Chalkbeat

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

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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.

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 extends deadline for $500 grants to help families of students with disabilities

2024-11-11T22:03:42+00:00

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The City of Chicago has extended a deadline for low-income families to apply for at least $500 if they have children with disabilities — a cash grant effort meant to provide some relief for students and parents with additional needs who faced challenges during the pandemic.

The original deadline for the effort — first unveiled in April — was Oct. 30. The Mayor’s Office for People With Disabilities has extended the deadline to this Friday, Nov. 15.

The new deadline comes after less than half of the desired number of grantees had been approved for or received the grants as of early October. Those interested can apply online at www.AdaMOPD.com or can text “AdaMOPD” to (877) 478-1359.

When the city announced the program, it said it would provide grants to as many as 8,000 families using federal COVID relief money from the Biden administration. But as of mid-September, roughly six weeks before the original deadline, the city had awarded just 2,000 grants, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat through a Freedom of Information Act request. At that time, a total of 8,722 applications had been submitted, according to the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities.

By Oct. 1, 9,263 applications had been received or started, according to a breakdown provided by then-City Hall spokesperson Ronnie Reese. At that time, a total 3,717 families had been approved for the grants, which included families who hadn’t received the money yet, Reese said. Roughly 4,400 people had started applications but had not completed them and “have not provided all the required documentation or information,” Reese said at the time, adding that a community outreach team was trying to help these families to finish their applications.

The city had asked another 779 applicants to provide more information as of Oct. 1. The city rejected 264 applications because they weren‘t eligible; 57 applications hadn’t yet been reviewed. A City Hall spokesperson did not immediately share updated figures on Monday.

Students with disabilities faced mounting challenges during the pandemic. These students are legally entitled to services at school that are outlined in an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, which can include extra help or therapies at school. School closures during the pandemic, however, separated many students from those supports.

Like other districts, Chicago Public Schools fell far behind during the early part of the pandemic in evaluating students with disabilities for the support they needed, a Chalkbeat investigation found.

The city had budgeted $5 million for the program through American Rescue Plan dollars, which the federal government distributed to cities and states during the pandemic. About $1 million of that went to Ada S. McKinley Community Center, which the city partnered with to distribute the grant, in order to cover administrative costs.

Chicago received almost $2 billion in American Rescue Plan funds. Similar to COVID relief money that went to school districts, these funds are temporary and must be earmarked by next month, according to the city.

Grantees for the program must be parents or guardians of students with disabilities and can apply for up to two grants per household. Applicants must be Chicago residents and must earn no more than 300% of the federal poverty level, or $93,600 at most for a family of four, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Families must have documentation that proves their child receives services at school, such as an Individualized Education Program or 504 plan, or proof from a doctor that their child has a disability.

In a prepared statement, Jamal Malone, CEO of Ada S. McKinley Community Services, which contracted with the city to help sign people up for the grant, said that with school in “full swing,” families may learn about the grant during school visits, such as during parent-teacher conferences.

His organization is also hosting events at local libraries to inform families about the grants.

Sherry Henry's son poses with his artwork. Henry says his love for art grew after he purchased a sketchbook with some of the grant money from the city of Chicago that was meant to help students with disabilities from low-income households.

Sherry Henry, whose son is in middle school and is on the autism spectrum, attended the mayor’s announcement in April and said she received her grant money over the summer. She said she largely used the grant to pay her bills, but she also let her son choose something he wanted. He picked out some sketchbooks.

She credits the extra money for sparking a love of art in her son, who chose to buy the sketchbooks.

“He never said he was going to be an artist before, but he said he’s gonna be an artist now, so yeah, so I can smile about that,” Henry said.

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

Chicago’s low-income families of students with disabilities eligible for new $500 grants

2024-04-23T19:00:41+00:00

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The city of Chicago is using pandemic relief money to offer $500 grants to students with disabilities who come from low-income families, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced Tuesday.

Families need to apply for the one-time grants, which will be awarded to up to 8,000 people.

The Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities is partnering with Ada S. McKinley Community Services to distribute $5 million through the new Diverse Learners Recovery Fund, supported by American Rescue Plan dollars, which the federal government distributed to help cities and states recover from the pandemic. Chicago received nearly $1.9 billion in those funds, which must be allocated for spending by December 2024, according to the city.

Most of the dollars in the Diverse Learners Recovery Fund will go toward grants to families, while $1 million is reserved to cover administrative costs for Ada S. McKinley Community Services, according to a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

Sherry Henry, the mother of a child with autism, speaks with Mayor Brandon Johnson during an event announcing $500 grants for low-income families of students with disabilities.

Sherry Henry, a Hyde Park mother of a 12-year-old boy with autism, said her family had spotty access to the internet during remote school, which made it difficult for her son to log onto virtual classes, leading him to fail a math class.

She did not have to pay for services out of pocket, but she says she could use the grant to buy supplies to help him with dealing with his sensory integration, a disorder that impacts his ability to process his senses, such as touch. Because of that, Henry buys special shoes for her son and recently purchased tennis rackets to help with his grip.

“When I hear about things like this, I always come out to see how I can support my son for my household,” Henry said.

Parents and guardians of students with disabilities can apply for up to two grants per household. Applicants must be residents of Chicago and must earn a household income equal to or less than 300% of the federal poverty level, or $93,600 at most for a family of four, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They must also have documentation proving their child receives services at school, such as an Individualized Education Program or 504 plan, or certification from a doctor that their child has a disability.

At an event announcing the grants, Johnson acknowledged the challenges that young people with disabilities faced during the pandemic, when “typical support systems” were cut off as schools shut down.

“Many families have had to make difficult financial choices to ensure that their children remain on track with their education, and I want to honor those families for all of their hard work and the extra hours that it took to provide for and nurture and raise a family of a child, particularly one with a disability,” Johnson said.

Students with disabilities are legally entitled to school services that are outlined in an Individualized Education Program, or IEP. Those services are meant to provide accommodations for students or give them extra help or therapies in school, but school closures forced by the pandemic separated many students with disabilities from those critical supports.

Like other districts, Chicago Public Schools fell behind in evaluating what support students with disabilities needed. In the 2019-20 school year, when the pandemic hit, more than 10,050 reevaluations, initial evaluations, and annual reviews of student IEPs were incomplete, according to a Chalkbeat investigation. That’s triple the number from the previous school year.

Bridgeport mother Shareia Ramey, whose 15-year-old son has a seizure disorder, said she’s spent a lot of money out of pocket to meet his needs for services not provided by his school, such as a walker to help him balance himself and other medical costs.

Ramey thinks the grant will be helpful for many families but she’s hoping for more support from the city and public schools, noting that “this is a continuous lifetime that our children with disabilities have,” Ramey said.

Josh Long, the new chief of Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Diverse Learners, saw the pandemic’s impact on students when he was a principal at a school that provides specialized support to older students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Those students had suddenly lost “repetition and consistency,” which they critically need in order to learn, he said.

“What we saw across the board with all of our students was gaps just in their learning,” Long said.

Long applauded the city’s idea of offering grants, which could provide relief for families who are paying out of pocket for medical costs, food, or even transportation to and from therapy services or doctor’s appointments, he said.

Families will be chosen for grants through a lottery system. Those interested can apply online at www.AdaMOPD.com or can text “AdaMOPD” to (877) 478-1359.

Applications will be open through Oct. 30.

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

From ‘winning the lottery’ to ‘leaner schools’: How the end of federal COVID money could impact Chicago schools

2024-04-10T21:06:27+00:00

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For principals in Chicago, putting together a school budget has always involved difficult choices.

Then three years ago, a $2.8 billion windfall of federal COVID money for Chicago Public Schools, meant to help students recover from the pandemic, suddenly changed the equation.

At one school, where nearly all of the students came from low-income households, the additional money meant more after-school programs for everyone, tutoring for struggling students, open gym, and even a staff-created crafting class where students could get additional social-emotional support. Test scores went up and staff noticed fewer fights, said a former school administrator who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly.

“Winning the lottery is what it felt like,” she said. “Everything your kid ever asked for, you could give them.”

Research shows Chicago students are rebounding faster than other districts, particularly in reading, efforts such as tutoring are paying off, and the number of school social workers in CPS has doubled.

But the extra federal money that helped make that progress possible, known formally as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief or ESSER, is running out, meaning some of those programs could be curtailed or cut.

A Chalkbeat analysis of school budgets for the past three years found that federal COVID relief made up 7% of all the money that went to schools. And while officials said Monday they will not reduce the total amount of money dedicated to schools, they said some campuses’ “funding levels may change,” as they shift to a new funding formula that guarantees a minimum number of staff for all schools, according to a letter district officials sent to families and staff.

Next year, CPS plans to spend the last $300 million of its $2.8 billion allocation of federal COVID money, but will still face a $391 million deficit. CEO Pedro Martinez signaled recently that hard cuts, such as for critical building repairs, could be ahead but he wants to protect classrooms from losing resources.

Looking back, more than half of Chicago’s federal COVID money went to staff salaries and benefits. In an interview with Chalkbeat, Martinez said the federal COVID dollars helped the district avoid cuts because of a longstanding structural deficit – when expenses exceed revenue.

That deficit was a problem even before the pandemic for many reasons, he said, including the 2019 CTU contract, which committed to hiring more staff and increasing salaries and benefits. The district is once again negotiating new contracts with the Chicago Teachers Union and the union representing school support staff. Both will impact future school years when federal COVID money is gone.

Chalkbeat’s analysis of budget records and expenditure data from the past three years found the largest uses of COVID money at the school level were for reducing class sizes, supporting middle school programs, and expanding pre-K.

District officials said they want to preserve programs they believe have helped students, such as tutoring, professional development for teachers, after-school and summer programs, and investments in social-emotional learning. But some schools will be hit by changes next year.

For example, according to a presentation given last week to Local School Council members, some schools may lose their interventionists. These positions were created with federal COVID dollars to provide extra support to struggling students.

Next year, only Title I schools, which enroll large shares of students from low-income families, will be guaranteed interventionists.

Principals received their budgets Monday for next school year and could decide to pay for certain positions or programs using discretionary money. By early May, Local School Councils must vote on the budgets. Simultaneously, district officials are reviewing non-school spending and central office budgets before presenting a full budget to the school board for a vote in June.

“Literally every day, I kid you not, we’re going through all of our central office budgets, all of our operations, and seeing, ‘Where do we need to scale back?,’” Martinez said. “Our intention is going to be that as schools finish their budgets, we’re going to be able to protect those resources at the school level.”

How federal COVID money was spent at schools

At one Chicago school, which also serves many students from low-income families, having more adults in the building has made a big difference.

The school’s principal, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, said the districtwide tutoring effort, known as Tutor Corps, allowed her to hire a handful of tutors who have “had a profound impact” on children who were struggling in reading and math and are now showing signs of improvement in those subjects.

The principal was also able to shrink class sizes by hiring more teachers. That was possible because the district decided to cover the salaries of two teachers the principal tapped to become interventionists. Because they were some of her most veteran teachers with high salaries, the principal said, that freed up a good chunk of money to hire other staff.

But the principal didn’t know that the district used federal COVID money to help pay for her school’s pre-K teachers, or that her school’s budget was covered by millions in relief dollars over the past three years.

“Wow, it didn’t feel like that,” she said, referring to the amount of money her school received.

The disconnect might stem from complicated budgeting practices. CPS must first spend money, then submit claims to the state to get reimbursed with federal COVID dollars, said Mike Sitkowski, budget director for CPS. In order to collect that money, which helped keep school budgets afloat, officials were “shifting expenses throughout the year” – which did not impact school operations, he said, but may have gone unnoticed by school communities.

Between July 2020 and June 30, 2023, Chicago Public Schools budgeted a total $1.4 billion in federal COVID dollars directly to schools. Another $1.2 billion was budgeted for centrally funded programs, including those rooted at schools, such as tutoring, one-on-one academic intervention for students who fell behind, and summer school.

Multiple educators were surprised to hear how much of the COVID relief dollars had been budgeted for their schools. Some parents and students have also felt in the dark about how the money got spent.

Hal Woods, chief of policy for advocacy organization Kids First Chicago, said without that knowledge or a tracker detailing where the money is going for each school, parents and schools aren’t able to “be in lockstep” if they want to advocate for more funding or raise questions about how funds are being spent.

