happens at the federal level,” Statton said. “We’re certainly going to try to do everything that we can to make sure that Illinoisans and students in Illinois get access to the education that they deserve.”

Here’s what you should know about Pritzker’s fiscal year 2026 budget:

Early childhood education continues to see increases

Under Pritzker’s proposal, the Illinois State Board of Education’s Early Childhood Block Grant will stay flat for a total of $748 million. The state board was hoping to receive an additional $75 million to bump the program from $748 million to $823 million.

For the state Department of Human Services, the governor asked for an additional $10 million for Early Intervention, a program for children with disabilities ages 0 to 3, and an increase of $85 million for the Child Care Assistance Program, a program to help low-income families access child care. The state’s home visiting program funding will remain flat.

While some early childhood education advocates thanked Pritzker for his continued investment in programs for families with young children, they are disappointed that many programs won’t see increases.

“When we fail to provide sufficient state funding for programs like Early Intervention and home visiting, we fail children during their most crucial developmental periods, and we leave families unsupported in caring for their little ones,” Celena Sarillo, Executive Director of Start Early, an advocacy organization based in Chicago.

During the last General Assembly session, lawmakers approved the creation of the state’s Department of Early Childhood and allocated $16 million in funding to set up the new agency. This year, Pritzker is proposing $21.7 million for the new department.

This is the third year of Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois initiative, which aims to expand public preschool to serve 20,000 more 3- and 4- year olds throughout the state. Pritzker announced the initiative after being reelected in 2022 with a promise to get universal preschool back on track after the coronavirus pandemic hindered some of his initial plans.

In the first year of the program, Pritzker and State Superintendent Tony Sanders announced that the state was able to add 5,800 public school seats for young children.

K-12 could remain steady for the next year.

Pritzker asked the General Assembly to increase the budget for K-12 schools from $10.8 billion to $11.2 billion. That’s similar to what State Superintendent Tony Sanders recommended in January.

Included in his request was a $350 million budget increase for the state’s K-12 schools to be distributed through the state’s evidence-based funding formula, which provides funds to local districts based need, drawing on metrics such as the number of students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and English learners and also factors what schools can raise through local property taxes. In 2017, state lawmakers made a bipartisan promise to increase funding by at least $350 million annually until all districts reached “adequate funding.”

Local education advocates have been calling on the state to increase funding by at least $550 million to help get schools to “adequate funding” more quickly. A report last year found that the state will not hit its funding goal by 2027, but by 2034 if the state continues to add $350 million each year.

Despite the continued increases, many school districts across the state will grapple with smaller budgets regardless of what the state kicks in. That’s because $7 billion in federal emergency COVID-19 relief funding is now gone.

Scholarships for students to access college

Pritzker proposed increasing a scholarship program for college bound students by $10 million.

The proposal to boost the Monetary Award Program will support students from low-income families who are planning to attend or already in school. The increase would bring the program up to a total of $721.6 million. The maximum amount of aid a student could get annually would be $8,604, up from $4,869 in fiscal year 2019.

Correction 2.20.2025: This story has been updated to show that the maximum MAP award would grow from $4,869 in fiscal year 2019 to $8,604 under the governor’s proposal.

Illinois governor pushes cellphone ban in public school classrooms

2025-02-19T22:35:44+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Gov. J.B Pritzker wants to limit the use of cellphones in public school classrooms, potentially making Illinois one of several states around the country that have implemented cellphone bans.

“In conversations with educators and parents around the state – there is one thing they commonly cite as an impediment to learning in the classroom: cell phones,” said Pritzker during his State of the State address Wednesday.

“Cyberbullying has expanded at alarming rates, and it’s time for Illinois to take measures to protect our kids,” he added.

Both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states across the country have either outlawed the use of cellphones in classrooms or proposed to do so. So far, California, Minnesota, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and South Carolina are among some of the states that successfully passed cellphone bans, according to a report by the Associated Press.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed banning cellphones in classrooms last month during her budget proposal. Her recommendation included $13.2 million to help schools implement the ban. However, Pritzker’s proposal doesn’t come with a price tag.

Prior to the governor’s address, Illinois lawmakers filed several bills in the Senate and House to restrict the use of cellphones in schools.

State Sens. Cristina Castro, who chairs the Senate’s executive committee, and Meg Loughran Cappel, who chairs the Senate education committee – both Democrats – have filed Senate Bill 2427, which would require schools to create a policy prohibiting the use of cellphones during instructional time and create guidelines on how to store cellphones when in a school building by the 2026-27 school year. It also allows for some exceptions for when students can use cellphones.

House Bill 2975, filed by state Rep. Curtis Tarver, a Democrat who chairs several committees in the House, is slightly different in that it calls for the school board to prohibit the use of cellphones in school and on school property except during “lunch, recess, passing periods, or emergency situations.”

Schools districts around the state already have limitations on how cellphones can be used in schools. For example, Chicago Public Schools’ student code of conduct leaves it up to the principal to decide if cellphones are allowed or prohibited from schools.

Research shows that the use of cellphones and social media can have negative impacts on students’ mental health. According to a 2023 study, about 51% of teens spend at least four hours on social media and the use of social media makes teens more depressed and anxious.

A Pew Research Center survey found about 68% of adults support cellphone bans and 65% of adults who have kids in K-12 were more likely to support a ban. Those who support restricting cellphone use in schools said students would have fewer distractions during class time.

Illinois’ spring legislative session is underway. Here’s what to watch.

2025-02-11T23:02:04+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Education funding, protections for immigrant students, and expanded special education are some of the top issues to watch during Illinois’ 2025 legislative session, which began in January.

State lawmakers returned to the Capitol in Springfield last month to start filing hundreds of bills, begin committee hearings, and negotiate over the state’s fiscal year 2026 budget. Legislators have until the end of May to agree to a budget and send bills to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk to be signed into law.

The wild cards during this legislative session are the policy changes that President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress are making or discussing. Education advocates are concerned about what those changes will mean for federal education funding for K-12 schools and higher education, oversight of schools, and protections for immigrant and transgender students.

Meanwhile, Republican state lawmakers are pushing bills that align with the Trump administration policies, including restricting participation by transgender students in athletics, and promoting private-school vouchers.

Chalkbeat Chicago will be watching how federal education policy affects Illinois and local school districts. We will be looking out for bills that affect students who are immigrants, students with disabilities, and curriculum.

Here are five issues that we’re watching this spring:

Education budget is a major concern

Illinois school districts could have less money to spend next school year. The $7 billion in COVID emergency relief funding that the state distributed to schools in recent years expired in the fall. And the state’s overall fiscal picture looks pretty bleak: Some state budget officials project the state will have a $3.2 billion budget deficit in fiscal year 2026.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders recommended that the state increase K-12 funding by $350 million, far from the $550 million that education advocates have been calling for over the past few years.

Early childhood education programs could see a boost in funding, since Pritzker has been determined to fund more programs to support the state’s youngest residents under his Smart Start Illinois initiative. For instance, the Illinois State Board of Education’s early childhood block grant program received an increase of $75 million in 2023 and 2024. Sanders requested another increase of $75 million for the grant this year.

Protections for immigrant students

Since Trump’s election, immigrant communities across the city and local advocates have been concerned about his threat of mass deportations of people who are in the country illegally. Just a few days after his inauguration, Trump rescinded the “sensitive locations” policy that kept Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from making arrests at churches, schools, child care centers, and hospitals.

This change in federal policy has sparked fear in Chicago’s immigrant community. Chicago Public Schools has trained school staff on what to do if ICE officers arrive at a school, and local community organizations have led ongoing “Know Your Rights” training for residents.

Now, state lawmakers are filing bills to protect immigrant students. Bills like HB 3247 and SB 2065 would affirm existing federal guarantees that students receive a free public school education regardless of citizenship or immigration status, and would prevent schools from disclosing information about a child’s immigration status or working with ICE agents.

Senate Bill 2033, the Immigration Safe Zones Act, would create a sensitive location policy in Illinois that keeps ICE agents from accessing schools, daycare centers, medical centers, public libraries, courts, and facilities operated by the Secretary of State — such as local motor-vehicle offices.

State Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, has a pair of bills this session, HB 3102 and HB 3104, that would require the State Board of Education to create a New Arrivals Grant program for schools that have seen a high enrollment of students who have immigrated to the United States over the past couple of years. Crespo and education advocates pushed hard for the grant program last session, but it did not make it into the budget.

Supporting students with disabilities

A bill would add Illinois to a push across the country for legislation, known as LEAD-K, that would ensure that students who have hearing disabilities are able to learn and understand language by the time they enter kindergarten. State Rep. Michelle Mussman, a Democrat representing the area around Schaumburg and chair of the House Education Policy Committee, has filed House Bill 1783 — or the Language Equality Acquisition for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf-Blind Children Act — with the goal of helping young children who are deaf learn and understand language by age 6.

The current version of HB 1783 would require the State Board of Education along with other state departments to create an assessment to track literacy and language development skills. The state board would have to create an advisory committee on language assessment programs and publish an action plan by July 1, 2026, and have the assessment ready for children below age 6 to take beginning at that time.

Another notable special education bill is House Bill 2337, which would prevent parents of students from waiving their child’s right under federal law to a free and appropriate public education as a result of a mediation agreement, resolution agreement, or settlement agreement. If this bill is signed, future waivers would not be enforceable in an administrative proceeding or in state or federal courts.

Diversifying history curriculum

Democratic state lawmakers are pushing bills to make history education more inclusive, counteracting a concerted effort by conservative organizations and lawmakers to ban certain types of books from schools and restrict curriculum that teaches students about the enduring legacy of racism in America.

Trump recently signed an executive order to withhold funding from schools that teach what he called “discriminatory equity ideology,” an allusion to diversity, equity and inclusion programs collectively known as DEI.

House Bill 2927 would create an Inclusive History Commission to help develop recommendations for curriculum standards.

A couple of pending bills have similar language to the 2021 Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act. House Bill 2997 would require elementary and high schools to include a unit of Arab American history, including in Illinois and the Midwest, by 2026-27. Senate Bill 2270 would require schools to teach a unit of Latino history starting in 2026-27.

House Bill 3198 would allow for educators to teach about disability history and culture beginning during the 2027-28 school year.

Republican lawmakers are making some political moves

Republican lawmakers, outnumbered in the General Assembly, are nonetheless expressing their alignment with the Trump administration by proposing bills that affect immigrant and transgender students and advancing conservatives’ school-choice agenda.

Several Republican-sponsored bills in the House and Senate, including HB 1217 and SB 1202, would repeal the TRUST Act, state law that currently prevents local enforcement from working with ICE agents.

One bill in the General Assembly would prevent transgender girls from participating in school athletic teams and sports. HB 1204 says “athletic teams or sports designated as being female are available only to participants who are female, based on their biological sex.” The bill also would require a written statement by a student’s parent or guardian confirming the student’s age, biological sex, and that they haven’t taken performance enhancement drugs. Government agencies or sports associations wouldn’t be allowed to file a complaint, open an investigation, or take any other legal actions against sports teams that follow language in the bill.

Another bill, HB 2611, would create Education Savings Accounts for families to use public funds to attend private schools.

Cinco cosas que debes saber sobre la política de inmigración y las escuelas de Illinois

2025-02-05T21:55:31+00:00

Read in English.

Los estudiantes y las familias inmigrantes se preparan para un futuro desconocido bajo la presidencia de Donald Trump, quien ha prometido la operación de deportación más grande del país — con Chicago como objetivo.

Pero en Chicago - según conocida como una ciudad santuario - tanto los funcionarios municipales como los de los centros escolares han destacado que protegerán a las familias con distintos estatus migratorios y que sólo cooperarán con los funcionarios del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas, o agentes de ICE, si tienen orden judicial.

Las escuelas públicas de Chicago no solicitan ni rastrean el estatus migratorio de los estudiantes, y la junta escolar anterior aprobó una resolución reafirmando la intención del distrito de proteger a los alumnos inmigrantes.

Aun así, las familias que no son residentes legales tienen miedo de lo que la nueva administración presidencial significa para su futuro en Chicago - y en los Estados Unidos. El director general de CPS, Pedro Martínez, dijo a Chalkbeat Chicago que cree que las escuelas “son los espacios más seguros” para los niños.

“Quiero que las familias no tengan miedo de enviar a sus hijos a la escuela”, dijo Martínez. “No compartimos información con ICE ni con el departamento de inmigración”.

Trump ya ha firmado una serie de órdenes ejecutivas en un intento de tomar fuertes medidas contra las pólizas migratorias, entre ellas cambiar el concepto de lo que significa la ciudadanía por derecho de nacimiento para excluir a los hijos de padres indocumentados y a los inmigrantes legales con protección temporal- y deshacerse de la política de “lugares seguros”, que exigía que los funcionarios del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos, conocidos como agentes de ICE, obtuvieran autorización para llevar a cabo detenciones en escuelas e iglesias o en sus alrededores.

En un comunicado el mes pasado, CPS reiteró su postura de no compartir información de los estudiantes con ICE, “excepto en el raro caso de que haya una orden judicial o el permiso de un padre o tutor.”

El miércoles, el Departamento de Justicia de EE.UU. ordenó a fiscales federales investigar a los funcionarios estatales y locales que no estaban siguiendo las órdenes ejecutivas migratorias de Trump. Se espera que las órdenes ejecutivas de Trump y las políticas de inmigración propuestas se enfrenten a desafíos legales.

“Sé que hay mucha ansiedad, y créeme, yo también la siento cuando empiezo a escuchar sobre, ya sabes, todas estas cosas que [Trump] quiere cambiar y las firmas de órdenes ejecutivas”, dijo Martínez. “Pero ... simplemente toma años para que estas cosas sucedan, y luego algunas de estas órdenes ejecutivas ni siquiera pueden suceder”.

Hasta ahora, más de 20 estados, entre ellos Illinois, han demandado a la administración Trump en un intento de bloquear los cambios en la ciudadanía por derecho de nacimiento.

Esto es lo que hay que saber sobre las escuelas y la política de inmigración.

¿Tengo que compartir mi estatus migratorio o la de mi hijo al colegio de mi hijo?

No.

Las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago no preguntan a las familias por su estatus migratorio y no comparten los expedientes de los estudiantes con funcionarios de ICE al menos que los agentes tengan una orden judicial o el permiso de los padres o tutores del niño, según CPS.

La Junta de Educación del Estado de Illinois ha aconsejado a los distritos escolares cambiar o modificar las políticas de matriculación que puedan revelar la situación migratoria de un niño. Por ejemplo, los documentos escolares utilizados para demostrar la residencia de un niño no deben incluir información como su número de Seguro Social. Las escuelas tampoco pueden impedir que los alumnos reciban beneficios como el pre-kínder o el almuerzo gratuito o a precio reducido si su solicitud no incluye el número de Seguro Social.

“Aquí tenemos la protección del estado, y quiero que las familias lo entiendan”, dijo Martínez. “Eso crea una capa mucho, mucho más protectora para nosotros... No veo a nuestro estado, ya sabes, renunciando a estas protecciones”.

¿Agentes de ICE podrán entrar a las escuelas?

Sí, pero tiene un alto grado de restricción.

Los agentes de ICE tienen que presentar sus credenciales, un motivo para entrar y una orden judicial penal firmada por un juez federal, de acuerdo con La Ordenanza De Ciudad Acogedora de Chicago y la política del consejo escolar. Las escuelas públicas de Chicago dicen que los agentes de ICE no pueden entrar en una escuela con “una orden administrativa, una orden de retención de ICE o un documento de otra agencia que aplique la ley civil de inmigración”. "

Un portavoz de CPS dijo que las órdenes ejecutivas de Trump no cambian la política o práctica actual del distrito.

Martínez dijo que el distrito ha liberado a tres de sus abogados y también tiene una línea directa de 24 horas para ayudar a los líderes escolares con preguntas o inquietudes. Si los agentes de ICE se presentan en las escuelas los abogados de CPS “pueden intervenir o pueden evaluar, porque revisarán cada orden judicial para asegurarse de que es válida”, dijo Martínez.

Si uno de los padres es detenido por agentes de ICE, ¿qué pueden hacer las escuelas para apoyar a sus alumnos?

Martínez dijo que el distrito está trabajando con organizaciones sin fines de lucro que trabajan con las escuelas para crear “planes familiares” con las familias que puedan estar preocupadas acerca de qué hacer si son detenidos durante el día escolar. El distrito no puede solicitar información migratoria a familias, por lo que el distrito esta colaborando con la ayuda de organizaciones comunitarias que ya trabajan con comunidades escolares y han creado confianza con ellas para crear una lista amplia de familiares o tutores que puedan ayudar si uno de los padres es detenido por ICE.

Martínez dijo que, aunque se han detenido padres durante la jornada escolar, es algo relativamente poco frecuente.

“Por eso lo llamamos plan familiar”, explica Martínez. “Nos da la seguridad adicional de que habrá alguien con quien podamos contactar en caso de que ocurra algo. Esperemos que no ocurra”.

En caso de que una familia no tenga una lista amplia de contactos, Martínez dijo que las escuelas ya tienen algunos contactos de emergencia para alumnos cuando un padre llega tarde o no se presenta a recoger a sus hijos.

¿Qué protección existe para maestros y personal escolar inmigrante?

Los empleados de CPS pueden trabajar legalmente en Estados Unidos, dijo Ben Felton, director de talento de las escuelas públicas de Chicago. Dicho esto, Felton destacó que el distrito no revelaría ninguna “información personal sensible” sin una “solicitud legal válida”, como una citación, dijo.

“Protegemos ferozmente los derechos de nuestros empleados”, afirma Felton.

También reiteró que el personal ha recibido entrenamiento sobre qué hacer si los agentes de ICE se presentan en una escuela - incluyendo no permitirles entrar sin una orden judicial.

El contrato actual del Chicago Teachers Union (sindicato de maestros) establece que el distrito y el consejo escolar no pueden “preguntar o exigir pruebas del estatus migratorio o ciudadanía” de los miembros del sindicato más allá de lo que exige la ley. El contrato también dice que los miembros del sindicato a quienes ya no se les permite trabajar en CPS debido a su estatus migratorio se les impondría una licencia sin sueldo si pueden obtener la autorización de trabajo adecuada dentro de un año para los maestros no titulados y de dos años para el personal con titular. Ese permiso permitiría al empleado volver al trabajo sin pérdida de antigüedad.

¿Existen recursos en las escuelas para ayudar a padres a informarse sobre sus derechos?

Las escuelas públicas de Chicago han elaborado una lista de foros “Conoce Tus Derechos” organizados por organizaciones comunitarias y de defensa en su sitio web e información sobre las políticas del distrito.

El distrito también ha capacitado a maestros y al personal sobre cómo deben interactuar con los agentes de ICE, cómo tratar con los agentes de ICE y qué hacer si el padre o tutor legal de un niño es arrestado por agentes de ICE mientras un niño está en la escuela, así como sobre los derechos de los estudiantes y los padres. Martínez agregó que el distrito se está asegurando de que maestros y consejeros sepan crear un espacio para los niños “que sólo necesitan hablar.”

Borderless Magazine, un noticiero local que se enfoca en informar sobre asuntos migratorios, ha elaborado una guía para conocer sus derechos- con la intención de ayudar a habitantes de Chicago navegar sus interacciones con agentes de ICE.

Traducido por Borderless Magazine, un noticiero local. Esta traducción se publico primero en su sitio web.

Samantha Smylie es la reportera de educación estatal de Chalkbeat Chicago cubriendo los distritos escolares de todo el estado, la legislación, la educación especial y la junta estatal de educación. Contacte a Samantha en ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin es reportera cubriendo las escuelas públicas de Chicago. Contacte a Reema en ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois lawmakers advance measure to untangle student test scores from teacher evaluations

2025-02-05T00:36:31+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

llinois lawmakers are proposing a change to state law that would no longer require school districts to use students’ test scores in teacher evaluations.

Senate Bill 28, if approved, would roll back changes made 15 years ago that were aimed at improving teacher evaluation systems amid a push by the federal government under the Obama administration to link teacher quality to students’ success in the classroom.

Democratic state Sens. Kimberly Lightford, the Senate majority leader who represents neighborhoods on Chicago’s west side and western suburbs, and Meg Loughran Cappel, who represents Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, are co-sponsoring the measure, which would leave it up to districts to decide whether to link evaluations to student growth.

The bill passed out of committee with no discussion Tuesday afternoon. According to the Illinois General Assembly’s website, nearly 400 proponents, including the Illinois Educators Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Principal Association, and Illinois Stand for Children have signed witness slips in support of the change. There were only 11 opponents and two with no position, notably one from the Chicago Public Schools.

If the bill is passed into law, changes would take effect July 1, 2025.

Lightford was a part of the legislative push to require schools to tie teacher evaluations to student performance in 2010.

At that time, the Obama administration encouraged states to make changes to their teacher evaluations by throwing federal funding into the mix. Illinois requires up to 30% of an educator’s evaluation be based on student growth in most cases, as outlined by the Illinois State Board of Education.

In recent years, several states have stopped tying teacher evaluations to student performance, signaling a change in attitude towards the policy.

In 2024, the Illinois State Board of Education commissioned a report from the American Institutes for Research, or AIR, a nonpartisan research organization, on the state’s teacher evaluation policy. The report noted that other factors can affect a student’s learning “outside of teacher’s control such as family issues, health, or access to resources.” The report recommended that the state either eliminate the use of student test scores or reduce the percentage of student test scores on an educators’ overall evaluation.

Alison Maley, government and public relations director for Illinois Principals Association, one of the organizations supporting the proposal, noted that over the years, she has heard many educators say the student test scores component of the evaluation system is burdensome for both teachers and principals and has not been an effective metric to use.

“Teachers have to come up with all of these artifacts that demonstrate student growth in addition to what they are already doing, aligned with the frameworks that are in place in many districts to manage these teacher evaluations,” said Maley.

Teacher evaluations are sticking point in CTU contract talks

Paul Zavitkovsky, an assessment specialist at the Center for Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois Chicago, agrees that student test scores are problematic to use when it comes to teacher evaluations because large scale assessments are not precise enough.

“In almost all cases, large scale standardized tests are designed to measure generic curriculum — the stuff that gets taught in most places across the country at a particular grade level,” said Zavitkovsky. “They can’t really be very precise and measure the specific kinds of growth that an individual district’s curriculum calls for.”

Chicago uses Recognizing Educators Advancing Chicago’s Students, or REACH, a district-developed test for its teacher evaluations that gives teachers an overall rating based 70% on classroom observations by administrators and 30% on student growth as measured by a test given at the beginning and end of the school year.

That system — and the tests that teachers must give to measure student growth — have become a sticking point in contract negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union.

Kurt Hilgendorf, legislative coordinator for CTU, said the union’s position on REACH is that the exam and the state law that created it need revisions.

“We are trying to ensure that [teacher evaluations] are fair, that they provide useful feedback to the practitioners, that they are free of racial bias, and that they actually aren’t burdensome,” said Hilgendorf, “so that the best parts of improving educators’ practice — the feedback and the opportunity to reflect— that those things are part of the evaluation system.”

Racial bias has been the main criticism from the union over the years and research has backed their claims. A study from 2020 found that Black educators who taught in high-poverty schools were more likely to receive lower teacher evaluation scores than their white colleagues.

According to CTU, Chicago Public Schools has agreed to address racial disparities in teacher evaluations. In CTU’s roadmap to a contract settlement, the union is still pushing for a three-year evaluation cycle for tenured proficient educators and “joint legislative advocacy to abolish REACH.”

More states are turning away from requirement

Across the nation, states have moved away from including test scores into their teacher evaluations. As of 2022, only 30 states continue to require test scores to be included in teacher evaluation, down from 43 in 2015, according to a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality.

In 2022, Colorado revised its teacher evaluation laws to reduce the student growth requirement from 50% to 30% of an educator’s overall rating. In 2023, Michigan removed a requirement that student test scores make up 40% of an educator’s overall score. New Jersey put together a task force in 2024 to look into its evaluation system after educators urged lawmakers to make a change to their system.

“Research has found that the best evaluation systems are ones that use multiple different measures of teacher qualities, so incorporating things like observations of teachers, student surveys, and then also objective data on student growth is really important,” said Hannah Putman, managing director of research at the National Council on Teacher Quality. “Those are the systems that are going to give you the most consistent and reliable ratings and ones that really get at the heart of which teachers are doing well by their students.”

Effective teachers play a role in student success

Lauren Sartain, a professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an affiliated researcher with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, has studied teacher evaluation systems in Chicago since 2008. She said if Illinois makes student growth metrics optional, it won’t be “a huge loss, necessarily,” and it could “give teachers and students time back” for instruction, not testing.

“Teaching is a really complex task, and there are lots of things that happen in the classroom that aren’t necessarily reflected by test score growth,” Sartain said.

Past research by Sartain and others has found a slight positive correlation between test scores and teacher quality. In Chicago, test scores went up after the new evaluation system was fully implemented in 2012-13 and Sartain said “it also had the effect of removing really, really low-performing teachers from the classroom.”

But the majority of teachers still get high marks, and Sartain said there’s work to be done to improve the classroom observation process.

“The power is in these conversations between principals and teachers about what good instructional practice looks like,” Sartain said. “The more it’s taken out of this hyper-evaluative framework, it’s easier to have those honest conversations with your principal, who is your supervisor.”

Whatever changes Illinois lawmakers decide to make, Sartain said it’s important to remember that teachers play a key role in student success.

“Having a great teacher can make a really, really big difference for [students] that translates into their outcomes into adulthood,” she said. “Supporting teachers and helping them improve can be like a great equalizer.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

NAEP scores: How did Illinois students do on the ‘nation’s report card’ in 2024?

2025-02-03T15:15:40+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

This story has been updated to include reactions to NAEP scores. It also clarifies what increases and decreases are considered statistically significant.

Illinois fourth grade students’ math and reading scores from spring 2024 stayed mostly stagnant on a test known as the “nation’s report card” compared to students who took the exam in previous years.

Now in fifth grade, these students would have been kindergarten age when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools and sent classrooms online. For many, first grade was also online or a mix of in-person and virtual.

During the pandemic, some parents opted to pull their children from school worrying that there wasn’t a benefit to virtual learning at a young age.

The latest round of test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as NAEP, released on Wednesday shows that Illinois students who missed school or went through the interruptions and struggles of remote learning, may still have gaps in their education from that time. However, Illinois eighth grade students — who would have been in fourth grade when the pandemic started — either held steady or outperformed their peers in 2022 in reading and math, but their scores lagged behind their peers who took the exam in 2019.

According to the new NAEP data, 38% of Illinois’ fourth graders were proficient in math and 30% were in reading, while 32% of the state’s eighth graders were proficient in math and 33% were in reading. Researchers said that the drops in proficiency for fourth graders in reading and math between 2024 and 2022 were not statistically significant.

When compared to other states, Illinois’ fourth grade proficiency rates were comparable to the national average in reading and math, but the state’s eighth graders surpassed the average in both subjects.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders said in a statement that NAEP’s latest results give families, students, and educators a “cause to celebrate.”

“This data is another example, like our state report card and national studies, that Illinois’ students are growing academically,” Sanders said in the statement.

NAEP scores for Chicago Public Schools, Illinois’ largest public school district, show that the district’s eighth graders had significantly higher scores in math and reading scores in 2024 when compared to their peers in 2022. Chicago’s fourth graders had slightly higher math scores than previous groups of students and slightly lower reading scores, but neither were statistically significant

In 2024, 21% of Chicago’s fourth grade students were proficient in math and 23% were in reading, but this was not a statistically significant difference from their 2022 proficiency rate. For the district’s eighth graders, 21% were proficient in math and 27% were proficient in reading, an increase from 2022.

According to a joint study from Stanford and Harvard universities, Chicago students’ reading scores on state exams rebounded faster than other districts across the country.

But in a statement, CPS officials focused on the strong performance of eighth grade students.

“This data is consistent with what we have previously seen - that students who remain in our system continue to make learning gains over time,” according to a statement from Chicago Public Schools. “The 8th grade reading score of CPS exceeded the average of large cities and narrowed the gap with the national public average to only 2 points. This marks the closest CPS has ever been to the national public average in 8th grade reading performance.”

The district statement also acknowledged that fourth graders were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic when compared to their older peers. The district said that they have added interventionist positions to support students, instructional coaches to assist educators, and organized tutoring programs.

CPS scores also show disparities between Black and Latino students when compared to their white and Asian American peers in reading and math in both grade levels. This has been a trend in NAEP scores over the past decade, predating the pandemic. However, Black and Latino students in eighth grade in 2024 reading and math were comparable to students who took the exam in eighth grade in 2022.

“COVID is exposing the historical and generational disparities that black children in this city have experienced for a very long time,” said Stacy Davis Gates, Chicago Teachers Union president when asked about the pandemic’s impact on students. “But I think COVID exposed all of the opportunity gaps, and we see them even in the recovery.”

The state’s Illinois Assessment of Readiness from spring 2024 paints a very different picture than NAEP’s 2024 scores. In fact, the IAR — which tests students between third and eighth grade in the spring — found that students’ reading scores were above 2019 scores.

But even on state standardized tests, Illinois and Chicago students’ performance on math tests lagged behind their counterparts’ math scores in pre-pandemic years.

In October, Sanders attributed the growth in IAR reading scores to the changes in how literacy is taught in Illinois schools. Since math scores have yet to grow in the same way as reading scores, Sanders said at the time the state’s report card was released that the board of education was looking into a statewide math and numeracy plan to increase proficiency.

Correction 2/3/2025: This story has been corrected to say that fourth graders who took the exam in spring 2024 are now in fifth grade during the 2024-25 school year.

Correction 1/29/2025: This story and its headlines have been corrected to clarify that the small declines in the NAEP scores of Illinois fourth graders in 2024 compared to those in 2022 and 2019 were not statistically significant and within the margin of error.

How are Chicago schools responding to increased immigration enforcement? Here are five examples.

2025-01-30T20:45:16+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

On Chicago’s north side, a Spanish-speaking teacher persuaded a nervous migrant mother, who had stopped sending her son to school because of fear of the Trump administration’s immigration raids, to let him come back.

In Brighton Park, a majority Latino neighborhood on the city’s southwest side, an elementary school principal has been sharing his experience as an immigrant, so that families feel more comfortable.

In Pilsen, a predominantly Latino neighborhood and historically a neighborhood where Mexican families have immigrated to, a high school launched an emergency immigration chat and told parents that it’s OK for students with immigration concerns to stay home.

As part of a vow to crack down on illegal immigration, President Donald Trump in his first week in office canceled a previous policy to keep ICE agents away from “sensitive locations,” such as schools and churches. Federal agents have stepped up “targeted immigration enforcement” in Chicago, arresting at least 100 people in the city and surrounding suburbs, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters Tuesday.

During a Chicago Board of Education meeting Thursday, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez urged parents to send their children to school “so they can receive the education they deserve.”

“School is where every child in our city belongs regardless of their immigration status, and we will do everything in our power to protect them while they’re in our care,” Martinez said.

CPS schools, which have received thousands of migrant students in recent years, are training staff and families on their rights and grappling with how to convince their communities that schools are safe. The Chicago Teachers Union has called on the district, which has trained principals, to train more staff; CPS said it is “exploring additional options for providing teacher training.”

Those efforts were put to the test on Friday, when staff at Hamline Elementary School in the Back of the Yards neighborhood falsely reported turning away Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, sparking fear among already anxious staff and students. The district later confirmed that the agents were U.S. Secret Service investigating a threat, but advocates said the school’s response was proof that staff was trained well.

“This is the first time that I had heard of the protocol working after the sensitive locations memo was pulled, and that’s really important evidence for us advocates — [and] even parents — to see this could work,” said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, who leads the National Newcomer Network, a group of educators, advocates, and researchers who focus on equity for newcomer immigrant students.

Teacher allays fears of migrant mom

Nathy, who came to the United States in 2023 from Venezuela to flee political persecution, kept her son out of his elementary school last week, even though the school told families that it’s safe. She also stayed home from her job at a nail salon.

Chalkbeat is only using Nathy’s first name to protect her privacy.

Nathy and her family have Temporary Protected Status, which allows her to live and work in the U.S. This type of status was extended to October 2026 by former President Joe Biden’s administration shortly before he left office. However, on Tuesday, the Trump administration revoked the extension, making it unclear how long people like Nathy can remain legally in the U.S., the New York Times reported. Nathy had applied for asylum, which provides a path to citizenship, but her request was denied during an immigration court hearing in December, she said.

Now, Nathy is fearful of being sent back to Venezuela, which the Biden administration labeled as experiencing a “severe humanitarian crisis.” She, her two sons — one of whom is no longer in school — and her brother stayed inside their apartment last week, she said.

Her younger son, however, wanted to go back to school and “was very stressed locked up at home,” she said in Spanish via text message.

After her son was absent for a few days, one of the school’s Spanish-speaking teachers reached out to Nathy to persuade her to send him to school.

“He sent me an email with the rights we have and how they protect children at school,” she said.

On Tuesday, Nathy took her son back to class and also returned to work. She couldn’t afford to miss out on more pay, she said.

Her son is happy to be back, but Nathy is still nervous, she said.

“Before I felt calm,” she said by text. “Now it’s a nightmare to live here. ”

Elementary principal relates to immigrant families

At Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy in Brighton Park, where nearly half of the students were English language learners last year, the principal has unique credibility with families: He struggled for decades with his own immigration status.

Principal Marlon Henriquez said he and his mother were undocumented when they left El Salvador in 1996 to join Henriquez’s father in the United States. In 2001, they and other Salvadorian nationals were granted Temporary Protected Status and authorization to work in the U.S. after devastating earthquakes in El Salvador, he said. Awaiting his work authorization renewal over the years always made Henriquez anxious, he said.

“Once that date was up, it was possible I would not be able to work,” Henriquez said.

Last May, Henriquez was granted a green card — legal permanent residency — after decades in the United States. He’s been sharing his story in recent weeks with school families to let them know: “I’m with them, I support them, and I understand how difficult this can be.”

Gunsaulus has shared information, just like other schools, about what the school will do in the event ICE shows up, including turning immigration agents away unless they have a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. He’s also asked families to create an emergency plan for their children in case their parents or guardians are detained by ICE.

“That helped our families understand: We do not have to go into panic mode, but we have to be proactive,” he said.

Pilsen high school principal says it’s OK to stay home

On the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the principal of Benito Juarez High School, where 46% of students were English learners last year, alerted families about potential deportation plans in Chicago. It’s OK, he said, to stay home.

“Please know that while our school is safe and that our students will be protected while they are in school, I also understand that there is a lot of fear and anxiety among our families,” Juan Carlos Ocon, the principal, wrote in a message on Jan. 19 obtained by Chalkbeat. “I will support your decision to send your students to school and I will support your decision to not send your children to school if you believe they are safer if they remain home.”

In a follow-up email the next day, Ocon told parents that all homework and projects would be available via Google Classroom. He attached a PowerPoint informing families of their rights and urged them to provide emergency contact information and create a phone tree “in case you have an encounter with ICE.”

Aimee Galban, a parent of a freshman at Juarez, said the emergency chat created by the school includes an alderman and allows families to discuss and verify things such as sightings of federal immigration enforcement.

“I think open conversations and communication is all that we have, because we can’t constantly live in fear,” Galban said.

CEO Martinez, who is an alumnus of Juarez, previously told Chalkbeat that the district won’t be implementing remote learning. CPS has sent multiple emails to families about the district’s policies on immigration, including reiterating that it doesn’t collect immigration information and will turn ICE away from schools in most instances.

A CPS spokesperson said Juarez is not providing remote instruction, and it’s normal to use Google Classroom to post assignments. Schools “collaborate with students individually” to address the reasons for their absences.

Juarez staff received a “Know Your Rights” training last Tuesday — a professional development day for teachers — about protections for immigrants and what to do if approached by immigration enforcement. Later that week, all Juarez students got a similar training, said Jonah Bondurant, a Juarez teacher who works with students with disabilities.

But there were signs of fear at the school when students were first back after a long weekend and Trump’s inauguration, he said. Attendance was just under 60% that Wednesday, and rose to just under 75% later in the week, Bondurant said. Other factors for low attendance could have been last week’s frigid temperatures and that it was a short week.

Kids who did show up displayed mixed emotions and different levels of understanding of immigration rights and fears, Bondurant said. Seniors, who might recall increased immigration fears during Trump’s first term in office, seemed more aware of the issue, he said.

“Some people are afraid. Some people are using humor, I would say, to kind of, you know, cope,” Bondurant said. “But they were very attentive to, you know, taking in the information about their rights.”

Charter network tries to alleviate stress for students

At the Noble charter school network, which operates a handful of schools with larger immigrant populations, principals and staff were provided with information on what to do if ICE shows up at their school doors.

Aidé Acosta, chief college officer for Noble, said some schools heard fears from students last week, which coincided with finals. As part of her role, Acosta works on scholarships for undocumented students and is helping lead the network’s response to immigration concerns.

School leaders decided they would provide accommodations for the exams for students dealing with immigration concerns “on a case by case basis,” Acosta said, who didn’t elaborate on what those accommodations were.

Acosta said she is also trying to combat misinformation, including false reports of immigration enforcement. The incident at Hamline — which Acosta believes was handled well by the Hamline staff — inadvertently caused people to spread more misinformation and fear, she said.

School leaders’ work “includes ensuring we’re sharing reliable information because our families and communities are in a lot of pain at this moment,” Acosta said.

Community group supports families, students

False or unverified reports of ICE showing up and misinformation online can make each day feel like a game of “Whack-A-Mole,” said Andrea Ortiz, director of organizing at Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, which provides wraparound services at Gunsaulus.

Ortiz said her organization has been providing Know Your Rights training for students at high schools they partner with on the Southwest Side. Students often ask questions only attorneys can answer, she said, such as what risks do people with Temporary Protected Status face. She shares websites and phone numbers for free or low-cost attorneys.

She said she wants students to “feel prepared and confident in exercising those rights.”

Ortiz said the organization’s clinicians, who work with schools directly, are also holding support groups for families. She recounted a story from a parent at one of their partner elementary schools who shared that one morning, while getting her children ready for school, they heard a knock at the door and feared it was immigration enforcement. It ended up being the sheriff’s office knocking on a door on the floor below, but the moment “was really triggering for them” and scared the kids, Ortiz said.

Brighton Park’s clinicians jumped in, offering extra support to the mother, and the organization shared information on what to do if ICE did come to their door, Ortiz said.

Correction 1/30/2025: A previous version of this story incorrectly described Principal Marlon Henriquez’s journey to the United States. Henriquez came to the United States in 1996 and later received Temporary Protected Status in 2001.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Five things to know about immigration policy and Illinois schools

2025-01-22T23:15:44+00:00

Leer en español.

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Immigrant students and families are bracing for the unknown under President Donald Trump, who has promised the nation’s largest deportation operation — with Chicago as a target.

But in Chicago — a so-called sanctuary city — both city and schools officials have stressed that they will protect families of varying immigration statuses and will only cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, or ICE agents, if they have a judicial warrant.

Chicago Public Schools does not ask for or track students’ immigration status, and the previous school board approved a resolution reaffirming the district’s intention to protect immigrant students.

Still, families who are not legal residents are fearful of what the new presidential administration means for their future in Chicago — and the United States. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez told Chalkbeat Chicago that he believes schools “are the safest spaces” for children.

“I want families to not be afraid to send their children to school,” Martinez said. “We do not share information with ICE or the immigration department.”

Trump has already signed a series of executive orders in an attempt to tighten up immigration policies, including changing the definition of birthright citizenship to exclude the children of undocumented parents and legal immigrants in the country on temporary and getting rid of the “sensitive location” policy, which required U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, known as ICE agents, to get approval to conduct arrests at or near schools and churches.

In a statement Tuesday night, CPS reiterated its stands not to share student information with ICE, “except in the rare case where there is a court order or consent from a parent or guardian.”

On Wednesday, the U.S Department of Justice ordered federal prosecutors to investigate state and local officials who do not follow Trump’s executive orders on immigration. Trump’s executive orders and proposed immigration policies are expected to face legal challenges.

“I know there’s just a lot of anxiety, and trust me, I feel it as well when I start hearing about, you know, all these things that [Trump] wants to change and the executive order signings,” Martinez said. “But ... it just takes years for these things to happen, and then some of these executive orders can’t even happen.”

So far, over 20 states, including Illinois, have sued the Trump administration in an attempt to block the changes to birthright citizenship.

Here’s what to know about schools and immigration policy.

Do I have to share my or my child’s immigration status with my child’s school?

No.

Chicago Public Schools does not ask families for immigration status and does not share student records with ICE officials unless agents have a court order or consent from the child’s parent or guardian, according to CPS.

The Illinois State Board of Education has advised school districts to change or modify enrollment policies that could reveal a child’s immigration status. For instance, school documents used to prove a child’s residency should not include information such as the child’s Social Security number. Schools also cannot prevent students from receiving benefits like pre-kindergarten or free or reduced price lunch if their application does not include a Social Security number.

“Here we have the protection of the state, and I want families to really understand that,” Martinez said. “That creates a much, much more protective layer for us … I don’t see our state, you know, giving up these protections.”

Can ICE agents enter school buildings?

Yes, but the bar to entry is high.

ICE agents have to provide their credentials, a reason for entry, and a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge, in accordance with Chicago’s welcoming city ordinance and school board policy. Chicago Public Schools says ICE agents cannot enter a school with “an administrative warrant, ICE detainer, or a document from another agency enforcing civil immigration law. ”

A spokesperson for CPS said Trump’s executive orders do not change the district’s current policy or practice.

Martinez said the district has freed up three of its lawyers and also has a 24-hour hotline to assist school leaders with questions or concerns. If ICE agents show up to schools. CPS lawyers “can intervene or can assess, because they will review every judicial order to make sure it’s valid,” Martinez said.

If a parent is taken into custody by ICE agents, what can schools do to support students?

Martinez said the district is working with nonprofit organizations that work with schools to create “family plans” with families who might be worried about what to do if they are detained during the school day. The district can’t ask families for immigration information, so the district is leaning on help from community organizations that already work with and have built trust with school communities to create an extended list of relatives or guardians who can help if a parent is detained by ICE.

Martinez said that while parents have been detained during the school day, it is a relatively rare occurrence.

“That’s why we call it a family plan,” Martinez said. “It just gives us that extra assurance that there’s going to be somebody that we can contact in case. Hopefully, you know, it doesn’t happen.”

In the event that a family does not have an extended list of contacts, Martinez said schools already have emergency contacts for students for when a parent is late or doesn’t show up to pick their kids up.

What protections are there for teachers and school staff who are immigrants?

CPS employees are legally eligible to work in the United States, said Ben Felton, chief talent officer for Chicago Public Schools. That being said, Felton stressed that the district would not disclose any “sensitive personnel information” without a “valid legal request,” such as a subpoena, he said.

“We’re fiercely protective of our employees’ rights,” Felton said.

He also reiterated that staff has been trained on what to do if ICE agents show up to a school — including not allowing them inside without a judicial warrant.

The current Chicago Teachers Union contract says the district and school board cannot “inquire about or demand proof of immigration or citizenship status” of union members beyond what’s required by law. The contract also says that union members who are no longer allowed to work at CPS because of immigration status should be placed on unpaid leave if they are able to obtain proper work authorization within one year for non-tenured teachers and two years for tenured staff. That leave would then allow the employee to return to work without loss of seniority.

Are there resources at schools to help inform parents about their rights?

Chicago Public Schools have listed “Know Your Rights” forums hosted by local community and advocacy organizations on its website and information about the district’s policies.

The district has also trained teachers and staff on how they should interact with ICE agents, how to deal with ICE agents, and what to do if a child’s parent or legal guardian is arrested by ICE agents while a child is at school, as well as on students’ and parents’ rights. Martinez added that the district is making sure teachers and counselors know to create space for children “who just need to talk about it.”

Borderless Magazine, a local news organization that focuses on reporting about immigration, has put together a Know Your Rights guide to help Chicagoans navigate interactions with ICE agents.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

While the state faces a tighter budget, Illinois’ schools chief asks for a boost in education funding

2025-01-15T21:21:46+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

The Illinois State Board of Education is proposing an additional $497.2 million for the state’s education budget — a smaller increase than last year as federal COVID relief money dries up and the state grapples with a projected deficit.

If approved by the state’s general assembly, the education budget would grow from $11 billion to $11.4 billion in fiscal year 2026, which starts July 1 and ends June 30, 2026.

The board unanimously approved Illinois Superintendent Tony Sanders’ budget proposal at a Wednesday board meeting without any pushback from members.

Sanders proposed an additional $350 million for the state’s evidence-based funding formula for K-12 schools, which distributes new state education funding to schools based on need, sending more to under-resourced schools and those that serve a majority of students from low-income households, English learners, and students with disabilities.

ISBE’s budget recommendation also includes an additional $75 million for the board’s early childhood education block grant. The state approved an additional $75 million for the grant in 2023 and 2024 as a part of the governor’s initiative to increase funding to early childhood education.

The modest education budget proposal — which will now head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker as he develops a full state budget — grapples with the end of $7 billion in federal emergency COVID relief funds for schools that expired at the end of September. Overall, Illinois is projecting an $3.2 billion budget deficit in fiscal year 2026.

Still, education advocates are disappointed, but not surprised that the recommendation for the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 schools is less than the $550 million advocates called for during the budget hearings in the fall.

A report from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability last spring found that Illinois schools will remain underfunded past 2027, the year lawmakers anticipated schools would all be adequately funded when they passed the new formula in 2017. If the state continues to increase education funding by only $350 million a year, schools would be fully funded by 2034, the report said. The state could speed that up if lawmakers allocated $550 million to the state’s education budget each year.

Claiborne Wade, chair of Kids First Chicago’s Equitable Funding Task Force, a CPS parent, and staff member at DePriest Elementary, is not surprised that the board decided to propose $350 million. However, he hopes the state will boost funding to K-12 schools by $550 million due to the uptick in inflation and the end of COVID-19 relief funds for schools.

“COVID dollars was, I believe, one of the main purposes of some schools and community-based organizations to be able to function without having to worry about where the next dollar was going to come from,” Wade said. “Now that it has run out, it’s ‘How do we sustain these programs that’s been in effect for the past couple years?’ It’s going to be tough.”

This year, the state board did not recommend funding a Supporting Newcomers grant, which would support students who recently immigrated to the United States. Last year, the board requested $35 million, but it was not approved for the final budget.

As the state and local school districts put together their budget for next school year, they will have to make decisions with less funding.

In Sanders’ proposal, career and technical education programming would receive an additional $1.3 million, increasing the budget line from $58 million to $59.3 million. But some advocates spoke Wednesday about the need for more.

Matthew Sell, a former Illinois student who took courses at the Galesburg Area Vocational Center and currently works in advanced manufacturing, asked for additional funding for the center in Western Illinois to support workforce development.

“I think that increased funding would not only be an investment for the students in this area, but as well as the community as a whole.” said Sell.

The education budget proposal will now be incorporated into Pritzker’s overall budget plan, which he is scheduled to present Feb. 19 at the state capitol in Springfield.

State lawmakers can make changes to Pritzker’s proposal and must pass a budget by the end of the spring legislative session, which is currently scheduled to wrap up May 31. In previous years, the legislature has extended the spring session to pass the budget.

Illinois scholarship program aimed at getting more teachers of color faces court challenge

2024-12-19T18:53:23+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Over the past 32 years, the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship program has awarded more than 13,000 scholarships to thousands of college students of color as part of an effort to increase diversity in the state’s teaching ranks.

Now, even as advocates say more needs to be done to increase the number of teachers of color in classrooms, the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship program has become the target of a lawsuit claiming it discriminates against white students by limiting awards to Black, Latino, Asian American, and Native American students.

Despite the lawsuit claims, numbers show that the majority of the teacher workforce in the state remains white and initiatives such as the scholarship program have made only a small dent in diversifying the ranks. In 2024, 80% of Illinois teachers were white, compared to 85% in 2010. Currently, about 6.4% of the teacher workforce is Black, 8.9% is Latino, and 2.2% is Asian American, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 report card data.

The state’s K-12 population, by contrast, is 45% white, 16.5% Black, 28.1% Latino, and 5.6% Asian American, according to the state board.

This lawsuit comes as conservatives and right-wing groups are challenging diversity efforts in education across the nation. They have been emboldened in part by a 2023 Supreme Court decision that rejected race-based admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

Erin Wilcox, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which filed the lawsuit against the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship on behalf of the American Alliance for Equal Rights, said the Supreme Court reasoned that “just general societal discrimination is not enough anymore. That’s the standard that we’re holding Illinois to.”

In response to the Supreme Court decision and in anticipation of a push by the incoming Trump administration to slash diversity initiatives, some state and college officials are preemptively removing race-based criteria in scholarship programs requirements and opening them up to all students.

In Illinois, a spokesperson for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which administers the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, said it will continue to provide scholarships to students.

Spokespeople for the commission and Gov. J.B. Pritzker said they cannot comment on the ongoing lawsuit.

Pritzker and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission have until Friday, Dec. 20 to respond to the lawsuit.

House Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a former educator who represents several towns North of Chicago, is the lead sponsor on a House resolution supporting the scholarship.. She has worked on bills in the past to address barriers that prevent people of color from entering the teacher workforce.

Faver Dias hopes the resolution will be passed in Springfield during the lame-duck session in January.

“I essentially filed the resolution to show, when we pass it, that the General Assembly stands behind this program and stands behind breaking down systemic barriers to people getting their teacher degree,” Faver Dias told Chalkbeat.

State scholarship program aims to diversify teacher workforce

The Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program was created in 1992 to encourage students of color to pursue careers in teaching and aims to “provide minority children with access to a greater number of positive minority role models.”

Research has shown that having a teacher of color improves academic performance for all students. A working paper by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found that students of color who had a teacher of color in fourth or fifth grade saw significant gains in reading and math test scores and were least likely to be chronically absent when in high school. White students also saw growth in reading and math test scores when paired with a teacher of color instead of a white teacher, with those effects lasting until high school.

The Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship seeks to put more teachers of color in the classroom by requiring recipients to work full-time at an Illinois nonprofit Illinois public, private, or parochial preschool, elementary, or secondary school with at least 30% students of color after graduation. Recipients are expected to teach one year for each academic year they received the scholarship. If students don’t fulfill the requirements, the scholarship will revert back to a loan that students have to pay off.

From 1992 to 2024, the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program gave out 13,752 awards totaling about $67.4 million, according to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission data provided to Chalkbeat. This number could include students who received the scholarship more than once throughout their time in college. A spokesperson from the commission said available data shows that at least 50% of scholarship recipients went on to teach at schools with 30% minority students.

The program has grown in recent years: Under Pritzker’s administration, the state has appropriated $1.9 million in between fiscal years 2020 and 2022, $4.2 million in fiscal year 2023, and $8 million in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 to the program. The number of scholarships awarded jumped from 363 in 2019 to 566 in 2023.

Still, because the Illinois Student Assistance Commission does not track how many scholarship recipients have stayed in the teaching profession after fulfilling their scholarship requirements, it’s unclear what the long-term impact the scholarship has had on the state’s teacher workforce.

Faver Dias said the state needs to do a better job at enforcing the scholarship terms and tracking what students do need to ensure “that our taxpayer dollars are invested here for the long term.”

The state’s General Assembly or the commission could make changes to ensure that the outcomes of the program for students are tracked in the future, according to Faver Dias.

Who becomes and stays a teacher in Illinois?

In Illinois, the teacher population has grown since 2010 and the number of Latino and Asian American teachers has increased, but the number of teachers of color overall remains relatively small.

This issue isn’t exclusive to Illinois. Nationwide, in 2020-21, white teachers made up 80% of educators, while 6% were Black, 9% were Latino, 2% were Asian American, and less than 1% were Native American, according to data from the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Advocates who want to diversify the Illinois teacher workforce see the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship as one way to get educators of color into classrooms.

Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, a statewide education policy advocacy organization, said the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship is about more than just the race and ethnicity of teachers entering the classroom.

“The target of the program is less the candidates themselves than it is about the students they are ultimately going to teach,” Steans said.

Steans said the requirement that scholarship recipients must teach in a school with 30% or more students of color is critical.

Over the past several years, the state has rolled out a number of teacher diversity initiatives. In 2021, the state board announced a program to work with colleges and universities around the state to help get more teachers of color into the workforce.

Some state advocates have said programs through nonprofit organizations like Teach For America, Golden Apple, and local Grow Your Own Programs – these programs receive funding from that state — have also been useful to help diversify Illinois teachers, but these programs are not exclusive to students of color.

Other state-funded awarded financial aid includes the Golden Apple Scholarship of Illinois, which has provided over 700 awards to students that amount to $2.9 million in 2023. The state also provides the Monetary Award Program grants for all students who can demonstrate financial need; in 2023, the state awarded 150,000 grants.

A recent report by the National Council of Teacher Quality found that colleges and universities have to do more to produce teachers of color. For instance, institutions of higher education would need to provide support to college students and find apprenticeship programs and grow their own programs to help college graduates get into the classroom.

Still, getting teachers of color into classrooms is not enough. Keeping them in education is also key. In Illinois, teachers of color in Illinois also leave the profession at higher rates. In 2024, the three-year average teacher retention rate overall in the state was 89.6%, while the rate for Black educators was 84.6%, according to the state board’s 2024 report card.

Conservatives step up fight against diversity efforts

Teacher diversity programs in Illinois and the country could now be in danger as conservative groups challenge initiatives through policy change and lawsuits such as the one against the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship.

It’s not a surprise to Monique Redeaux-Smith, director of union professional issues at the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

“At every turn in our nation’s history, whenever there’s any kind of semblance of racial progress, there is a white backlash,” said Redeaux-Smith. “We’re living through one right now.”

Among those leading the charge against affirmative action and race-based diversity initiatives is Edward Blum. The conservative activist founded Students for Fair Admission, whose challenge of race-based admissions policies at Harvard led to the 2023 Supreme Court decision, and the American Alliance for Equal Rights, the group challenging the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship. Blum told the New York Times in 2023 that his work won’t stop at colleges and universities’ admission policies but he plans to turn his attention to employer diversity initiatives and college internships, scholarships, and research grants.

In the case against the Minority Teacher of Illinois Scholarship and in the cases against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the conservative groups have argued that affirmative action or race-based scholarship programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment, which requires states to provide equal protections to all citizens

“Legally speaking,” said Paul Gowder, a professor of Law at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, “from the standpoint of the Supreme Court doing constitutional law, there’s no difference between minority scholarship program and school segregation.”

The Supreme Court’s decision in the Harvard admissions case has opened the floodgates for more cases to be filed that will challenge race-conscious policies in higher education and K-12 schools, Gowder said.

Erin Wilcox, the attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, said the case against the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship is challenging the state on differential treatment based on race and ethnicity. She said the only way for the state to prove that the scholarship program is needed is if there was a previous “instance of a statutory or constitutional violation, so, somewhere in the past, the state has violated a law or the Constitution, and the only way to remedy that is to treat people differently based on their skin color.”

Illinois could have two ways to preserve the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, Gowder said. First, state officials could prove that the scholarship program is for a “compelling state interest” by using research showing that a diverse teacher workforce will increase academic performance of all students. They could also change the eligibility requirements for the program to include socioeconomic status, multilingual skills, or other metrics to engage disadvantaged students.

Redeaux-Smith said the Illinois Federation of Teachers and its allies around the state will be looking at potential protections for diversity initiatives, working to get rid of barriers that prevent students of color from entering the teaching profession, and figuring out funding for diversity programs.

“We have to get together and really think about and figure out what our strategy is. Again, it is not just to maintain what we have, but to move forward and advance what we need to be doing,” said Redeaux-Smith. “These initiatives, while good, are not nearly enough for what we actually need.”

Illinois education officials want lawmakers to close loopholes on student discipline, ticketing

2024-12-18T23:25:48+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Easing Illinois’ educator licensure requirements to add more teachers to the state’s teacher workforce, preventing students from being ticketed by local law enforcement, and changing policy around student discipline are a few of the issues members of the Illinois State Board of Education want lawmakers to address during the spring 2025 legislative session.

During their monthly meeting on Wednesday, the board members approved a list of agenda items that they will push in Springfield once lawmakers are back at the Capitol for the spring session, which is expected to start in late January. Board officials will still need to draft language for bills and find a lawmaker to carry their bills during the session.

While board members approved most of the agenda without much discussion, there was spirited debate around ticketing kids at school and student discipline. For student ticketing, the state board says it will work on a measure to close loopholes in state law to prevent schools from issuing fines or referring students to local police for disciplinary issues.

The board was responding to a 2022 investigation by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune that found that schools in Illinois were referring students for disciplinary issues to local police departments, instead of handling discipline at school. The report found instances where school administrators violated state laws around ticketing and notifying law enforcement.

Students were often ticketed for issues like truancy — or when a student missed about 1% to 5% of the school year without a valid excuse. Black students and students with disabilities were more often to be ticketed and fined by police.

For student discipline, the state wants to outlaw expulsions for students in kindergarten through second grade and require superintendents to only issue suspensions for those students, while making changes to disciplinary practices for students in third through fifth grades.

Roger Eddy, a board member and a former superintendent of Hutsonville CUSD 1, said that he did not support changing how local school districts discipline students, since schools are responsible for ensuring a safe environment for all students.

He also did not support making changes to the state’s ticketing law, saying, “I do not support the notion that in any way, shape, or manner that public schools should minimize the importance of following the law or provide our students with a sanctuary where they can feel safe violating law for whatever reason.”

State Superintendent Tony Sanders responded to Eddy’s concerns by saying that the proposed change is a matter of equity. Sanders mentioned research around the school-to-prison pipeline and the fact that students of color are often more likely to be disciplined at school due to certain policies.

“I don’t know how you tell a family that your child in kindergarten, first, or second grade is kicked out and can’t come back for up to two years regardless of reason. I think this is an equity issue” said Sanders. “Sometimes we have to stand for something. I think this is the time that we stand for something kind. That’s why I’m really pushing on this.”

James Anderson, another member of the state board and a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, agreed with Sanders. He said, “We have enough research to know that implicit bias plays a major role in who’s ticketed.”

A spokesperson for the state board said that the proposed measure would not ban or stop law enforcement from stepping in if a student breaks the law.

“All we’re trying to do is close a loophole,” the spokesperson said. “The law already prohibits school personnel from issuing fines. We just want to make sure that school personnel are not able to refer the students to any other public entity to deal specifically with disciplinary consequences.”

Eddy was the only board member who voted no on approving the legislative agenda.

Joshua Long has led Chicago Public Schools’ disability office for a year. What has changed?

2024-12-17T19:03:10+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

On a chilly December morning, Joshua Long, Chief of Chicago Public Schools’ Office for Students with Disabilities, went to South Shore Fine Arts Academy to watch a few students play in the school’s newest sensory classroom.

The classroom was a partnership between Chicago Public Schools and the Special Children’s Charities to bring sensory rooms to 22 schools around the city; the charity donated $1.3 million for the project. Throughout the morning, Long watched as students played with therapeutic equipment that can help prevent students from becoming overwhelmed or mitigate the effects of feeling overwhelmed.

A student at South Shore Fine Arts Academy, plays in the schools' newest sensory classroom on Mon., Dec. 9, 2024 in Chicago Illinois.

It’s been a year since Long became the head of the district’s special education department. He has worked in the district for over 20 years, beginning as a speech pathologist and then becoming a principal at Southside Occupational Academy High School, a school for students with disabilities. Now as chief, he helps shape the policies that impact students with disabilities on a daily basis.

Long said this past year has been exciting, a bit of a blur, and has entailed a ton of work, but “I’m extremely motivated to keep doing the job that we’re doing and just trying to make things better for our kids.”

Before Long took on this role, the district’s disabilities office faced significant challenges. During the early days of the pandemic, schools struggled to provide new Individualized Education Programs to students and to update existing plans. The district has also struggled to transport students with disabilities to schools, and advocates have filed several complaints with the Illinois State Board of Education for lack of busing and long transportation times. In 2023, the state found that the district’s restraint and time-out practices were putting students at risk.

Speaking to Chalkbeat Chicago, Long reflected on the past year, shared what he’s working on, and opened up about his ideas for the future even as Chicago Public Schools even with tight budgets.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How has the Office for Students with Disabilities worked with parents throughout the year?

A lot of those structures were already in place. We have a weekly consultation with the state board of education. We have a Family Advisory Board. We have a joint stakeholder meeting with advocates, we have another meeting with the unions, and we have the board of education special education advisory committee. The way that I approach all of those groups is that it’s an opportunity to let people know what we’re doing. Being very candid and straightforward about the initiatives that we are embarking on, being honest about the struggles that we’re seeing, and engaging everyone as partners in the work and to ask for their ideas.

In Chicago Public Schools, and even nationally, there has been an increase in the number of students who have been identified as having disabilities. What has the office been doing to address these needs? What are the growing pains?

We’re over 60,000 students with disabilities, which includes students with 504 plans and students with IEPs. Much like across the nation, especially after COVID, we’re seeing a lot of students identified with disabilities. We have to consider the resources that students with disabilities need in order to make the educational gains that we expect. We’ve talked a lot about budgetary issues that we’re facing here in the city. We also have staffing shortages with our paraprofessionals, special education teachers, and related service providers. As the number of students has continued to grow, we need more people to service them.

Since there are staffing shortages, what is your office doing to fill those positions?

We work with our talent office and have a number of pipeline programs. For example, we have one that promotes current paraprofessionals who are interested in becoming special education teachers. We work with them to obtain bachelor’s and/or master’s degrees and to become teachers. We try to be creative and think about how we promote from within. What’s great about paraprofessionals is they have the experiential knowledge of working with students with disabilities. Take that information, and couple that with classes and evidence-based approaches on how to educate students with disabilities. It’s a win-win.

Across Illinois and in Chicago Public Schools, chronic absenteeism is high. The rate of chronically absent students is even higher among students with disabilities. What have you all been doing to get students back into the classroom?

One thing that I noticed is that we’re really good as a district in talking about the educational gains. We’ve made some impressive gains with students in both reading and math just this past year. But we didn’t talk about what those gains looked like for students with disabilities. As we’ve reflected on those academic gains in addition to the chronic absenteeism, the numbers are not great.

I can point to the district’s new five-year strategic plan. You’ll notice there is a strategy for students with disabilities. The concept that we’ve been using to guide our growth is a transformative approach called “rightful presence.” This approach moves beyond traditional practices of inclusion to really focus on dismantling systemic inequities on behalf of students with disabilities. So students have a true sense of belonging in all school environments. We believe that we will have the focus that we need to build out those instructional practices that all students need to succeed and then to start really seeing those academic gains and those improvements in chronic absenteeism.

During the pandemic, there was a delay in identifying students with disabilities and updating current students’ Individualized Education Programs. What has the Office for Students with Disabilities been doing to ensure that students are identified, have an updated IEP, and receive the services that they need?