Wallace Wilbourn Jr., a teacher at Oscar DePriest Elementary School on the West Side and a member of the school’s Local School Council, said he doesn’t know how most of the money was spent. He joined the LSC last year, but wasn’t aware of any conversations the school had with staff about how the money was being spent, even though the LSC votes on a school’s budget.

Between 2021 and 2023, nearly $2.2 million in federal COVID dollars was budgeted for DePriest. Expenditure data obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request found slightly more than that – about $2.5 million – was spent.

DePriest had Tutor Corps tutors, Wilbourn said, an expense he supports because he felt many students needed the extra help as they returned to in-person school. Still, he wishes there was more transparency early on about the money.

“It’s nice to know what those dollars are being used for so then it gives you the power to advocate for those funds,” Wilbourn said.

Martinez said the district has been “very transparent” about how it was spending the federal dollars in multiple public presentations. However, Martinez said “it gets very technical, so I can understand why it’s confusing for folks.”

Asked how the COVID money was distributed, a spokesperson did not share an exact formula in time for this story. A spokesperson said schools received federal COVID dollars based on “stakeholder meetings” that focused on what schools’ needs were, such as class sizes and limited split classrooms, access to arts and other “specialty” classes, intervention supports, social and emotional supports, resuming in-person school, and professional development.

Chicago schools have uncertain financial future

The district has not yet detailed how it will fill its looming $391 million deficit. That’s the shortfall after using roughly $300 million in federal COVID money still left to spend.

Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said the district shouldn’t have plugged the federal money into operating costs, such as salaries, because that created a cliff – a sudden loss of money that could mean the loss of programs and staff that directly impacts students.

“It’s very disruptive, right?” Martire said. “What message does that send to the kids? It creates a lot of unintended and hard-to-anticipate issues.”

Martire argues the district should have used the money to pay for one-time costs, such as critical building repairs. The district might have to delay such repairs in response to budget challenges, Martinez said at a recent event about the district’s Latino students.

Martinez told Chalkbeat he is proud of the choices the district made in spending federal COVID money, pointing to the recent research around student growth in Chicago and crediting the “amazing work” of principals, teachers, and students.

“What the evidence is telling me right now is that we used the resources in a way that our students are doing even better today than they were prior to me coming here,” he said.

Officials have vowed to push state lawmakers to give the district more money. The state has increased the district’s funding by about $1 billion since Illinois overhauled its funding formula in 2017. But the state’s formula, which aims to allocate new money to districts based on need, indicates CPS would still need $1.1 billion to be considered adequately funded.

State lawmakers typically finalize a budget in late May or early June. The Chicago Board of Education usually votes on the district’s overall budget in late June. CPS is planning to fund schools differently this year, using a formula that allocates staff positions and prioritizes student and community needs instead of doling out a set number of dollars per student.

Two principals said they’ll be able to keep some of the extra programming, such as Tutor Corps, because they oversee high-needs schools. But even that will come with some changes: The tutors will use a different, less expensive curriculum, they said.

The administrator who launched more after-school programs said losing the federal COVID money could limit what a school can do. Instead of hosting programs for most of the school year, for example, her former school may have to go back to 10 or 20 weeks out of the year.

“The altruistic ones of us wish the lesson will be learned that extra money really makes a difference, and the city and state will keep providing additional funds for these sorts of investments,” said one principal. “But I am imagining that we are going to be trimming to be leaner schools with less programming.”

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

Chicago Public Schools recover from pandemic declines more than other districts, study shows

2024-02-19T11:00:00+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools students’ reading scores are recovering faster since the pandemic than most school districts across the country, according to a new national report.

The district’s surprising rebound, documented by researchers at Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University and The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, also found the state of Illinois led the nation in reading growth between 2022 and 2023 and is one of just four states to return to pre-pandemic achievement levels.

However, the bounce back has not been as strong in math. Both Illinois and Chicago were in the middle of the pack for math score recovery compared to other states and districts.

Chicago Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova attributed the growth to how the district spent its federal COVID money.

“The federal pandemic aid actually has allowed us to invest fully in the day-to-day what I call the bread and butter of education,” Chkoumbova said.

Chicago spent a large portion of its $2.8 billion allocation on existing staff. Documents obtained by Chalkbeat in 2021 showed the district planned to use the money to cover salaries and benefits for roughly 30% of its workforce. Expenditure data obtained by Chalkbeat late last year indicates $1.4 billion of the $2.4 billion spent so far went to staff salaries and benefits.

CPS employed just over 38,000 people on the eve of the pandemic, and staffing records show that number has grown to more than 43,500 as of Dec. 31, 2023. The district’s overall budget grew from $7.7 billion the year the pandemic hit to $9.4 billion this school year.

A lot of the district’s increased staff costs were tethered to specific initiatives aimed at helping students recover from two years of disrupted learning:

The district tapped hundreds of mostly existing staff within schools to become academic interventionists, who worked one-on-one or in small group settings with struggling students.
CPS also hired hundreds of tutors across the school system and worked with an outside company to do high-dosage tutoring. According to a district spokesperson, 600 tutors in 230 schools provide tutoring in reading and math during the school day.
Summer school and after-school programs expanded significantly over the past few summers — spending between $20 million and $40 million each summer. However, tracking student participation has proved difficult.
Chkoumbova said the district has also hired more than 180 “instructional coaches” dedicated to supporting teachers and school staff in schools with the highest needs.

The growth in CPS between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school year documented by researchers at Harvard and Stanford on their Education Recovery Scorecard bucks a broader trend of widening inequity between high-poverty and wealthier districts.

According to the data, Black student scores in CPS grew even more than the district average in reading. District officials said their improvement meant they “emerged from the pandemic two-thirds of a year ahead of where they were in reading than before the pandemic.”

“Our teachers, our staff, our principals, assistant principals, they also have experienced the effects of the pandemic, but they really stepped in a big way and I think it has to be celebrated,” Chkoumbova said.

State test score data released last fall showed more Chicago students were catching up, but still remained below pre-pandemic achievement levels. Gaps between Black and Latino students and their white and Asian counterparts remain and there’s more work to be done to help students with disabilities and immigrant students, Chkoumbova said.

With federal COVID money running out later this year, Chicago Public Schools is projecting a $391 million dollar shortfall. Officials have been urging the state to increase funding.

“We have a good plane that we can fly. We just need a lot more fuel to sustain the speed with which our students are recovering and also to gain some altitude,” Chkoumbova said.

Governor J.B. Pritzker is set to release his budget proposal next week and state education officials have proposed increasing overall education funding by more than $650 million next year, which includes increases for both K-12 and early childhood education. Lawmakers will have the final say over how much is ultimately allocated.

Pre-pandemic progress may have helped rebound

This is not the first time Stanford researchers have found promising academic growth in Chicago Public Schools.

A report released in 2017 that looked at test scores between 2009 and 2014 found Chicago students saw six years of growth in five and were improving faster than 100 of the nation’s largest school districts.

Paul Zavitkovsky, an assessment specialist at the Center for Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois Chicago, did a similar study that same year looking at 15 years of data and found the often negative perception of Chicago Public Schools did not match reality. In his study at the time, CPS students in every demographic group were outscoring their counterparts in the rest of the state.

He said that the latest pandemic recovery identified by national researchers could be due to the “carry-over impact” of high reading achievement levels of students in second, third, and fourth grades at the end of 2019. These students, Zavitkovsky said, “entered the pandemic better prepared than any comparable cohort in CPS history.” He likened their academic bounce back to a sponge.

“If you have a sponge, and it hasn’t had water for a long time, it tends to shrivel up a little bit,” he said. “When you pour water on it, it immediately soaks up that water because it’s got all this sort of latent capacity to absorb it.”

He cautioned that the promising growth may not last forever and raised concerns about students who may have missed key early literacy instruction.

Chkoumbova, who also worked as a teacher and principal in CPS, said the district has been focused on early literacy for decades. On the eve of the pandemic, the district released a new literacy framework and when schools returned in-person, she said they emphasized the importance of strong foundational reading skills in kindergarten through fifth grade.

“We have been getting a little bit more specific about the need for this explicit teaching of foundational skills, phonics, phonemic awareness,” she said. “Our schools are really embracing this effort.”

She added that many schools have been using early literacy curriculum that is part of the district’s universal curriculum bank Skyline, which launched during the pandemic, or a curriculum from Wilson Reading. A district spokesperson said Skyline has been adopted on a voluntary basis by nearly half of CPS schools.

Cautious optimism as other indicators lag

Elaine Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring Director of the UChicago Consortium, said the findings were “exciting and surprising,” but also a little puzzling because attendance is still low and absenteeism is still high.

“Maybe there’s just a lot of focus on math and English language arts instruction right now because people are so worried about pandemic learning loss,” Allensworth said. “I know a lot of teachers feel under pressure to increase students’ test scores… which makes me nervous, honestly, because then I start to wonder, ‘Well, what are they not doing?’”

Chkoumbova said for the past two years, her message from the top has been to keep challenging students with grade-level work and “resist that urge” to do too much remediation on basic skills.

“If it is kill and drill and remediation, kids will not love coming to school,” Chkoumbova said.

She said she is “paying very close attention” to rates of chronic absenteeism. In Illinois, a student is considered chronically absent if they miss 10 percent – or roughly 18 days — in a school year, regardless of whether the absence was excused or not.

The percentage of chronically absent students in Illinois shot up in the 2020-21 school year and got even worse in 2021-22. In CPS, 39.8% of students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year, down from 44.6% the previous year.

But Allensworth said Chicago schools use data and research more and collaborate more frequently across teacher teams and networks – both of which are associated with school improvement.

“I think there’s just a lot of different things that are going on in Chicago that are different than other places,” Allensworth said. “It’s not glamorous or scandalous or whatever. And so locally people don’t know but people outside of Chicago look at Chicago as a place that’s kind of an exemplar in a lot of ways.”

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

Chicago Public Schools graduation rates hit record high, data show

2023-10-31T19:01:51+00:00

A greater share of Chicago Public Schools students graduated last school year than in 2022, reaching a new record, officials announced Tuesday.

The graduation rate of 84% — representing students who graduated in four years — was 1.1 percentage points higher than the graduation rate for the Class of 2022, when 82.9% of high school students graduated on time. The dropout rate for the Class of 2023 was slightly higher at 9.4% than it was for the Class of 2022, which saw 8.9% of students drop out between freshman year and graduation.

Chicago Public Schools’ five-year graduation rate for the Class of 2022 — which includes students who take extra time to finish their diploma either at a traditional or alternative school — was 85.6%, 1.6 percentage points higher than for the class of 2021 when it was 84%.

District officials announced the numbers with fanfare at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, with CPS CEO Pedro Martinez flanked by Mayor Brandon Johnson and joined virtually by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.

Martinez said the rising graduation rate was a sign that the district is continuing to recover from the pandemic, reminding the audience that the students in the Class of 2023 were freshmen as the pandemic started in 2020, followed by two school years of remote and hybrid learning.

“When you think about their last year, their senior year, was probably their most normal year, I want you to take these results and put them in that context,” Martinez said.

Cardona described the graduation rates as “promising signs for the future of education in Chicago.” He highlighted the district’s use of federal COVID relief dollars, which CPS has put toward several purposes, including covering teacher salaries and hiring more instructional staff.

The announcement came one day after Illinois state education officials released statewide data, including graduation rates that had also increased across Illinois. (The state and Chicago Public Schools calculate graduation rates differently, so Chalkbeat is unable to provide direct comparisons.)

Chicago’s graduation rate has steadily increased over time, hitting a record high in 2022 even as students have faced academic challenges connected to the pandemic. Tuesday’s announcement comes on the heels of another report that found a rising share of CPS students are enrolling in college.

Racial disparities among graduates still remain, though they are narrowing. Graduation rates increased for Black, Hispanic and Asian American students, while dropping slightly for white students — by .4 percentage points — compared to the Class of 2022. Rates also dropped for multiracial students by 5.7 percentage points.

Nearly 75% of Black boys graduated in four years, up from roughly 65% five years ago, according to district data.

Despite higher graduation rates, SAT scores dipped for the Class of 2023, to an average composite score of 914. The average score for the Class of 2022 was 927, according to district data. Separately, the district also saw slightly fewer ninth graders — 88.7% — who were on track to graduate by 2026. That’s compared to 88.8% of the class that’s one year older than them.

As the pandemic set in, the district relaxed some grading policies, as did other school systems across the nation — raising questions about how such policies may have contributed to CPS’s rising graduation rates. Martinez argued that an increase in students completing college-level credits was a sign students were held to a high standard. Just under half of the Class of 2023 earned early college credits, a 5% increase from 2022, according to the district.

One of those students is Zaid Orduño, who said at Tuesday’s press conference that he took college-level courses at Daley College during his time at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, through the district’s Early College Program. His classes at Daley included English, math, sociology, and psychology, and he ultimately earned an associate’s degree alongside his high school diploma.

Taking those classes, he said, inspired him to pass up his original plan of joining his family’s construction business and instead pursue a civil engineering degree at Illinois Tech, he said.

A wall at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts is dedicated to remembering a hunger strike held in 2015 to demand for the reopening of Dyett, which was closed at the time.

Dyett, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side, saw its graduation rate tick up by more than 3 percentage points, to 86%. Johnson noted how far the school had come since he and other community members participated in a highly publicized hunger strike in 2015 to demand that Dyett, then shuttered, reopen. He also recognized fellow hunger striker Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who now represents the neighborhood nearby in City Council and serves as the chair of the Committee on Education and Child Development.

“A hunger striker can turn into a mayor and an alderman, and more importantly, a hunger strike can lead to the success that we are experiencing with our students right here at Dyett High School,” Johnson said.

He also used the moment to once again advocate for expanding the Sustainable Community Schools Initiative that Dyett and 19 other schools are a part of. The program partners schools with a nonprofit that provides wraparound services for students and families.

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

Chicago Public Schools could see a $391M budget deficit next school year, official says

2023-10-25T21:59:31+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is expecting a $391 million budget shortfall next year as federal COVID relief money runs out, officials said Wednesday.

The district has received $2.8 billion in COVID relief since the onset of the pandemic. The last $300 million of that will be spent in 2025, according to Mike Sitkowski, chief budget officer for CPS, who shared the figures during a Board of Education meeting. The current budget is $9.4 billion. Next year’s budget starts July 1, 2024 and will cover the 2024-25 school year.

By law, the school district must balance its budget, Sitkowski noted. That means district officials will either have to cut expenses or find a way to boost revenue. Board President Jianan Shi called for the latter.

“Our district needs more revenue, and this is a moment for all of us at every level to stand up and advocate for our teachers, our students, our families, for this board to advocate for more revenue at the state, local, and federal levels,” Shi said after the presentation.

The financial update comes as the City Council holds budget hearings for the city’s next budget, which is due by the end of the year but is typically finalized by Thanksgiving. The district’s budget operates on a different timeline, more closely matching the school year. The district will also hold budget community roundtables for the public throughout November. (Dates can be found here.)

Districts across the nation have been bracing for financial challenges as their pandemic relief dollars run out. Chicago officials have directed their relief dollars toward employee salaries, hiring more instructional staff and creating several new programs. About $670 million of federal relief was included in this year’s budget — representing about 7% of the current budget set to end June 30, 2024.

Asked on previous occasions about what CPS will do once the federal money runs out, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has said district officials plan to ask the state for more support.

The $391 million deficit is the result of complicated collection of revenues and costs the district is projecting for next year: First, the district will have a $670 million hole in next year’s budget due to the loss of federal pandemic aid, according to Sitkowski’s presentation. That gap will be partially filled by the last bit of federal relief — about $300 million. However, the district is also expecting $123 million more in expenses it says it can’t control, including for teacher pension costs, debt service, health care costs, and inflation, Sitkowski said.

Those costs will be partially offset by rising revenues of $102 million, which include $23 million more from the state, as well as some rising tax collections, and more state support for pensions, according to Sitkowski.

The projections shared on Wednesday seem to outpace what a previous analysis warned of. A report issued under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned of a potential $628 million deficit by 2026 and predicted a neutral outlook for 2025. The report also noted that as the city has shifted more costs onto the district, it could shoulder more expenses as the board goes from mayoral control to an elected body.

District officials have been ratcheting up pressure for more money from state officials. This school year, CPS is projected to see a $23 million increase in state funding, for a total of about $1.77 billion this school year.

But on Wednesday, Sitkowski said that if the state fully funded districts under the Evidence-Based Funding Formula, CPS would have an additional $1.1 billion in funding.

Last month, the board highlighted the need for $3.1 billion to address critical repairs at school facilities over the next five years.

Sitkowski said direct funding at the school level has also increased by $1 billion since fiscal year 2019, even as enrollment dipped. More than 2,300 teachers were hired in that time, including classroom teachers, interventionists, and educators for the arts and physical education, he noted.

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

Chicago Public Schools pauses COVID-19 vaccinations until doses of new version arrive

2023-09-15T16:25:00+00:00

Chicago Public Schools has temporarily stopped giving COVID-19 vaccines at school-based vaccination events and clinics, while officials wait for the recently approved new vaccines to arrive.

The move comes after the school district scaled back COVID guidance — ending school-based testing and continuing with no masking or quarantine requirements.

Chicago public health officials said Thursday that doses are expected to be here in the “coming weeks” and by early October, supply of the new version of the vaccine should be “plentiful.”

They encouraged anyone older than 6 months to get the new COVID vaccine as cases are already starting to rise heading into the fall and winter months.

“It’s clear that this will provide additional protection against COVID regardless of what vaccines you’ve gotten in the past, whether they were the primary series or last year’s bivalent booster,” said Brian Borah, medical director for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Surveillance at the Chicago Department of Public Health.

CPS officials said once doses arrive, the district will resume offering the shots for free.

The district is no longer tracking COVID vaccination rates by school or among students and staff. It is continuing to track self-reported cases. In previous years, data showed fewer than half of students were vaccinated with the original COVID vaccines and boosters, with schools on the South and West sides having some of the lowest rates of uptake.

CPS has 27 school-based health clinics and continues to offer vaccination events at schools and mobile events at charters and high schools. Students can also access free flu shots and vaccinations for other viruses that are required to attend public school, including tetanus, measles, and meningitis. According to WTTW, about half of all CPS schools are below “herd immunity” for measles, but rates have improved since dropping during the pandemic.

Because the COVID public health emergency has ended, vaccines for the virus have become “commercialized” and no longer covered by the federal government. City public health officials said those with insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, should go to their doctor or local pharmacy for a shot first.

But the city and school district will continue to provide free vaccines to all children under 18 and those without insurance or those who are underinsured, regardless of immigration status, under other federal programs that allow them to do so.

In addition to the school-based clinics and events, the city operates three public immunization clinics in Uptown, Pilsen, and West Elsdon, near Midway Airport.

The department of public health will also run annual COVID and flu vaccination clinics at City Colleges locations on Saturdays in October and November.

Saturday, Oct. 7, Malcolm X College
Saturday, Oct. 14, Kennedy-King College
Saturday, Oct. 21, Wilbur Wright College
Saturday, Oct.28, Olive-Harvey College
Saturday, Nov. 4, Richard J. Daley College
Saturday, Nov. 11, Arthur Velasquez Institute
Saturday, Nov. 18, Truman College

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

A dozen Chicago Public Schools employees ousted over federal PPP loan fraud

2023-09-06T18:05:00+00:00

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A dozen Chicago Public Schools employees have resigned or been fired after the district’s inspector general found they fraudulently obtained federal Paycheck Protection Program loans.

The loans — most of which did not need to be repaid — were available to businesses during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to help them stay afloat. Federal officials have since said the PPP loan program lacked controls and was “susceptible to fraud.”

All but one of the ousted CPS employees earned six-figure salaries and worked year-round positions.

“We’re talking about people who have full-time, year-round jobs with CPS,” Inspector General Will Fletcher told Chalkbeat Wednesday. “How they were able to have fully fledged side businesses was obviously going to be a question.”

The inspector general’s report does not name the employees. According to the report, one of them was a central office administrator who inflated how much they made on a side business in 2020 in order to get a PPP loan and also did not report that secondary employment to CPS.

Other cases include:

A district regional administrator making $165,000 a year created a fake business in order to get a $20,000 PPP loan. The money was deposited in their personal checking account and spent within two months on “expensive luxury items” and a trip to Las Vegas, bank records obtained by the inspector general showed.
A school administrator with a side business selling clothing admitted to inflating its income in 2019 in order to get two PPP loans totaling $40,000. The clothing business earned “at most $7,500,” but they claimed it earned $100,000.
An administrator making more than $120,000 a year got a $20,000 PPP loan by paying someone to fill out the application and report they made $100,000 as an independent contractor in 2019.

The inspector general’s report cites two additional employees whose dismissal cases are pending. The district said it has filed dismissal charges against them, but both cases are being litigated.

In a statement, a CPS spokesperson said the district is reviewing a recommendation by Fletcher that future employees be required to report any PPP loan they’ve received as part of the onboarding process.

“We take seriously our responsibility to serve students and families with integrity and we will hold accountable individuals who breach CPS policies and the public’s trust,” the spokesperson wrote.

Fletcher said his office opened a broad investigation into PPP fraud in 2022 and started by searching a public database that lists all PPP loan recipients. In all, 780 district employees showed up in the data as having obtained PPP loans, the OIG report said.

“We’re not presuming that all 780 loans were fraudulent,” Fletcher said, noting some CPS employees do have legitimate side jobs outside of school and during the summer. There may also be cases of identity theft. While the investigations are continuing, the report released Wednesday focused on cases involving higher-level employees and those who worked year-round positions.

“We’re looking at employees who have some level of supervisory authority or who are in positions where they have some kind of control over sensitive information, financial information, dealings with the contractors and vendors,” Fletcher said. “People who are in positions of trust in the district.”

Other investigations have also turned up evidence of misused funds related to the pandemic. The inspector general found most bus companies that were given “good faith” payments to keep paying drivers during the switch to virtual learning in March 2020 laid off their workers despite taking the money.

“PPP fraud is just one facet of what has concerned us related to pandemic fraud,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher said his office has the capacity to continue investigating these and other pandemic-related fraud and waste allegations, but noted there is a “lack of information” around much of the COVID relief money distributed by the federal government in the past few years.

Chicago Public Schools has received more than $2.8 billion in COVID recovery money from the federal government under three Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief packages passed by Congress.

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

Chicago Public Schools scales back COVID guidance

2023-08-16T23:15:53+00:00

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Nicole Abreu’s daughter Alexis is excited about starting sixth grade at Friedrich L. Jahn Elementary School next week. It will be the medically fragile 12-year-old’s first time back to school in person after being homeschooled last year and she can’t wait to meet other kids.

But her mom is concerned that Chicago Public Schools had yet to announce COVID-19 guidance when the start of school is only a few days away.

“Do kids even still have to report if they have COVID? Is there a quarantine period?” said Abreu. “It is unsettling to be a few days from school and not know.”

Parents like Abreu, who decided to homeschool her immunocompromised daughter and two other children last year, say they have heard little from the district about COVID-19 mitigations for the coming school year.

But during a school board committee meeting Wednesday, Jamie Tully, the district’s director of Health Information and Response, outlined a pared-down approach: The district will no longer do in-school COVID testing, but will provide at-home rapid tests to students and staff when an exposure occurs and ahead of breaks around Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Quarantine requirements and care rooms in schools are now gone, but close contacts will be encouraged to mask for 10 days, Tully said. CPS will also continue to collect and report data on cases and vaccinations.

The looser guidelines reflect a shift for Chicago since the height of the pandemic when the district struggled to reopen during the school year 2020-21. Once schools fully reopened during the 2021-22 school year, the district ramped up testing and vaccinating students across the city.

“I think the most important thing that we can communicate, particularly right now around COVID-19, is please stay up-to-date on your vaccinations and stay home when you’re sick,” Tully told board members on Wednesday.

The scaled-down mitigations come as cases are ticking up across the nation and at a time of uncertainty for the city’s public health department after Mayor Brandon Johnson fired Chicago’s Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady late last Friday. The move seemed abrupt, but Johnson committed to firing Arwady while on the campaign trail, stating that the two have different views on public health.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the Illinois State Board of Education updated public health guidance for schools on a monthly basis. After federal and state emergency orders were lifted in May, wearing masks, weekly testing, vaccinations, and social distancing were no longer required for students across Illinois.

Coronavirus cases increased in late summer across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported last Friday to the CDC that Illinois had a low level for COVID-19 hospital admissions as of the end of July. The department said that it will continue to monitor for COVID-19 data and other respiratory diseases as the fall and winter seasons start.

As of Aug. 15, Chicago Public Schools reported that 85 adults and 11 students have self-reported coronavirus cases.