I’ll be completely honest, we have systemic issues. Anytime we get a state complaint or a complaint from an advocate, I see that as an opportunity to really look at what they’re raising and to see if there is something that we’re missing. With those delays, we did build out new practices. We’ve built out new training. We’re monitoring deadlines and looking at compliance. When you start thinking about over 600 schools, close to 2,000 people just on my team, not to mention the special education teachers, paraprofessionals, and case managers, all of those individuals are focused on students with disabilities. It’s a lot of space to be in to establish consistency. It’s important to really think about not only are we able to establish our practices, but how do we ensure that they’re actually happening with fidelity on behalf of our students.

Some students with disabilities can go to public schools up to the age of 22. What has the district done or instructed schools to do to help students transition to adulthood?

Within our five-year strategic plan, there is a specific call to increase the number of students with disabilities in Career and Technical Education, International Baccalaureate programs, and Advanced Placement courses. We are focused on increasing those opportunities. We have college programs that we’ve been working on with the city colleges, and we are expanding those. We also are looking to increase awareness of the lack of funding for programs for adults with disabilities across the state of Illinois.

There are some concerns about the Chicago Public Schools budget in the future as the district faces budget deficits. What are you concerned about when it comes to the budget?

What I can tell you is that coming into this role, I was faced with the reality that we had budgetary issues. But CEO Pedro Martinez and Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova have found the money to support students with disabilities because they understand that not only is this important, it’s a legally mandated service. They continue to pour millions of dollars into allowing us to build out the programming that we think students need. I opened 62 new cluster programs this year. I didn’t know that the district had money for that, but that’s what we needed to do for students with disabilities. There wasn’t a question of how do you do less or how do you do something different that would cost less. It was, “OK, if this is what you need, then we need to figure it out”.

Chicago Teachers Union contract negotiations cause rift with other school employee unions

2024-12-06T20:49:51+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

The Chicago Teachers Union’s contentious contract negotiations have already spurred a major clash between district leaders and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office and endangered CEO Pedro Martinez’ role.

Now the teachers union’s demands for a significant expansion of CTU-represented positions and of educators’ say over school matters are pitting that union against two other district labor groups: The Chicago Principals and Administrators Association and the Service Employees International Union 73, a longtime CTU ally.

The principals union, which is in the midst of negotiating its first contract with CPS, wrote a letter this week to the Board of Education saying some CTU proposals would trample on principals’ authority to run schools. Meanwhile, the Service Employees International Union 73, which represents support staff at schools, has voiced concern over a CTU demand it says will take work away from its members — and threatened to sue the district if it approves the proposal, the Chicago Tribune reported. The rift with the SEIU is especially notable as that union has jointly advocated for more special education services and staff with the teachers union, and the two groups went on strike together in 2019.

Principals union leaders said they are concerned about school board pressure on Martinez to settle the teachers contract as quickly as possible and about the cost of the union’s staffing and other proposals. They worry that the cash-strapped district might have to resort to assistant principal layoffs and other cuts to afford them. CPS estimated the union’s initial proposals to cost $10 billion but is reassessing that estimate; the union has called that estimate inaccurate and has pared back some of its proposals, but it has not shared a cost estimate.

“We don’t believe the problematic provisions are intentionally problematic,” wrote Troy LaRaviere, CPAA’s president, in the letter to the board. “They are simply the result of the limited perspective of teachers. By that I mean teachers run classrooms, not schools.”

Thad Goodchild, CTU deputy general counsel, told Chalkbeat that the goal of the union’s proposals is to beef up staffing in critical areas and ensure teachers have a voice at schools. He said there’s “an open dialogue” between leaders of both unions, and CTU is also “working to find a solution” with SEIU.

Contract negotiations with the teachers union have stretched on since April and soured the relationship between Martinez and Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher, CTU employee and close union ally, who has asked Martinez to resign. The school board, installed by Johnson after the previous board resigned amid the conflict, wrote to Martinez late last month to demand a quick resolution to the talks.

The CTU recently shared what it is calling a “roadmap to settlement” with the district, including a smaller raise proposal than the 9% a year it demanded at first and a pared-down set of staffing and other demands. But that roadmap still includes proposals that would give teachers the final say over curriculums and a larger role in evaluating principals.

Principals worry their role in school decisions will shrink

The principals union says one of its major concerns is a proposal that would allow teachers to pick their own curriculums as long as they meet state learning objectives.

Goodchild, from CTU, said the proposal is meant to ensure that teacher voice exists in all schools.

“Academic freedom doesn’t mean that teachers get to teach whatever they want — it means that their professional judgment is respected and that they aren’t expected to teach from scripted, online curriculum with lots of gaps in it, which unfortunately is the direction that district has been heading in recent years,” Goodchild said.

But one elementary school principal, who spoke with Chalkbeat on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly, said she felt that allowing teachers more academic freedom would prevent staff from developing a schoolwide strategy for instruction.

“I know it’s not implemented really well in every single school, but the mechanism for that teacher input and voice exists, and I think to swing to the extreme of every teacher making their own decision in that regard is going to be harmful for kids,” the principal said.

The principals union, which formed last year, also started negotiating with the district in April. But unlike the publicly contentious teachers' contract negotiations, talks with principals have unfolded quietly behind closed doors, and the two sides have taken a few months off as the CTU talks intensified.

According to a CPS presentation for the school board obtained by Chalkbeat, district officials and principals union leaders have met five times, and the union has put forth proposals on wages and benefits, discipline and discharge procedures for school leaders, and more.

The two sides haven’t reached agreements yet, Banks said, but, “We have enjoyed a much more amenable and open-minded engagement with CPS than others have.”

Earlier this week, a group of school leaders working independently of the union also sent a letter to the school board saying the contract talks with the CTU and the pressure on Martinez to step down are creating “an atmosphere of uncertainty.” Nearly 700 CPS principals and assistant principals representing almost 80% of the district’s campuses signed the letter, arguing that replacing the CEO would be “a decision rooted in political interests, not the interest of students.”

CTU leaders have dismissed these concerns on social media, with Vice President Jackson Potter recently calling principals “middle management foremen of the system.”

SEIU says CTU demands will hurt its members

Other CTU proposals have threatened a rift with SEIU Local 73.

A recently amended contract proposal by the Chicago Teachers Union obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago would give the district more flexibility to choose between teacher assistants, represented by the CTU, or Special Education Classroom Assistants (or SECAs), represented by SEIU, based on what a student’s Individualized Education Program or a 504 plan requires. SEIU Local 73 says this proposal will take work away from SECAs, who are trained to work with students with disabilities.

Stacia Scott, executive vice president of SEIU Local 73, told Chalkbeat that adding flexibility for school leaders to choose between teacher assistants or SECAs to work with students with disabilities could cause confusion in a school building.

“We have tried to make our contract as explicit as possible so that we can focus on ensuring that SECAs are providing the services that are legally required to special education students,” Scott said.

SEIU Local 73’s recent contract with the district requires that SECAs receive professional development and training and that SECAs are included in IEP meetings. It also protects SECAs from performing other tasks in schools that would take time away from students with disabilities, unless it is to support a student’s IEP.

Goodchild said the CTU proposal is ultimately meant to beef up special education staff such as teacher assistants so that students with IEPs get the support they need.

The number of SECAs has grown by roughly 150% over the past decade, when comparing employee figures from December 1, 2014 to the same day this month, according to data from CPS. In that same time period, the total number of teacher assistants grew by just over 50%, the data show.

“We’re trying to, you know, restore balance,” Goodchild said.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Pritzker announces first secretary for the Illinois Department of Early Childhood

2024-12-02T23:25:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.

Teresa Ramos, who currently serves as Illinois’ first assistant deputy governor of education, will be the first secretary of the newly created Illinois Department of Early Childhood, pending state Senate confirmation, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced in a press release on Monday.

Ramos’ “expertise across education, child care, community engagement, and early childhood development make her a leader in her field that I know will lead the new Department to success,” said Pritzker in the press release.

Since being reelected in 2022, Pritzker has put more funding and resources towards the state’s early childhood education and child care programs for families. He boosted funding for early childhood education with his Smart Start Initiative and proposed the early childhood department in October 2023.

Illinois lawmakers passed legislation this spring to create the Department of Early Childhood. The state allocated $14 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget to help streamline early childhood education and child care programs. The department is expected to begin managing programs such as early intervention for young children with disabilities and the Child Care Assistance Program to support low-income families by July 1.

“I’m eager to get started working with an incredible team of state employees, parents and families, advocates, and early childhood providers to create something exceptional that will give every infant, toddler, and young child an opportunity for a strong and healthy start,” said Ramos in the press release.

Ramos has served as first assistant deputy governor of education under Pritzker since 2022, according to the press release. Prior to working in the governor’s office, Ramos had a long career in early childhood education and children. She was the vice president of public policy, research, and advocacy at Illinois Action for Children, a nonprofit that focuses on child care and early childhood education and the largest administrator for the Child Care Assistance Program in Cook County — a program that provides financial aid for child care to low-income families.

She was the director of Community Engagement for Advance Illinois, a nonprofit education advocacy organization, and helped with the governor’s education transition team in 2018.

Ramos is expected to begin serving as secretary of the department in January if she is confirmed.

Currently, Illinois operates and funds child care and early childhood education programs through the state’s Department of Human Services, Illinois State Board of Education, and the Department of Children and Family Services.

Illinois State Board of Education closes investigation on Chicago’s restraint and timeout practices after almost two years

2024-11-20T00:41:03+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

The Illinois State Board of Education has closed its investigation into Chicago Public Schools’ use of physical restraint and timeout practices, citing “significant strides” the district has made to ensure staff is trained in using restraints in schools.

The state board started an investigation into Chicago Public Schools in the fall of 2022, citing staff using restraints when there wasn’t a danger to a student or staff, reports of untrained staff using restraints on students, not having a designated official to be notified of incidents and maintain documentation, and parents not being alerted when their child was involved in a restraint or timeout incident. The state said Chicago was putting students at risk by not training staff on the proper use of restraint and timeout.

The state told the district that it needed to train at least two staff members in each school building in the proper use of physical restraint and timeout, designate a district official to maintain records regarding incidents where restraint or time out is used, and create and sustain a list on the CPS website of staff members that have been trained.

The state board informed CPS officials that it had closed its systemic complaint investigation into the district’s restraint and timeout practices in a letter dated Sept. 18.

The state defines physical restraint as holding a student or other methods to restrict a student’s movement. Prone restraint — when a student is placed face down and pressure is applied to their body to prevent them from moving — has been outlawed in the state with a bill signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2021.

Students can be restrained if there is “imminent danger” to themselves or others around them, but staff must be trained in how to properly use restraints.

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education told Chalkbeat that the state board decided to close the investigation for several reasons: Chicago Public Schools has trained all staff on timeout and isolated timeout, hired and trained an administrator specifically tasked with reviewing all physical restraint and timeout incidents across the district, and now has a public list of staff who went through training on its website that’s searchable by school and staff member name.

Four individual complaints are still ongoing, the state board noted in the letter, saying it will continue to monitor the district “to ensure CPS’ ongoing compliance and improvement of practices” related to restraint and timeout.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools told Chalkbeat Chicago that it continues to refine the district’s actions related to restraint and timeout. In a statement, the district said it “is fully focused on identifying proactive behavioral interventions to reduce the use of RTO, especially for students of color.”

The district’s office for special education has created a Physical Restraint Time Out Team, which is responsible for documenting incidents, school staff has been fully trained in de-escalation and physical management techniques, and the district is working closely with schools if additional training is needed, according to the district spokesperson.

Chicago Public Schools reports that 5,140 staff members across schools are fully trained in both de-escalation and physical management techniques as of this month.

Between 2022 and 2023, the state board sent multiple letters of noncompliance to Chicago school officials that identified how the district’s current restraint and timeout policies were not aligned with the state’s current guidance. The state board found that untrained staff were using restraints.

In a few cases, staff were either restraining students for more than 15 minutes and placing students in isolated time outs for more than 30 minutes. Under state law, staff must evaluate if students should be taken out of timeout or restrains every 15 to 30 minutes.

In other cases, restraints that were banned by state law, such as prone restraint, were used on students. School officials did not tell parents that their child had been restrained or placed in timeout within the time frame set by the state. According to the state board, parents must be notified as soon as possible but no longer than two days after the incident.

Changes in state law occurred in response to a 2019 Chicago Tribune and ProPublica investigation that revealed how restraint, timeout, and seclusion were used around the state. Students with disabilities were most likely to be restrained or put in timeout.

As the state board’s investigation ramped up during 2023, there were changes in leadership at Chicago Public Schools and the district had to act quickly to be in compliance with state law or be placed on probation by the state.

Stephanie Jones, the former head of Chicago Public Schools’ special education office, left the district in June 2023 amid criticism for her role in the district’s failure to fix violations related to restraint and timeout.

As the designated official responsible for restraint and timeout policies and incidents. Jones was responsible for maintaining copies of records, receiving notifications of incidents each school day, and receiving documentation and evaluation of any incident of restraints that lasted for over 15 minutes and timeouts over 30 minutes.

However, Jones told the state board that she had passed on those responsibilities to another member of her staff who left earlier in the year and no one continued to monitor incidents in schools.

Jones was later replaced by Joshua Long, a former principal, as head of the district’s special education office in December 2023.

Chicago Public Schools was required to train at least two staff members across the district’s 600 schools in August 2023 or risk being placed on probation by the state. Chicago worked with contractor QBS LLC to train staff on the use of restraint and timeout.

In August of last year, district officials said CPS had met the state’s deadline to train at least two staff members in over 500 school buildings with a majority of staff being completely trained or in progress in de-escalation and physical restraint.

Election 2024: Here’s who won Chicago’s first school board elections

2024-11-06T07:05:59+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Chicago voters delivered a mixed message in the city’s historic first school board elections Tuesday, backing a set of candidates representing different, sometimes clashing views.

Unofficial results showed four teachers union-backed candidates, three pro-school choice candidates, and three independent candidates either winning or holding leads.

Ten seats representing 10 districts across the city were contested in the election. The winners will join 11 other members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and Chicago Teachers Union organizer. In 2026, all 21 school board seats will be on the ballot.

Tuesday’s election will end 30 years of mayoral control in the nation’s fourth largest school district. It comes at a contentious time: CPS is in a period of leadership turmoil marked by divisions over how to cover costs at a time of expiring COVID aid and enrollment decline.

The makeup of the new board will help shape how the district answers thorny questions about money and its future direction.

Early Wednesday, The Associated Press had yet to declare winners in three races: in Districts 1, 9, and 10.

Based on preliminary results, the board will likely include 15 members either appointed by Johnson or endorsed by the CTU, a close ally of the mayor’s. That means Johnson will likely have a solid bloc of support for policies he and the union support, including avoiding school closures and pumping more money into neighborhood schools.

The other six seats will likely be filled by school choice, charter-aligned, or more independent candidates, who could press for different priorities or challenge Johnson’s agenda.

Some observers and critics of the teachers union have characterized Tuesday’s results as a blow to Johnson and the CTU, given that they spent nearly $2 million to help their endorsed candidates win in three of 10 races.

But others, especially CTU president Stacy Davis Gates, framed the election as a success. At a union election watch party Tuesday night, she led the crowd in a chant of “Whose Schools? Our schools!”

“You all created an expansion of democracy in an entire society that’s toying with the idea of fascism,” Davis Gates said.

She decried an influx of large checks, including some from out-of-state billionaires, in support of pro-school choice candidates.

Chicago Democrats For Education, a political organization that backed candidates who weren’t endorsed by the union, claimed victories in at least three races: Districts 3, 4 and 8.

“I am incredibly proud of the campaigns all our candidates ran,” Hugo Jacobo, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “These candidates had to fight through desperate lies and misinformation spread about them. This is a clear signal against CTU’s agenda—and just the beginning of a transformation in Chicago’s educational opportunities for students and not self interested union bosses.”

Earlier in the day, Chicago Board of Elections spokesperson Max Bever said voters in a few precincts were given ballots with the wrong school board district candidates. The mixups occurred because the new electoral districts don’t follow ward and precinct lines.

“It looks like this issue was raised fairly immediately, and proper ballots were located,” Bever said, adding that he did not know how many voters were impacted.

Unofficial results showed 63% of all registered voters had voted, according to the city’s Board of Elections.

A total of 47 people filed to run for school board, but just 31 made it on the ballot. Candidates staked out positions on school choice, taxes, and district leadership. The campaign was distinguished by big spending and sharp words over the role the teachers union and education reform advocates have played in the race.

District 1: Far Northwest Side, Irving Park

Jennifer Custer, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 1st District, poses for a portrait in Union Park on Sept. 19, 2024.

Jennifer Custer, a former teacher and CPS mom, appeared to clinch a narrow victory against Michelle N. Pierre in the race to represent families and residents on Chicago’s Northwest Side in District 1.

“We worked really hard and knocked on a lot of doors and talked to a lot of voters,” Custer said when reached by phone late Tuesday night. She said it felt “surreal” to be part of the historic first school board elections in Chicago.

Moving forward, Custer said she wants to start building relationships with other new school board members.

“All of us have to work as a team,” she said. “We have a common vision and a common goal, and I think that’s the students of CPS and making sure we can do the best for them.”

Both candidates raised more than $100,000 in their bids to secure a seat on the board. Custer brought in significant amounts from labor unions, including the Chicago Teachers Union, which endorsed her candidacy. Pierre received backing from pro-school choice groups and benefited from spending by two super PACs supporting school choice candidates.

At an election night party downtown, Pierre said she was on “pins and needles,” unsure how the race would shake out.

Pierre said every moment of Election Day was stressful. But she said she felt hopeful when she met a voter at a poll who said she came to vote specifically for presidential candidate and vice president Kamala Harris — and Michelle Pierre.

“I know that my message resonated with a lot of people,” Pierre said.

In all, 43 schools in District 1 serve 32,410 students, most of whom are Hispanic and white. There is one charter school and one alternative school.

District 2: Rogers Park, Edgewater, Lincoln Square, Albany Park

Ebony DeBerry, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 2nd District, poses for a portrait in Oz Park on Sept. 11, 2024.

Ebony DeBerry, a former teacher and the CTU-backed candidate, won a four-way race to represent District 2, which spans the city’s far north lakefront, according to unofficial results.

She’s one of three CTU-backed candidates to win in the 10 contests for school board seats.

At a CTU election watch party, DeBerry’s voice broke as she spoke about backing from educator volunteers and others for her campaign.

“This has not been easy and it hasn’t been short,” she said. “I am ready to brawl and fall for you guys.”

DeBerry portrayed herself as a true product of public schools and the confidence teachers instilled in her and vowed to be an advocate for students and teachers. She said she will push for expanded staffing, including for counselors, social workers and librarians, and more sports, arts and other programs.

She edged out Bruce Leon, a retired human resource entrepreneur who self-funded his campaign and argued for a fiscally prudent approach to running the school district. DeBerry also beat Kate Doyle, a former teacher and nonprofit cofounder who tried to position herself as an independent-minded progressive candidate, and CPS mom Maggie Cullerton Hooper, the daughter of former Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, who ran on a progressive platform.

District 2 serves 27,637 students in 37 schools, including three magnets and three charters.

District 3: Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Hermosa

Carlos Rivas Jr., a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 3rd District, poses for a portrait in Oz Park on Sept. 11, 2024.

Carlos Rivas Jr. notched a victory over Jason Dónes in the predominantly Latino District 3, according to unofficial results from the Chicago Board of Elections.

District 3 includes 55 schools serving 31,598 students, many of whom are bilingual or English language learners.

The two candidates have similar backstories: Both grew up in Humboldt Park, graduated from coveted selective enrollment high schools, and went on to work as educators through the Teach for America program.

But the two diverged on school choice. Rivas formerly worked at the Noble Network of Charter Schools and has said he will be an independent board member devoted to preserving the variety of schools that exist today, including charter, magnet, and selective schools. He drew financial support from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and another pro-school choice group and has received a slew of small-dollar donations.

Dónes raised more than $300,000, largely from the teachers union and its allies, while Rivas brought in just over $75,000. However, super PACs, which are not allowed to coordinate with candidates, spent more than $280,000 in support of Rivas.

At an election night party, Rivas said the amount of attack ads against him were hurtful, especially mailers that stuck his face next to Donald Trump. He said he proudly voted for Kamala Harris today.

Rivas, who has run on a platform that’s critical of the mayor, said he hopes to work to build consensus with the board. A majority of the board will still be made up of mayoral appointments.

“It’s gonna be really difficult with 21 members, but we have to be able to do that for the good of our city, for the good of our students and our families,” he said.

Dónes is backed by the CTU and other unions as well as some local elected officials. He ran on a progressive platform focused on expanding school staffing and ensuring curriculums are culturally relevant.

District 4: Lakeview, Lincoln Park

Ellen Rosenfeld, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 4th District, poses for a portrait in Oz Park on Sept. 11, 2024.

Ellen Rosenfeld, a former CPS teacher who currently works for the district doing family engagement, won a competitive race to represent neighborhoods along Chicago’s north lakefront.

The area includes 36 schools with diverse student bodies. Just over a third of students attending District 4 CPS schools are white, roughly one third are Hispanic, just under 16% are Black, and 8.5% are Asian American. There are no charters and about a dozen selective enrollment and magnet schools.

Rosenfeld said Wednesday that the win feels like a vindication after facing an onslaught of negative messaging that she argued aimed to mislead voters. She said she feels district residents gravitated toward a long-time neighbor, parent and educator — and, as turmoil in CPS leadership grew, increasingly spoke of wanting a counterweight to the mayor and the teachers union.

“I think that CTU and the mayor underestimated how smart the constituents are when they sent the ads that said I was the Trump puppet in Project 2025,” she said, noting it was easy for voters to confirm she is a lifelong Democrat. “Arguably it worked in my favor.”

“I know the ecosystem that is Chicago public schools, and I’m ready to do the work on day one,” she added.

Karen Zaccor, a retired CPS teacher and longtime community organizer who advocated for an elected school board, was behind Rosenfeld. Zaccor is backed by the Chicago Teachers Union and raised almost $236,000, the most of any District 4 candidate.

Zaccor said the CTU-backed candidates who did not win will remain active in school advocacy.

“No matter the outcome of the election, we’ll all continue in this fight,” she said.

Zaccor lives on the opposite side of the district from Rosenfeld, meaning she could be a potential choice for the mayor as part of his 11 appointments for the board.

That’s because of the way state law established representation on the new board. Each district will be split into two districts for the 2026 election. Tuesday’s winners become incumbents in the subdistrict in which they live, while Johnson must appoint people by Dec. 16 to represent the other subdistrict.

Other candidates who were vying to represent District 4 on the school board were Kimberly Brown, a marketing professional and adjunct professor at two colleges; Andrew A. Davis, a former owner of a brokerage firm and former head of a state agency focused on higher education who now heads up an education-related nonprofit; Thomas Day, a veteran who is an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy; and Carmen Gioiosa, a former CPS teacher and central office staffer who now teaches early childhood education at National Louis University. Every candidate has children who are CPS students or graduates.

Rosenfeld, who has been endorsed by a slew of state and local elected officials, has raised nearly $187,000. After Rosenfeld and Zaccor, the rest of the candidates raised nearly $25,000 or less.

District 5: West Side, West Loop, Near West Side

Aaron "Jitu" Brown will represent the 5th District on the Chicago Board of Education.

Aaron “Jitu” Brown will represent District 5, which spans from the West Loop to Austin and includes 105 schools — the most of any school board district.

Brown is a longtime community organizer who has fought school closures and advocated for an elected school board. He was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and ran uncontested after Michillia Blaise withdrew from the race in early September. Blaise has since been appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson to serve on the school board.

In District 5’s public schools, 62% of students are Black, 5% white, almost 28% Hispanic, and nearly 3% Asian American. A quarter of these schools in District 5 are charters.

District 6: Downtown, Bronzeville, Near South Side

Jessica Biggs, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 6th District, poses for a portrait in Washington Park on Sept. 12, 2024.

Former CPS principal Jessica Biggs won election to represent District 6, which features a diverse school population serving several South Side neighborhoods..

Biggs ran on a platform of being an independent voice. A CTU-backed candidate, policy advocate Anusha Thotakura, finished second while Andre Smith, a finance manager, finished third. Danielle Wallace, a nonprofit leader, ran as a write-in candidate.

Biggs expressed surprise at the outcome given the large disparity in spending. Biggs raised the least of the three candidates on the ballot — about $42,600 as of the most recent filings – while Thotakura’s campaign had brought in more than $360,000.

“You never really know the impact that that money is going to have,” Biggs said. “I knew … talking with voters, talking with people at forums that our message was resonating with voters across the district. I knew people wanted an independent voice on the board.”

District 6 covers neighborhoods on the city’s South Side, such as Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, Woodlawn and Hyde Park and neighborhoods on the city’s north side such as Streeterville and River North.

The district has over 50 schools with 21,000 students enrolled. The district’s population is majority white, but Black students are the majority of schools. About 70% of students enrolled in the district’s schools come from low-income families and 15% of students have Individualized Education Programs.

Thotakura lives on the opposite side of District 6 from Biggs, so Mayor Johnson could still choose to appoint her to the school board.

District 7: Pilsen, Little Village, Bridgeport, Brighton Park

Yesenia Lopez is a candidate to represent District 7 on the Chicago Board of Education.

Yesenia Lopez won in a three-way contest to represent District 7, which covers parts of the city’s South and Southwest sides.

The district has 79 schools with nearly 45,000 students — the most student enrollment of any school board district.

Lopez, a CPS graduate, is an executive assistant for the Illinois Secretary of State and has worked in multiple state and federal campaigns. She was endorsed by the CTU and Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. According to recent vote counts from the Board of Elections, she is ahead of Eva A. Villalobos, also a CPS graduate and a former accountant and mother of four children who attend private schools, and Raquel Don, a CPS graduate and parent, former accountant, and current member of the Jones College Prep Local School Council.

At the union election watch party, Lopez said her victory was a collaborative effort, with unions, elected officials, and fellow Southwest Side residents backing her campaign.

“It was not Yesenia on the ballot,” she said. “It was a community on the ballot.”

She said she would be a champion of working class families, advocating specifically for more afterschool programs and special education services.

“We still have many challenges ahead,” she said. “We saw out-of-state billionaires trying to buy our education system.”

Villalobos also noted that a lot of money was spent in the District 7 school board race.

“I’d like to think I made them sweat,” she said with a laugh.

Of the three candidates, Lopez has raised nearly $167,000. Villalobos has raised nearly $37,000, including from Urban Center PAC, led by former CPS CEO and mayoral candidate Paul Vallas. Don has collected nearly $3,000.

She said her advice to Lopez, which she has previously shared with her, is that she wants her to make her decisions independently without considering the agenda of political or private interests.

“I wanna make sure whatever decision she makes comes from her and not from the union and another bigger group,” Villalobos said. “We are being elected in this position because we are supposed to represent our students. We are supposed to speak on behalf of our parents. And overall make sure we increase and better our schools.”

District 8: Far Southwest Side, Back of the Yards

Angel Gutierrez is a candidate to represent District 8 on the Chicago Board of Education.

Angel Gutierrez, a nonprofit consultant, will represent voters in District 8. Unofficial results from the city’s board of elections show that Gutierrez beat his opponent Felix Ponce, a CPS music teacher and CTU-backed candidate, in a landslide.

At an election night party Tuesday, Gutierrez said his immediate priority in office will be to do a “forensic analysis” of the district’s expenses and understand how to solve CPS’s budget challenges and get the “maximum dollars into the classroom.”

One of the lessons that he said he’ll bring with him from the campaign trail is to always “elevate” the students who are the most vulnerable, such as those with disabilities.

“These are elected positions. I am beholden to the people who elected me and even the people who didn’t vote for me — I’m representing them,” he said. “That means listening to parents, listening to students, listening to teachers, listening to elected people.”

Gutierrez and Ponce were the only two candidates vying to represent families and school communities on Chicago’s Southwest Side and a smaller sliver of the Loop. District 8 includes neighborhoods like West Lawn, Marquette Park, Ashburn, McKinley Park, and Bridgeport.

Ponce raised around $295,000, while Gutierrez brought in about $86,000. A majority of Ponce’s campaign funds came from the CTU and other contributions from state and local officials. Gutierrez received money from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. Two super PACs supporting pro-school choice candidates also spent at least $270,000 on direct mail and ads in support of Gutierrez.

CTU-backed Ponce lives on the opposite side of District 8 as Gutierrez and could be considered by Mayor Johnson for an appointment to the school board.

District 9: Englewood, Roseland, Beverly, Morgan Park

Therese Boyle is on the ballot for Chicago's District 9 school board race.

Therese Boyle looks to have secured a seat on Chicago’s Board of Education to represent District 9. According to unofficial results from the city’s board of elections, Boyle won an overwhelming majority of votes cast in Tuesday’s race. The AP had not called the race as of early Wednesday.

Boyle was in a four-way race with Lanetta Thomas, who was endorsed by the CTU, La’Mont Raymond Williams, and Miquel Lewis, who received financial support from pro-school choice PACs.

Boyle, a former longtime Chicago teacher, ran against Stacy Davis Gates for CTU president in 2019; Lewis served on the school board for a brief time under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and is the acting director of Cook County Juvenile Probation and Court Services. Thomas is a U.S. Army veteran and community organizer in Roseland and Willians is chief of staff and general counsel to a Cook County commissioner.

District 9 covers the city’s south side in neighborhoods such as Morgan Park, Roseland, Pullman, Beverly, Auburn-Greshman, and Englewood.

Candidates raised a combined $108,000 for their campaigns, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of most recent campaign finance disclosures. Boyle raised the most, with over $55,000 coming from her own pockets, small donations, and loans. Lewis’ campaign raised the second highest amount, over $27,000. Two pro-school choice super PACs also spent more than $300,000 in support of Lewis, though by law they are not allowed to coordinate with candidates.

District 10: Hyde Park, South Shore, Woodlawn, Southeast Side

Che “Rhymefest” Smith, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 10th District, poses for a portrait in Union Park on Sept. 19, 2024.

Rapper Che “Rhymefest” Smith appears to have beat all three of his opponents to represent District 10. Early Wednesday, Smith held a narrow lead over Karin Norington-Reaves, who also captured a large number of voters in District 10 according to unofficial results.

In one of the city’s most spread-out and socioeconomically diverse districts, four candidates were vying for the school board seat.

The Rev. Robert Jones, one of the hunger strikers who opposed the closure of Dyett High School in 2015, received a significant financial and in-kind boost from the CTU. Nonprofit CEO Norington-Reaves, the mother of a CPS student with a disability, got the backing of pro-school choice super PACs and what she described as an “anti-CTU coalition” concerned about the union’s growing influence.

Education consultant and former CPS principal Adam Parrott-Sheffer billed himself as an independent-minded candidate and the only one with both experience as a CPS educator and children attending the district. And rapper Smith, who garnered endorsements from some high-profile elected officials, said he would be a creative change agent on the board.

Meanwhile, a former CPS educator and teachers union official, Rosita Chatonda, ran as a write-in candidate after petition challenges knocked her off the ballot.

There are roughly 90 CPS schools in District 10 serving 34,700 students. With both popular specialized programs and campuses that have struggled with rapidly shrinking enrollment, the district captures the uneven student experiences in CPS.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois’ 2024 report card is out: SAT scores are down, but high school grad rates are up

2024-10-30T14:01:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

New data released today show Illinois students continue to rebound from pandemic-era academic setbacks in most metrics, but SAT scores continue to drop.

Declining SAT scores mirror a national trend but come as more Illinois students are graduating from public high schools, raising red flags for top state education officials.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s latest report card data show the four-year high school graduation rate at 87.7% at the end of the 2023-24 school year, compared to 87.6% the previous year, and it has been steadily climbing over the past decade. However, graduation rates for Black and Latino students are still low compared with white and Asian American students.