Students are encouraged to get vaccinated

Chicago is hosting several back-to-school events this week where students can get vaccinated for COVID-19 and required childhood vaccinations for diseases such as measles, mumps, and chickenpox before heading back to classrooms.

As of the end of last school year, around 48% of eligible students had been fully vaccinated against COVID. Those numbers could backslide as they did last year with a new group of incoming kindergarten and pre-K students entering and high school seniors graduating. All ages are eligible for vaccination and boosters.

The federal government announced that an updated COVID vaccine that will target the latest variants responsible for a majority of new cases will be available in the fall.

Chicago shifts away from school-based testing

Last school year, just over 13% of Chicago Public Schools students opted into school-based COVID testing and the district also distributed about 1 million rapid tests.

CPS has 650,000 rapid tests in storage that can be distributed this year, Tully said. The district is asking the Chicago Board of Education to approve a contract with Fisher Scientific worth up to $5 million to purchase 500,000 more at-home COVID tests for students and staff to be distributed based on demand at schools during the 2023-24 school year.

The proposed contract for next school year would be a tiny fraction of the company’s previous contracts with the district to provide COVID testing to students and staff. Publicly-posted invoices show the company billed Chicago Public Schools $62 million from July 2022 to May 2023. The previous school year, the company billed the district $78 million for COVID testing.

In the fall of 2021, the University of Illinois’ Shield testing program was at over 1,700 K-12 schools and tested almost 113,000 school employees and about 900,000 students. The program gave Illinois school districts the ability to test students for the coronavirus by taking a sample of saliva and results would come back in less than 24 hours. The University of Illinois decided to end this COVID-19 testing program in June.

Expert urges schools to take safety measures

In July, the Illinois State Board of Education and the state department of public health adopted CDC guidelines for schools that were updated in May. The guidance says students should stay up-to-date on vaccinations for COVID-19 and other illnesses. When feeling sick, students are encouraged to stay home and schools can use COVID-19 testing to confirm or rule out COVID-19.

Daniel Johnson, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, said schools are a place where children can pick up COVID-19, which they could then share with their households.

“It’s incumbent upon all of us to be thoughtful about how we minimize the risk of getting COVID in a school setting while recognizing the importance of children going to school,” said Johnson “So children to conduct their lives, both socially and educationally, in as much a normal way as they possibly can.”

Johnson recommends that everyone gets vaccinated or get a booster if they have not been vaccinated in the last six months. If a child is sick, they should stay at home and get tested to confirm whether or not they have the coronavirus.

He recommended that schools should have good ventilation to circulate fresh air in classrooms and allow students to wash their hands or use sanitizer.

For immunocompromised children such as Abreu’s daughter Alexis, Johnson said he would recommend that students go to school, but they should be vaccinated.

Parents should encourage children to wear masks in the classroom and parents should tell their schools that they want to be informed if their child is exposed to COVID-19.

“Everything should be done to try and keep children in school and as safe as possible,” Johnson said.

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

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 schools tapped hundreds of academic interventionists to catch students up after COVID. Is it working?

2023-05-25T11:00:00+00:00

In a classroom on Chicago’s West Side one morning last November, Teresa Przybyslawski sat side by side with a soft-spoken sixth grader. She read a script off her computer screen while he peered at his own tablet.

“On your screen, you will see some addition problems,” read Przybyslawski. “I want you to do as many of them as you can in one minute.”

She glanced at the sixth grader, John. His back was taut, his face tense.

Down the hall, the boy’s classmates at Brunson Math and Science Specialty School, a high-poverty elementary school, geared up to tackle dividing fractions. But here, alongside Przybyslawski, one of the district’s new interventionists tasked with helping students who fell behind during the pandemic, John was about to work on math normally taught in first grade.

“Are you ready? Three. Two. One.”

Numbers flashed on John’s screen: “2 + 7. 5 + 10. 10 + 4.”

At the start of this school year, John, whose real name Chalkbeat is not using to protect his privacy, read at a first grade level and did second grade level math. It would be Przybyslawski’s job to get him caught up – fast.

School districts around the country are pushing to help students bounce back from the pandemic’s profound academic damage: expanding literacy tutoring in Detroit, cutting class sizes in New York City, and buying science-backed reading curriculums in districts across Colorado.

Instructional materials are seen inside Brunson Elementary School in Chicago. School districts around the country — including Chicago Public Schools — are pushing to help students bounce back from the pandemic’s profound academic damage.

Chicago Public Schools has turned to academic interventionists — a cadre of hundreds mostly classroom teachers already on the district’s payroll, tapped this year to turbocharge the learning of struggling students one-on-one or in small groups.

These newly-minted catchup specialists are tackling three years of COVID fallout layered upon pre-pandemic learning gaps and traumas, at schools that experts and educators agree should have been staffing interventionists all along.

Research has backed Chicago’s intervention approach, and emerging data here and in other cities shows school districts are making headway. But experts say the effort is in its infancy: A recent study by nonprofit test maker NWEA found students are rebounding, but schools are likely a few years away from returning to pre-pandemic achievement, especially for younger learners.

Meanwhile, educators face their own version of Przybyslawski’s countdown.

Three, two, one. Before children like John arrive in high school unprepared, lowering their odds of graduating, starting college or careers, and escaping poverty.

Three, two, one. Before districts like Chicago run out of federal COVID relief dollars.

Three, two, one. Before society at large moves on, and the energy required to remain in full-on recovery mode fades.

As Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, put it at an academic recovery event this past fall: “If we fail to act differently to catch students up, to ensure every student graduates with everything they need, we will have failed this generation and future generations of students.”

One school on Chicago’s West Side tackles academic recovery

Brunson Elementary is in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, one of the hardest hit by COVID and by a surge in the city’s other epidemic: gun violence.

Of Brunson’s 400 students, almost 90% are Black, and almost all are poor. Almost 60% were chronically absent last year, meaning they missed roughly 20 or more days. This year, Brunson has deployed “attendance heroes” — teachers, paraprofessionals, and cafeteria workers — who check in daily with truant students. But across the district, attendance and disruptive behaviors continue to interfere with learning.

“It’s heartbreaking what kids here carry on their backpacks that we can’t see,” principal Carol Wilson said.

Principal Carol Wilson at Brunson Elementary School on Friday, February 24, 2023 in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. The school was one of the hardest hit by COVID and by a surge in the city’s other epidemic: gun violence.

Since the pandemic hit in 2020, Chicago Public Schools — like districts across the country — has seen drops in the portion of students meeting reading and math standards on a required state assessment. The district’s latest scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as “the nation’s report card,” showed nearly a decade of growth in math had been wiped out while reading results held fairly steady.

When Chicago schools tested students this past fall to gauge where they stood, two-thirds of John’s sixth grade peers districtwide did not hit grade-level benchmarks in reading. A third were flagged as needing urgent interventions. The picture was similar in math.

Przybyslawski used to teach a classroom of 25 students math and science. Now, her focus is on 15 or so struggling middle schoolers at Brunson.

She set out to create an orderly, efficient operation, using new digital platforms that constantly size up how students are progressing in mastering skills they should have learned in earlier grades — and dictate what they work on next.

In her role as an interventionist at Brunson Elementary, Teresa Przybyslawski works with struggling students one on one or in small groups. She also “pushes into” classrooms to help fellow educators build academic interventions into their routines.

In reading, the school piloted an artificial intelligence program that gave students passages to read back to it based on their level and flagged mistakes they made.

She wanted John to divide fractions along with his peers eventually. But in the meantime, Przybyslawski, who also supervises the school’s new team of three tutors, all Brunson grads, measured progress in small increments.

During that session in November, John hesitated briefly before answering 6 + 5.

He was stumped on 3 + 8.

But on the rest, he rattled off the correct answers before Przybyslawski had even finished reading them out.

“We got to the third row,” she told the boy when the minute-long assessment was up. “Very nice work!”

After students left, she logged in their results into Branching Minds, a new platform used for tracking interventions.

Wilson, the principal, and district officials lean on the technology to monitor the progress students are making. Soon, Wilson would also get a second round of standardized tests — administered around the middle of the school year — she hoped would tell her if the school’s efforts were paying off.

‘How can we reach more kids?’

In the bid to speed up students’ academic recovery, Chicago leaders have bet on an arsenal of strategies. They’ve expanded after-school programs, started an in-house tutor corps, and poured millions in teacher training and a new in-house lesson bank called Skyline.

They also tapped some 250 educators to serve as new academic coaches. There are more counselors, social workers, and other support staff.

All in all, the district earmarked $730 million in COVID recovery dollars this school year for its recovery efforts.

Academic interventions — by tutors, classroom teachers, or the new interventionists — are at the heart of the strategy. The district budgeted for at least one interventionist on each of its roughly 500 campuses, though not all schools used the money for such positions, and some schools combined the duties with existing positions. And it required all schools to use the same digital platform to track interventions that Przybyslawski is using.

Across the district this past fall, new interventionists chipped away at catching up tens of thousands of students. One math problem and one sounded-out word at time.

“How do we get students a lot of extra support with so few people?” -Teacher Elizabeth Battaglia

At Moos Elementary on Chicago’s West Side, where most of the 430 primarily Latino students enrolled needed intervention in the fall, Elizabeth Battaglia and the tutors she oversees could reach about 60 students across all grades — not nearly enough.

“How do we get students a lot of extra support with so few people?” she kept asking herself, even as she was encouraged by her students’ growth.

In reading, Battaglia tried a blitz tactic: 20 minutes each day over two weeks when stronger readers are paired with struggling peers to read passages to each other and help correct each other’s mistakes. It helped.

At Sadlowski Elementary on the Southeast Side, where most of the school’s 620 students were flagged as needing intensive help at the start of the year, Emily Gasca has 38 students on her caseload — some of them third and fourth graders reading at kindergarten level.

She enlisted fellow teachers to build interventions into daily classroom instruction, but some colleagues felt she was laying more work on already full plates.

Interventionist Teresa Przybyslawski at Chicago’s Brunson Elementary School combines technology and old-school methods such as flashcards in working with students who are behind grade level in math or reading.

Gasca tried to remind herself she was helping build from scratch a sort of academic safety net that the district has needed all along.

Even before COVID, many Chicago students made it to high school unable to read well. The pandemic just made it harder to look away.

To experts and educators such as Gasca, it’s clear that trauma and social-emotional challenges — that invisible load in students’ backpacks — complicate academic catchup. But struggling to keep up in the classroom is also a daily source of stress, eroding students’ confidence — baggage they carry back home.

Educators search for signs interventions are working

By February, John’s sessions with Przybyslawski were a well-worn routine.

“On your screen you will see a story to read,” Przybyslawski read off her screen to him one morning that month. “I would like you to read this story for me.”

“We’ll begin in three, two, one.”

John looked relaxed in a black face mask, hoodie, and Nikes as he read a passage about a family visit on a farm. At the one-minute mark, a bell dinged, and Przybyslawski smiled broadly. John’s reading had been largely free of mistakes — a huge leap from the start of the school year when he struggled to make it through a sentence or two during those fleeting 60 seconds.

“Good job overall,” she said. “I’ll get your score in a few minutes.”

“We’ve seen kids make leaps and bounds but still remain below the benchmarks. We’re catching kids up constantly.” -Principal Carol Wilson

Przybyslawski’s students were making headway. But now, her caseload looked different.

A few students “graduated.” They still need added help, but should be able to get it in the classroom. A few left the school, part of the customary churn at a high-needs neighborhood campus. And some were no longer on Przybyslawski’s caseload after being identified as needing services for students with disabilities.

Around this same time, Wilson, the principal, had gotten the school’s midyear test results.

Students in all grades were showing solid growth except eighth graders, on that all-important cusp of high school, who were flagged across the district for making little midyear progress.

Wilson was encouraged. Still, these tests predicted that fewer than 10% of Brunson students would meet state standards this spring.

“We’ve seen kids make leaps and bounds but still remain below the benchmarks,” Wilson said. “We’re catching kids up constantly.”

Districtwide in the early grades, there were double-digit increases in students scoring at grade level. Overall, Chicago Public Schools’ scores were in line or better than other urban districts. But much work remained: In the second grade, for example, more than half of students remained one grade level below in math, and a quarter were still two grade levels below in both math and reading.

Paul Zavitkovsky, an expert on testing at the University of Illinois at Chicago,

“If the kids at the lower levels of achievement are only making expected gains, that’s not moving the needle for them. Average gains are not going to be enough.” -Paul Zavitkovsky, assessment specialist at the University of Illinois Chicago’s College of Education

said standardized tests are a helpful snapshot of how students are doing, but he cautioned against relying on them to drive recovery efforts. Remediating one skill at a time based on test results must happen alongside engaging, grade-level instruction — a tough balance to strike, Zavitkovsky said.

Based on an analysis of results on a standardized test named STAR 360 many Chicago elementary schools are giving three times a year, Zavitkovsky found almost all schools made four months of gains in the first four months of the year in math — an encouraging return to a pre-pandemic pace of growth.

But, he said, “Average gains are not going to be enough.”

Dan Goldhaber, who leads the University of Washington’s Center for Education Data & Research, said it’s not clear how long schools can remain in full recovery mode, which requires resources and sustained effort.

When the COVID money runs dry, Chicago’s army of interventionists hired in recent years could land on the budgetary chopping block, leaving classroom teachers to pick up the difficult work of recovery.

Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district’s education chief, says the district is encouraged by testing, grading, and other data; it will cover interventionists at each school and grow the tutor corps next year.

That’s because there’s more work to be done, Chkoumbova recently told the school board. Data show 20% of students have gotten some intervention, and of those, only about a third are on track to meet their goals — an improvement over earlier in the year.

But, as district leaders have noted, a lot of intervention work is not captured by the data. At Brunson, a girl recently asked Przybyslawski for help with multiplication and division off the screens. The interventionist set up stacks of flashcards, quizzing her the old-fashioned way.

“Confidence!” she told the girl. “Just be confident.”

Behind them, in the back of Przybyslawski’s classroom, a bulletin board was covered with certificates of achievement.

One was John’s. It showed a figure looking over a wheat field, a mountain peak rising in the background.

“Congratulations!” the certificate read. “Your reading POWERS are getting stronger, and it’s time to celebrate your hard work.”

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

In a Chicago choir class, Grammy-nominated teacher creates ‘daily magic’

2023-01-27T19:34:23+00:00

Spencer Bagley feels at home inside room 325, surrounded by an assortment of acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, and what some might argue the most melodic instrument: the voice.

The 16-year-old Senn High School junior spent most of elementary school playing the clarinet in band, but found his way into Trevor Nicholas’ choir room when classes re-opened in the fall of 2021.

The environment was welcoming, the conversations candid, and the community supportive — just the steady ground Spencer needed as he struggled with his mental health and gender identity.

Nicholas’ empathetic approach guiding students through their own musical journey has made a difference for Spencer and other Senn students who are finding their voice after a tumultuous few years.

Like many educators, Nicholas believes in creating opportunities for his students beyond the four walls of his classroom. Whether it’s having his students perform at venues such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago or bringing in grants to launch new music programs on campus, he’s committed to his students.

But he isn’t your typical choir teacher. Nicholas is nominated for 2023 Grammy Music Educator Award — his second year in a row as a finalist for the honor. The winner will be announced ahead of the 65th Grammy Award ceremony in Los Angeles on Feb. 5.

The 37-year-old recalled being floored by the back-to-back nominations, describing the moment as “unreal.” He’s humbled and grateful for the recognition and credits his current and former students who “committed themselves to the music and the project of making art.”

The nomination is “amazing,” Nicholas said. But even more amazing has been “watching the brilliance of these young humans as they cared for and kept moving forward, in what, I understand some of the hardest times in recent memory.”

For Spencer, the latest Grammy nomination just affirms Nicholas’ dedication to his students and his commitment to using music to change the world.

“This just really shows how amazing he is and how hard he works for us and how much he dedicates to us,” Spencer said.

How a Chicago educator uses music for healing

For more than a decade as a Chicago Public Schools teacher, Nicholas has used music as a conduit for healing — something that has become even more vital as students confront the mental health impacts of the pandemic and Chicago’s pervasive gun violence, which claimed the life of a Senn student in December.

Nicholas learned about the power of music from personal experience, at a very young age. He was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and was confined to a wheelchair in the fifth grade. He found a companion in his piano — spending hours writing and composing in his room.

When students switched to remote learning in 2020, Nicholas again found himself at his piano — composing songs to help his students navigate the overall uncertainty of the pandemic. Through a computer screen, he shared with his students his composition and some lyrics for “Who Will Carry Me?” — an original song responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Blackness, and trying to process the trauma while in isolation that would later become a music video featuring his students.

“I found so much healing and peace at the piano, expressing myself through music,” Nicholas told Chalkbeat last year. “As a music teacher, it’s something I try to bring to my students, the healing power of music.”

Senior Lilah Soyster recalls connecting to the lyrics when Nicholas first played an early draft for his class over Zoom as they sat separately in their homes.

“Who will carry me

While I am alone

Who will hold me close and keep me bright”

In the next few months, the song evolved as the Chicago music teacher and his students collaborated virtually. The full weight of the project hit Lilah as she processed the turbulent period.

“We were all kind of misty-eyed watching it premiere,” the 17-year-old said, recalling watching it online. “It was emotional.”

Nicholas and his students followed up with another song titled “The Cave” last spring.

Choir classes and Lilah’s involvement in the two song projects have helped her grow as an artist and a songwriter, she said.

The program has not only taught her that there are many avenues she could pursue after high school, but also about building connections.

“I learned a lot about what it means to be like a friend through being in an ensemble,” Lilah said.

Spencer recalled being in awe at the artistry as he worked alongside his teacher, peers, and collaborators to complete “The Cave.”

“It was so wonderful to watch,” he said. “We’re all having trauma at this time and we were all able to communicate with each other and sing together and grow together.”

Senn’s music program has allowed Spencer to grow artistically with the help of Nicholas and private voice lessons through the school’s partnership with ArtsSmart — a mentorship program that offers professional one-on-one voice lessons to students.

“I always want to come to school to experience this class,” Spencer said. “It’s my favorite part of the day, and I really feel so grateful to be able to have this because a lot of people just don’t.”

The program also provided much more than music lessons. For years, Spencer has struggled with his gender identity, but found support from his father and Nicholas.

“He’s my favorite teacher ever,” Spencer said. “He gives 1,000% of everything to us every single day.”

Teacher says Grammy nod is a testament to students

Grammy-nominated music teacher Trevor Nicholas guides his students through a recent rehearsal at Senn High School on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, Nicholas stood at the front of room 325 and guided students through rehearsal, occasionally stopping to offer tips. The voices swelled in harmony, filling the choir room’s tall ceilings and cascading into a wall of sound.

“You’re doing great everyone,” he told his students, using the keyboard to mark pitch as he sang in a falsetto.

Students sang the refrain from the Pentatonix song “Take Me Home”: “Oh, take me there. Won’t you take me there? Won’t you take me home?”

“Did you like your last vowel, everyone? I saw some theatrics out there,” Nicholas observed before steering them through the final note.

They made another attempt. Harmonies melded together – smooth and effortless.

“Oh, that’s gorgeous!” he said excitedly. “You’re doing great. You sound really incredible.”

Trevor Nicholas’ choir class rehearses the Pentatonix song “Take Me Home” at Senn High School on Chicago’s North Side.

After last year’s Grammy nomination, Nicholas saw many more doors open for his students: more performance invitations, partnerships, and donations.

This is not just his Grammy journey. It’s his students’ journey, too. They were “central” to these nominations — he only hopes they are also riding the same wave of excitement, he said.

“There’s untapped potential all around us,” Nicholas said. “So I hope that the school takes some chances on various dreams. It’s not like that there’s this magic thing that made this happen. There’s a lot of daily magic that we chose to enter in together.”

Win or lose, Nicholas’ message of music as a tool to get through life is already a victory.

“If this is as far as we go with the Grammy nomination,” Nicholas said, “it’s enough.”

His students agree. He’s already given them the best lesson any teacher could give: the confidence to believe in their dreams.

Trevor Nicholas raises his hands triumphantly after students finish rehearsing the 2015 Pentatonix song “Take Me Home.”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools doesn’t track COVID boosters for students, staff

2023-01-03T23:28:53+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is not tracking which students or staff have gotten the updated omicron booster, even though district leaders and the city’s health commissioner are urging students to get boosted to stave off another COVID surge.

Chicago’s practice of not keeping tabs on updated booster vaccination by schools comes as parts of the country are experiencing an uptick in COVID-19, brought on, in part, by a new omicron subvariant known as XBB.1.5. This also comes as cities and school districts have largely eliminated most COVID-19 mitigations.

The district, which has struggled with vaccine uptake at predominantly Black schools on the South and West Sides, told Chalkbeat Chicago in response to a freedom of information request that it does not “comprehensively track student and/or staff COVID bivalent booster information,” Annie Righi, a CPS FOIA officer, said in an email response.

Chicago Public Schools continues to track the initial primary series, but not the boosters, according to a district spokeswoman.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, a person is considered up to date with vaccines after completing the initial series and the latest booster recommended by the federal agency.

Those ineligible for the booster are considered up to date if they’ve completed the primary series, according to the CDC.

Although the public school system is not tracking the data, city health department data show about 80,000 school-aged Chicagoans have received a booster as of Jan 2.

On Tuesday, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, anticipated the COVID risk level to rise in the coming weeks following the holiday break. Chicago schools return to class on Jan. 9.

Arwady said her department continues to monitor cases of COVID, influenza, and other respiratory infections. The flu, respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, and other respiratory infections have resulted in an increase in the number of hospitalizations among children in recent months.

“I do though, certainly, continue to have some concerns about COVID,” Arwady said.

In Chicago, the city’s COVID transmission rate remains medium, according to a CDC rating system.

Currently, the city’s seven-day average of laboratory confirmed cases is 452, according to city records.

If Cook County reaches a high COVID level, Chicago would issue a formal mask advisory, Arwady said.

School districts nationwide have leaned on vaccinations as a way to keep children and young people in school amid the ongoing pandemic. Still, districts, including Chicago Public Schools, have struggled with vaccine uptake at predominantly Black and Latino schools.

About half of all students enrolled in Chicago Public Schools — roughly 154,000 children — have gotten their initial COVID-19 vaccination series as of Jan. 2, data shows. But a Chalkbeat analysis shows vaccination rates vary widely by school, with predominantly Black schools lagging behind.

Majority Black district-run elementary and high schools had an average vaccination rate of 24.7% as of Jan. 2, up from 23% in September. Majority Latino district-run elementary schools and high schools averaged 49.4%, compared with 48.5% in September, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

Both Black and Latino schools saw less than a percentage point increase since the start of the school year in the number of students vaccinated at district-run schools, data shows.

It’s unclear how many Chicago Public School students have received the updated booster. But city data show about 51,587, or 28.5%, of 12- to 17-year-olds and 29,943 or 14.2%, of 5- to 11-year-old Chicagoans have received a booster as of Jan 2.

According to the district’s FOIA office, vaccination information is entered into the system when self-reported or if the vaccine was received at a CPS vaccination site.

“The data that is collected is not broken down by booster versus initial vaccination, nor is data collected pertaining to which type of booster was administered,” Righi said in an email response.

Chalkbeat Chicago requested bivalent booster rates by school as of Dec. 13, but was told by the FOIA Department there were “no responsive records.”

In an email statement, Chicago Public Schools said it continues to promote the latest vaccine boosters and initial series and the bivalent vaccines at elementary school and high school/charter school events.

The district did not respond to questions about why it is not tracking the bivalent booster vaccine.

Thomas Wilburn contributed to this report.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

School closures, COVID spending, gun violence: 12 of Chalkbeat Chicago’s top stories of 2022

2022-12-22T15:45:16+00:00

The past year started much like the previous two years for students, parents, and educators in Illinois: tumultuous and uncertain.

In January, a clash over COVID safety measures between Chicago Public Schools, its teachers union, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot led to five days of canceled classes. The remainder of the school year was marred by staffing shortages, stubborn transportation issues, and budget-related layoffs that were met with criticism from people arguing that students needed more staff, not less to help them recover from the pandemic.

The ebb and flow of COVID quarantines crimped efforts to boost student attendance and contributed to high absenteeism rates. Legal challenges prompted school districts across the state to lift mask mandates and eventually, other COVID mitigations in schools were relaxed.

When students returned this fall, students, parents, and school leaders expressed cautious optimism. But a decade-long trend of enrollment losses continued in Chicago Public Schools, and the district lost its title as the nation’s third largest school district. By October, parents and educators had a clearer picture of the educational fallout from remote learning and COVID-19 when national and state test results showed a steep drop in reading and math — wiping out a decade of progress.