About 31.1% of high school juniors who took the SAT this past spring were considered proficient in reading, while 26.1% met or exceeded state standards in math. That’s a drop from 2018-19 when 36.2% were proficient in reading and 34.4% were proficient in math.

Average SAT composite scores stood at 950.3 this spring, down from 960.9 last year and 994.5 in the 2018-19 school year.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders noted that Illinois’ accountability system put more weight on graduation rates starting last year.

“Schools have really focused on improving graduation rates for all students, and that has yielded some significant results,” he said. “How can we have these amazing gains in the graduation rate with simultaneously declining proficiency rates in high school?

Sanders, along with state education officials, said in a press conference last week that the state is working on an indicator of individual growth for students between ninth to 11th grade. The indicator won’t be a part of the state’s accountability system for school districts and schools, but it will be provided to high schools to help them understand where students are each year.

The report card provides insight into how Illinois’ 850-plus school districts are performing. The massive data set includes information on hundreds of metrics such as test scores, enrollment data, chronic absenteeism, high school graduation rates, student participation in career and technical education programs, enrollment in advanced classes, and teacher retention rates.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact students’ academic progress across the state, there are signs that show Illinois students have regained ground in some metrics. Third through eighth grade students are making progress on state standardized tests in reading and math, more students are taking advanced classes in high school, participation in career and technical education courses has increased, and the number of educators in the state has increased since the school year 2017-18.

Post-pandemic, Illinois schools spent almost $7 billion dollars on high-impact tutoring and staffing increases. Those funds dried up at the end of September.

Here are some more 2024 report card highlights.

Elementary students see pre-pandemic numbers in reading, but not math

Students in third to eighth grade who took the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, also known as the IAR, in the spring of 2024 saw improvements in reading and math overall. In reading, 41.2% of students met or exceeded the standards. That is 5.8 percentage points higher than in spring 2023 and 3.4 percentage points higher than in 2019.

Sanders attributed the improvement in reading to best practices for instruction, curriculum, and teacher professional development. He also mentioned the state’s comprehensive literacy plan.

Students are struggling to reach pre-pandemic levels in math, however. About 28.4% of students were proficient in math in 2024, about 3.4 percentage points lower than in 2019 and only 1.4 percentage points up from 2023.

Sanders said the state is working on a statewide math and numeracy plan to support students and increase proficiency.

Racial disparities continue to persist. White and Asian American students continue to have higher math and reading proficiency rates on the IAR when compared to other student groups. About 52.2% of white students were proficient in reading and 38.7% in math, while Asian American students were 68.2% proficient in reading and 61.3% in math.

Black and Latino students have seen a slight uptick in scores since the school year 2018-19, but scores on the IAR still lag behind white and Asian American students, and often students are scoring lower than the state’s average. About 28.6% of Latino students and 21.8% of Black students were proficient in reading, while 15.6% of Latino students and 9.1% of Black students were proficient in math.

Earlier this month, Chicago Public Schools reported that about 30.5% of third through eighth graders were proficient in reading on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness 2024 spring exam, and 18.3% met or exceeded the standard in math.

English learners enrollment continues to climb

About 1.8 million students were enrolled in Illinois public schools during the 2023-24 school year, the same as school year 2022-23. In a call with news reporters, Sanders said that overall declines in enrollment started in 2015 and match the country’s declining birth rate.

However, Illinois continues to see an increase in English learners. In school year 2023-24, English learners made up 16.4% of total enrollment, a 1.8 percentage point increase compared to the school year 2022-23, when enrollment was at 14.6%. Sanders attributed the rise in newcomer students to families escaping conflicts around the globe.

Overall student demographics are shifting too, with increasing enrollment among Asian American, Latino, and multiracial students and declines in the number of white and Black students enrolling in public schools

Absenteeism is down but higher among kindergarteners and high school students

When students miss 10% of the school year — about 18-20 school days — with or without an excuse, they are considered chronically absent. The percentage of students who missed this much school spiked during the COVID pandemic.

But the numbers have come back down. About 26.3% of all students were chronically absent during the school year 2023-24, down from the 28.3% from last year. Illinois saw its highest chronic absenteeism rate of 29.9% in 2021-22, when more students were required to go back to school in person.

This year, the Illinois State Board of Education decided to look at the intersection between chronic absenteeism and grade levels and found kindergarten and high school students were the most likely to be chronically absent.

Kindergarten readiness in Illinois is linked to academic success in third grade, new report says

2024-10-28T17:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois’ Kindergarten Individual Development Survey, or KIDS, can predict how students will perform on state standardized tests, such as the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, in third grade, according to a new report.

Researchers also found that white and Asian American students scored higher in KIDS than their Black and Latino peers and students who were eligible for free or reduced lunch, English learners, and students with disabilities – a gap that continued to grow larger in third grade.

High scores in kindergarten readiness for Black, Latino, and students eligible for free or reduced price lunch did not guarantee that students will meet or exceed state standards in third grade, the report found.

The Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative’s report, “Inequity in the early years: Student development trajectories from Kindergarten to Grade 3,” released on Monday, found a link between KIDS scores and third grade scores on state standardized tests. It is the second of four reports looking at inequities in kindergarten readiness.

Study researchers followed two cohorts of students between kindergarten to third grade.

The first group had about 70,738 students who started kindergarten in 2017-18 — when the KIDS assessment was first rolled — and who went into third grade during the 2020-21 school year. The second group of about 97,608 students entered kindergarten in the 2018-19 school year and started third grade during the 2021-22 school year. The authors of the report looked at math and reading scores for each cohort.

Illinois requires students to start school at the age of 6, when some students would start first grade. This study does not include that group of students, since researchers only followed students to whom they could link KIDS and IAR scores.

In their first report, researchers found that white and Asian American students scored between 15 to 25 percentage points higher than Black and Latino students in social-emotional learning, language and literacy, and math between school years 2017-18 and 2021-22 on KIDS. Black students saw the biggest declines in scores between 2019-20 and 2021-22, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic when schools were remote.

Students who were eligible for free or reduced price lunch, English learners, and students with Individualized Education Programs were less likely to be ready for kindergarten.

The report also found that teachers were not using an alternative language and literacy assessment for the majority of English learners. The Illinois State Board of Education “strongly recommends” that teachers use the alternate assessment in bilingual classrooms, which make up 20% of the English learners. For English learners not in bilingual classrooms but are in general education classrooms or English as a second Language Classrooms, which make up 80% of English learners, the state board’s guidance allows teachers to decide if they should use the alternative assessment.

While the second report in the series linked kindergarten readiness to third grade academic success, the authors caution against making conclusions for four reasons: KIDS is a new survey for schools, KIDS and the IAR are different assessments not designed to be compared, scores for these assessments would have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and assessments are not perfect measures of students’ learning and development.

Unlike the Illinois Assessment of Readiness for students from third through eighth grades, KIDS is considered an “observational tool” by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Kindergarten teachers are required to observe students in the first 40 days of school to determine where students are on social emotional development, literacy and language development, and math skills and if they are ready for K-12 schools.

Meg Bates, director of the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative and one of the report’s authors, said the research collaborative has a statewide research advisory council that was interested in KIDS since it is relatively new and had changed over time – originally designed with 55 measures, then streamlined to 14.

“People hadn’t really looked at it that hard in terms of its technical properties and if it was predictive of anything.,” said Bates. “I think a lot of people had concerns like ‘it was designed one way and it’s being used another way. What is it doing for us and is it a useful tool?”

When looking at disparities in KIDS scores and between kindergarten and third grade, Bates said that “the story is about systemic inequities, resources and opportunities.”

According to Bates, some children do not have access to pre-kindergarten, day care, health care, nutrition, and community resources. As students get older, there is a need to look at the access to schools that different students have plus the funding and resources those schools have.

For Sebastian Kiguel, one of the authors of the report and a research associate at the research collaborative, the big takeaway from the report should be, “Where you are in kindergarten is not destiny, but it does say a lot about where you might end up In third grade.”

Students who are kindergarten-ready are three times more likely to be proficient in math and reading, Kiguel said. However, some students scored low on KIDS and went on to be proficient.

The next two reports in the IWERC’s kindergarten readiness series will look at the impact of early childhood education programs like preschool and home visiting programs and K-12 schools and district resources.

Chicago students have higher high school graduation and college enrollment rates, report finds

2024-10-18T05:02:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

This story has been updated with a statement from Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago Public Schools’ class of 2023 had a high school graduation rate of 85%, an all-time high for the district, a new report found. In addition, college enrollment rates for Chicago students are rebounding from the COVID-19 pandemic and college completion rates remain steady.

Those findings are from a joint report from the To&Through Project and the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research. The report looked at “educational milestones” for Chicago’s high school graduates, including graduation rates, college enrollment, and college completion.

While more Chicago students are graduating from high school than before, work still needs to be done to ensure that students enroll in institutions of higher education and complete a degree or certificate, researchers found. The report also highlights the need to look at disparities among race/ethnicity, gender, English learners, and students with disabilities.

The report’s Post-Secondary Attainment Index, or PAI — a metric that takes into account the current trend of high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion rates to predict the college completion rate for last year’s ninth graders— projects that 31% of Chicago’s ninth grade students who started in 2023-34 will complete a degree at a two-year or four-year institution within 10 years, or when they are about 25. This is only one percentage point higher than last year’s PAI projection.

Of 100 students who were in ninth grade in the 2023-24 school year, 31 would earn a college degree or credential by the time they are 25 if current high school graduates and college completion rates stay the same, according to the report. These ninth graders were in fifth grade when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools and students were forced to switch to remote learning.

The authors of the report say the PAI is not meant to predict what will happen, but to summarize current high school graduation and college completion rate trends.

Researchers who worked on the report have calculated a slightly higher graduation rate than the one used by Chicago Public Schools — which published data yesterday that noted a rate of 84%.

In the spring of 2023, boys graduated from high school in Chicago at a lower rate than girls, according to the joint report from the To&Through Project and the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research. The graduation rates for Black and Latino boys were lower than the district’s average at 78% and 82%. Students with Individualized Education Programs had a graduation rate of 55.9%.

Of those graduating students, 63% enrolled in a two-year or four-year institution of higher education either in the fall or spring after graduation – a 2.5% increase in enrollment compared to the Class of 2022. The enrollment rates for community colleges or technical schools have shifted over time. In 2018, the rate was 21.1%, but in 2023 the number dropped to 15.7%.

Chicago Public Schools officials highlighted growing college enrollment rates on Thursday during a press conference on the district’s student academic achievement. They credited the district’s efforts to get more kids to earn early college credits, in part making college more affordable.

Alexandra Usher, director of data and research for the To&Through project, attributes the increase of the graduation rate to the district’s Freshman on Track work.

“It wasn’t just about the nuts and bolts of ‘Let’s stop failing freshmen.’ It was about the whole community within a building coming together, creating these team structures of adults ... to look at data on how students are doing,” said Usher. “I think it really was a culture and structure shift that happened.”

For some students, the pandemic did not deter plans for college. Dulce Robles, a senior at Prosser Career Academy in Belmont Cragin, knew since middle school that she would pursue college, she said on Thursday.

Robles, who is in the JROTC program and is also involved with multiple clubs at school, said she’s been interested in various subjects but primarily computer science. She also pursued a related internship.

“I really got more invested,” she said. “I’m like, ‘I wanna study this in college.’”

Chicago Public School officials touted high school students’ achievements in a statement to Chalkbeat Chicago on Friday. They noted that graduation rates are at an all-time high, more CPS graduates have enrolled in college in the last two decades, and college completion rates have improved by five percentage points in the last five years.

“These accomplishments are notable, especially as the District’s rates on college enrollment, persistence, and completion are much higher compared to other urban districts with high proportions of minority and low-income students,” CPS officials said in the statement.

One area of concern in the report is students’ college completion rate. For the graduating class of 2017, students who immediately enrolled in four-year institutions had a college completion rate of 54% within six years. Those who immediately enrolled in a two-year college had a 31% completion rate within six years.

For Black and Latino boys who graduated from Chicago Public Schools in 2017, fewer than one-third who immediately went to college upon graduation completed their time at a four-year college or university within six years.

Students who start college later than the fall after graduating high school were less likely to complete their bachelor’s degree or associate degree or certificate. For students who did not immediately go to college after graduating, only 1.8% of students who graduated from Chicago schools in 2017 completed their time at a four-year college and only 2.5% graduated from a two-year institution.

Dominique Mckoy, the executive director of the To&Through project, said increasing college completion rates is the next area to work on, but he is hopeful due to the partnerships between the K-12 system and colleges and universities.

“We’re seeing a lot of initiatives at the college level,” said McKoy. “Colleges are really taking a hard look at their policies, practices, collecting student voices and trying to be reflective and responsive to what they’re getting back.”

Correction 10/18/2024: The punctuation on Alexandra Usher’s comment on Chicago Public Schools’ Freshman on Track was changed to reflect the correct meaning.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s third to eighth grade students show signs of academic recovery on spring 2024 standardized state tests

2024-10-17T23:51:14+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news

Math and reading test scores ticked up for Chicago Public Schools students in grades 3-8, while high school graduation rates remained relatively flat, according to a trove of academic data released by the district on Thursday.

The data, which represents results from the end of last school year, shows that students are continuing to recover after the coronavirus pandemic set back academic progress.

Of Chicago students in third through eighth grade who took the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, or IAR, the state’s annual standardized test, about 30.5% met or exceeded the standard in reading and 18.3% met or exceeded the standard in math, the data shows.

Compared to 2022-23, reading scores grew by 4.6 percentage points and math scores by just .8 points.

The Illinois State Board of Education will release the state report card for the 2023-24 school year later this month with more statewide data regarding student test scores.

Chicago Public Schools officials touted the scores Thursday during an event at Prosser Career Academy High School, one day after CEO Pedro Martinez made a plea for more city funding amid a massive leadership shakeup at the district. One of his main arguments to alderpeople Wednesday was that additional financial support would help the district build on academic gains.

“I want to stress that these are not just numbers on a slide,” Martinez said at the Prosser event. “This data represents the hopes and dreams and achievements of thousands of students and families. They represent the hard work of our talented and dedicated school leaders, educators and staff, and they represent our broader commitment to ensuring high quality, rigorous education for every child of Chicago.”

Jen Johnson, deputy mayor of education, youth, and human services, credited the academic gains to the district’s investment in additional staff, which began growing after the teachers union reached a new contract agreement in 2019 and accelerated as the district spent federal COVID relief money.

“When you invest, you get the payoff,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to continue to demand what kids deserve.”

The lower growth in math could be for multiple reasons, including that schools have more robust resources for improving literacy, such as strong professional development, said Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district’s chief education officer.

Chkoumbova also said that a “significantly lower number of schools” offer high-quality mathematics curriculum, and fewer schools have adopted the district’s Skyline curriculum for math compared to reading. Also, academic interventionists and tutors at schools tend to focus more on literacy skills. The district is trying to beef up support and resources related to math instruction, she said.

“While we are seeing more growth in students participating in math tutoring, schools have prioritized tutoring in reading,” Chkoumbova said, adding it’s something the district is trying to shift more focus on.

A greater share of Black, Hispanic, and white students passed reading exams during spring 2024, while scores for Asian American students stayed relatively flat. Math scores ticked up for nearly every racial group except for Hispanic students, who scored the same as in spring 2023.

A study from Stanford and Harvard universities released in June found that Chicago students’ reading scores were recovering faster since the pandemic compared to other school districts. The report also noted that Illinois was leading the nation in reading growth between 2022 and 2023. Chicago Public Schools officials have repeatedly pointed to this study when requesting more education funding from the state of Illinois – and now, the city.

The IAR is administered every spring to Illinois students between third through eighth grade. Some school district officials have complained that schools usually receive state test scores in the next academic year when students have entered a new grade — often too late to intervene to support students.

Chicago Public Schools high school juniors’ SAT scores remained steady last year. About 22% of students met or exceeded state standards in reading – the same as spring 2023. In math, 18.6% of students met or exceeded the state standards, down from 19.1% in 2022-23 or a .5% decrease.

The average composite SAT score for spring 2024 was at 893 for 11th grade – about 17 points lower than in the 2022-23 school year when the district’s juniors scored an average of 910.

Spring 2024 was the last time Illinois high school juniors will take the SAT as the state’s graduation requirement. In May, the Illinois State Board of Education announced that it would switch to the ACT and awarded that company a $53 million contract over the next six years.

Chicago Public Schools high school graduation rates have been on an upward trend for the past decade. For the 2023-24 school year, 84.1% of high school seniors graduated, nearly identical to the 2022-23 school year, and up from 82.9% in 2022. That rate has steadily increased over the past two decades.

Martinez touted the district’s efforts to encourage more students to pursue early college credits and scholarships in order to make college more affordable and accessible.

College enrollment numbers are currently at 69.8% for Chicago graduates. According to the district, about 73% of students persist in college, or return to college for their second year.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois educators and parents seek $550 million school funding increase for next year

2024-10-11T01:12:04+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Educators, parents, and advocates lobbied the Illinois State Board of Education to request an additional $550 million for K-12 schools from state lawmakers for the next school year during a Thursday budget hearing.

That increase would be $200 million more than what state lawmakers put into the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 schools for the current budget. When the state created its school funding formula in 2017, legislators reached a bipartisan agreement to increase funding $350 million each year. But K-12 advocates have said for the last few years that schools need more money to deal with a variety of urgent issues, from staffing shortages to newcomer students.

The deadline for spending or earmarking the state’s almost $7 billion in federal COVID relief funds was at the end of last month, although Illinois indicated it would seek an extension for spending the money. But as a result, local schools could see a reduction in staff and programs next school year, if they haven’t already experienced cuts this year.

The Illinois State Board of Education kicked off budget hearings this month to ask parents, teachers, district leaders, and advocates what they think the state board should ask the state’s General Assembly to fund during fiscal year 2026, which covers the 2025-26 school year.

Jason Sitko, a third grade teacher in Chicago Public Schools who’s worked in city schools for over 17 years, told the board that his school needs a librarian, dean of students, special education teachers, teaching assistants, and paraprofessionals.

Sitko says that he currently has a student with a 504 plan that requires the teacher to check in with the student every five to 10 minutes about needing extra help. But that’s difficult for him because he’s in his classroom without any other staff, trying to meet the various needs of 25 students.

“After I teach a math lesson, for example, I ask a few students to come sit at my table so that I can read the directions to them, because they cannot yet read and are still struggling with the concept of multiplication, and they need intensive support,” said Sitko. “I may have a student pouting in the hallway because something didn’t go well for him at recess. I might have another student walking around bothering his classmates because he is emotionally dysregulated.”

Brianna Roman, a parent who is sending her child to Berwyn schools in Chicago’s west suburbs, said that while the evidence-based funding formula improved the district’s finances, she says that it’s not enough due to inflation increasing costs.

“Every parent wants to know that wherever they send their children to school, they have the resources they need to succeed,” said Roman. “This includes the proper learning environment, enough special education and bilingual teachers, speech therapists, counselors, case managers, teachers, assistants, librarians, after school programs, updated books and technology.”

Both Sitko and Roman said they want the board to advocate for $550 million to go to the evidence-based funding formula.

Other advocates also spoke strongly in favor of more funding for additional funding to support students experiencing homelessness.

April Harris, a parent and a grassroots leader of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, requested state board officials seek an additional $5 million to support the growing needs of students who are experiencing homelessness — including some newcomer students who have immigrated from other countries — and help identify them.

“Almost 20,000 new arrivals have been bused to Illinois over the last year. Newly arrived migrant students are living in shelters, police stations, on the street or in other temporary situations, are experiencing homelessness, and therefore are McKinney-Vento eligible,” said Harris, referring to the federal law governing access to public education for students experiencing homelessness. “School districts and [the state school board] will need support to provide students with the services to which they are entitled.”

Speakers also sought to secure funding for after-school programming.

Eboni Prince, senior program director at After School Matters in Chicago, asked the board to keep funding for the organization at $6 million. The group has served thousands of high school students across Chicago, many of whom are students of color who come from low-income households. Prince said during fiscal year 2024, 80% of teens said that they felt really supported by their instructors.

The board’s funding “is crucial as we continue to empower young people to create a brighter future through our programming and partnerships,” said Prince.

After School Matters gets funding from a line item in the state’s education budget that’s separate from the evidence-based formula.

Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools has passed an almost $10 billion budget, but the district has made cuts to central staff and administration. The district is projecting a $500 million deficit next year, and that does not account for its pending contracts with Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Principal and Administrators Association, which are both currently in negotiations with the district.

Other requests at the hearing for more funding dealt with issues like agricultural education and early childhood education.

The state board’s next public budget hearing will be a virtual hearing on Oct. 28 between 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

In previous years, the Illinois State Board of Education announced its proposed budget before the end of January, right before the annual budget address from the governor. Usually, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget and State of the State address takes place in February as the spring legislative session is underway.

Chicago Public Schools: Lack of buses for students with disabilities due to driver shortage, strike

2024-10-02T18:43:54+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Chicago Public Schools officials blame the lack of transportation for students with disabilities this year on the nationwide bus driver shortage, a bus driver strike, and a vendor pulling routes, in response to a complaint filed to the Illinois State Board of Education.

The district has been under fire for the last few years for failing to provide bus routes to thousands of students with disabilities. The problem has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and has led to the district cutting bus service for general education students and providing stipends to families who have children with disabilities to pay for transportation.

Last month, special education advocates filed a complaint with the state board alleging that CPS is in violation of a federal law that requires districts to provide transportation services for students with disabilities. It’s the most recent of several complaints related to busing filed in the past three years.

Chicago Public Schools responded to the most recent complaint on Sept. 27 outright denying that they have denied students with disabilities a Free and Appropriate Public Education. CPS said it has ongoing challenges with busing students due to a lack of bus drivers and recent issues with vendors that provide transportation for Chicago students.

SCR is the district’s largest paratransit vendor that provides bus services to students with disabilities, making up 45% of the district’s drivers and buses. But between Aug. 16 and Sept. 9, SCR employees went on strike because of what they said were low wages and unfair labor practices.

In the letter, Chicago officials said the district could not use SCR buses at the start of the school year due to the strike. After the strike, the number of bus routes offered to Chicago students decreased. Last year, SCR had 164 bus routes; now the vendor only operates about 65 routes for Chicago schools due to a loss of drivers, the school district said in its response to the state complaint.

Another vendor, Cook Dupage Transportation, which makes up about 13% of the district’s fleet , notified the district over the summer that it would no longer bus Chicago students this school year.

Despite the challenges, the district said, about 2,500 more students with disabilities — an increase of 32% — have been put on a bus route when compared with last year.

However, according to the district’s transportation data, 1,099 students with disabilities were still waiting to receive a bus route, as of Sept. 23. The district said 10,051 had been routed, and 1,122 students were receiving temporary compensation.

Terri Smith-Roback, one of the special education advocates who filed the complaint, said in an interview with Chalkbeat that the district’s bus driver shortage is ongoing and officials should have found creative ways to bus students before the start of school.

The state board “should say that this complaint is substantiated and compel the district to continue to provide data around what they’re doing to improve the situation,” said Smith-Roback. “I don’t want them to sanction the district with money or anything like that. I just want them to hold them accountable.”

The complaint from Smith-Roback and Miriam Bhimani, another special education advocate, outlined the lack of communication between Chicago families and the district, noting hour-long wait times for the district’s transportation hotline. The complaint also noted that Chicago required students with Individualized Education Programs to have a transportation request “on file,” a contradiction to what they told state officials in May.

Smith and Bhimani’s complaint alleged a widespread denial of a Free and Appropriate Public Education — guaranteed to students with disability under federal law — to Chicago students who have transportation services in their Individualized Education Programs.

The Illinois State Board of Education opened an investigation a few days after Smith and Bhimani submitted it. The state board is required to investigate and submit its findings within 60 days according to federal law.

Transportation was a concern raised by educators during the public comment portion of the Chicago Board of Education meeting last week.

Kirsten Roberts, a preschool teacher at Brentano Elementary school, said that one of her students who has a disability missed the first five weeks of the school year because the student did not have a bus route.

Roberts told the Chicago Board of Education that teachers, school administrators, case managers, and the student’s parent called and sent emails to the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Transportation in an effort to get bus service for the student.

“This student with disabilities will never get back the first five weeks of preschool, the community-building, the learning of routines, the bonding with friends and teachers,” Roberts told the board.

After speaking at the board meeting, Roberts found out that the student later received a bus route.

Chicago Public Schools has struggled to bus students with disabilities since 2021 when students returned to classrooms after the pandemic closed school buildings.

Since then, the district has prioritized busing students with disabilities and those who are experiencing homelessness, as these students’ right to receive bus service is protected by federal law. But even students legally entitled to transportation have hit many roadblocks to receiving bus routes over the past several years.

Chicago school board election 2024: Here are the candidates running in District 6

2024-09-25T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

A former Chicago Public School principal, a teacher-turned-policy advocate, an Englewood mother who runs a nonprofit on the South Side, and a finance manager are all vying for a seat on Chicago’s elected school board in District 6.

The four candidates in this district will have to get their message out to families from different socioeconomic backgrounds and race and ethnic groups and schools with varying levels of need.

District 6 candidates have collectively raised more than $60,000, according to campaign filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

With a population of over 275,000, District 6 includes wealthier and majority white neighborhoods such as Streeterville and River North and working-class neighborhoods such as Bronzeville, Hyde Park, Woodlawn, Englewood, and Greater Grand Crossing. While the district’s population is majority white, the majority of the 21,000 Chicago Public Schools students attending schools in the district are Black.

About 70% of students in the district’s 52 schools come from low-income families and 15% of students have Individualized Education Programs.

Most students are enrolled in neighborhood schools, a smaller number of students attend charter, magnet, and selective enrollment schools. Three schools – Walter Payton High School, Skinner North, and Franklin Elementary Schools – are ranked “Exemplary” and in the top 10% of schools for academic performance, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. Payton and Skinner North are both selective and require an admissions test, while Franklin is a magnet that admits students via lottery. Six schools spread across the district are designated as needing “Intensive Support” by the state board, meaning that these schools are in the bottom 5% of the state for academic performance.

Jessica Biggs, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 6th District, poses for a portrait in Washington Park on Sept. 12, 2024.

Who is Jessica Biggs?

Biggs is new to politics, but she isn’t a novice when it comes to education. Biggs’ parents were educators, her brother is a special education teacher, and she was a classroom teacher and principal.

Biggs was a principal at Burke Elementary School, a school on the city’s South side in Washington Park, for six years before being fired. Biggs was fired for directing staff members to mark students tardy when they would have been marked as absent for half a day and to transport students from their homes to school without any paperwork, according to a report by WBEZ Chicago in 2018,

Biggs believes she was fired in retaliation for speaking out against the lack of cleanliness at schools after Aramark — a company that Chicago Public Schools contracted for janitorial services until this year — failed an inspection that found almost 100 schools, including Burke, were not clean in 2018, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Biggs said the end of her time as a school leader does not speak to all the work that she and her school’s community did to improve academic outcomes for students at Burke.

If elected, Biggs said her priorities as school board member would be to work with state lawmakers and the governor’s office to fully fund the evidence-based funding formula for Chicago Public Schools students, retain staff and filling vacant positions in schools, ensure that families have access to high-quality neighborhood schools, and create a clear process for families who choose magnet and selective enrollment schools.

Biggs has received endorsements from local lawmakers, including 20th Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor, a key player in the Dyett High School hunger strike that kept the school open and garnered national news attention, and Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.

Biggs has raised over $10,000 in donations as of mid September, according to campaign filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Read Biggs’ full questionnaire responses.

Andre Smith, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 6th District, poses for a portrait in Washington Park on Sept. 12, 2024.

Who is Andre Smith?

Before running for school board, Smith ran for 20th Ward alderman several times, the Illinois House of Representatives in the 5th District, and Cook County Board of Commissioners in the 2nd district.

Now, in his bid to represent District 6 on Chicago’s school board, Smith says he will bring expertise from his time as a finance manager that will help close the budget gaps Chicago Public Schools is currently facing.

Smith said his other areas of expertise include working on issues related to public safety. He founded Chicago Against Violence, an anti-violence organization, because he is passionate about ensuring safety around schools and in communities. Smith said he was part of the push to get a trauma center at the University of Chicago. The Trauma Care Coalition, a group of several community organizations, campaigned for a trauma center in response to the death of Damian Turner in 2010 who was shot near the hospital but was taken to Northwestern Memorial’s trauma center on the city’s north side and later died.

Smith said his top three priorities on the board would be increased transparency so communities can understand the district’s budget, school funding, and public safety, which includes transportation to get students to and from school safely. Before Smith makes plans for the district’s budget and funding local schools, he said he would like to have an audit to see where funding is going.

The city’s Board of Elections approved Smith’s spot on the ballot in late August after he faced several challenges. So far in the race, he has raised about $5,000 as of July 1, according to campaign finance records from the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Read Smith’s full questionnaire responses.

Anusha Thotakura, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 6th District, poses for a portrait in Washington Park on Sept. 12, 2024.

Who is Anusha Thotakura?

Thotakura, who grew up going to schools in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, said she was lucky to have a good public school education. Now she wants every Chicago student to have the same opportunity.

As a middle school math teacher at a bilingual public school in San Jose, California through Teach for America, Thotakura saw firsthand how the lack of resources impacted her students inside the classroom and in their communities. In her two years at the school, she saw large class sizes, a lack of social workers and nurses, outdated facilities, and the lack of special education services. At the same time, her students struggled with homelessness, food insecurity, trauma at home, and violence in their community.

Thotakura is currently the director at Citizen Action/Illinois, a progressive policy organization that advocates for local, state, and federal policy, and volunteers as a debate coach with Chicago Debates at Columbia Explorers Academy in Brighton Park.

As a board member, she said her top three priorities would be to invest in early childhood education to help prevent opportunity gaps, provide funding for after-school programs to keep students engaged in school and decrease chronic absenteeism, and school safety and wellness, which would include supporting students with trauma they experience outside of school and updating school facilities.

Thotakura has been endorsed by state lawmakers and local organizations, including state Sen. Robert Martwick, who sponsored the elected school board bill that passed in 2021, and the Chicago Teachers Union Local 1.

Thotakura has raised more than $45,000 since launching her campaign. Of that, roughly $20,000 has come from the CTU’s political action committee, mostly to pay for campaign staff, according to campaign finance reports filed with the state’s Board of Elections.

Read Thotakura’s full questionnaire responses.

Danielle Wallace, a candidate for the Chicago Board of Elections in the 6th District, poses for a portrait in Washington Park on Sept. 12, 2024.

Who is Danielle J. Wallace?

Wallace is the only candidate in District 6 running as a write-in candidate. She was knocked off the ballot early in the election season after signatures on her petitions were challenged.

Wallace has experience in Chicago Public Schools as a student, staff member, and parent. As a student, she didn’t have a straightforward path in school. When she was attending Simeon Career Academy on the city’s south side, she dropped out of high school before graduating because she was pregnant. At the time, there wasn’t a lot of support for pregnant students who wanted to continue their education. She opted to get a GED certificate.

She went on to work in the district as a clerk, school security officer, and third grade teacher at a charter school. Wallace doesn’t work as a teacher any more, but she is the founder and executive director of Kingdom Avenue Inc., a nonprofit organization that puts on events and programs for young people in Englewood.

If she is elected, Wallace said she would want to focus on community partnerships, improving student outcomes, and using restorative practices in schools instead of punitive discipline such as suspensions and expulsions.

A quarterly finance report from Wallace’s campaign filed with the state Board of Elections shows that Wallace raised $375 between April 1 and June 30 and had about $18 cash on hand as of July 1.

Read Wallace’s full questionnaire responses.

This story was published in partnership with Block Club Chicago.