As we approach the end of 2022 and look ahead to 2023, here are some of the biggest education stories we covered this past year:

January: How Chicago schools became an outlier in the latest COVID disruption

The abrupt cancellation of classes for five days after returning from winter break grabbed headlines in January — with parents, students, and teachers wondering nightly if and when classes would resume. But after the dust settled, reporter Mila Koumpilova dug into what happened behind the scenes, the logistical realities, and the political drama that played out. This story is worth a reread — especially as the 2023 mayoral election looms.

February: Free college for 4,000 students and their parents: ‘This means so much’

The tragic shooting outside Benito Juarez Community Academy has rocked the Pilsen high school in recent days. But in February, the entire senior class — and their parents — were awarded full college scholarships covering tuition, room and board, books, and fees at 20 Illinois institutions. The giveaway from Hope Chicago, a nonprofit run by former Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson, went to 4,000 students at five separate high schools. “This is going to open the door to this generation, a generation of immigrants, and future generations,” Maria Vazquez, then a senior at Juarez, told Chalkbeat’s Mauricio Peña.

March: Inside a Chicago high school’s year of uncertainty

Last school year was supposed to be a time to reinvent public education for students across Chicago and the country. But at Richards Career Academy — and countless other schools — the push to re-engage students with innovative new approaches to learning collided with the need to “just make it through another trying week.” This vivid portrait from inside one of the city’s public neighborhood high schools illustrates the challenges and small victories of a recovery year that never was.

April: Which education bills made it through the Illinois legislature?

Before election season was in full swing, Gov. J. B. Pritzker and the state legislature passed several new laws — and debated dozens of others — that would have an impact on public education throughout the state. Chalkbeat Chicago’s state education reporter Samantha Smylie tracked the ins-and-outs of policy-making in real time and then compiled a recap of what went down in Springfield. The list also includes bills that didn’t make it to the Governor’s desk, such as the “Right to Read Act,” which would set literacy standards for the youngest learners. But it’s possible those reemerge in 2023.

May: Chicago’s Virtual Academy will return this fall, but little is known after its first year: ‘It’s been a black box.’

Though Chicago Public Schools had returned to in-person learning last year, the district continued to offer a virtual option to medically fragile students. As Mauricio Peña reported, advocates and parents had concerns about curriculum, support for English language learners, and meeting the needs of students with disabilities. The Chicago Virtual Academy is now in its second year and currently serves 413 students, a district spokesperson said. The school now uses the universal digital Skyline curriculum, launched in 2021, and has a long list of support staff for students with disabilities. More than 1,200 high school students are also taking Advanced Placement and dual credit courses through the Virtual Academy, according to the district.

June: ‘Ignore the negativity’: 16 Chicago valedictorians on finishing high school in the COVID era

Chicago’s graduating seniors were in their sophomore year of high school when schools shuttered in 2020. Despite the uncertainty and upheaval of their pivotal high school years, the Class of 2022 earned their diplomas and got to walk across the stage in June. They reflect in this piece on their experiences of going to school during the COVID era.

July: After Highland Park shooting, local schools became healing centers to help grieving community

What started as a joyful, patriotic summer celebration turned into a tragic mass shooting that thrust an otherwise quiet Chicago suburb into the national spotlight. Though classes were not in session, Highland Park’s public schools transformed into local healing centers for the community about 45 minutes north of downtown. School staff and students offered support and mental health services to anyone who needed it.

August: In Chicago and other urban districts, a new embrace of career and technical programs

As a new school year began, district CEO Pedro Martinez unveiled some details of a three-year blueprint he hopes will help Chicago students bounce back from the pandemic. One key element of that plan is a revitalization of its career education programs. This deep-dive, two-part series examines why some students still lack access to career programs and probes the limited data on student outcomes. Plus, a bonus look at what Chicago might learn from Nashville.

September: Can Chicago revitalize its tiny high schools?

Chicago’s decade-long decline in enrollment has undoubtedly hit neighborhood high schools the hardest. In fact, enrollment drops in grades nine through 12 are happening almost exclusively at schools with fewer than 250 students. This phenomenon has been written about since 2011 – and again year, after year, after year, after year. Though the problem seems to be intractable, fresh eyes are looking for creative solutions, including transforming these shrinking high schools into career academies, community hubs, or incubators for democracy. With a moratorium on school closures in place until 2025, CEO Martinez might have plans for 2023.

October: Illinois uses federal COVID money to expand high-impact tutoring & At some high-poverty Illinois districts, a slower pace in spending federal COVID relief

With a historic amount of federal funding flowing into Illinois schools, officials have a chance to dramatically impact public education. One of the key elements of the state’s plan for using those federal COVID recovery dollars is the Illinois Tutoring Initiative. It intends to reach 3,000 students across 72 districts. As for how school districts are spending their federal money? It’s been slow, a Chalkbeat and Better Government Association analysis found. Spending in high-poverty districts, particularly those in Chicago’s south suburbs, stand out for how little they’ve used. Now, the state has a dashboard where people can track the spending.

November: How high school students in Chicago’s Little Village are giving back by tutoring

While the state is ramping up its massive high-impact tutoring program, one school on Chicago’s Southwest side is growing its own tutors. Every Thursday at Infinity Math, Science & Technology High School, upperclassmen volunteer to help underclassmen catch up on their studies. This heartwarming story shows how Little Village teens are “not giving in to the stereotypes,” said Infinity senior Lisett Avalos. “We are going above and beyond.”

December: Chicago Public Schools says it now has a computer for each student. But the hard work is just beginning.

Chicago Public Schools saw a historic investment in technology thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and federal dollars. This Chalkbeat and WBEZ investigation found that the district has struggled to keep track of its inventory of laptops, iPads, and other devices. It also lacks a cohesive plan for using the new devices to accelerate learning. This story goes deep into how Chicago schools went from device disparities to having more laptops and iPads than they know what to do with — at a time of “PTSD with the screens.”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@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.

As COVID cases rise, Chicago students encouraged to get vaccinated, wear masks over break

2022-12-20T19:30:00+00:00

Ahead of winter break, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and city public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady encouraged students and families to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and flu, take at-home tests before gathering, and mask in crowded spaces.

The two made the plea during a weekly online health segment and shared the latest Chicago data on COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus cases.

“It’s a complicated time knowing that this is respiratory virus season, and that that surge that is coming is likely to hit across the whole city,” Arwady said.

She noted last week was the two-year anniversary of the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines and said Chicagoans of all ages have a higher vaccination rate than the rest of the country. But rates for the youngest children are still very low. Roughly 10% of children under 5 in Chicago have gotten their initial COVID-19 vaccine series.

“I’m glad we’re doing better than the U.S., but this is nothing to brag about,” Arwady said.

About half of all students enrolled in Chicago Public Schools — roughly 154,000 children — have gotten their initial COVID-19 vaccination series as of Dec. 19, data shows. But a Chalkbeat analysis shows vaccination rates vary widely by school, with predominantly Black schools lagging behind.

It’s unclear how many Chicago Public School students have received the updated booster. But city data show about 51,184, or 28.3% of 12- to 17-year-olds and 29,206 or 13.9% of 5- to 11-year-old Chicagoans have received the booster as of Dec. 19.

Martinez urged families to get their shots over the holidays and take advantage of the city’s at-home vaccination program, which brings COVID-19 and flu vaccines directly to people’s homes to be administered to anyone 6 months and older.

“I’m just going to be a broken record: We know they’re safe,” Martinez said. “We know they give you the best protection. They lessen the symptoms.”

Since school started, there have been about 9,137 COVID cases among students and 5,382 cases among staff, according to district data.

But COVID-19 isn’t the only concern this holiday season, which comes as flu, respiratory syncytial virus, and other respiratory infections are on the rise nationally. In Chicago, hospitals have seen fewer RSV cases but an increase in flu among children.

“We’re just seeing a lot of respiratory viruses right now because we didn’t see them for a couple of years,” Arwady said. “RSV thankfully is very much on the way back down. But in the meantime, some extra care and caution, especially in the holiday season, to limit some of that risk is important.”

It’s likely Chicago will move into a high level of COVID-19 community transmission, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 600 people are testing positive daily in pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and laboratories, and thousands more are testing positive at home, Arwady said.

“We are not out of the woods,” Arwady said Tuesday. “Know that if and when we move to a high level, we will be asking you to put those masks back on.”

Chicago Public Schools opened this fall with fewer mitigations, including a mask optional policy. Despite an initial uptick in cases, the district has seen fewer laboratory confirmed cases compared to schools reopening last fall in August 2021.

On Tuesday, Arwady and Martinez said the school district would follow the health department’s lead in implementing a mask requirement. However, students will be on break starting Friday and classes are not scheduled to resume until January 9.

Last winter, a surge in COVID-19 cases raised concerns among teachers over the district’s safety measures. The Chicago Teachers Union voted to teach remote, prompting a weeklong standoff and canceled classes.

Martinez said the district continues to “heavily encourage masking” and provides masks to “every single school, every single classroom.” He also urged parents to keep sick children home.

“If your child feels sick, please just let them stay home,” Martinez said. “It’s an excused absence.”

Arwady encouraged families to take at-home rapid tests before gathering to celebrate the holidays. Martinez said the district continues to offer at-home tests at schools. The federal government is again offering four free at-home tests per household.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

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

New tool allows people to see how much federal COVID money Illinois schools have spent

2022-12-15T21:45:00+00:00

Illinois school districts have spent less than half of the roughly $7.8 billion the state got in federal COVID recovery money, according to a new spending dashboard launched today.

The Illinois State Board of Education published the data Thursday and said it would provide “real-time updates” on how districts have reported spending the money aimed at helping students recover from the pandemic.

“These funds are providing an unparalleled opportunity to transform systems of learning in Illinois that are more equitable, more inclusive, and more responsive to student needs,” State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala said in a press release.

So far, federal COVID recovery money has been spent on existing staff, technology, tutoring, and transportation. Some districts in Illinois and around the country are using the influx of cash to fix aging buildings. Others are using the money to expand pre-school and give high school students jobs.

A recent Chalkbeat and Better Government Association investigation found low-income districts, which got the most federal COVID money, have been slower to spend their allocations. Data obtained at that time showed about 40% of the money had been reported as spent. The new dashboard indicates about 47% has been spent. There may still be lags in when districts report spending the money.

Earlier this year, Chicago school board members raised concerns about how little COVID recovery money had been spent, particularly on student mental health. The new data indicates Chicago Public Schools has spent 52% of its federal COVID money.

The federal government approved three separate rounds of stimulus funding for schools as part of sweeping government aid doled out across the country in 2020 and 2021. The first wave of $569.5 million came one month into the pandemic under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act. The new dashboard shows nearly all of that money has been spent.

Congress authorized another massive infusion of money in 2021 to help districts recover from the academic and mental health setbacks spurred by the pandemic. Illinois received about $7 billion in these subsequent rounds. States and school districts must allocate the money by fall 2024.

According to the state’s press release, school districts are also required to “solicit local stakeholder input” and “make spending plans publicly available” for the most recent round of stimulus.

The state is also allowed to spend 10% of the money flowing to Illinois school districts. A large portion of that will go toward a high-impact tutoring program that hopes to reach more than 3,200 students.

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

All school-age children can get extra protection against COVID-19

2022-10-18T19:04:45+00:00

With COVID-19 bivalent boosters now available to elementary school-age children, health and school leaders are encouraging vaccination to stave off another winter surge.

The federal Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded eligibility last week for the new bivalent booster to include children as young as 5, after making it widely available on Aug. 31 for those 12 and older.

The updated booster for 5- to 11-year-olds is already being administered at pediatricians’ offices, pharmacies, and city-run vaccination sites, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner said Tuesday morning, noting that shipments were still rolling in.

About 93,685 Chicago students are eligible for an updated booster, Arwady said.

“You should get it now,” Arwady said. “You should not wait until a potential surge in November or December.”

Chicago Public Schools’ vaccine sites will offer the updated vaccine later this week. The district will alert families when the bivalent booster is available to 5- to 11-year-olds.

There are weekend vaccine clinics at Chicago City Colleges and vaccine events at elementary and high schools. Still, school-age children remain Chicago’s least vaccinated group.

As of the end of August, about 60% of Chicagoans ages 5 to 17 had completed the primary vaccine series, but only about 16% had received a booster. Among 12- to 17-year-olds, only 5,513 had received the updated booster as of Oct. 12, according to city data.

Chicago students returned to schools with fewer COVID precautions in place two months ago. Since then, new variants have emerged. District leaders and health officials are urging parents to get their students vaccinated to prevent severe illness and hospitalization ahead of a winter surge.

Here are a few things to know about the booster.

What is the bivalent booster?

Because COVID-19 has mutated multiple times since the first vaccines were developed, people who are vaccinated may not be as protected as they initially were. The new bivalent COVID-19 boosters include components of the original virus and the omicron strains and thus protect against the more transmissible omicron variants. The old boosters are no longer available.

Just as was done with the original vaccine, children under the age of 12 get smaller doses of the booster than what’s offered to teens and adults. But it’s a one-and-done shot for all age groups.

Who is eligible?

Anyone age 5 and older can get a booster. The Pfizer vaccine can be administered for 5- to 11-year-olds, and the Moderna booster can be given to children from 6 to 17 years old.

Children who completed the primary series of vaccinations are eligible for a booster if they’re two months past their second shot or last booster.

Where can I go to get my child vaccinated?

Officials said booster doses are being distributed in pediatricians’ offices, hospitals, pharmacies, clinics organized by the health department, and schools.

Chicago Public Schools continues vaccinations at four regional hubs: Michele Clark Magnet High School on the city’s West Side; Richards High School and Chicago Vocational on the city’s South Side; and Roosevelt High School on the city’s Northwest Side. Appointments can be found here.

The district is hosting vaccine clinics across the city. To book an appointment or see the schedule click here.

The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) is also hosting vaccination clinics at City Colleges of Chicago. Registration is recommended. Locations and time can be found here.

CDPH is also hosting aldermanic vaccine clinics across the city. Locations can be found below city college vaccination sites here.

Pharmacies including CVS and Walgreens are running their own registration, but appointments may be limited.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

How did COVID change school nursing? An award-winning Illinois nurse weighs in.

2022-10-14T16:09:07+00:00

Jinsun Baek, a school nurse at Center Cass School District 66, is working hard this school year to balance returning to normalcy with protecting students and staff from the coronavirus.

Baek has been a nurse for almost a decade and has worked at her small suburban school district in Downers Grove for about five years. She and a team of two part-time nurses work across three school buildings that serve about 1,000 students in kindergarten to eighth grade.

This school year, Baek was named the ‘Nurse of the Year 2022’ by the Illinois Association of School Nurses for her work in the district. She felt really honored, and surprised, to be awarded the title. “When my colleague reached out to nominate me, I said ‘Sure!’ but I didn’t expect that I would get it,” she told Chalkbeat.

Baek spoke recently with Chalkbeat Chicago about choosing school nursing, how the coronavirus pandemic has changed the perception — and reality — of her job, and what she does now to protect students and staff from COVID-19.

Jinsun Baek, district nurse at Center Cass School District 66

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What led you to become a school nurse?

In college, I majored in biology. When I started to look into nursing, I knew that I wanted to be a public setting nurse, not a hospital nurse. During my time in college, I volunteered with a program called Peer Health Exchange where I worked as a health educator in Chicago public high schools. Volunteering made me open my eyes to the big gap between [well-resourced] schools and those that do not really have much resources.

Then I went to the University of Illinois at Chicago to obtain my degree in nursing and that program had a certification for school nursing. It was a perfect medium for me because I liked to work in a community, and I wanted to work with younger people.

What does a typical day look like for you?

As a district nurse, I’m in charge of making sure everyone with health needs has a health care plan that can be shared with their teachers or administrators to stay safe and healthy in school. So daily, it could be medication administration for diabetes or asthma, using bandages or ice packs to treat injuries, or calling 911 — that doesn’t happen too often.

When the pandemic shuttered school buildings in 2020 and it was difficult for school to reopen in 2020-21, how did that impact your job as a school nurse?

It wasn’t easy. As the only full-time health care professional in the building, I was the one who had to make sure that the district was up-to-date on the state, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and local health department public health guidelines. I attended a lot of webinars. I informed all the administrators on what to do. Also, I had to inform the part-time nurses about what’s going on. It was hard to keep up with the changes day to day.

During the 2020-21 school year, we were one of the few schools that reopened. We didn’t go for a full school day because we weren’t sure how to do lunch, so we would send students home for lunch and the rest of the day was virtual learning.

Last school year, students and staff across the state returned to classrooms. Were things back to normal?

It was harder last school year. While the COVID-19 rules weren’t rapidly changing and rules were loosening up, my part-time nurses and I received a lot of backlash from parents who felt like we were discriminating against their kids because they were unvaccinated. As vaccines became widely available, they became politicized. It became a little bit hard for me to push certain rules at that point.

How is this school year going as students are back in classrooms and the pandemic has settled down a bit?

Even though COVID is still here, we loosened up a lot. I think we all kinda are learning how to live with it now. It’s definitely a balance between having normalcy and making sure we are following certain guidelines or rules. Kids don’t need to wear masks in school buildings anymore, and we can bring back normal activities like movie nights.

Since the pandemic happened, do you think that people look at school nurses differently?

Before the pandemic, I feel like nobody thought of school nurses. When the pandemic hit and schools needed to be locked down, people started to rely on school nurses to disseminate state guidelines for quarantines and other COVID mitigations. While I feel like a lot more people are recognizing the importance of school nurses, there is still a lot more work to be done. While a lot of organizations recommend a school nurse in every building, a lot of school districts are not capable of adequate staffing.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

Trust yourself as a health care professional, advocate for yourself, and voice your concerns. That helped me be seen by my administrators, and they now value my opinion as well. It was definitely helpful advice.

You have a busy job, and this is a stressful time. How do you take care of yourself when you’re not at work?

I work in the suburbs but I live in the city of Chicago. My commute is around 45 minutes and when I’m having a bad day, I blast my music on the way home and sing along. Also, I try to give myself one hour to focus on myself each day, whether that is taking a bath, watching a TV show that I like, or going to the gym.

New COVID boosters for kids 5 and up are coming. But half of Chicago’s 5- to 11-year-olds remain unvaccinated

2022-10-11T22:08:48+00:00

Children between 5 and 11 years old could be eligible for the latest COVID-19 bivalent booster ahead of a potential winter surge. But in Chicago, half of 5- to 11-year-olds have yet to complete the primary COVID vaccine series.

The rollout of the bivalent booster for children between 5 and 11 could come in the next two weeks, said Dr. Allison Arwady during an online segment on Tuesday. The federal Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention need to approve and sign off on the updated vaccine for that age group. The updated COVID booster was made widely available for people 12 and up last month.

But Arwady expressed disappointment with how many Chicagoans of any age have gotten the updated booster.

“The uptake of the updated vaccine is not where we need it to be,” Arwady noted.

If authorized, Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine will be administered to children between 5 and 11 years old, and a Moderna vaccine will be available for children ages 6 and up, Arwady noted.

The rollout would come ahead of winter when COVID-19 cases have spiked since the outset of the pandemic. A spike in omicron cases led to school closures nationwide last winter, including a weeklong standoff in January between the teachers union and Chicago Public Schools over COVID safety measures.

Chicago’s seven-day average is under 300 COVID reported cases and its COVID transmission rate remains low, according to a CDC rating system.

Still, Arwady urged Chicagoans to get the updated booster to avoid severe illness and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. She expressed concern the virus could hurt communities that have already borne the brunt of the pandemic.

“I’m concerned that especially in Latinx and Black communities, we’re seeing lagging vaccine uptake,” she said, “which means if we get a noticeable surge this winter, it’s more likely to hit harder in those communities.”

Those disparities still play out inside Chicago Public Schools. COVID vaccination rates remain the lowest at predominantly Black schools on the South and West Sides, according to a data analysis by Chalkbeat.

Overall, less than 50% of CPS students have completed the vaccine series across district-run schools. The number of CPS students who have received the booster has not been reported by the district.

Citywide, about 3.1%, or 3,850, of 12- to 17-year-olds have received the new updated booster.

About 4,258 students and 2,055 staff have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the new school year, according to the district.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois eases COVID testing requirements for unvaccinated school employees

2022-09-16T21:39:09+00:00

Illinois’ unvaccinated school and child care staff are no longer required to test for COVID infections weekly – a policy change officials attributed to an uptick in vaccinations.

The move comes as more young children in the state are getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Vaccination continues to be the most effective tool we have against COVID-19,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday evening in a press release, “I’m proud that millions of Illinoisans have taken advantage of these life-saving vaccines — they have given us the ability to adjust these requirements.”

Throughout the last school year, school employees who weren’t vaccinated were required to test at least once a week until they could prove that they were fully vaccinated. Some local school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, started this school year with fewer COVID-19 restrictions for school employees and students.

The state’s new testing policy aligns with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance from August, which no longer requires routine testing in schools or child care settings regardless of vaccination status. However, the CDC recommends that schools consider testing at times of high risk of spreading COVID-19 in the community, such as a return from winter break or after large indoor events.

This is the first school year where all children from 6 months to 18 years old can be vaccinated against COVID-19. The state’s current data shows that vaccination rates for children are slowly increasing.

As of Sept. 14, 9% of Illinois children under 5 — or about 62,300 children — had received their first vaccine dose. That’s 3.4% more than in late July when 39,000 — or 5.6% — had gotten a first dose.

The state department of public health has yet to publicly report numbers for children under 5 who are fully vaccinated. Young children who receive the Moderna vaccine must take two doses four weeks apart, while the Pfizer vaccine requires three doses over the course of 11 weeks.

As of Wednesday, 30.8% of Illinois children between 5 and 11 had been fully vaccinated, out of a population of more than 1.1 million. Of students between 12 and 17, 42.2% were fully vaccinated, out of a population of 1 million.

State superintendent Carmen Ayala and presidents of the state’s two largest teachers unions — the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Illinois Education Association — support the state’s change in requirements for school employees as staff and students are getting vaccinated against COVID-19.

As with adults, children 12 and older can also get boosters developed by Pfizer BioNTech. These new bivalent vaccines protect against the omicron variants — currently the most common.

Chicago children are more vaccinated than the rest of the state across all age groups. In the city, 73% of 12- to 17-year-olds, 49.1% of 5- to 11-year-olds, and 4.4% of children under 5 had completed the vaccine series as of Sept. 12, according to the Chicago health department.

While the state no longer requires unvaccinated staff to get tested weekly for COVID-19, many districts continue to offer opt-in testing to students.

The state health department said it made 1 million free rapid COVID tests available to schools earlier this year and 160 school districts have opted into the University of Illinois system’s’ SHIELD testing program — which allows districts to test students regularly at no cost to the district. So far, almost 50,000 tests have been given since the beginning of this school year.

The state health department has said it is working with local health departments to continue to vaccinate children.

Chicago schools see COVID vaccination rates backslide with a wave of new students

2022-09-14T21:52:02+00:00

Chicago Public Schools continues to struggle with COVID vaccine uptake as younger, unvaccinated students replace vaccinated graduates, but the district exceeds national averages in most children’s age groups.

Across all district-run schools, the average school vaccination rate is 39.6%, a drop from May when the average school rate was 44.7%. The pattern is mirrored at individual schools across the city, which are experiencing dips in the number of students who have completed the COVID-19 vaccine series, data shows. Rates remain the lowest at predominantly Black schools on the South and West Sides, according to a data analysis by Chalkbeat.

Even though city agencies spent the summer promoting vaccines, the updated numbers reveal the ongoing difficulty Chicago Public Schools faces in getting students vaccinated, even as COVID cases increased during the first weeks back to class.

This year marks the first school year since the start of the pandemic that all school-age students are eligible for the vaccine.

Here are some takeaways from Chalkbeat’s analysis of Chicago’s school-based vaccination data:

Majority Black elementary and high schools had an average vaccination rate of 23%, compared to majority Latino elementary and high schools, which averaged about 48.5%.
Majority Latino schools have lower vaccination rates, with a drop in uptake by about 5.6 percentage points from May to September; majority Black schools saw rates fall by about 3 percentage points over the same time period.
At 70% of schools across the district, less than half of the student population is vaccinated against the virus. At about 30% of schools across the district, less than a quarter of students are vaccinated.
District-run schools had a slightly overall higher vaccination rate than charters at both the elementary and high school level, but uptake among overall majority Black and Latino schools were slightly higher at charter schools.