Chicago Public Schools wants to combine state and local teacher retirement funds. Is that possible?

2024-09-24T16:02:22+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

As they worked to close a budget deficit this summer, Chicago Public Schools officials proposed a surprising and bold cost-saving measure: Combine the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund with the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System.

Chicago school officials said the move could direct more money to schools by reducing the cost of Chicago’s contribution to the pension fund. It would also mean Chicago taxpayers would no longer have to pay for two pension funds. As Illinois residents, Chicagoans contribute to the state teacher pension system for districts outside Chicago, and they also pay for Chicago teacher pensions through their property tax dollars.

Both the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund oppose the plan, saying teachers would not support it and both groups want to keep the pension system they’ve had since 1895.

The Illinois General Assembly would have to pass a bill for a consolidation of both pension systems to happen. Even proponents of the plan aren’t sure if state lawmakers would take this on.

Chicago Public Schools pays for the pension plan out of its operating budget each year. This school year, Chicago’s budget projects paying $661.6 million toward teacher pensions. This number includes $102.9 million from the district’s operating budget, $558.7 million from property taxes, and $353.9 million from the state.

That sizable payment comes as Chicago grapples with the loss of federal COVID relief funding, a decrease in property tax revenue, the increased cost of employee health care, and an uptick in expenses for students with disabilities. In addition, it’s unclear how much teacher salaries will increase over the years as contract negotiations are ongoing.

Why is Chicago proposing consolidation now?

Chicago Public Schools’ proposal, first raised by Kids First Chicago and The Civic Federation, would require the state to take on the current costs of teacher pensions and previous debt by combining both pension funds. Kids First Chicago and the Civic Federation say a consolidation could solve Chicago’s budget deficit and bring “parity” to how teacher pensions are funded in the state.

In a statement to Chalkbeat Chicago, district officials said the district makes

“substantial payments toward teachers’ pensions” while the state pays about 25%-30% of CPS yearly pension system. Chicago Public Schools says the state government pays the cost of teacher pensions for other Illinois school districts. Chicago hopes consolidation would put more money toward schools at a time when they are having financial struggles.

“As a district, we have been making historic strides in academic recovery that show our school investments have been working, leading us to advocate for more equity in state funding to ensure we can continue to support teaching and learning in the State’s largest Pre-K-12 school district,” the statement said.

The story behind why Chicago Public Schools have to contribute a large amount of district funds starts in 1995. That year, the state passed the Chicago School Reform Amendatory Act, which gave Chicago’s mayor control over the school system and to send property tax revenue to Chicago Public Schools’ operating budget instead of directly to the pension fund.

In 1997, the state legislature passed a subsequent law that allowed Chicago Public Schools to stop making payments to the teachers’ pension fund if it had almost 90% of the money to pay out teachers’ retirement benefits.

Under former CPS CEO Paul Vallas, the Chicago Board of Education redirected property tax revenue to the district’s overall operating budget to deal with an anticipated $1.4 billion budget deficit in 1995. The Board of Education did not pay into the teacher pension fund until the early 2000s.

Between 1998 and 2003, the fund had almost 90% of the money needed to pay out teacher retirement benefits. But when the stock market crashed in 2008, investment assets and pension systems across the country, including the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, took a hit.

As of 2023, the fund has slightly less than half of the money needed to pay off teacher pensions.

Carlton Lenoir Sr., executive director of the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, said the organization found that $3.2 billion in contributions were not made to the pension fund after state laws changed in the 1990s and the district stopped making payments. No matter the investment returns, he said, the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund could not make up for the lack of funding.

“It wasn’t something that we could invest our way out of because the funds were just not there to invest,” said Lenoir.

Proponents doubt state would pick up the bill

Consolidating the plans would require state lawmakers to pass a bill to combine both pension plans – something proponents of the proposal think is unlikely.

Kids First Chicago, a nonprofit that organizes Chicago parents, and The Civic Federation, a nonpartisan research group, say state lawmakers might not want to consolidate both pension systems because the state would have to allocate more funding to cover Chicago’s debt.

Both organizations propose gradual consolidation of both pension funds over the course of 10 years to make the proposal more palatable for legislators to create and pass a bill on.

Hal Woods, chief of policy for Kids First Chicago, said if the state were to consolidate the teacher pension funds over a year, it would cost the state about $650 million. But if the General Assembly were to do it over 10 years, it could be easier to get through Springfield.

“The state with a $50 billion budget could actually absorb those new costs,” said Woods.

A report from Kids First Chicago notes there is still concern about the future of consolidation. The report, which was issued in July, notes, “future state administrations or economic downturns could alter the commitment to this funding arrangement.”

Chicago teachers don’t want to get rid of their pension system

Another major obstacle to consolidating both pension systems will be gaining the support of current educators and retirees.

After Chicago officials proposed consolidating the funds during contract negotiations with the union, the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund’s Board of Trustees said it did not support a consolidation, according to Lenoir, the Chicago Teachers’ Fund executive director. Even if the board was to support the proposal, retired and current teachers would have to vote for consolidation and Lenoir believes the plan would not have any support.

Also, Lenoir said the fund is in a better position than the state’s and Chicago educators would not support a consolidation.

The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund is currently 47.2% funded, while the state’s is funded at 44.8%, Lenoir said.

The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund has 10 elected representatives and two appointed by Chicago Public Schools on the Board of Trustees, while the state has a board of 15 members with seven elected members. Lenoir says the fund worries consolidation means Chicago teachers would lose a seat at the table to determine what business the fund invests in. The fund is currently invested in minority and women-owned businesses.

The Chicago Teachers Union, which has come out against the proposal, acknowledges it is “unfair and inequitable” that Chicago taxpayers have to pay into both teacher funds.

However, the union said, “Instead of risky consolidations, CPS should fight for the state to properly fund the [Chicago Teacher Pension Fund] just as it does for downstate teachers.”

Special education advocates file new state complaint on bus service in Chicago Public Schools

2024-09-09T23:53:06+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

This story has been updated to include a response from Chicago Public Schools and additional information about the status of the complaint.

As Chicago Public Schools struggles to provide bus service to students with disabilities for the fourth year in a row, special education advocates are again calling for the Illinois State Board of Education to monitor student transportation services.

The advocates say CPS is violating a federal law that requires districts to provide transportation for students with disabilities if it is in their Individualized Education Programs. They say students need reliable transportation to go to school without disruptions and are urging the state board to monitor the district as it did in 2021 and 2022.

As of Sept. 4, the district reported 2,226 students with disabilities had yet to be routed. A spokesperson said the latest number includes new transportation requests, students who have been permanently approved for a stipend, and students who have been temporarily approved for a stipend but are waiting for a route. The district reported that 9,232 students had bus service as of Sept. 4, up from 8,782 students on Aug. 21.

In a letter to the state board, the Special Education Advocacy Coalition of Chicago, which advocates for special education, said it is worried that students who asked for bus service but were only able to receive a stipend to school either won’t attend school or that providing transportation will be an inconvenience to families.

“One of us has a client whose parent has a visual impairment and cannot benefit from the stipend,” the letter, sent at the end of the first week of school, said. “The young child is not currently attending school because the family has no financial resources to pay for a rideshare … twice a day.”

Two special education advocates, Miriam Bhimani and Terri Smith, also sent a complaint regarding transportation for students with Individualized Education Programs to the state board on Sept. 3, alleging the lack of bus service for these students amounts to a “widespread denial” of a “free appropriate public education,” which is guaranteed to students with disabilities under federal law.

Both Bhimani and Smith have filed similar complaints in previous years, which have led to the state monitoring transportation at the district. In 2021, the state board issued a corrective action plan because some students with disabilities did not have bus service. The following year, the state board issued a corrective action for bus routes that were 90 minutes or longer.

The state board eventually ended monitoring the district for transportation issues. In a letter from the state board in April, it said that Chicago made “sufficient progress” and “substantially corrected this issue on a systemic level.”

Their new complaint alleges that’s not the case. They cite hour-long wait times on the district’s Office of Transportation hotline and say parents are often unable to get useful information from district representatives.

In addition, the complaint says, a month before school started, parents received an email saying that in order to qualify for a transportation stipend, students with Individualized Education Programs had to have a request “on file” and live more than 5 miles away from their school. But in May – when the state ended oversight – the district told state officials that transportation requests were “not necessary for the implementation of services to begin, especially for students with disabilities.”

Bhimani and Smith received a letter from the Illinois State Board of Education late Monday saying it will investigate the concerns raised in their complaint, as required by federal law.

Earlier on Monday, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said in a statement to Chalkbeat that state officials are aware of the bus service challenges Chicago and other school districts are facing around the state. Before making any decisions on next steps, the state said that it will reach out to gather additional information.

In regards to Chicago, the spokesperson said, “We are staying informed of the situation and will determine the most appropriate course of action based on our ongoing review.”

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said in a statement to Chalkbeat that district officials understand the frustration of families who have yet to receive bus service. The district said it will continue to look for ways to deal with the bus driver shortage.

“We understand that the progress we’ve made thus far - more eligible students on buses and more bus drivers than we had a year ago at this time - is not enough,” read the statement. “We remain dedicated to increasing our capacity with a focus on our eligible students with disabilities.”

Matt Cohen, a special education lawyer based in Chicago, said a disruption to education can cause issues down the line for students with disabilities and schools.

“It could be disrupted in terms of just an hour or two a day or it could be disrupted because they’re not getting to school at all,” said Cohen. “Then they don’t make progress, they start to fall apart, and then CPS has to come in and provide even more services to them.”

Last week, State Superintendent Tony Sanders and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona were in Chicago to visit Access Living, an organization that supports people with disabilities across the city.

Sanders said the lack of bus service is an issue for districts across the state due to a bus driver shortage. He said the challenge started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Historically, we recruited people who retired from another job and wanted to take on the role of the bus driver. When COVID hit, a lot of those people decided that they didn’t want to come into the workforce and risk exposure,” said Sanders. He hopes that those drivers will return.

Troubles with student transportation in Chicago Public Schools magnified when students returned to the classroom in the fall of 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic eased and schools reopened classrooms.

As Chicago Public Schools scrambled to find bus drivers over the last few school years, some students with disabilities were unable to receive bus service and those who did sometimes experienced trips over 90 minutes.

At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, district officials said CPS would stop offering bus service for general education students. The district planned to prioritize bus service for students with disabilities and students experiencing homelessness. Both groups are required by federal law to receive transportation.

Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders talks about what’s next for schools after federal COVID-19 relief funds end in the fall

2024-08-12T17:01:24+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Some Illinois schools will likely experience major shifts this school year as federal COVID relief funds end, district budgets get tighter, and students continue to recover from school disruptions during the height of the pandemic.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders, who transitioned from district superintendent of Elgin’s U-46 to state superintendent in 2023, oversees education policies that will impact almost two million students across the state.

Illinois State Superintendent, Tony Sanders, poses for a portrait.

Chalkbeat Chicago sat down with Sanders to talk about what’s next for the state board after COVID relief funds end in September, support for schools that have seen an increase in newcomer enrollment, the state’s literacy plan, and other education issues.

“It’s nothing better than working in an area where you have a lot of support from our sitting governor and legislators,” Sanders said. “Everybody cares about public education, and so it’s pretty easy to have conversations about what’s best for kids.”

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

School year 2024-25 will be a challenging time for school districts as they grapple with tighter budgets. What are your top concerns for the state’s almost two million students?

A Harvard and Stanford Universities study showed that Illinois is one of three states that has made up ground and has returned to pre-pandemic levels in English Language Arts. I don’t think that would have been possible if Illinois had not passed evidence-based funding before the pandemic. Illinois is one of the few states where the legislature and governor has continued to invest annually in public education, and that’s a result of that negotiated evidence-based funding formula. It does not mean districts won’t have challenges in their budgets. As we move forward, the state’s going to have challenges in its budget.

The state board’s share of federal COVID-19 relief dollars is also expected to end in September. The state board created initiatives like a digital equity grant and a mentorship program for teachers among other initiatives. Will the state board continue some of these programs without federal COVID relief funds or will they disappear?

This year within the state budget, we were able to work with the governor’s office and legislators on sustaining some of these programs. For example, we were able to secure some state dollars to support our Student Care Department — which monitors restraint, time-out, and student isolation — which was created using COVID relief funds. We’ve been able to use the extension on COVID relief funds that the federal government gave us to continue programs such as SEL [Social Emotional Learning] Hubs, teacher mentoring, and principal mentoring. One of the things you didn’t see make it into this year’s budget was high-impact tutoring. It was effective, but it was also very expensive.

Next fiscal year, the State Board of Education will have some deeper conversation to see what programs local school districts or the state will help us support or if there are other grants or opportunities for us to start seeking out.

Illinois has had a teacher shortage for the past several years. School districts have seen vacancies in areas like bilingual education and special education. What are some ways the state is trying to alleviate these pain points for schools?

A few years ago, we set a new [teacher] minimum [salaries] across the state. Across Midwestern states, Illinois is 18% higher than our peers for teacher salaries. Wages is one of the keys to recruiting and retaining quality staff. The other thing that sets Illinois apart is that we truly value the art of teaching and allowing teachers the ability to teach, bring their best selves to their profession, and to be able to teach in culturally responsive ways for our students. We do not ban books in Illinois. Teachers live without fear of losing their jobs or being criminally prosecuted for teaching sensitive subjects. So in Illinois, I think we’re doing a good job trying to uplift the profession and recognize the professionalism that teachers bring to their classrooms every single day.

Financially, the state’s also done a lot to support the teacher pipeline. The General Assembly just invested $45 million into teacher vacancy grants that’s going to the 20% of districts in Illinois that have 80% of the vacancies. Those districts are using those funds for tuition reimbursement and offering professional learning opportunities for bilingual and special education teachers in their districts.

Illinois has approved a comprehensive literacy plan. What is the next step to ensuring that all students are learning how to read?

We’re going to continue the work of ensuring that as we build out our support that is grounded in quality core instruction for all students and every school district is engaged in continuous school improvement processes that improve outcomes for kids and part of that is the literacy plan. We’re making sure that we provide resources and tools to school districts, teachers, and schools to determine if they have a clear and viable curriculum for literacy, that they’re using best practices based on what the research says kids need to know and be able to do related to literacy.

According to recent test scores, Illinois students are regaining ground in reading proficiency but smaller gains have been seen in math. Is the State Board of Education looking at ways to improve how math is taught?

We are, but we don’t have anything official at this point. We’re having conversations about how to improve math instruction.

Some local school districts have seen an uptick in the enrollment of newcomers. School leaders and education advocates have asked lawmakers for more funding to support migrant students. The State Board of Education asked for $35 million in its proposed FY 2025 budget, which the General Assembly did not approve. What is the State Board of Education planning to do next to support schools serving an influx of migrant students?

We approached the federal government last year and have been able to work to get about $10 million in school improvement funds set aside for the districts.

This last year, we were also able to provide about $25 million in a “Stronger Connections” grant, a federal grant, to school districts that had a significant number of newcomer students. On top of those funds, school districts can use Title I and McKinney-Vento Funds to support newcomers.

Illinois schools are continuing to see high rates of chronic absenteeism in schools. What is the state doing to bring students back into the classroom?

We have a lot of work to do around not only encouraging and incentivizing attendance, but also having schools that kids want to be a part of. I know a lot of the work that school districts are doing right now is around school culture and climate to make sure that students feel welcome and that they know that school is a place where they can be safe. But it’s just not moving fast enough. We’re doing our best but it’s going to be one of the longer term post-COVID things that we’re going to have to grapple with.

Can a ‘mom from Englewood’ win an elected seat on Chicago’s school board?

2024-07-30T23:33:08+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Danielle Wallace is a single mom from Englewood who decided to run for Chicago’s first elected school board – exactly the type of person some, including former CPS CEO Janice Jackson, argue should win a seat.

Wallace spent three months this spring going to different churches and community events to convince her neighbors that she could be a school board member who represents their needs. She got the 1,000 signatures required by state law to get on the Nov. 5 ballot, but shortly after submitting them in late June, she learned someone had challenged their legitimacy. District six, where Wallace is running, is one of the districts that has the most candidates being challenged.

With little money in her campaign fund, Wallace, a former school teacher who now works for the youth-focused nonprofit she founded, decided to withdraw and instead try to run as a write-in candidate. Wallace said she did not have the time or money to hire a lawyer, which could cost thousands of dollars.

This, she thought, is “why regular people won’t run for this office.”

Since the elected school board bill was signed in 2021, Illinois lawmakers and local community groups have tried to figure out how to get people like Wallace, not just career politicians, on it. Parents who could represent working-class Black and Latino students that make up the majority of the school district. So far, political novices like Wallace and others have found it difficult to navigate petition challenges, fundraise, and balance their day jobs while campaigning. Several candidates have already been booted from the ballot.

Academy for Local Leadership (ALL) Chicago fellow Danielle Wallace participates during the School Board School held at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago, IL on April 19, 2024.

The task of running successful campaigns is proving to be harder for some parents or community members concerned about students’ education without having strong political ties or backing from moneyed interests.

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, three candidates have withdrawn from the race, and the board voted to remove two more candidates for failing challenges to their signatures.

Recruiting family and friends to help get petition signatures

Collecting signatures was a “steep” challenge for West Loop attorney Jousef Shkoukani, who is running in District 5. It required him to enlist his wife, in-laws, and friends to help between March 26, the first day candidates were allowed to get signatures, and June 24, the deadline to file.

Shkoukani visited parks and grocery stores, from 6-9 p.m. or on weekends when he wasn’t working. Jason Dónes, a former teacher running in District 3, visited playgrounds and knocked on doors and would sometimes need someone to watch his kids as he gathered signatures.

Both said they enjoyed meeting voters and hearing their concerns. But it was also an unfamiliar task, where the so-called “playbook” for political novices was essentially the Board of Elections website, Dónes said.

Across town, Wallace faced her own hurdles. The day before her petitions were due in June, someone broke into Wallace’s car, according to Wallace and police records. The culprit snatched all of her petitions and her nephew’s sunglasses, she said. Her nephew reported the incident to the Chicago Police Department and officers were able to retrieve her petitions within 24 hours, she said. Officers arrested a 34-year-old man and charged him with criminal trespassing into a vehicle and theft under $500, according to online arrest records.

“I was like, ‘Are you serious right now? Why would you be trying to steal some petitions?’ This is a school board election!,’” said Wallace. ‘I didn’t get it.”

After collecting the required signature amount, Shkoukani celebrated by grilling burgers for his friends and family. But that elation died down when Shkoukani discovered he was facing a petition challenge, which calls into question whether a candidate’s signatures are valid. He and 26 others, including Wallace and Dónes, would have to go to the city’s Board of Elections to fight against the challengers.

Wallace wishes she would have gotten three times more signatures to stay on the ballot.

In Wallace’s District 6, four other hopeful candidates needed to collect at least 1,000 and no more than 3,000 signatures to get on the ballot. That means at least 5,000 residents in that district, but no more than 15,000, could sign petitions – and each of them can’t sign more than one petition, according to state election law. If a registered voter is found on multiple petitions, their signature can be deemed invalid.

Dónes said he knew to collect more than the required amount because of advice from two cousins who had helped collect signatures on other local campaigns.

Petition challenges knock candidates off the ballot

Shkoukani, who is an attorney, decided to represent himself for his petition challenge. But he said he had to brush up on election law, which he doesn’t practice.

When he went to his first hearing, Shkoukani didn’t have copies of his petitions, making it difficult to follow along. The Board of Elections provided him with a set within a few hours of him asking, Max Bever, a Board of Elections spokesperson, said.

Shkoukani took multiple days off work to attend hearings. But he was late to one hearing because he claims a receptionist told him of the wrong start time, meaning that he couldn’t dispute challenges to specific signatures while officials went through them. Bever said an elections official had informed Shkoukani and the rest of the candidates that the next day’s hearing was at 8 a.m., and no one but Shkoukani showed up late the next day. An online notice that was emailed to candidates also listed the time as 8 a.m., Bever said, but Shkoukani said he never received that email.

Given work and other obligations, his campaign hasn’t yet raised money, an effort he claims has been further hampered by the petition challenge process. That means many potential voters might not know who he is.

“You have jeopardized all of your time that you would otherwise spend campaigning and being out there, you’re really just trying to fight to stay on,” Shkoukani said.

Ross Secler, an elections attorney, said petition challenges can be difficult for novice candidates without a lawyer because they are fast-moving proceedings that can involve examining hundreds of signatures.

But that is also why he argues the process is fair. It’s “true due process” in which officials sift through individual signatures and allow people to challenge them, but also allows candidates to defend themselves. Proceedings are open to the public. In other states, government officials make calls on signatures in a back room, he said.

The system primarily exists to ensure that people who want to appear on the ballot “have that minimum level of actual support,” said Secler, who is representing Raquel Don in District 7, who is being challenged but declined to comment on that case.

“It’s not the best system you could possibly ever have [but] I think for the most part it’s fair, and that’s really one of the key things — you’re gonna get a fair shot,” Secler said.

While petition challenges have resulted in knocking some candidates off the ballot, some survived their challenges and will be on the ballot in the fall, including Carmen Gioiosa, a candidate running in District 4 and the only candidate in that district to face a challenge.

On July 17, Gioiosa seemed apprehensive as she walked into the room with her two children to sit in on her petition hearing. But as soon as she sat down, the challenger’s lawyer said that they would drop the challenge. Gioiosa looked surprised and relieved.

“I get to focus more on getting my name out and meeting families and students,” said Gioiosa when asked about her next steps.”I’m hoping to get a really good campaign off the ground and get some real good work done for our families.”

A petition challenge hearing in Illinois.

Now, Gioiosa goes up against five more candidates in District 4 vying for an elected school board seat.

The Chicago Board of Elections will issue more decisions in August on candidates who have been challenged and whether they can stay on the ballot. Candidates can then appeal those decisions, potentially bleeding past the time ballots get printed.

Who is behind the challenges remains a mystery

Challenging people’s petition signatures is something of a Chicago political tradition.

But candidates do not challenge their opponents directly. Rather allies or operatives will file objections and those objectors may be represented by an attorney, sometimes paid by the candidate. Even former President Barack Obama worked to remove his opponents from the ballot, allowing him to run unopposed in his first race for state senate in 1996.

For this first round of Chicago school board races, 40 objections were filed against 27 candidates. Some face multiple objections like Wallace. Chicago Board of Elections records obtained by Chalkbeat show the same set of four lawyers are representing objectors in 19 cases — including Wallace and Shkoukani.

Those attorneys — Michael Kasper, Steven Fine, Kevin Morphew, and Michael Kreloff — did not respond to Chalkbeat’s requests for comment. The attorneys are also listed as appearing on behalf of two candidates: Brenda Delgado and Jason Dónes. Delgado was removed from the ballot last week and Dónes’ case is still ongoing.

Dónes, from District 3, said he doesn’t know his objector. He said it’s been “frustrating” to see some of the signatures that are being challenged because he knows they’re real people, he said. However, he said he’s willing to do what it takes to stay on the ballot, including collecting affidavits from people whose signatures are in question.

Dónes said he’s fortunate that his nonprofit job is flexible enough where he can drop into proceedings around his work schedule.

Wallace is currently working to get her name out to voters in her district as a write-in candidate and fundraise for her campaign. So far on the campaign trail, she said, she’s trying to get people who see a write-in as a long shot to believe it is possible for her to win.

“I understand why people feel that way, but that’s not gonna deter me,” said Wallace.

Even though it is hard to run as a write-in candidate, she said, it’s even harder to sit back and watch children in Chicago schools not getting the support they need.

Becky Vevea contributed to this report.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s elected school board races are narrowing as candidates are kicked off ballot

2024-07-26T22:20:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

The race for Chicago’s first elected school board is narrowing.

Five candidates are off the ballot for the election on Nov. 5, including three candidates who withdrew their names. The Chicago Board of Elections voted Friday to remove two others — Brenda Delgado from District 6 and Felipe “Phil” Luna Jr. from District 7 — after challenges to the signatures they collected to run for office.

To get on the ballot, hopefuls had to collect at least 1,000 valid signatures from registered voters in their districts. Challenges to the signatures can be filed by registered voters in a candidate’s district who question the validity.

The board’s decisions were the first issued since candidates first filed to run for school board on June 24.

The elections board found that Delgado, from District 6, had insufficient signatures. In the case of Luna, from District 7, the board said he didn’t show up to proceedings for the petition challenge, resulting in him losing his challenge by default, according to the board’s decision. It also said that the objector’s complaint about Luna’s signatures “contains sufficient allegations,” if found to be true, to invalidate Luna’s signatures.

Luna, who is a local school council member at Benito Juárez Community Academy, a high school in the city’s Little Village on the South Side, was unsure how much impact he could have as an elected official but decided to run for his community.

“Actual students and parents reached out to me for me to run,” he said. “I ran because the community asked me to, not because I wanted to.”

He says he will continue to be involved in initiatives that will directly impact students in his area.

Danielle J. Wallace from District 6, Darius Dee Nix from District 8, and James Walton Jr. from District 10 had already filed to withdraw from the ballot, according to the Board of Elections. The board voted Friday to remove these candidates specifically in response to petition challenges that each faced, according to Max Bever, spokesperson for the Chicago Board of Elections. Their earlier withdrawal from the race made their challenges moot.

Wallace said she plans to run as a write-in candidate.

The board will continue to issue decisions from petition challenges through the end of August. A total of 27 candidates’ petitions were challenged.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Summer child care can be a puzzle. For parents of children with disabilities, it’s even more complex.

2024-07-24T22:59:50+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

During the school year, many Chicago Public Schools students with disabilities receive additional support in classrooms, from one-on-one support from special education classroom assistants to services such as speech-language or occupational therapy.

That support system for children can disappear in the summer.

While many families struggle to find summer programs that cover the majority of the day and are lower in cost, parents who have children with disabilities say such options for their children are very few and hard to come by. Working parents with children who have disabilities often have to piece together private therapy sessions, half-day summer day camp for four to six hours, and other child care

Chicago Public Schools currently serves over 52,000 students with Individualized Education Programs, but only 9,019 students are eligible as of July 12 for the district’s summer program for these students, also known as Extended School Year.

For students who aren’t eligible for the Extended School Year program, families look to Chicago Park District’s summer day camps for kids between 6-12 years old and special recreational programs for children and teens between 8 and 17 years old. These programs run for about six weeks and can cost $160 or more, but financial aid is available for families. Many of these programs have limited spots and parents say they fill up quickly in the spring.

Chalkbeat talked to five Chicago Public School parents of children with disabilities about challenges they face finding summer programs for their children.

A costly summer camp with one-on-one support

Emily Metz’s son Will, a 7-year old with Fragile X Syndrome, a genetic disorder, and ADHD, is going to an Apache Day Camp in the city. The nonprofit organization offers summer programs across several sites throughout the city and the suburbs where children and teens participate in activities such as swimming and performance arts. Metz chose this program because it accepts children with disabilities and provides them with a paraprofessional.

But costs for Apache can run high. According to Metz, for all children it costs around $5,000, but for Metz it costs around $10,000 because Will needs a paraprofessional.

Will Metz and his brother watching television.

In previous years, Metz explored affordable options to get child care in the summer for Will. Her son is eligible for the Extended School Year through his Individualized Education Program. Metz said the program would not work for her because there’s no guarantee it will take place at his current school and Will feels very anxious when he has to change his environment and schedule.

In addition, the Extended School Year covers child care for the morning and early afternoon but not the full work day – a concern for Metz who works a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job. Metz tried sending Will to a special recreation program at the Chicago Park District but the process was “too complex.” She said it was hard to find which park offers special recreation programs and if those camps would offer an aide. There were also a few slots.

While Metz has Will in a summer camp now, she is worried about the lack of child care in August when summer camp ends and right before school starts. Right now, she and her husband are planning to take paid time off from work to take care of Will.

The lack of child care before school starts is “creating gaps for disabled kids and their families on top of the insurmountable challenge of just finding care for the majority of the summer,” Metz said.

Summer camp during the day, learning in the evening

Philoniese McCray has a 6-year-old son named Niles who has autism and is currently attending summer camp at Penny Lane Schools in Oak Lawn, a suburb south of Chicago. From Monday through Friday, Niles swims three times a week and takes a trip on Thursday.

The program costs McCray almost $300 a week.

Philoniese McCray and her son Niles.

“It wasn’t something that I had budgeted for,” she said, “but I mean, I really have no other choice if I want him to be in a safer environment and be monitored properly.”

If McCray had it her way, she would have enrolled her son in an academic enrichment program to help him keep up with his studies. But she couldn’t find anything that would work for her family.

In addition to camp, McCray sends Niles to speech-language therapy, teaches him at home, and enrolled him in a literacy program to teach him how to read.

Combining two camps to cover a full day

Abby Vlahos’ 7-year-old son, who has a genetic syndrome and autism, is splitting his summer between the Extended School Year program at his school, Beard Elementary School on the city’s northwest side, and a summer program for children with disabilities in Maine Township, a northern suburb of Chicago.

After school ended in June, Vlahos’ son started summer camp at Maine-Niles Association of Special Recreation, a 20-minute drive from her house, to ensure that her son had something to do over the summer. The overall cost for her family is about $2,000 for the whole summer. Vlahos said her family would have to pay around $6,000 if they decided to enroll him the entire summer. Since her son attends the Extended School Year program for six weeks, she doesn’t have to worry about sending him during that time.

Vlahos’ son started the Extended School Year program two weeks after the school year ended. He goes from Monday to Thursday between 9:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m and to summer camp in the suburb on Fridays. On days when neither program is available, she and her husband divide child care and use babysitters when they are working.

Like Metz, Vlahos isn’t looking forward to the one week before the start of the new school year on Aug. 26 when they won’t have any child care until the school year begins.

Finding a special recreation program at a nearby park

Elizabeth Martel is a mother of three kids who are 12, 14, and 16. Her 12-year old daughter, who has intellectual disabilities, has been going to a special recreation program for children and teens with disabilities at Norwood Park every day between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Children can spend the summer doing art and crafts or swimming with peers their same age.

Martel says the program is perfect for her family because it is affordable — $164 for six weeks — and it’s only a 10-minute drive from their home.

Martel knows her family is lucky because only a few parks offer special recreation programs for children with disabilities and a small number of slots are available.

Martel met the park’s special recreation director when her daughter was 5. So, once her daughter turned 8, she was able to join the park’s program and has been going every summer since.

“The summer camp is wonderful. It’s pretty much exactly what it should be,” Martel said, but she wishes it was accessible to all families who have children with disabilities.

Driving to the suburbs every day

The Bryant family have 10-year-old fraternal twins, a boy and girl who both have autism, but they have different needs. Kim and Edward Bryant tried to get their son, who needs more support throughout the day like an aide, into a special recreation program at Norwood Park, but they weren’t as lucky as Martel.

Edward Bryant said Norwood Park’s special recreation program had a waitlist they had to sign up for in person. He ended up taking time off from work to sign his son up in mid-April. However, his son was placed on a waitlist.

The Bryant Family. Courtesy of Kim Bryant.

It was unclear how the waitlist would work and they did not receive a call back on whether the Bryants’ son got in or not. Kim and Edward said the park district’s current process makes it “so impossible” for parents to navigate.

The Bryants decided to send their son back to the Maine-Niles Association of Special Recreation’s summer program from Monday to Thursday. The Bryants’ son has been attending this program in the northern suburbs of Chicago for the last two years and they like it because the program offers one-to-one support and has more staff to support each child. However, Edward Bryant said that if he could have sent his son to a program closer to home, instead of a 20 minute drive, he would have chosen that option.

The Bryants have to pay a $2,500 non-residential fee for the summer program for the entire summer. If they would have gotten into the city’s park district special recreation program, they would have paid about $160 for the summer.

Illinois revenue from a tax on corporate profits is projected to decline. Here’s what that means for school districts.

2024-07-09T19:04:48+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois public school districts benefited from an uptick in a local tax on corporate profits in recent years. But the surge in revenue is expected to end, leaving school officials to grapple with tighter budgets.

The shift comes as federal COVID recovery money dries up, and local education advocates fear that the recent addition of $350 million to the state’s education budget isn’t enough to match the needs of schools.

The state’s evidence-based funding uses data from previous years, which means districts that saw unexpected gains from this unique tax on local businesses could receive fewer state dollars in the future. As districts finalize their budget for this upcoming school year, those receiving fewer state dollars will have to figure out how to fill in the gaps.

According to a new research brief by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, revenue from the tax — known as Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax, or CPPRT — more than doubled between 2020 and 2023 from $1.5 billion to more than $3 billion. The spike happened because more people were spending money, inflation was high, and many businesses raised prices, the report said.

The additional money meant more school districts came closer to what the state considers adequately funded. The report said revenue from the tax on corporate profits helped bridge the gap between state funding and local funding for districts by $1.9 billion.

Now, the state is projecting that revenue surge will end. But the state’s funding formula for K-12 schools will continue to report that districts are getting more local dollars than they actually are because CPPRT revenue is two calendar years behind the current fiscal year. For instance, the amount of revenue a district collected for fiscal year 2025 is calculated from calendar year 2023.

Elaine Gaberik, research associate at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and co-author of the report, said this is a major concern for districts. The lag time will throw off the state’s evidence-based funding formula calculation, making it seem as though many school districts are closer to being adequately funded when they may not be, she said.

“While those funds were great, they’re not expected to continue,” she said.

Chicago Public Schools was one of many school districts that got less additional state funding in recent years, in part, due to the boost in revenue from the tax on corporate profits. In 2022, the district was recategorized as having less need by the state’s funding formula and received fewer new state dollars for fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said in a recent statement to Chalkbeat that while the district is dealing with multiple budget challenges such as the end of COVID-19 relief funds and less local and state funding, the district is trying to keep cuts away from classrooms.

“The district has implemented a new school funding formula for school year 2024-25 with a focus on maintaining services and priority investments while identifying additional revenues and spending efficiencies throughout the district’s $9.4 billion budget,” the statement read.

Chicago has yet to release their overall district budget, which is usually announced in June. However, the district released school level budgets that show 150 schools are expected to have fewer staff members.

Rockford School District 205, located in Northern Illinois, also saw a jump in revenue from the tax on corporate profits and was reclassified by the state as needing fewer state dollars to fund schools.

In 2024, Rockford saw a drop in state funding when compared to 2023. The district had about 5% fewer low-income students and saw an increase of 102% in CPPRT revenue. The district received almost $5.9 million more than they expected in fiscal year 2024 when compared to 2023. Rockford got a roughly $8.8 million increase in 2023, but in 2024 state dollars only increased $2.9 million, according to state data.

Greg Brown, the district’s chief financial officer said his department had to really “sharpen their pencil” to figure out a balanced budget. The district will postpone buying new buses and will not be able to backfill school staff positions, he said.

Brown said due to some past planning, the district is in a stable financial position this year, but he worries about the 2025-26 school year.

“The state is already talking about potentially not having the same kind of funding levels going forward,” said Brown. He said Rockford officials will start preparing for what the 2025-26 school year budget might look like in the fall.

Illinois’ Teacher of the Year felt like an outsider growing up. Decades on, she wants her students to know they belong.

2024-06-17T21:22:17+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Fourth and fifth grade teacher Rachael Mahmood wants to ensure all her students feel like they belong. That’s why she works hard to incorporate their identities, cultures, interests, and histories into her lesson plans and assignments.

Mahmood, who has taught at Indian Prairie CUSD 204 for the past 19 years, was recently named the Illinois Teacher of the Year for 2024. The Illinois State Board of Education, which gave out the award, said in a press release that Mahmood has “a passion for designing curriculum that affirms students’ identities” and fosters their love of school. That has been a mission for her ever since she was a young student. (Indian Prairie CUSD 204 serves students in some of Chicago’s southwest suburbs.)

Growing up in Downers Grove, a predominately white suburb west of Chicago, Mahmood was often one of the few students of color in the classroom. She spent her early years feeling like an outsider. Now, she has curated a classroom where students know that they are welcome and are a part of a community.

Mahmood said she was shocked and pleasantly surprised to learn she had been named Teacher of the Year. In an interview with Chalkbeat Chicago, Mahmood said that these awards and recognitions remind educators that they are doing good work in the classroom.

“You have to be intentional in telling people that they belong and recognizing the contributions they can share in a classroom, to your school, and to the greater good of children,” she said.

Chalkbeat Chicago spoke to Mahmood about why she became a teacher (despite pressure to go to medical school), her favorite lesson to teach, and the lengths she goes to make all her students feel a sense of belonging.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What were your experiences like at school?

My mom is a Russian Jew and my dad’s an Indian Hindu. I grew up in Downers Grove and I was one of very few minority students in my classroom — sometimes the only student of color in my class and the only non-Christian student. As I was growing up, I never saw representations of myself in the curriculum or teachers. We didn’t celebrate holidays or the contributions of my culture to American history. I really struggled with issues of belonging in school and feeling like I was normal.

You had a very isolating experience as a student, why did you want to be a teacher?

I liked to go to school. I liked to learn. I was good at school. I knew I wanted to be a teacher. My dad told me that if I became a doctor — both my parents were physicians — that he would buy me a brand-new car. I was so adamant to become a teacher, and I would always tell him. He said one day, “If you become a teacher, I’ll buy you a bicycle.” I still went into education.

When did you figure out what kind of teacher you wanted to be for your students?

I remember sitting in my college class and learning about multicultural education. It is a pedagogy that’s been around since the 1960s, and it’s all about affirming students’ cultures and identities in the classroom. I was thinking, “Why didn’t I have teachers who did this for me?” If I would have felt like I was normal and that I belonged growing up, that would have changed my whole upbringing as a student and my sense of identity as a young person. I vowed to be the teacher who normalizes diversity.

As a teacher for almost 20 years, how do you affirm your students’ culture and their identities?

First, I observe my students. I learn about their cultural backgrounds and what interests them. Then I try to create lessons that bring all of that in. For example, I have Filipino, Mexican, and Pakistani students in my class, so when I give a lesson on the Civil Rights Era in America, I talk about civil rights in terms of those cultures, [too]. Next, I’ll bring in students’ interests and talents into the classroom. I let students show what they know about graphic design through posters. I have students that are very tech-savvy, so I’ll ask them to design movies or slideshows.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

I like teaching things that are relevant now, so it changes every year. This year, my students read this book called “Inside Out and Back Again” [by Thanhhà Lai], which is about a Vietnamese girl who comes to America as a refugee during the Vietnam War.

During class, we talked about the Vietnam War … and about the experiences of refugees. For an assignment, my students were asked to pack their bags as if they were leaving home tonight and they brought them to school and gave mini speeches on what they brought. I had a dad who was a Vietnamese refugee come and speak to the kids.

How do you approach news events in your classroom?

Personally, I just let the kids lead. The kids come in, and they have a lot of questions about the world around them all the time. I don’t have to be the person who has information, but I can help them find information and have meaningful discussions.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

The best advice I have gotten is “whatever you focus on expands.” If you focus on looking for the negative in your students, with your colleagues, and about your administration and policies, you will find plenty of that. But if you choose to focus on the positives, see the gifts your kids bring to school, see the talents of your colleagues, and see the strength of your administrators, you will also find plenty of that. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that we need to fix in education, but we can come at those things with an asset-based lens. Plus, focusing on the positive will make you happier.

What’s one thing you’ve read that has made you a better educator?

I think the first book I read that made me kind of see the type of teacher I wanted to be was “Dream Keepers’' by Gloria Ladson-Billings. It was portraits of teachers who are culturally responsive and how they act in the class in a way that supports students. I remember reading the book and being like, ‘Oh my gosh, those teachers seem so much like me.’

Chicago Public Schools’ performance on state tests returns to pre-pandemic levels in reading

2024-06-13T22:07:18+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

More Chicago public school students in third through eighth grade are proficient in reading than last year, exceeding pre-pandemic levels for the first time, according to preliminary state standardized test scores from this spring.

While the math proficiency rates inched up, the percentage of students who are proficient still lags behind pre-pandemic levels.

The Illinois Assessment of Readiness, or IAR, data released by the district on Thursday shows that 31% of elementary school students in Chicago Public Schools were proficient in reading, compared to 26% in 2023 and 28% in 2019 before the COVID pandemic. The IAR, a standardized test for Illinois third through eighth graders in English language arts and math, was administered in the spring of 2024.

In math, 19% of Chicago third through eighth graders were proficient on the IAR’s 2024 test, a 2 percentage point increase from the previous school year. During the spring of 2023, 17% of elementary school students were proficient in math, but in the spring of 2019, 24% of students were proficient.

A recent study from Stanford and Harvard universities found that Chicago students have outpaced most other districts in reading growth since the pandemic. District officials have pointed to this study in recent months to bolster their argument for more state funding.

The Illinois Assessment of Readiness is administered every spring to students in third through eighth grade around the state. Some school district officials have complained that schools usually receive state test scores in the next academic year when students have entered a new grade — often when it is too late to intervene if a student needs more support.

“We know that state assessments are only one metric, but it’s very satisfying to see yet another sign that our investments in the classroom are yielding positive results, and that students are moving in the right direction,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez in a press release.

Black students saw the highest increase in reading proficiency rates with a 6 percentage point increase compared to the previous school year — a jump from 17% in 2023 to 23% this year. Latino students’ proficiency rates grew by 3 percentage points, from 22% in 2023 to 25% in 2024.

The Illinois State Board of Education will release more data from the Illinois Assessment of Readiness in the fall, during its annual report card data release.

In its press release, Chicago Public Schools noted that the district has been able to invest in academic recovery strategies such as professional development for teachers and staff, academic coaches, tutoring, and other resources. Many of the strategies were funded using COVID federal relief funds, which must be earmarked for spending by Sept. 30.

The district said it plans to continue to invest in students’ academic recovery into the next school year, but will need to find new sources of funding as federal funds dry up and the district receives less state funding.

Like many school districts around the state, Chicago Public Schools is still not adequately funded according to the state’s evidence-based funding formula that distributes state dollars to K-12 schools.

Officials have advocated for the state to increase funding to schools in hopes that the state can adequately fund schools by the 2027 deadline written into state law. However, a report from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability concluded that school districts won’t be funded by 2027 but could reach adequacy by at least 2030 if the state were to increase funding by $500 million every year.

CPS is projecting a $391 million deficit next fiscal year, which begins July 1. A Chalkbeat analysis of next year’s budget found 150 Chicago schools will lose staff positions.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, district officials, and educators went to Springfield during the state’s legislative session to ask for more school funding, but ultimately were unsuccessful. The state approved a budget that included an additional $350 million for the state’s evidence-based funding formula, even though many advocates asked the state to increase funding by $550 million.

Reema Amin contributed reporting.

Here are Illinois education bills that did not pass in the spring legislative session

2024-06-07T21:35:53+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

The Illinois legislative session ended with much fanfare last week — a week after it was scheduled to end. Lawmakers worked overtime to pass the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget and other outstanding legislation, including a number of education bills.

While many bills gained traction at the capitol, several education bills did not pass.

Despite Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike criticizing the $53.1 billion spending plan, it eventually passed both chambers of the General Assembly.

On Wednesday, Gov. J.B Pritzker signed the budget, which goes into effect July 1. The state’s latest budget includes a statewide child tax credit for low-income families who have children under the age of 12, funding increases for early childhood education and K-12 schools, and $50 million for afterschool and summer programs.

The state also passed a bill that would create the state’s Department of Early Childhood, but here are a few bills that didn’t make it to the governor’s desk this legislative session.

Education bills that stalled during session

Police in some Chicago schools: House Bill 5008 would have allowed local school councils to contract directly with Chicago Police Department for school resource officers. This bill was a direct response to the Chicago Board of Education vote earlier this year to unilaterally remove police on school campuses around the city. The measure did not make it past the House.

Selective enrollment schools: House Bill 303 stirred a lot of controversy during the spring legislative session. The first version of the bill would have prevented the Chicago Board of Education from making any changes to selective enrollment schools until 2027, when the Chicago Board of Education will be fully elected as opposed to the hybrid board with some elected members. An amendment was added to the bill during negotiations that expanded a school closure moratorium on all Chicago schools from 2025 to 2027. The bill was halted after Mayor Brandon Johnson asked Senate President Don Harmon to not call the bill for a vote.

Access to dual credit programs: In the past decade, dual credit programs have expanded at high schools across the state. While students are able to take advantage of college courses while in high school, there are disparities in participation. Students from low-income families, students of color, and English learners have lower participation rates. House Bill 5020 would have required school districts to work with local community colleges to develop programs, create standards for educators teaching dual credit programs, and open access to more students. The bill passed the House with a vote of 105-1, but did not even make it to the Senate floor.

State license for Montessori teachers: There are teacher shortages around the state, school districts in rural areas are hit the hardest, and there are a large number of vacancies in bilingual and special education. This year, state lawmakers proposed Senate Bill 2689, to make it easier for Montessori-trained teachers to teach in public schools. Teachers would be eligible for a state license if they received a bachelor’s degree, have a credential from an institution accredited by the Montessori Council for Teacher Education, the American Montessori Society, or the Association Montessori Internationale, and completed state licensure testing. The bill didn’t make it out of the Senate.

Stipends for student teachers: To keep students in the pipeline to become classroom educators, local education advocacy organizations supported a stipend for student-teachers and their mentors. House Bill 4652 would have provided up to $10,000 stipends to student teachers and up to $2,000 stipend to teachers who are mentoring students for two consecutive sessions. The bill passed the House, 85-23, but did not make it to the Senate’s floor for a vote.

10 Chicago graduating seniors discuss starting high school during COVID-19

2024-06-05T20:27:11+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

The Class of 2024 had a normal senior year with in-person classes, prom, and graduation.

But this year’s seniors started high school in fall of 2020 anything but normally. Classes were virtual, they had lunch at home, and they didn’t get a chance to make friends when COVID-19 kept school buildings closed.

Chalkbeat spoke to 10 graduating seniors about what it was like to start high school during the pandemic. The Class of 2024 didn’t have the usual hallmarks of freshman year like getting lost on the first day of school while trying to find classes, meeting new teachers for the first time, or the awkwardness of making new friends, all while going through the awfulness of puberty.

Even though these graduating seniors had a rocky start, they were resilient. Many students took Advanced Placement classes, dual-credit courses, and participated in many extracurricular activities.

Chicago Public Schools announced in a press release that this year’s graduating class received over 84,000 acceptance letters from institutions like Northwestern, Howard, and Harvard universities. Over 140 students have already earned associate degrees, more than 2,200 students are graduating from International Baccalaureate programs, and students took more than 49,000 Advanced Placement exams as of May 21, according to the press release.

But the Class of 2024 is also graduating during a contentious time in history. In November, the Chicago Board of Education will transition from an all-appointed board to a hybrid school board with some elected members and some appointed. In the United States, the country will once again vote for president, choosing between incumbent Joseph Biden, a Democrat, and the presumptive Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, who has been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying financial documents. Across the country, college students are protesting the Israel-Hamas War, which has seen over 35,000 Palestinians killed after Hamas killed over 1,000 Israeli citizens during the October 7 attack.

In their own words, Chicago’s high school seniors talk about their time in high school, post-secondary education plans, and how they feel about graduating during a presidential election and conflicts happening around the globe.

These interviews have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Who supported you most throughout your high school career?

Chase Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, on graduation day.

Chase Jones, Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, plans to attend Yale University to study biology.

“My mother and my eighth grade history teacher, Miss Clark. Brooks is an academic center, so I’ve been there since seventh grade. I’ve had Miss Clark as my history teacher for eighth grade, ninth grade and 11th grade. She single-handedly has been my support for helping me maintain balance academically. My mother has always been there to support me mentally, socially, and emotionally.”

Xamiya Walton, Butler College Prep, a Noble school, will attend Northwestern University on a basketball scholarship to major in journalism with a minor in statistics toward a career as a sports journalist.

“I would definitely say my parents and my sisters. Without them I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish all the things I did and be where I am now.”

Xamiya Walton, Butler College Prep, speaks during her high school graduation ceremony.

You started high school in 2020 during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. What was it like to start this chapter of your life in a virtual setting?

Fernando Gonzalez, Marine Leadership Academy, poses for a portrait on graduation day.

Fernando Gonzalez, Marine Leadership Academy, will attend Stanford University and plans to major in computer science and cybersecurity.

“It was hard to meet new people through a computer and I struggled in class. I wasn’t challenging myself in class. I asked to be switched to AP classes during my freshman year. At first, the administration was hesitant about it because I didn’t take any pre-courses to get into AP courses, but they made an exception. I worked so hard with these AP courses, but I still struggled because working through the computer made me feel like I wasn’t in the class. I feel like I was in my room the whole time. When we went to lunch, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna shut my computer off and lay down.’”

Raymarreon Polk, Crane Medical Prep High School, will attend DePauw University in the fall and plans to major in computer science.

“For me, starting high school during COVID was a little weird. You can’t really see many people’s faces because they rarely turned their cameras on, so the teacher saw a bunch of pictures. Also, nobody was really collaborative, because it was so awkward.”

What is the best memory you have from the past four years?

Melina Sandoval, Carl Schurz High School, will attend North Park University where she will pursue elementary education.

Melina Sandoval (on the right), Carl Schurz High School, poses with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

“I had a lot of great opportunities. One of them was meeting the mayor. Another one was when my art teacher, some friends, and I were in class having fun and eating. That was a great memory and I wish I could go back to it. Also, I went to prom. I won duchess but I didn’t win queen. It was a good experience still.”

Andrew Espinoza, North-Grand High School, will attend Harold Washington College in the fall.

“When we came back to school after virtual learning during COVID and seeing friends. It was a great moment because I saw all the people who were on the computer in person.”

Guadalupe Miranda, Advantage Academy of DeVry University, takes a picture on graduation day.

You all are graduating during an election year and amid protests over the Israel-Hamas War. What are your hopes for the future?

Guadalupe Miranda, Advantage Academy of DeVry University, will attend Stanford University in the fall to study human biology on a pre-med track.

“With the upcoming election, it’s really nerve-wracking because it’s the first time for those of us who are 18. It was my first time voting in the primaries. When it comes to things happening in other countries, it’s really sad and devastating. But seeing how young people are getting involved and using their voice to try to make an impact gives me hope. I hope that young people can continue to use their voices.”

Nyla Jackson, Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, holds a flag representing Illinois State University where she'll be studying marketing analytics.

Nyla Jackson, Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, will attend Illinois State University and plans to major in marketing analytics.

“I hope that the Class of 2024 continues to break barriers and push through in the face of adversity.”

Looking back, what would you want to change or improve about Chicago Public Schools?

Jayveon Edmonds, Al Raby High School for Community and Environment, will head to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale this fall to study zoology.

“I didn’t feel like my school set me up for greatness. I feel like our creativity was taken away because we didn’t have many options and we were underpopulated. My graduating class was only about 20. My school didn’t have funding to bring in new teachers or different sports programs. My high school experience was mediocre because of the lack of opportunity. Luckily, I was able to take college classes because I was able to network. But when I talked to other high school students, I realized that we didn’t have a lot of options for classes. CPS should have more ways for students to be creative and check on the students in underpopulated schools.”

Jayveon Edmonds, Al Raby High School for Community and Environment.

Duchara Moody, Morgan Park High School, will attend the University Of Illinois Urbana - Champaign in the fall and major in secondary education.

“What I would like to change or improve about Chicago Public Schools is the teachers. I feel we need more motivating, encouraging, and respectful teachers. I have had different experiences with teachers and noticed that some teachers aren’t doing their job, especially once I got in high school. I noticed some teachers just don’t care and are only there for the pay. This is why I plan to make a difference and become a teacher. Teaching will be such a joyful moment for me and I’ll be the best teacher ever. My goal is to instill as much wisdom as I can into kids, be a safe space for them if they need someone to talk to, be the one to cheer them up and let them know that they are the future and that they can be bright.”

Duchara Moody, Morgan Park High School.

A child tax credit, an Early Childhood Department, and more money for K-12 schools: Illinois lawmakers pass 2025 budget

2024-05-29T17:06:25+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

The Illinois House passed a $53.1 billion budget with increases for early childhood education, K-12 public schools, and the state’s literacy plan early Wednesday morning by a vote of 65-45. The bill heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk for final approval.

“For the sixth consecutive year, I introduced and the legislature passed a balanced budget that invests in our future while putting money back in the hands of hard-working Illinoisans,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The state’s General Assembly also passed a state child tax credit, which would make Illinois one of more than a dozen states to approve such legislation in the wake of the COVID pandemic, when the federal government temporarily expanded the benefit. Low-income Illinois families with children under the age of 12 and those who qualify for the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit would be eligible to receive the credit in 2025.

This version of the state’s child tax credit expands on what Pritzker proposed in February when he pitched a tax credit for families with young children who are 3 or younger.

Starting in July 2021, families across the country received up to $300 for children 17 or younger as part of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan. The program, which lapsed in December 2021, was credited with reducing child poverty and hunger. States including Colorado, California, and New York have since created their own child tax credit.

“The truth is that we all think that education should be better funded,” said Pritzker, when asked about Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who made a trip to Springfield to ask for more education funding for the city’s schools.

But, the governor said, the need expands beyond Chicago.

“The city of Chicago is 20% of the population of the state,” he said at the Wednesday press conference. “So we have a lot of other kids across the state going to school. We need to fund their schools better too.”

Here are more highlights on education funding in the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget.

New state Early Childhood Department gets a boost

The budget includes about $14 million to start a new state Early Childhood Department to help streamline early childhood education and child care programs. Separate legislation to create the department still needs a signature from Pritzker.

The new department, which was approved by lawmakers during the session, will bring early childhood education programs from the Illinois State Board of Education, the state’s Department of Human Services, and Department of Child and Family Services under one roof by July 1, 2026. The governor’s budget proposal had asked for $13 million to launch the department.

The Illinois State Board of Education received an increase of $75 million for its Early Childhood Block Grant, bringing total funding for the program to almost $750 million. Pritzker hopes this will create 5,000 new seats for preschool students this year. Earlier this year, Pritzker and the state board added 5,800 preschool seats during the first year of his Smart Start Initiative — a plan to create 20,000 preschool seats for 3- and 4- years old and provide more funding for early childhood education.

Early childhood programs under the Department of Human Services will see an increase as well. The state’s home visiting program, a program that supports pregnant women and families with children under 5, received an additional $5 million. The department’s Child Care Assistance Programs, which provides financial assistance for low-income families, received an additional $36.5 million in state funding.

The state’s Early intervention program received an additional $6 million to support children 3 and younger with disabilities. Early childhood advocates were upset when this increase was proposed by Pritzker in February because advocates say they have seen an uptick in the number of children waitlisted for services and experiencing service delays. They said they have also seen a lack of incentives for early intervention providers to stay in the programs or recruit more providers.

Advocates went to Springfield in April to ask the state to invest $40 million more, just as the year before. The state said last year’s increase and this year’s increase is enough to ensure that children continue to receive early intervention services.

K-12 education gets $350 million more

Illinois’ public schools districts will receive $8.6 billion in state funding next year – $350 million more than last year. That’s the minimum annual increase lawmakers agreed to in 2017 when the state created a new formula to change how K-12 schools are funded. The initial goal was to get all schools to an adequate funding level by 2027.

Over time, districts have received almost $2 billion more in funding from the state. But education advocates and funding experts say districts won’t reach adequate funding until at least 2030, unless the annual increases jump to $550 million or more. In a recent report, the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability noted a funding gap of about $2.3 billion.

Advance Illinois, a policy and advocacy organization that focuses on education, was one of the groups that supported a $550 million increase for K-12 schools.

“This governor has demonstrated that education is a priority,” said Robin Steans, the organization’s president. “This is a tough year. We appreciate the new and increased investments they’ve made, even as we recognize we’re disappointed that there is some important work left to be done.”

The 2025 budget includes $3 million for the implementation of the state’s new literacy plan, which was finalized earlier this year by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Noticeably missing from the budget is funding to support local school districts that have seen an increase in the number of students who recently migrated to the United States.

In the spring of 2022, Illinois schools started to see a rapid increase in enrollment as families were bused from the southern border in Texas to cities like Chicago. Chicago Public Schools and suburban school districts reported enrolling a large number of students from Venezuela. With more English learners enrolling in schools, the need for bilingual staff and educators increased. The overall needs of schools also grew exponentially as they grappled with limited resources to support newly arrived students.

Some school districts have asked for more funding because the state’s evidence-based funding formula does not capture students who enroll during the school year.

In addition, the State Board of Education and local school districts use different methods of counting the number of newcomer students enrolled in schools. To help support schools and the needs of newcomers, the state board asked the General Assembly for $35 million.

Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago that have seen an influx of migrant families, filed a bill initially asking for $35 million, but with a push from education advocates and local school district leaders, he amended it to $188 million. However, it did not make it to the final budget.

Higher education sees minor increases

The Illinois Monetary Award Program, also known as MAP, a scholarship program for college-bound students from low-income families, received an additional $10 million, increasing the entire fund to $711 million.

Illinois higher education advocates, including The Partnership for College Completion, an advocacy organization focused on higher education, have criticized the governor for not proposing more funding for MAP.

Christian Perry, director of policy and advocacy at The Partnership for College Completion, said in a statement to Chalkbeat, that this year’s budget is not enough to support the needs of college-bound students in the state.

“The increase in MAP does not keep up with inflation and comes at a time when students are facing issues with the new FAFSA, making college-going alarmingly uncertain for low-income students,” said Perry.

In addition, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, which supports students of color and bilingual students who want to become teachers receive a scholarship, did not get a funding increase. The program will continue to get $8 million, the same amount it received in last year’s budget.

Bill to prevent changes at Chicago’s selective enrollment schools appears stalled

2024-05-24T22:06:39+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

A state bill that would prevent changes to Chicago’s selective enrollment schools and block the district from closing schools until 2027 appears to have stalled in the final scheduled hours of the legislative session.

The lack of movement comes after Mayor Brandon Johnson sent a letter to Illinois Senate President Don Harmon asking him not to call the bill for a final vote, arguing it “seeks to solve problems that do not exist.”

The situation is a win so far for Johnson, whose appointed Board of Education is mulling changes to the district’s school choice system and recently rolled out a new budget formula.

State Rep. Margaret Croke, a Democrat representing Chicago’s north side neighborhoods, filed the bill earlier this year that would prevent the board from making changes to admission requirements or cutting funding for selective enrollment schools until a fully elected school board is in place in 2027. She later added an amendment that would extend the moratorium on school closures and prevent any school from shuttering until 2027.

Croke said in a written statement that she is “deeply disappointed” to learn that Harmon may not call her proposal to the floor for final approval. She believes that without the bill magnet schools and charter schools will not be protected and the school board will make changes to admissions for selective schools.

“The CPS school budgeting process has been hidden from both the public and from Springfield legislators, and I fully expect that disproportionate cuts will be made to magnet schools and charters will eventually be closed,” said Croke’s statement.

The bill unanimously passed the House and passed quickly out of a Senate committee. If the full Senate votes, it would go to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk. On Thursday, Harmon declined to bring the bill to the floor for debate.

“The District will not close selective enrollment schools nor will the District make disproportionate budget cuts to selective enrollment schools,” Johnson wrote in the letter.

Johnson also wrote that the board will not eliminate testing or other requirements for enrollment into selective enrollment schools or programs.

Harmon has yet to provide comment on whether he will hold the bill or put it on the floor for debate.

The board’s December resolution called on the district to move away from school choice and support neighborhood schools. The goal of both the mayor and the board is to bolster neighborhood schools, many of which have seen declining enrollment in recent years, and to make selective schools – several of which are segregated by income or race – more diverse.

The board’s resolution called for transitioning “away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools.”

The board said it will rely on public feedback to inform how it will revamp school choice and include those details as part of the district’s five-year strategic plan, expected to be finalized this summer.

The state bill would also prevent funding cuts to Chicago’s selective enrollment schools, some of which have already seen a decrease in funding to staffing. Some Local School Council members have said network leaders have suggested that their schools could fundraise to fill in the gaps, which could exacerbate inequalities.

Johnson and the board have said that if Croke’s bill passes, it would prevent the district from balancing its budget. The district is distributing the same amount of money to schools as it did last year, officials say.

The new budgeting formula aims to distribute resources more equitably and based on need. Some campuses, including those in higher-income areas, are reporting cuts while others in less affluent neighborhoods are seeing some boosts.

Chicago Public Schools have yet to make school-level budgets available to the public, but some Local School Councils have been vocal about cuts to their current budgets.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago is trying to improve how it funds schools. Not everyone is happy.

2024-05-23T20:45:22+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Christina Cedeño has spent countless hours helping get the word out about the bilingual gifted program at her children’s school Pulaski International School of Chicago, texting friends and acquaintances and distributing flyers at neighborhood businesses and day cares in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods.

But next year, Pulaski’s proposed budget cuts a number of positions, including including a core classroom teacher in the Spanish gifted program, forcing school leaders to consider combining the first and second grade.

Cedeño worries the cuts at the Regional Gifted Center for English Learners — one of just three in Chicago Public Schools — will deter parents who are new to the school.

“If they find out that their classes are going to be combined, they’ll get scared and they’ll pull their kids out and then we’re back to where we were five years ago,” she said.

Pulaski is one of many schools reportedly losing resources as Chicago Public Schools officials overhaul the way they allocate money to individual campuses even as they also work to close a $391 million deficit and grapple with the end of federal COVID relief funding.

District officials have said the overall amount of money dedicated to schools is not being decreased. But many selective enrollment and magnet programs and neighborhood schools in higher income areas are seeing cuts. In some cases, district officials have even suggested they fundraise to fill gaps, parents say, which could create more inequity for schools that can’t raise a lot of money.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has defended the changes to how schools are funded as an “important milestone” aimed at improving education across all schools, but especially for children “farthest from opportunity.”

“It’s a boost for communities that have been stuck in a downward spiral of disinvestment and depopulation,” he told the school board Thursday.

He added that some school leaders at high-need schools have cheered their budgets for allowing them to grow programming and dodge enrollment-related cuts. And he vowed overall funding for schools will stay stable next fall and, thanks to positions covered centrally, more people will work in Chicago’s schools.

But the public does not have the ability to see which schools are benefiting from the new formula.

CPS has twice denied Chalkbeat’s open records request for individual school budget documents, arguing the process is still ongoing. Local School Councils had to vote to approve their budgets by May 3. A district spokesperson said five elementary schools and four high schools rejected their school budgets.

Last year, the district similarly shared only limited details about school budgets when principals received them in April. Officials unveiled a $9.4 billion budget proposal in early June and the school board approved it two weeks later. The school board must approve a budget by July 1.

Meanwhile, Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill that could prevent Chicago Public Schools from implementing “disproportionate” budget decreases at selective enrollment schools and could place a moratorium on school closings until 2027.

Pulaski is in a unique situation because it’s a neighborhood school with a selective program. For budgeting purposes, it is considered one school and the neighborhood school is also facing cuts, according to parents who spoke to Chalkbeat.

The neighborhood school, which has an International Baccalaureate program, serves students from the surrounding Bucktown area, which has gentrified in the last decade. Ten years ago, 81% of Pulaski’s students came from low-income families and today about 38% do.

Parents said the proposed budget, which was rejected by the Local School Council, would cut three core classroom teachers from the neighborhood program, two specialty teacher positions, a tech coordinator, a reading specialist, and one of two clerks that staff the school’s two-building campus.

“We’re not asking for bells and whistles,” said Nicole Wood, a Pulaski parent who has two children in the neighborhood IB program. “We understand that some of our extras that we had in the past are going to go away. We understand that there will be cuts given the deficit in the budget. However, what we expect CPS to provide us are classroom teachers for all of our classrooms.”

‘If you don’t like your budget, fundraise your way out of it’

At Harriet Tubman Elementary School, parents raised concerns to their CPS network officials when they found out that the proposed budget could mean losing three core teachers and other staff next year.

The surprising suggestion: Fundraise money to fill in the gaps.

Other schools, network officials tell them, use “Friends of” money to pay for positions, said Illeana Inserni, the chair of Tubman’s Local School Council and a mother of third-grade twins.

The school, which has an International Baccalaureate program that draws in students from other parts of the city, is also slated to lose a part-time teacher who works with students with disabilities and their interventionist, a staffer who works with struggling students, whose salary was covered by the district through federal COVID dollars.

Tubman sits in a higher-income area of Chicago and 35% of students come from low-income families, less than the 73% at schools districtwide. But the school’s enrollment has also swelled by about 15% since September and is serving more English learners, according to preliminary enrollment records.

“What we’re asking the network and district … is to maintain our current roster,” Inserni said. “We’re not even asking for more at this moment.”

The school received $140,000 in discretionary funding, which is the minimum amount provided to all elementary schools. Inserni said they plan to pay for another core classroom teacher, leaving the school with about $30,000 for basic operations, materials, and supplies, such as copy paper or recess monitors. The district said the average budget for a teacher position is $123,000.

At Skinner North, a selective enrollment elementary school, according to LSC chair Danielle Capilla, whose daughter is in fifth grade, network leads have also suggested parent fundraising to fill budget gaps.

“Principals are also being asked by network leaders and the folks above them, ‘Well, how much does your ‘Friends Of’ raise? How much is in those bank accounts? What can we use that for?’ Essentially, what can the parents and community pay for so the district doesn’t have to?” Capilla said.

“There has also just been an underlying premise of: ‘If you don’t like your budget, fundraise your way out of it,’” she said.

A district spokesperson said decisions made with parent fundraising resources are made at the school level.

In Chicago, parents can fundraise to pay for staff, which isn’t the case for all big cities. In New York City, PTAs cannot use funding to pay for core subject teachers but can use it toward supplemental staff, such as art teachers or teaching assistants.

Capilla, who also has a son enrolled in a different magnet school, said she doesn’t want to alienate families that can’t afford to contribute to fundraisers. “That would be the last thing that we would want to do.”

She’s heard of other schools, like LaSalle Language Academy in Old Town, using outside fundraising to fill gaps. At LaSalle, LSC parent representative Jason Emeott said next year’s budget does not provide funding for seven of their eight language teachers. But the language program is core to the school’s identity, he noted, with students in kindergarten through eighth grade able to take classes in Spanish, Italian, French, and Mandarin.

Emeott is passionate about LaSalle because it is a National Blue Ribbon School that serves students from around the city of different ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. Now, he worries programming cuts could hurt future enrollment.

At Thursday’s school board meeting, some parents voiced concerns about their school budgets to board members.

Several parents from Sabin Dual Language Magnet said its proposed budget will erode its ability to provide the language services that have made the campus a model as one of the oldest dual language programs in the city. They said the school is losing three teachers and its dean of students, who has gotten recognition for presiding over the largest decrease in student suspensions of any district elementary school.

Parents said the budget apparently fails to account for a large influx of migrant students to the campus, which has helped push enrollment from 240 to more than 360 students since last summer.

“By losing these teachers, we are losing our dual language capacity,” said parent Debra Gittler.

“With so many new arrivals, the trauma and the issues going on are quite severe,” she added.

Are neighborhood schools getting more resources?

Not all schools are seeing cuts. Although all school budgets are not public yet, many neighborhood schools are gaining multiple new staff positions and additional resources.

Under the proposed budget, Jamieson Elementary, a neighborhood school in West Ridge, would add a second school counselor, a restorative justice coordinator, another art teacher, and an additional core teacher that the LSC hopes to hire as an English as a Second Language teacher, according to Annette Stenner, a parent representative on the LSC.

Stenner said the additional positions will be helpful as the school’s needs have increased. Jamieson serves over 800 students and almost 60% of students come from low-income families, according to Chicago Public Schools enrollment data. Over the last couple of years, the school has seen an uptick in the number of migrant students, many migrating from Venezuela and other countries around the globe, Stenner noted.

Many migrant students have “a lot of trauma,” she said. “Teachers and our administrators, they’re seeing a lot more issues addressing that and dealing with that in the classroom.”

While the increase in staff would be helpful to the school, Stenner’s not sure if it will be enough since classroom sizes are large. But overall, she feels that the district is going in the right direction with budgeting to address some of the inequities in funding neighborhood schools across the city.

One principal said her school, which almost exclusively serves students from low-income families and more than half who are learning English as a new language, will see more teachers and some smaller class sizes next school year.

However, the school will not have the funding for their second office clerk – someone the school had for many years who helped with attendance and purchasing, said the principal, who asked to remain anonymous because she was not authorized to speak to the press. While she doesn’t believe student-based budgeting worked well, she said she had become accustomed to having a lot of power over her budget – and cutting the longtime school clerk is a “hard decision.”

But “in what world could I argue that I would rather have 33 first graders in a room together than not have this second clerk?” the principal asked.

Abigail Vences is on the Local School Council at Swift Elementary School in Edgewater and Mather High School in West Ridge. She said next year’s budgets at both schools will see more resources, including several more teacher positions.

“There are kids that want to excel academically and you should let them go for that challenge, but at the same time, you shouldn’t let your neighborhood schools fail,” Vences said.

New funding formula stabilizes shrinking schools

When Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration announced the new school funding formula in late March, they said it would be more equitable and boost neighborhood schools in disinvested communities where enrollment has been declining for years.

That’s been the case at Hirsch Metropolitan High School in Chatham for the past decade.

Maria Owens has served on the Local School Council since 2014. She said, in the past, Hirsch’s budget did not provide enough to staff all the courses required for graduation so the school had to get creative with online classes and partnerships with nearby schools. Now, they’ll have the basics covered, Owens said.

“We’re not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth, but it’s really not sufficient to do what it is we really need to have done,” Owens said. “If you’re trying to give your child the best possible options, it’s not going to be sufficient for most parents who want to see their child excel.”

Like most schools, about 7% of Hirsch’s budget the past few years was covered by federal COVID relief money, which will run out in September. Owens thinks there’s a “shell game” going on where the district is taking from some schools and giving to others.

Really, Owens said, more money needs to be put into education from the federal and state government and equitably distributed.

“The best resource we have is our young people,” she said, “and if we continue to act as if they don’t matter, we’re going to reap what we sow and we’re not going to like it.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois high school juniors must take the ACT to fulfill graduation requirements starting next spring

2024-05-15T22:51:06+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois high school juniors will take the ACT instead of the SAT to graduate starting next school year.

The Illinois State Board of Education was updated on the switch during its monthly meeting on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the school board says the ACT was awarded a $53 million contract over the course of six years. The state requires students to take a college entrance exam in order to graduate.

“At the end of the day, it came down to price,” said Stephen Isoye, chairman of the State Board of Education, noting that state law requires assessment vendors to go through a competitive procurement process.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders wrote in a weekly message to school administrators on Tuesday that the ACT “aligns with the Illinois Learning Standards, provides a secure online testing experience for students, reduces administrative burden on districts,” and will give “actionable reporting for educators and families.”

The procurement office evaluated bids from the College Board, which administers the SAT, and ACT Inc. on “technical specifications, commitment to diversity, and price.” Overall, the ACT received more points.

School districts in the state have given high school juniors the SAT for almost a decade. Illinois switched from ACT to the SAT in 2016 and has renewed the contract with the College Board several times.

However, Sanders said the state board will work with ACT to support schools through the transition.

“We will help you prepare teachers for the transition and help you communicate with students and families, so you can continue doing your best work in teaching and learning,” Sanders wrote in his weekly message.

Many colleges and universities stopped requiring entrance exams during the pandemic but are moving back to requiring the tests for admissions.

The state board’s contract with the College Board to administer the SAT for 11th graders and the PSAT for 9th and 10th grades will expire on June 30. Illinois, like all states, is required by federal law to administer accountability assessment to high school students. State law says the exam must be a nationally recognized college entrance exam, leaving the state with two choices: the ACT or SAT.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Report: Illinois schools won’t be ‘adequately funded’ by 2027

2024-05-15T17:31:16+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois will not be able to adequately fund public schools by a 2027 state deadline, according to a new report.

Due to inflation and state lawmakers holding K-12 funding flat in 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic, districts would not be adequately funded until 2034 if the state continues to only add $350 million to the evidence-based funding formula, according to a report from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

But lawmakers could adequately fund schools by 2030 if they provide an additional $500 million a year, the report said.

However, state budget officials are predicting a decrease in revenue in the next year. Federal COVID-19 relief money, which boosted school budgets the past few years, is also set to run out.

“I think school districts will have to make some tough financial decisions in the next coming years,” said Elaine Gaberik, one of the co-authors of the report. “This goes back to showing how important the state funding is going to be in these next couple years.”

In February, Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed adding an additional $350 million for public schools and $150 million for early childhood education to the state budget for the next fiscal year, which covers the 2024-25 school year.

Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools educators are going to Springfield on Wednesday to ask for more state funding. They maintain that the district is underfunded by $1.1 billion. That is the amount Chicago would need to reach adequacy under the state formula. Mayor Brandon Johnson was also in the capitol last week to ask state lawmakers to give more money to Chicago schools.

Elizabeth Todd-Breland, vice president of the Chicago Board of Education, said during the Agenda Review Committee on Wednesday her daughter will be an adult before the state can adequately fund schools.

“Generations of public school students will be deprived of their right to a quality, fully-funded public education and we should all see that as being unacceptable,” said Todd-Breland.

Roughly $2.5 billion of Chicago Public Schools’ $9.4 billion budget comes from state funding. Of the $2.5 billion in state money, $1.7 billion comes from the state’s evidence-based funding formula. Seven years ago, before the state changed its funding formula, CPS received about $1.9 billion from the state.

Illinois’ evidence-based funding formula calculates how much money a public school district needs based on the needs of the students the district serves and how much local revenue a school district can raise. A district could receive additional state funding if they have a larger amount of students from low-income families, English learners, or students with disabilities. Districts in areas with less property wealth are also prioritized for more state funding, while richer districts with higher value property get less.

Since the formula was created, state funding for K-12 schools has grown by more than $3 billion, with the majority of the new money going to districts that need it most.

The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, which helped design the evidence-based funding formula in 2017, looked at four possible scenarios state lawmakers could take action on. Each scenario takes into account how much money it would take to fully fund schools, estimates the amount of time, and includes other factors, such as inflation.

The report mentions other possibilities for lawmakers to weigh as they put together the budget. If the state decided that it wanted to reach the 2027 funding goal, the report estimates that it would take at least $1.1 billion a year starting in 2025. Another possibility is to continue to add $300 million to the evidence-based funding, but add more funding based on the rate of inflation. However, inflation rates can drastically change. As noted in the report, inflation rose to 5% in 2022 and 8% in 2023.

Gaberik, one of the co-authors of the report, told Chalkbeat that one of the best things the evidence-based formula did for public schools was to change the ratio of local funding to state funding.

Before the formula was put into use, school districts relied heavily on property taxes, which created inequities in educational opportunities for students across the state, according to Gaberik.

When the state’s General Assembly created the evidence-based funding formula in 2017, the goal was to adequately fund all schools by 2027. During negotiations, there was a bipartisan promise to continue to add at least $350 million a year to public schools every year until every district reached its “adequacy target.”

State lawmakers committed to this promise every year, except in 2020 when they agreed to keep funding flat due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Since then, education advocates have been pushing lawmakers to increase K-12 funding by at least $550 million annually in order to get all school districts to adequacy more quickly. But lawmakers have continued to add $350 million annually in the years since.

Andy Manar, deputy governor for budget and economy, said in a letter dated May 8 to various Illinois agency directors that the state’s revenues are down by $800 million. Plus, the state’s share of COVID relief funds will end this year. Manar said that it is unclear how many programs this will impact, but budget officials will continue to work with the state’s General Assembly to create a balanced budget.

The legislature must pass a budget by June 30, but is expected to do so before the end of its spring session, currently scheduled to finish on May 24.

Reema Amin contributed reporting.

Illinois is one step closer to creating a department for early childhood education

2024-05-09T21:31:44+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois is one step closer to creating a new department that will house all child care and early childhood education programs after the state House passed a proposal to create the Department of Early Childhood Thursday afternoon.

The bill, which passed with a 93 to 18 vote, will head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk for final approval. Pritzker, who has championed creating an agency focused on early childhood programs, is likely to sign the bill.

Once signed into law, the bill would allow the Department of Early Childhood to begin work on July 1. The bill asks the state’s General Assembly to allocate a total of $13.1 million for support staffing and operations. By July 1, 2026, the department would manage programs such as early intervention for students with disabilities and the Child Care Assistance Program to support low-income families, as well as administer licenses for day care programs.

The state currently operates and funds child care and early childhood education programs under three departments: the state’s Department of Human Services, Illinois State Board of Education, and the Department of Children and Family Services.

State Rep. Mary Beth Canty, a Democrat representing Arlington Heights, was a sponsor of the House version of the bill and presented the Senate’s proposal to the House on Thursday afternoon. She told fellow lawmakers that creating a department focused only on early childhood education would make it more efficient for parents and providers.

“We see duplication of efforts, duplication of forms, and that means that we are not getting as many dollars into the programs that we need,” said Canty. “By creating this new agency housing all of these programs in one place, we can create more efficiency, transparency and ease of access for families and providers.”

Illinois’ legislative session is winding down. Here are seven education issues to watch in Springfield.

2024-05-06T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

A moratorium on closing any Chicago public schools until 2027, extra funding for schools supporting migrant students, and the creation of a new early childhood department. These are some of the top issues Illinois lawmakers in Springfield are focused on as the end of the legislative session looms.

The Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to end its spring session on May 24, leaving a few weeks to pass bills and send them to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk for final approval.

At the beginning of session, one of the most pressing issues for lawmakers was to approve an electoral map and ethics provisions for Chicago’s first school board elections, which they punted last year. With an April 1 deadline fast approaching, lawmakers settled the issue early in March. But that wasn’t the only issue before lawmakers that could impact the future of Chicago Public Schools.

Here are some education bills we’re continuing to follow.

Bills moving quickly through the legislature

Moratorium on Chicago school closures until 2027: House Bill 303 was initially filed to prevent the Chicago Board of Education from making any changes to selective enrollment schools until 2027 when the board will be fully elected. The bill is a direct response to a resolution passed by the current school board, which is appointed by the mayor, that calls for a new strategic plan that would invest in neighborhood schools and move away from school choice. The latest change to the bill included a closure moratorium on all Chicago schools until 2027. The bill is currently in the Senate’s executive committee.

Early Childhood Department: Illinois is currently in the process of merging early childhood education programs currently housed under the state’s Department of Human Services, Illinois State Board of Education, and the state’s Department of Children and Family Services. Pritzker unveiled the plan last October. He said the current system is an “impossible bureaucracy” for parents and providers to navigate and hopes that one department will make it easier. Senate Bill 1, which would create the new department, has passed the Senate and is currently in the House.

Bills with an uncertain future

State license for Montessori teachers: Illinois lawmakers are trying to figure out ways to deal with the current teacher shortage. One proposal, Senate Bill 2689, would make it easier for Montessori-trained educators to teach in public schools by creating the Montessori Educator Licensure. Teachers are eligible if they have graduated from a college or university with a bachelor’s degree, received a credential from an institution accredited by the Montessori Council for Teacher Education, the American Montessori Society, or the Association Montessori International, and completed state licensure testing. The Senate’s proposal, which passed, is currently in the House’s Rules Committee.

Police in Chicago Public Schools: The Chicago Board of Education voted in February on a measure to remove Chicago Police Department officers from schools. Currently, 57 officers are spread across 39 high schools. Some community leaders rallied against the board’s decision and said they wanted to keep their schools’ police officers, often referred to as school resource officers, or SROs. House Bill 5008, would allow Local School Councils to contract directly with the Chicago Police Department for school resource officers. The bill is currently in the House’s Rules Committee.

What we’re watching for in a final budget

Several bills could provide additional money to early childhood education, K-12 schools, and higher education institutions. The General Assembly must approve a budget before the end of the session. Here’s what’s on the table for school funding:

More funding for K-12 schools: Illinois education advocates are currently pushing the General Assembly to put $550 million more into the evidence-based funding formula that provides funding to K-12 schools. The formula distributes money to school districts based on the enrollment numbers of students from low-income students, English learners, and students with disabilities.

Since the evidence-based funding formula was established in 2017, the legislature has been adding $350 million more a year. But advocates say that it will take larger annual increases to fully fund schools by 2027.

Grants for schools enrolling migrant students: Since the spring of 2022, CPS and suburban school districts have enrolled students who have migrated from countries around the globe facing war and economic insecurity, such as Ukraine, Russia, and Venezuela. Many schools lack bilingual resources and staff to support these students.

Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, proposed a pair of bills that would create a New Arrivals Grant to be distributed through the Illinois State Board of Education. An earlier version of the bill proposed allocating $35 million, but lawmakers have increased that number to $188 million.

Illinois child tax credit: During the pandemic, Congress expanded the child tax credit, providing families with monthly payments of between $250 and $300 per child, depending on their age. The program reduced child poverty rates temporarily, but it ended in 2021. Now, Illinois lawmakers — along with other state legislatures, such as Colorado — are proposing a state child tax credit.

In Illinois, families could receive up to $300 per child for children under the age of 17. Married couples who make less than $75,000 and single people who make less than $50,000 would be eligible.

Chicago Public Schools and the union representing school support staff reach tentative contract agreement

2024-05-02T02:06:32+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

The union representing school support staff came to a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools Wednesday night, ending a year of contract negotiations.

The four-year deal would create a baseline salary of $40,000 for all full-time workers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 73. The tentative agreement also calls for a 4% pay increase the first two years and a 4% to 5% increase the last two years of the contract. It will cover the current school year and expire at the end of the 2026-27 school year.

SEIU Local 73 represents about 11,000 school support workers, including custodians, special education classroom assistants, bus aides, security officers, crossing guards, and parent-workers. They have been working without a contract since June 30, 2023.

“These critical support staff professionals carry out vital work in our schools each day, supporting teaching and learning and ensuring the safety and well being of our students,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez in a press release on Wednesday evening. “This agreement reflects our District’s commitment to a fair and equitable contract.”

The union also successfully negotiated for more professional development and training, particularly for special education classroom assistants who work with students with disabilities, according to a joint news release. If approved, security officers would also transition from seven-hour to eight-hour employees, and all SEIU Local 73 members would get paid time off to observe religious holidays.

“After a year-long fight, our Union members are finally being recognized for their commitment and have secured much needed raises that will greatly improve the lives of these essential workers and provide the respect they deserve. " said Dian Palmer, President of SEIU Local 73, in a combined statement with Chicago Public Schools.

SEIU Local 73 members will have to vote in the coming weeks to ratify the tentative contract deal. If approved, the Chicago Board of Education must also vote to approve it.

The union started negotiations with the district in the spring of 2023, before their contract was set to expire on June 30, 2023. Most of these school workers are often paid lower than educators and school administrators — many of them making about $40,000 a year.

In February, the union secured a win outside of their contract negotiations when the school district announced that it would end its multi-million dollar deal with Aramark for the management of school janitors and cleaning services after 10 years.

Aramark was frequently criticized for the lack of cleanliness at schools and school custodial workers represented by SEIU Local 73 often voiced concerns about the lack of cleaning supplies.

Illinois high school students must fill out FAFSA to graduate — maybe not this year, state says

2024-05-01T19:40:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois high school seniors would not be required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, in order to graduate, under a new bill moving through the state legislature.

State law has required students to complete the FAFSA in order to graduate from high school since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. Students not planning to go to college could fill out a waiver. But now, a proposal in the Senate would waive the requirement entirely for the current school year.

The proposal by state Sen. Dan McConchie, a Republican lawmaker representing northwest suburbs, comes months after the rocky rollout of the federal government’s “Better FAFSA”, which faced multiple challenges including a later opening date and technical issues that caused delays and uncertainty for college-bound students.

The FAFSA allows high school students to determine how much money — grants, federal student loans, or work-study funds — they might receive from the federal government. States, colleges, and universities also use the FAFSA to offer scholarships or grants to students. In Illinois, it also serves as the application for the state’s Monetary Assistance Program, or MAP grant, for students from low-income households.

The federal government rolled out a simplified version of the FAFSA, known as the Better FAFSA, in late December after months of delay. The form is usually released in October. The new application is shorter, going from 100 questions to 20.

Students who have undocumented parents were among the groups impacted by the glitches, as the application initially required students to use their parents’ Social Security numbers. The issue was later resolved in March, but left many students scrambling to complete the application.

The Illinois State Board of Education, along with the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, announced in April that high schools and districts could implement “administrative waivers” for students this year. In a weekly message on Tuesday, State Superintendent Tony Sanders asked schools to encourage students to fill out the application if possible.

“So many students do not go to college or trade school because they think they cannot afford it, without actually knowing how much aid they could qualify to receive,” said Sanders.

During the Senate education hearing Tuesday, McConchie said even though the state board said schools could provide waivers, his bill would “alleviate the administrative burden” placed on schools.

Some lawmakers raised concerns about McConchie’s proposal. Sen. Doris Turner, a Democrat representing Springfield, Decatur, and other towns in southern Illinois, was concerned that the bill would create confusion and cause guidance counselors or administrators to tell students that they do not have to fill out the application.

McConchie said the bill would only waive the graduation requirement for a year as the federal government continues to work out issues with the system.

McConchie’s proposal passed the Senate Education committee by a 10-0 vote.

Some colleges and universities have pushed back their enrollment deadlines for fall 2024 because they were not able to send out financial aid letters to students earlier in the year, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. College decision day is traditionally May 1.

Illinois’ children and toddlers are experiencing more delays in getting early intervention services

2024-04-25T23:52:29+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

About a year after Desi Evans’ son Christopher was born, she noticed he wasn’t making sounds or babbling like other young children.

After the mother from Barrington, Illinois – a town west of Chicago — raised her concerns to her pediatrician at Christopher’s one-year check-up, the doctor recommended having him evaluated for a state program designed to help students with disabilities or developmental delays.

The program, known as Early Intervention, serves over 20,000 children and toddlers under the age of 3 throughout Illinois.

But, even though Christopher was found to have a speech delay and approved by the state to receive speech, developmental, and occupational therapies, he was not able to receive service until three months before he turned 3, when children are no longer eligible for Early Intervention.

Christopher, now 3, isn’t alone. Since the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, it has become harder for children to get evaluated or start services that are vital to ensuring they are prepared socially, emotionally, and academically for school. Early childhood education advocates say staffing shortages are creating barriers to early intervention services and they are urging state lawmakers to invest another $40 million into next year’s budget for the program.

More than 4,000 children are waiting to be evaluated for services, according to a report by the Illinois Department of Human Services in February. Another 23,000 children have been approved for early intervention services.

The report also found that 7.6% of children who were approved for the Early Intervention program are experiencing service delays — when the state cannot find a therapist to provide services. That’s nearly double what it was in 2019, when 4.7% of children approved for services were seeing delays.

When Christopher was able to receive some services for a couple of months, Evans said he started to talk more and his vocabulary grew.

“He was more attentive and his focus expanded,” said Evans. “Before, he would only focus for maybe like 5-10 minutes at a time when we’re doing an activity.”

Staffing shortages across early intervention

Illinois early education advocates say families face hurdles when accessing early intervention services because the state has a low number of service coordinators, who are responsible for evaluating children and connecting them to therapists, and service providers, independent contractors that provide services such as speech, developmental, occupational, and physical therapies.

In 2023, the state reported about 3,964 providers, a decrease of 6.6% from 2019 when there were over 4,246 providers.

A survey by Afton Partners commissioned by the Illinois Department of Human Services found a high turnover rate of service coordinators due to low wages, lack of benefits, high caseloads, and burnout. That makes it difficult for families to get an evaluation done within a timely matter; often, they are waitlisted.

Even when a child has received an evaluation, services could be delayed if the service coordinator cannot find a therapist to work for a family as was the case for Desi Evans’ son.

According to state law, once parents agree to receive therapeutic services under the Individualized Family Service Plan — a legal document that includes the child’s diagnosis, evaluation notes, and services they will need in early intervention — children should receive services within 30 days. Some families often do not receive services within that time frame.

Alison Liddle, a physical therapist contracted with the state to provide early intervention services, says her practice takes on private clients to keep afloat. Liddle mentioned that one of her staff members was thinking about leaving the practice because they are overwhelmed from trying to pay for student loans and child care.

Illinois is not the only state dealing with shortages. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Infant and Toddler Coordinators Association, a nonprofit organization that advocates for early intervention nationally, released a report in 2023 that found 44 states and jurisdictions said they were experiencing provider shortages, especially for speech and language pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, special educators/ developmental specialists, and service coordinators.

Early childhood advocates lobby for more funding

On April 16, early childhood education advocacy organizations from across the state bused hundreds of parents and community organizations to Springfield to ask lawmakers for more money for early childhood education — including a $40 million increase for early intervention.

They say the funding boost could be used to increase compensation for providers, bring in new providers, and increase the speed in which families receive services.

In Springfield, small groups of people in purple and yellow shirts that said “For Brighter Futures” walked around the Capitol building searching for state lawmakers. In some cases, advocates weren’t able to chat directly with legislators, as many were voting on bills on the House floor. Some advocates opted to write letters instead.

Zareen Kamal, policy specialist at Start Early, one of the organizations that bused advocates to Springfield, told Chalkbeat that an increase would “allow for a much-needed rate increase for the workforce and prevent providers from leaving [Early Intervention] due to years of inadequate compensation.”

Unlike service coordinators, service providers are independent contractors. The state reimburses them for providing services to families after billing private insurance. However, providers aren’t paid for transportation, missed or canceled appointments, or receive health care or other benefits. Some providers decide to work in hospitals or the private sector to make more money.

Advocacy organizations such as Start Early, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, is asking the state to allocate an additional $40 million for early intervention. Over the past four years, the program’s budget has largely remained flat or been cut, shifting between a total of $108 million and $115 million since the pandemic hit in 2020.

Last year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced his Smart Start Initiative and allocated more funding to early childhood education. In the first year of the plan, statewide programs received an increase of $250 million. The Early Intervention program received a bump of $40 million last year.

This year, the governor proposed an increase of $6 million for Early Intervention— less than advocates had hoped for.

In a statement to Chalkbeat Chicago, a spokesperson for Pritzker said last year’s increase was meant to cover the 2025 fiscal year.

“The program is funded to cover the more than 25,000 families enrolled in EI services, and this year’s additional $6 million investment – representing a proposed $46 million total increased investment in EI since the beginning of the Smart Start Illinois initiative — will cover projected enrollment growth over the next fiscal year,” the spokesperson wrote.

Desi Evans, the Barrington mother, says Christopher is currently receiving private therapy after he aged out of the Early Intervention program earlier this year.

She still feels guilty that she didn’t push harder to get Christopher services sooner.

“I feel like I failed him, like I should have done more,” said Evans. “I wish I knew what I know now, but I didn’t.”

Seis cosas que hay que saber sobre las elecciones a la junta de educación de Chicago

2024-04-19T20:44:05+00:00

Read in English.

Algunas de las cuestiones sobre las que se preguntan los habitantes de Chicago en cuanto a las primeras elecciones de la junta escolar tienen que ver con el tema del dinero en las campañas, los distritos electorales, y la compensación de los miembros de la junta escolar.

A partir del 15 de enero de 2025, la Junta de Educación de Chicago cambiará de siete miembros nombrados por el alcalde a una junta de 21 miembros con 10 miembros elegidos por votación y 11 nombrados por el alcalde Brandon Johnson. La temporada de campaña está oficialmente en marcha y los candidatos están surgiendo.

El martes fue el primer día en que se pudieron recoger firmas para participar en las elecciones del 5 de noviembre. Hasta el miércoles, seis candidatos han presentado documentos de financiación de campaña ante la Junta Estatal de Elecciones de Illinois.

El mes pasado, Chalkbeat preguntó a sus lectores qué preguntas tenían sobre el cambio de Chicago a una junta escolar elegida por votación. Las contestaremos en los próximos meses, empezando con estas seis que se centran en el proceso electoral.

¿En el pasado, cómo se elegían los miembros de la Junta de Educación de Chicago?

La Junta escolar de Chicago está formada actualmente por siete miembros nombrados por el alcalde, que tiene poder para elegir a quien desee. En el pasado, estos nombramientos eran secretos hasta que el alcalde los anunciaba, a menudo en una rueda o comunicado de prensa. Tanto la ex alcaldesa Lori Lightfoot como el ex alcalde Rahm Emanuel reemplazaron a toda la junta escolar tras ser elegidos.

El estado otorgó al alcalde de Chicago el poder de nombrar a los miembros del consejo escolar en 1995, cuando el entonces alcalde Richard M. Daley estaba en el cargo. Antes de eso, el alcalde seleccionaba a los miembros del consejo escolar a través de un proceso de nominación comunitario.

En las elecciones de noviembre, ¿habrá elecciones en todos los distritos? ¿Por cuánto tiempo serán miembros de la junta?

Sí. Los legisladores de Illinois dividieron a Chicago en 10 distritos para las elecciones de 2024. El 5 de noviembre habitantes de cada distrito elegirán un miembro para representarlos por dos años. Antes del 16 de diciembre de 2024, el alcalde Brandon Johnson nombrará a 10 miembros - uno de cada distrito - y un presidente para servir en términos de dos años.

Así es como funcionará.

Cada distrito también se subdivide en dos regiones. Por ejemplo, el Distrito 1 se compone de dos partes: 1A y una 1B. Si el candidato ganador en el Distrito 1 vive en la zona 1A, el alcalde tiene que nombrar a alguien que viva en la 1B. Si el ganador en el Distrito 2 vive en 2B, el alcalde debe nombrar a alguien que viva en 2A, y así por el estilo.

En 2026, los habitantes de Chicago votarán por candidatos para un mandato de dos o cuatro años. El presidente de la junta escolar será elegido ese mismo año para un mandato de cuatro años, que comenzará el 15 de enero de 2027.

¿Qué cualificaciones se necesitan para ser miembro del consejo escolar de Chicago?

La ley estatal dice que para servir en la junta escolar de CPS, usted debe ser:

ciudadano estadounidense.
votante registrado.
tener al menos 18 años.
ser residente de la ciudad, distrito o subdistrito durante al menos un año inmediatamente antes de la elección o nombramiento.

Además, los miembros de la junta no deben ser delincuentes sexuales registrados ni contratistas o proveedores que trabajen con el distrito. Los candidatos también deben conseguir al menos 1,000 firmas en una petición electoral, entre otras normas.

¿Habrá algún tipo de supervisión con respecto a las finanzas de campaña de los miembros de la junta escolar? ¿Cómo se puede comprobar quién hace donaciones a las campañas?

La Junta de Educación de Chicago exige a sus miembros que presenten una declaración de intereses económicos y recomienda a los miembros de la junta que lleven una lista de los donantes de la campaña. Los interesados pueden comprobar quién financia la campaña de un candidato consultando el sitio web de la Junta Electoral del Estado de Illinois o la base de datos Reform for Illinois’ Sunshine.

¿Serán compensados los miembros de la junta escolar?

La respuesta corta es no. Los miembros de juntas escolares en Chicago y el resto de Illinois sólo pueden ser reembolsados por gastos relacionados con sus deberes.

Sin embargo, el otoño pasado, los legisladores estatales propusieron un proyecto de ley con el fin de eliminar la prohibición de compensar a los miembros de las juntas escolares. Este proyecto de ley no obligaría al distrito escolar a proporcionar un salario ni establecería unos mínimos sobre cuánto se pagaría a los miembros de la junta escolar. Simplemente permitiría a los consejos locales decidir. Este proyecto de ley está estancado en la comisión de Asignaciones del Senado desde octubre.

¿Recibirá la nueva junta escolar formación de la Asociación de Juntas Escolares de Illinois?

No necesariamente. Según el código escolar del estado y una norma de la Junta de Educación de Chicago, todos los miembros de la junta escolar, nombrados o elegidos, deben recibir entrenamiento. Sin embargo, los miembros de la junta escolar no tienen que ser entrenados por la Asociación de Juntas Escolares de Illinois.

El estado exige que los miembros de la junta reciban entrenamiento en leyes educativas, leyes laborales, supervisión financiera, y rendición de cuentas, responsabilidad financiera de los miembros de la junta escolar y entrenamientos sobre la importancia de los traumas en los estudiantes y el personal. La Junta de Educación de Chicago dice que los miembros deben ser entrenados en la Ley de Reuniones Abiertas, el Código de Ética, y la ley de Illinois Mandated Reporter, entre otros temas.

¿Aún tiene preguntas? Háganos saber en el siguiente formulario.

Loading…

Samantha Smylie es la reportera de educación estatal de Chalkbeat Chicago y cubre los distritos escolares de todo el estado, la legislación, la educación especial y la junta estatal de educación. Póngase en contacto con Samantha en ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea es la jefa de redacción de Chalkbeat Chicago. Póngase en contacto con Becky en bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por INN.

Chicago Public Schools estimates between 9,000 and 17,000 migrant students are enrolled, depending on who is counted

2024-04-18T00:03:39+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

How many migrant students are enrolled in Chicago Public Schools? The exact number is hard to pin down.

The district says about 8,900 migrant students are currently attending local schools, according to CPS data. But that number climbs to more than 17,000 when using the Illinois State Board of Education’s definition for students eligible for the Immigrant Education Program — students born outside the U.S. who started attending school in this country in the past three years are categorized in this group.

An accurate picture of how many immigrant students are arriving and enrolling in local public schools is becoming more important as schools work to support newcomers from Latin America, as well as other countries around the world. A proposal in the Illinois legislature would provide money to districts faster to help new students.

But the size of the enrollment increase — and the existing resources — depends on which agency is counting students. In response to an information request from Chalkbeat for migrant student enrollment numbers, Chicago Public Schools and the Illinois State Board of Education produced different numbers, based on different definitions and methods of categorizing newly arrived students:

Chicago Public Schools says the district is currently serving 8,900 students who arrived since August 2022, including those who passed through the southern border and were bused to Chicago from Texas. The district uses five criteria to identify this cohort: students who speak languages other than English at home, have been identified as students in temporary living situations, are new to the district arriving after August 2022, were born outside of the country, or are listed on the city’s Department of Family and Support Services shelter roster.
The Illinois State Board of Education, on the other hand, says any student not born in the U.S. or Puerto Rico who has been attending school in this country for less than three years is eligible for the Immigrant Education Program. Chicago estimates roughly 17,000 students fit this definition. Chicago just started to collect this data in November 2023 and school staff are collecting the birth country and enrollment date of students.

Between 2019 and November 2023, Chicago Public Schools officials said, the district stopped gathering information on students’ birth country and the date of first enrollment in the U.S. in response to threats against immigrants and their citizenship status and as part of the implementation of sanctuary provision in the collective bargaining agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union. However, the district resumed the practice after being pushed by the state board of education.

In addition, the numbers continue to fluctuate. Last month, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez told reporters that the district has welcomed more than 6,000 new arrival students into schools this year.

Chicago Public Schools also estimates that its population of English learners – students whose first language is not English and are in need of bilingual programs and support – has increased by 12,000 students, jumping from 76,000 to 88,000 over the last year students as of April 12. English learners may include students born in the U.S.

A Chalkbeat analysis in February found that the number of English language learners in CPS grew since the end of September, with an additional 7,000 English learners enrolled in schools around the district.

Even as state and local school districts have different definitions on how to categorize students who recently immigrated to the United States, lawmakers, advocates, educators, and the Chicago Teachers Union continue to raise concerns that there are not enough bilingual staff and resources available to support students.

State Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, has filed a pair of bills — House Bill 2822 and House Bill 3991 — that would allow the Illinois State Board of Education to create a New Arrivals Grant program to distribute funding to school districts who need more support for new arrival students.

When Crespo first filed the bill last year, he asked the general assembly to approve $35 million. Now, he is asking for $188 million because the number of students has increased.

In February, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget did not include money for newcomers requested by the Illinois State Board of Education. A spokesperson for Pritzker’s office previously told Chalkbeat that schools can access federal funding through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and the governor’s proposed $350 million increase for K-12 schools will help.

Local education advocates say families who have migrated from Latin America countries are transient, often moving from community to community as they look for a home to settle in. As students continue to transfer between districts, advocates say the state’s evidence-based funding formula is unable to capture the growing need of schools.

The state distributes resources to districts based on enrollment and adds additional funding based on the number of low-income students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. The state formula looks at enrollment from two points in time during the school year. With families moving between communities, the number may not capture the number of immigrant students a district has served.

Bridget Peach, executive director of Ed-Red — an organization that advocates for suburban school districts — and a supporter of Crespo’s bill, says students migrating from the southern border often leave school districts quickly.

“At the beginning of the year, the enrollment snapshot is taken,” Peach said. “Some of those students are leaving the next week, some are staying until the end of the school year, but they aren’t re-enrolling in the district.”

State lawmakers are debating whether to include Crespo’s New Arrivals Grant program in the budget. They must pass a budget at the end of the legislative session, which is scheduled for the end of May.

Dissecting frogs and dispelling stereotypes: This South Side teacher wants her second graders to love math and science

2024-04-15T19:08:36+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Precious Allen’s main goal as a teacher is to create more first-generation doctors and engineers. She believes that the only way to accomplish this goal is to expose children to science, engineering, math, and medicine as early as second grade.

Allen’s second grade students at Betty Shabazz Academy, a charter school in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on the city’s South Side, have already dissected frogs while wearing doctor’s outfits and gear. One might think that second graders would be squeamish when it comes to dissections, but Allen said that her students took it very seriously.

Allen, who has been teaching for 12 years, was celebrated as a finalist for Golden Apple’s Excellence in Teaching award — an honor she said was “kind of surreal.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Precious Allen poses for a portait.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher?

I wanted to be a pediatrician. But in my high school experience, I didn’t have guidance that pushed the importance of SATs or ACTs. My school counselor advised us to go to a community college, get our GPAs up, and then transfer to a four-year university. That’s what I did. I didn’t know anything about a pre-med track, and I didn’t have any guidance on scholarships. I switched majors multiple times — going from interior design to early childhood education and psychology, and eventually into elementary education.

How do you get to know your students?

There’s this activity that I found 10 years ago on Pinterest called, “I wish my teacher knew… .” It goes like “I wish my teacher knew that sometimes I don’t eat over the weekend,” or “I wish my teacher knew that in the morning time, my mom drops me off at my dad’s house and I miss my mother.” I do it every year because it really helps me see the human before the student.

Tell us about a favorite lesson to teach. Where did the idea come from?

The human body. The idea stemmed from when I had my daughter. I took her to several pediatricians because I felt like I wasn’t being listened to. When I finally found a pediatrician who was Black, I felt like she really listened to the concerns that I had. So when I first taught the human body, it was with the mindset of trying to create first-generation medical students.

What object would you be helpless without during the school day?

My clipboard. It’s where I track all of my students [and] the things that they’re doing. It is not used as a consequence; it’s used as a celebration so that parents can see all the great things that their child has accomplished throughout the day.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.

I had a couple of bad experiences with parents who were upset during my first few years of teaching. When I look back now, I say, “I should have practiced empathy.” Now, I’m able to see that more is going on when a parent is frustrated, and I’ve learned that there are other issues that parents are going through that are upsetting them. They could be experiencing homelessness, going through a divorce or a custody battle. I think that approach has really helped me to build relationships with parents.

What part of your job is most difficult?

I would say the most difficult part is trying to navigate a stereotype against Black children that says they’re hard to teach. I have to work extra hard in the classroom to show that my students are just as smart as a student in Japan or a student in the suburbs.

What was the biggest misconception that you initially brought to teaching?

During my first two years of teaching, I realized I was passing on my bias [against] math to my students. I taught every other subject with my heart, but with math, I taught it exactly like the book said and nothing else. I realized it was bad. For one year, I only went to math professional development courses. Now, math is my favorite subject to teach.

What advice would you give to new teachers?

Give yourself grace, and do not compare yourself to anyone else. The last thing I would say is to “check your politics at the door,” which means whatever politics is happening at school, when you’re in front of your students, enjoy them and have fun with them.

What’s a book that has helped you become a better teacher, and why?

“Yardstick” by Chip Wood. It’s about developmental changes for children ages of four to 14. I give it to my parents every year. It helps me and the parents understand what’s happening developmentally so they can grow with their child.

Six things to know about Chicago’s board of education election

2024-03-27T23:10:38+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Leer en español.

Campaign money, voting districts, and school board member compensation are some of the issues Chicagoans have questions about as the city’s first school board elections loom.

Starting Jan. 15, 2025, Chicago’s Board of Education will go from seven members appointed by the mayor to a 21-member board with 10 elected members and 11 appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Campaign season is officially underway and candidates are surfacing.

Tuesday was the first day people could collect signatures to get on the ballot for the Nov. 5 election. As of Wednesday, six candidates have filed campaign finance paperwork with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Last month, Chalkbeat asked readers what questions they had about Chicago’s shift to an elected school board. We got dozens of responses. We’ll be answering them over the coming months, starting with these six focused on the electoral process.

How were Chicago Board of Education members chosen in the past?

Chicago’s school board is currently made up of seven members appointed by the mayor, who has unilateral power to pick anyone to serve. In the past, those appointments have been secret until the mayor announced them, often in a press conference or press release. Both former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel replaced the entire school board after being elected.

The state gave Chicago’s mayor the power to appoint school board members in 1995, when then-Mayor Richard M. Daley was in office. Prior to that, the mayor would select school board members through a community nominating process.

During November’s elections, will all districts be up for election? How long will board members serve?

Yes. Illinois lawmakers divided Chicago into 10 districts for the 2024 election. On Nov. 5, residents of each district will elect a school board member to represent them for two years. On or before Dec. 16, 2024, Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint 10 school board members — one from each district — and a board president to serve two-year terms.

Here’s how it will work.

Each district is also subdivided into two regions. For example, District 1 is made up of two parts: 1A and a 1B. If the winning candidate in District 1 lives in 1A, the mayor has to appoint someone who lives in 1B. If the winner in District 2 lives in 2B, the mayor must appoint someone who lives in 2A, and so on.

In 2026, Chicagoans will vote for candidates in all 20 subdistricts to serve either a two-year or four-year term. The school board president will be elected that same year citywide to a four-year term, which will start on Jan. 15, 2027.

What qualifications does someone need to be a Chicago school board member?

State law says that to serve on the CPS school board, you must be:

a U.S. citizen.
a registered voter.
at least 18 years old.
a resident of the city, district, or subdistrict for at least one year immediately before election or appointment.

In addition, board members must not be registered sex offenders or contractors or vendors working with the district. Candidates must also get at least 1,000 signatures on an election petition, among other rules.

Will there be any oversight into school board members’ campaign finances? How can citizens check who is donating to campaigns?

The Chicago Board of Education requires its members to file a statement of economic interests and recommends that board members keep a list of campaign donors. Citizens can check who is financing a candidate’s campaign by searching the Illinois State Board of Elections website or Reform for Illinois’ Sunshine Database.

Will school board members be compensated?

The short answer is no. Currently, school board members in Chicago and the rest of Illinois can be reimbursed for expenses related to their duties.

However, last fall, state lawmakers proposed a bill to lift a ban on compensation for school board members from being compensated. This bill would not mandate the school district to provide a salary or set minimums for how much school board members would be paid. It would simply allow local boards to decide. This bill has been stuck in the Senate’s Assignments committee since October.

Will Chicago’s elected school board be trained by the Illinois Association of School Boards?

Not necessarily. According to the state’s school code and a Chicago Board of Education rule, all school board members, appointed or elected, must be trained. However, school board members do not have to be trained by the Illinois Association of School Boards.

The state requires board members to be trained in education law, labor law, financial oversight and accountability, financial responsibility of school board members, and trauma-informed practices for students and staff. Chicago’s Board of Education says that members must be trained in the Opening Meetings Act, the Code of Ethics, and the Illinois Mandated Reporter law, among other topics.

Still have questions? Let us know in the form below.

Loading…

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Bill creating new state Department of Early Childhood clears key Illinois House committee

2024-03-22T20:59:18+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

A bill creating a new state Department of Early Childhood cleared a key Illinois House committee Friday morning by a 14-0 vote – advancing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s goal of streamlining early childhood and child care programs.

The bill now heads to the House floor.

If House Bill 5451 clears the general assembly this session, the state’s Department of Early Childhood would start operations on July 1 and would oversee programs such as early intervention for young children with disabilities, home visiting, and child care assistance programs to help low-income families access child care.

While the department is in a transition phase, the Illinois State Board of Education, state Department of Human Services, and the Department of Children and Families Services would continue to run child care programs and early childhood education programs.

The Department of Early Childhood would be the lead state agency to administer and provide early childhood education and child care programs and services to children and families by July 1, 2026.

In opening remarks to the House’s Child Care Accessibility & Early Childhood Education Committee on Friday, State Rep. Mary Beth Canty, a Democrat representing Arlington Heights, said placing childhood services under one department would be easier on families with young children and child care providers.

“This bill will make early childhood simpler, better, and fairer,” said Canty. “It will make it easier for families to access services, it will allow the state to more equitably serve high-need families, and will also reduce the administrative burden on providers.”

HB 5451 does not change any child care programs during the transition, according to Canty. Any changes to child care or early childhood education programs would have to come before the general assembly either next year or during 2026.

State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, Senate Majority leader and a Democrat representing Chicago’s west side and nearby suburbs, proposed a Senate version of HB 5451, known as Senate Bill 1, which is already on the Senate’s floor.

During Friday’s committee meeting, other House representatives raised concerns about the costs of operating the Department of Early Childhood and whether state employees who work under the three state departments that currently operate early childhood education programs will be able to maintain their jobs.

Ann Whalen, Early Childhood Transition director, testified during the hearing that the original cost analysis estimated $13 million to launch the department, but the future budget would be determined later.

When asked if current state employees would be able to retain their jobs during the creation of the new department, Whalen said personnel may be pulled from one department to the other. “No one will lose their jobs. Period,” she said at the committee hearing.

Earlier in the hearing, Canty noted that AFSCME Local 31 and the Illinois Federation of Teachers represent early childhood education and child care workers across the state. Both unions currently have ongoing negotiations with the state about the development of the new department.

Canty said current workers are protected under state law and would be “unaffected” by her proposal.

Pritzker also plans to boost funding for early childhood education in the state’s 2025 budget during the second year of his Smart Start Illinois Initiative — which has the goal of creating 20,000 new preschool seats for 3- and 4-year olds. Last year, he added $250 million to the plan. According to the governor’s office and the state board, the plan has already created an additional 5,800 preschool seats.

In February, Pritzker proposed a $150 million increase for early childhood education. The increase includes $75 million for the Illinois State Board of Education’s early childhood education block grant to add 5,000 more public school seats for preschool students. Pritzker also recommended an additional $5 million for home visiting programs and $36.5 million for the child care assistance programs for the state Department of Human Services.

The state legislature is expected to approve a final budget for fiscal year 2025 at the end of session in late May.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget plan leaves out extra money for schools to help migrant students

2024-03-18T19:28:29+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois lawmakers and education advocates say Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget does not recommend enough money for schools to help newly arrived migrant students.

Pritzker’s budget proposal in February did not include an additional $35 million to support migrant students that the Illinois State Board of Education had requested in the budget proposal it submitted in January.

State Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, has filed a pair of bills — House Bill 2822 and House Bill 3991— that would allow the Illinois State Board of Education to create a $35 million New Arrival Grant program that would distribute funding to school districts to support migrant students.

Crespo said he plans to amend the legislation to request $150 million for the grant program.

Both bills are currently in committees in the House.

A spokesperson for Pritzker said in a statement to Chalkbeat that the governor’s priority is to ensure newly arrived migrant families have shelter, food, and a path to independence. The governor and Cook County officials pledged $250 million for shelter, health care, and wraparound services in February

“Schools are also able to access federal funding for many new arrived students under the federal McKinney Vento law to support homeless services,” said the governor’s office. “The Governor also proposed a $350 million increase in K-12 funding and new students will be incorporated into funding formulas at their districts moving forward.”

Since 2017, Illinois has distributed funding to K-12 public schools through a formula that takes into account need, such as how many low-income students, English language learners, or students with disabilities are enrolled.

Erika Méndez, director of P-12 education policy and advocacy at the Latino Policy Forum, said the state’s evidence-based funding formula to fund K-12 public schools is not enough to keep up with the number of migrant students entering and leaving school districts.

“When you’re thinking about funding distribution, they use enrollment data which doesn’t capture all of the transiency that happens in a school year when you’re receiving newcomers or they’re leaving your school districts,” said Méndez.

Méndez said migrant families are resettling in communities around the state and schools need money to reduce class sizes, address staffing shortages, and fix infrastructure of schools.

Chicago Public Schools has said it does not collect information on the immigration status of students. But overall enrollment in the district has climbed since the start of the school year and nearly 7,000 more students have been identified as English language learners, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of mid-year enrollment data from the district. English language learners are not all new arrivals.

School districts across the state have also seen an increase in English language learner enrollment over the last five years, moving from 12.1% of the state’s total enrollment in 2019 to 14.6% in 2023, according to the state report card. In October, state officials said they could not say how many students are migrants from Latin America or refugee students from Ukraine or Afghanistan.

Teachers have said schools need more support to help students who are in need of housing, clothing, and food, as well as more staff who can speak Spanish.

The City of Chicago has reported over 37,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in the city as of March 14, 2024. The city’s dashboard doesn’t specify how many of those new arrivals are of school age.

Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and one of the architects of the state’s evidence-based funding formula, said the funding formula will adjust for the needs of the school based on the schools overall enrollment and the enrollment of students from low-income households, English learners, and students with disabilities. But it depends on the tier of the school.

Tiers determine the level of need for state funding. School districts that fall in Tier 1 or 2 are higher on the priority list for state funding and receive more funding, while Tiers 3 and 4 receive a smaller amount of state dollars.

“CPS schools are in Tier 2,” said Martire. “They are not going to get the full benefit of the support of the enhanced investment that a Tier 1 district would get.”

Chicago Public Schools moved down from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in 2022 after the district saw a loss of low-income students but an increase in property tax base. In 2022 and 2023, the district saw slightly less new money from the state. Since the change in tiers, CPS officials have raised concerns about the decrease in state funding and what it means for the district.

District officials recently said in a statement to Chalkbeat that they appreciate the governor’s continued commitment to put new money into the state’s evidence-based funding formula, but the model has fallen short, leaving CPS about $1.1 billion short of its “adequacy target.”

A report from the Center of Tax and Budget accountability found last year that the evidence-based funding formula is working to reduce funding gaps between wealthier and underfunded districts and increase funding for districts serving more students of color and those from low-income families.

The state’s final budget won’t be finalized until the end of the spring legislative session in late May.

Illinois could switch from the SAT to the ACT next school year

2024-03-14T17:04:03+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Next year, Illinois high school juniors could take the ACT instead of the SAT as the federally-mandated state test. The Illinois State Board of Education has started the process of awarding a three-year, $53 million contract to ACT Inc.

The College Board’s contract to administer the SAT for 11th graders and PSAT for ninth and 10th graders is set to expire June 30. The state board is required by federal law to administer accountability assessments to high school students. State law says that exam must be a nationally recognized college entrance exam like the SAT or ACT and must be awarded through a competitive procurement process. All Illinois public high school students must take a college entrance exam in order to receive their high school diploma.

The ACT would be administered in school buildings starting with the school year 2024-25, but students will still be able to take the SAT if they want to pay for it.

Illinois’ plan to switch tests comes at a time when the SAT is going fully digital and will take two hours instead of three. (The ACT is three hours). The new SAT will also be adaptive, with test questions that adjust in difficulty based on how students respond to previous questions.

While around 2,000 schools nationwide have become test optional or test free, elite universities like Yale, Brown, and M.I.T have backtracked and reinstated standardized tests as an admission requirement.

Illinois used the ACT for 15 years before the state board switched to the SAT in 2016. Since then, the state board has renewed the College Board’s contract several times. In 2016 and 2018, ACT Inc. protested the state’s College Board contract without success.

The new contract says that ACT Inc. will provide an assessment to ninth, 10th and 11th graders that aligns with the Illinois Learning Standards in English and math. The next step in the process is for certain parties to protest the bid. In the past, when the College Board was awarded a contract, ACT Inc. protested it. The board has not said when it will formally approve the contract.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said in an email to Chalkbeat that “CPS urges that if ISBE makes a change in the high school accountability assessment selection, they allow at least a year transition period before any new assessment becomes mandatory to ensure a smooth transition for our students.”

The Chicago Board of Education renewed a three-year contract with College Board in April 2023 and a spokesperson for the district said it plans to continue administering the PSAT and SAT until at least 2026.

Matthew Raimondi, who works at district U-46 in Elgin, asked the board on Wednesday morning at their monthly meeting not to move forward with contracting with ACT Inc. because he says the exam has not changed for years and does not align with the state’s learning standards.

“That high school assessment is ultimately going to guide how teachers teach. Teachers are going to teach to the test that you select,” said Raimondi. “I urge you as board members to make sure you make the best decision to move Illinois forward and not back to a test from the last century.”

State Superintendent Tony Sanders wrote in a weekly message Tuesday that the state board will ensure that assessments are in line with the board’s learning standards and that ISBE will provide schools with “ample support.”

Cassie Creswell, executive director of Illinois Families for Public Schools, says that no matter what tests the state switches to, she wants to protect Illinois’ students from having their data sold to other institutions.

Creswell urged board members on Wednesday to stop allowing testing agencies to sell student data that they collected through their exams. Creswell’s group recently sent a letter to state Attorney General Kwame Raoul asking his office to enforce the state’s student data privacy law, the Illinois Student Online Privacy Protection Act.

“Any new contract signed with the College Board or ACT Inc. should be clear that data sales are illegal and will no longer be tolerated,” Creswell said. “There is no exception in the student data privacy law for asking students or parents permission for sales. Licensing is actually the same as selling or renting data.” Creswell said.

In February 2024, the New York attorney general announced that the College Board is set to pay $750,000 in a settlement for sharing and selling student data it collected through the SAT, PSAT, and Advanced Placement tests.

Correction: March 19, 2024: An earlier version of this story said Cassie Creswell is the executive director of Illinois for Public Families. The organization’s correct name is Illinois Families for Public Schools.

Illinois lawmakers challenge Chicago school board’s plans to remove police, rethink choice policy

2024-03-11T20:07:43+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

Illinois state lawmakers filed two bills last week aimed at reversing the Chicago Board of Education’s decisions to rethink school choice policies and remove school resource officers from campuses.

The bills focus on board moves that have drawn both support and sharp pushback in recent months from school communities and elected officials. Those decisions include a plan to reconsider the district’s system of school choice — including charter, selective enrollment, magnet, and gifted schools — and to create a new school safety plan that bans the use of school resource officers, or on-campus police.

The new state bills would significantly curtail both board decisions. One bill would prevent the closure of selective-enrollment schools and any changes to admissions policies at those schools for the next three years. The other would let local school councils retain the power to decide whether they want on-campus police — a right they would lose by next school year under a new safety plan.

Both bills have gathered support from other Chicago-based state lawmakers and powerful allies, including House Speaker Chris Welch.

The legislation is an example of lawmakers seeking to use state power to override Chicago’s authority over its schools. It comes just days after the Illinois House and Senate passed a bill governing elections for Chicago’s first-ever elected school board.

That power dynamic drew criticism from Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates, who has supported the board’s moves around school choice and resource officers.

“I remember being told by (Illinois General Assembly) members that they would *not* circumvent local control of CPS BOE,” Davis Gates tweeted in response to a tweet about the resource officer legislation. “That was in 2013 when Rahm Emanuel closed down 50 Black schools impacting nearly 20K Black children. Can anyone help me define irony?”

Dwayne Truss, a longtime activist on the West Side who has opposed the board’s decision on school resource officers, felt state lawmakers took an important step.

It’s the state’s attempt, Truss said, to “say, ‘Hey, if this is what they want, and it’s fair and it’s reasonable, then we have to protect those rights.’”

Some local school councils want to keep police officers

One of the state bills, House Bill 5008, would allow local school councils to contract with the Chicago Police Department for school resource officers. It would counteract a board vote two weeks ago to create a new school safety policy by June 27 that would end the use of school resource officers, effectively removing officers from 39 schools that currently have them, by next year.

“Local school councils are designed to make the best decision for their school,” said Rep. Mary Gill, a Democrat who represents neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side and south suburbs, and is a key sponsor of HB 5008. “This is about keeping the power local to be able to decide if a (school resource officer) is needed, and from my research, 39 high schools would like to keep them. I think that’s enough.”

This bill passed the House’s Police and Fire committee last week, 13-0, and is headed to the House floor.

The safety plan board members called for in their vote two weeks ago would focus on more “holistic” approaches to discipline, such as restorative justice practices, which emphasize conflict resolution.

In steering away from on-campus police officers, the board cited data showing that Black students and those with disabilities were disciplined and arrested at school at disproportionately higher rates than their peers.

Schools that implemented restorative justice saw a drop in student arrests, according to a recent study.

The board decision drew substantial support, including from organizations that had pushed for years to get rid of on-campus police officers and use the money on other resources, such as more social workers or alternative discipline practices.

But it also triggered a backlash from community members and elected officials who want local councils — not the board — to decide whether their schools should have school resource officers.

Froy Jimenez, member of the district’s Local School Council Advisory Board, said Rep. Gill is “doing the city a big favor” by letting councils make the decision. Many parents, students and staff will be happy if the bill passes, said Jimenez, who is also a teacher at Hancock College Preparatory High School, which voted to remove its resource officers.

“Some will choose not to, and having that ability is crucial,” he said.

CPS spokesperson Sylvia Barragan said in a statement that the district “follows the policies and procedures set by the Board of Education and the Illinois State Board of Education” and that the district “remains committed to working with our leaders, administrators, and school staff toward improving efforts to bolster student safety and protection.”

Lawmakers say ‘hands off’ selective enrollment schools

The second bill, House Bill 5766, would prevent the closure of any school with selective admissions criteria — such as the city’s 11 selective high schools — until Feb. 1, 2027. The bill also calls for a halt to any changes to admissions criteria for selective schools or any decrease in funding to selective schools until 2027.

The bill is a response to the board resolution stating that it would rethink the school choice system and invest more resources in neighborhood schools. The resolution criticized admissions policies at selective enrollment and other “choice” schools, which were originally created to desegregate the school system but have in recent years led to segregation along the lines of student race and income.

Rep. Margaret Croke, a Democrat serving neighborhoods on the city’s northern lakefront who is sponsoring the bill, said her constituents were concerned about changes to selective enrollment schools under a majority appointed school board. They would rather wait for changes to be made after the Chicago Board of Education is fully elected during 2026, she said.

“If an elected school board that has been elected by the city of Chicago decides to take a position or action as it pertains to selective enrollment schools, I may not agree with it, but they were elected by the constituents and the voters of the city of Chicago,” said Croke.

Croke said she believes the current board is trying to change the funding formula to provide less money to selective enrollment and give more to neighborhood schools. The board’s resolution states that it wants to “ensure equitable funding and resources across schools within the District using an equity lens.”

Board members have expressed a desire to scrutinize charter schools more closely. They also want the district to provide more resources to neighborhood schools, or a child’s zoned school, in order to support “students furthest away from opportunity and ensure that all students have access to a world-class public pre-K through 12th-grade education,” officials said.

The board’s resolution did not include any language about closing schools, and board members have stated they don’t plan to close selective-enrollment schools. Written into the compromise hybrid school board bill in 2021 was a moratorium on school Chicago closures until after Jan. 15, 2025.

The resolution didn’t call for specific changes; board members said they want to hear from the public on what the district should do. The resulting plan will be part of the district’s five-year strategic plan, which the board is expected to vote on this summer.

Community groups call for better engagement

The pushback in Springfield comes after a coalition of community groups in Chicago sent a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson urging him to push his hand-picked school board to do more — and better — community engagement.

The letter, which was sent to other elected officials, city staff, district officials, and school board members, also asked that the resolution on rethinking school choice policies, among other things, be repealed because it “was crafted with no input from the communities it will impact” and was published and approved during the final week of classes before winter break.

“There wasn’t a public comment opportunity when the resolution was announced. And then it just kind of passed,” said Daniel Anello, executive director of Kids First Chicago, a parent advocacy organization that helped create the letter.

In December, district officials said they would hold community engagement sessions in February. A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said last week that the district now plans to hold community engagement sessions around the next five-year strategic plan after spring break, which is the last week of March.

Becky Vevea contributed reporting.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois House passes plan for Chicago’s elected school board

2024-03-07T21:58:38+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.

The Illinois House has approved a Senate proposal that would allow Chicagoans to vote for 10 out of 21 school board members during the Nov. 5 election. The bill now heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s officer for final approval.

Senate Bill 15, which passed 75-31 on Thursday, includes boundaries for the districts that school board members will represent, ethics guidelines, and term limits.

November marks the first time Chicago voters will be able to elect school board members. Voters will elect 10 board members while Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint 11, effectively keeping control until the end of his first term. In 2026, all 21 seats will be up for election, with 20 members elected from districts and the board president voted on by the entire city.

The House vote Thursday comes just two weeks before March 26, when school board candidates can start to gather signatures to get on the Nov. 5 ballot. According to the bill, candidates will need to collect at least 1,000 signatures by June 24 to get on the ballot.

Rep. Ann Williams, a Democrat representing neighborhoods on Chicago’s north side, said Thursday afternoon that if this debate had taken place a year ago, she would have pushed for a fully elected school board. However, with November only a few months away, she feels the plan to elect 10 instead of all 21 is the best way to move forward.

“CPS is a $9 billion dollar agency which serves over 325,000 students,” said Williams. “It feels irresponsible to completely turn over the governance of Chicago Public Schools in a matter of months without adequate time to plan.”

While House members praised the work Williams and other lawmakers have done to establish an elected school board, others expressed concerns the shift in governance could impact the district’s finances.

Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, said he is still worried about the financial impacts of Chicago’s elected board on the state and city.

A 2022 report required by state law detailed costs the Chicago Board of Education might take on as the board transitions to an elected board. For example, the report said, the City of Chicago could begin to charge the school district for things such as water and rent in non-district public facilities.

Chicago’s school board has been appointed by the mayor since 1995. For years, community organizations and the Chicago Teachers Union lobbied state lawmakers and rallied local support to get a fully elected school board. The effort gained momentum after school closures in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides.

In 2021, the general assembly passed a compromise bill that created a hybrid board in 2024, which drew protests from local advocates.