As of Wednesday, 62.69% of 12- to 17-year-olds, 40.13% of 5- to 11-year-olds, and 1.41% of infants and children 6 months to 4 years old within CPS have completed a COVID vaccine series, according to district data.

Across the city, 73% of 12- to 17-year-olds, 49.1% of 5- to 11-year-olds, and 4.4% of infants and children 6 months to 4 years old have completed the vaccine series as of Sept. 12, city data shows.

Nationally, 60% of 12- to 17-year-olds, 31% of 5- to 11-year-olds, and 7 % of the youngest age group have received one dose as of Sept. 7, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Since July 2021, CPS has partnered with the city’s Department of Public Health, Illinois Department of Public Health, and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote vaccines. The district has opened four regional vaccine hubs, over 20 school-based health centers, and hosted more than 1,000 mobile vaccination clinics.

In a statement, Chicago Public Schools said the safety of staff and students was a priority since the onset of the pandemic, noting that promoting vaccination was “a central part” of its strategy.

“The vaccination rate in our District-run schools is ahead of the national average because we have invested resources in promoting vaccines and providing access,” the district said.

The district acknowledged “areas with low vaccination rates” and said it is continuously promoting vaccine efficacy and importance of getting vaccinated.

CPS plans to “double down on our efforts and try to assuage concerns and fears of families in communities who are historically suspicious of perceived government-administered vaccinations,” the statement said.

The district has an ongoing paid advertising campaign that targets zip codes in the city with low vaccination rates.

Ahead of the new school year, district officials also held back-to-school bashes that included vaccination clinics. Despite such efforts, uptake lags, especially at schools on the South and West Side, data shows.

North Side schools in Lake View, North Center, and North Park continue to have the highest uptake with over 70% of students fully vaccinated as of Sept. 6, data shows.

By contrast, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods including Greater Grand Crossing, Englewood, Oakland, and Burnside had the lowest uptake with less than 20% of students fully vaccinated as of Sept. 6, data shows.

Since students returned to school on Aug. 22, Chicago Public Schools has reported 2,721 student and 1,354 staff COVID cases across district-run schools as of Sept. 13.

Last week, about 736 students and 353 staff tested positive for COVID-19 between Sept. 4 and Sept. 10, down from the previous week when 1,250 students and 465 staff members tested positive for the virus, according to school district data.

The fluctuation in cases comes as students returned to the classroom last month with fewer district-mandated COVID-19 restrictions and a highly contagious BA.4 and BA.5 variant circulating across Chicago.

Currently, only 8.74%, or about 23,220 students, at district-run schools, are signed up for COVID-19 testing. The district has also made rapid home- COVID tests available to students.

Ahead of the new school year, Chicago Public Schools relaxed coronavirus mitigation, continuing its mask-optional policy and school-based COVID-19 testing, but eliminating the quarantine requirement for students exposed to the coronavirus. Quarantines are now only required for those who test positive.

Students and staff identified as close contacts are also required to wear masks for 10 days. This new measure implemented ahead of the school year aims to keep students in class, while also curbing the spread of the virus. It’s unclear how many students have been required to mask following an uptick in cases during the first few weeks.

The changes follow recently updated COVID-19 guidance from the CDC, which nixed test-to-stay protocols and eased quarantine policies for unvaccinated students.

The district is not requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Instead, officials continue to encourage families to get inoculated in order to protect against severe illness and will be offering vaccination events for students, staff, and families. Information for vaccination events can be found here.

Earlier this month, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said she wasn’t alarmed by the uptick and anticipated more cases with school underway. She noted the availability of vaccines has ushered in a new phase of the pandemic with fewer people dying from the virus. She has urged families, especially those with children from 6 months to 4 years old to get their children vaccinated.

The Chicago’s Department of Public Health has also urged families to get vaccinated against the flu.

City officials last week announced the rollout of 150,000 newly updated COVID-19 booster shots that offer greater protection against omicron variants. The boosters are free and available to anyone 12 and older who has already completed the initial vaccine series.

By getting more people protected against the circulating variant, the city would see fewer transmissions, Arwady said during a press conference last week.

“This is a big deal,” Arwady said. “This gives us a chance to get ahead of the virus.”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

COVID cases at Chicago schools jump in first week back

2022-08-30T21:12:36+00:00

Chicago Public Schools reported more than 400 new COVID-19 cases among students and hundreds more among staff during its first week of the school year, three times the number recorded during the same period last year, data shows.

The first-week numbers come as students returned to the classroom with looser COVID-19 restrictions and a highly contagious BA.5 variant — a sign that the coronavirus will continue to present challenges for yet another school year.

Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner who recently recovered from COVID-19, said she anticipated an increase in cases when students returned to schools.

“There is nothing about those case numbers that are at all surprising to me,” Arwady said during an online segment Tuesday afternoon. The numbers will likely go up, she added.

In the first week, 451 students and 315 staff self-reported positive tests. One staff member tested positive as part of school-based testing last week, according to city data.

Last year, 139 students and 65 CPS staffers reported testing positive for COVID-19 during the first week of school between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4, data shows.

The first-week numbers for this year rely primarily on self-reporting because the district’s school-based testing wasn’t widely available until Monday. Currently, only 4% or about 10,408 students at district-run schools have opted in for COVID-19 testing.

The city’s risk of COVID-19 transmission is currently medium, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention transmission rating system.

Ahead of the new school year, Chicago Public Schools revised its coronavirus mitigations, continuing its mask-optional policy and school-based COVID-19 testing, but eliminating the quarantine requirement for students exposed to the coronavirus. Quarantines are now only required for those who test positive.

Under the current protocols, students and staff identified as close contacts are required to mask for 10 days.

The changes follow recently updated COVID-19 guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which nixed recommendations for test-to-stay protocols and eased quarantine policies for unvaccinated students.

During a press conference on the first day of school last week at Excel Academy of South Shore, CEO Pedro Martinez said keeping classrooms open is a top priority.

“The vast majority of our students will be able to stay in their classrooms learning in person,” Martinez said.

The unpredictability of variants has made it challenging to be fully prepared, but Martinez noted that the district was in “such a different place than we were last year, both in our safety protocols and what we know about the pandemic.”

Chicago Public Schools is not requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Last year, before quarantine requirements were lifted, vaccinated students were allowed to continue attending school in-person, while unvaccinated students considered close contacts had to quarantine.

The district is encouraging families to get inoculated in order to protect against severe illness and will be offering vaccination events for students, staff, and families. Information for vaccination events can be found here.

As of Monday, 63.22% of 12- to 17-year-olds, 44.6% of 5- to 11-year-olds, and 14.26% of infants and children 6 months to 4 years old within CPS have completed a COVID vaccine series, according to district data.

About 68.18% of 12- to 17-year-olds, 52.19% of 5- to 11-year-olds, and 17.65% of the youngest age group have received one dose, data shows.

Vaccination uptake varies widely across demographics and geography. Black students are far less likely to be vaccinated than their Latino counterparts, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

On Chicago’s first day of school, a mix of enthusiasm and jitters

2022-08-22T23:44:02+00:00

Outside Falconer Elementary school on Chicago’s Northwest side shortly after 7:30 a.m., fourth grader Sebastian Benitez beamed with pride as he shook hands with Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Surrounded by his mom and younger siblings, the politics lover dressed in a blue polo and sweater said he hoped to get straight As, after bringing home one B last year.

“I’m going to try to boost that up,” he said. “I’m going to try to do better.”

Like Benitez, Lightfoot and her hand-picked schools CEO Pedro Martinez are hoping for a better year, after two tumultuous ones navigating the pandemic’s massive disruption to learning.

“I expect this to be one of the CPS strongest years ever,” Martinez said during a mid-morning press conference at Excel Academy of South Shore, an alternative school on the South Side.

The district is pledging to redouble efforts to have the recovery year officials hoped for last year, before COVID surges, staffing challenges, and other issues emerged.

Martinez will soon outline a three-year blueprint for the district that aims to strengthen neighborhood schools, career and technical education, services for students with disabilities, and more.

Despite notable challenges, Martinez said he and his team were working to ensure student safety, up-to-date COVID-19 protocols, and providing students with high quality teachers and staff.

Staffing challenges still linger

According to publicly available data, there are roughly 3,000 additional positions district wide compared to pre-pandemic and more dollars for professional development.

However, not all additional positions are filled. As of Monday, Martinez said the district had 900 vacant teacher positions districtwide, an uptick from last year when it had 600.

“We’re in a much better place than last year,” Martinez said, while acknowledging that hiring is ongoing. “We’re still hiring bus drivers. We’re still hiring custodial staff. We’re still hiring crossing guards.”

The district is planning to deploy long-term substitutes, Martinez added.

The tenor of the first day of classes also signaled a more cordial tone between district leadership and the teachers union.

Outside Back of the Yards College Preparatory High School, Chicago Teachers Union leaders and members suggested a new era of more cooperation with the district is within reach.

“There’s a great opportunity for setting a fresh start,” said Rebecca Martinez, the union’s director of organizing. “I think that’s what’s wonderful about the beginning of a school year.”

Others spoke about the difficulties of filling some vacant positions, particularly for educators and support staff who work with students with disabilities and English language learners.

Maggie Slavin, a teacher starting her second year at Back of the Yards, said the high school is entering the new school year fully staffed with special education educators and paraprofessionals. But she worries that’s not the case at all CPS schools. She urged district officials to streamline and speed up the process for hiring and onboarding new staff.

Music teacher Felix Ponce called on the district to deliver on promises to invest in more equitable access to arts education — an issue he said the district and union leaders should tackle together.

Recent Back of the Yards graduate Britney Quiroz, now a student at New York University, urged leaders to stay tuned in to what students are telling them they need — and encouraged fellow students to get involved.

“Student voice is crucial to the growth of our community,” said Quiroz. “The youth are gifted with the ability to reimagine.”

Some students face bus rides longer than an hour

Over the summer, district officials took steps to avoid busing issues that last year left students waiting for rides that sometimes never came. Martinez admitted Monday that hundreds of students are still facing bus rides that are more than an hour each way.

Union president Stacy Davis Gates alluded to those challenges during a speech at the City Club, noting that some children with disabilities will need to ride the school bus “for hours,” she said.

Despite a national shortage of bus drivers, the district has managed to route over 15,600 students across CPS. It continues to work to hire more drivers by increasing hourly wages, offering alternative modes of transportations such as taxis, and monthly stipends for parents.

Families who made transportation requests after July will need to wait a few weeks. About 80% of routes were under an hour, but Martinez noted that he was looking at a percentage of routes that are longer and would be looking at opportunities for improvements to those longer commutes.

“I ask families to be patient with us,” Martinez said. “Give us a couple of weeks. There’s going to be opportunities for us to get more efficient on the routes.”

Safety concerns heightened after mass shootings, city violence

Davis Gates offered a starkly different take on the state of Chicago Public Schools than Martinez in his own City Club address last week, when the CPS chief said the pandemic had disrupted but not broken a district on the rise — with record graduation rates and rapid academic growth.

Davis Gates said a decade of school closures and experiments in education reform and school turnarounds had failed students.

“We should all be disappointed in ourselves,” she said. “That’s an F.”

Offering up an alternative to Martinez’s yet-to-be-released blueprint, Davis Gates said the union would advocate for beefing up arts and athletic programs, and expanding the sustainable community schools model, in which campuses partner with community organizations to offer students added support.

Martinez and Lightfoot touted the steps the district plans to take this year to support students’ mental health and get them re-engaged in school.

While the festive mood filled schools, some parents said school safety weighed heavily in their minds following the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Highland Park earlier this year.

Jonathan Martinez and Natasha Alcedo, parents of a fifth grade Falconer student, were nervous about the “unfortunate” shootings, but hopeful for a safe and blessed school year.

“As parents, we always get nervous when children go back to school,” Alcedo said. “We hope that they’re learning well and that the teacher and kids are nice to them — along with any other safety precautions that we’re always worried about on a day to day basis.”

Jadine Chou, CPS’ chief of safety and security, said the district and multiple city agencies, including the Chicago Police Department and the city’s Office of Emergency Management, conducted a drill last week in preparation, Chou said. The district conducts over 3,800 drills every year, she noted.

The district has also implemented a new visitor management system, new safety video training, and expanding programs that go beyond physical safety to offer social, emotional, and mental health support, Chou said.

“We take safety and security in CPS very seriously,” Lightfoot said.

Chicago Public School CEO Pedro Martinez, center left, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, center right, greet students on the first day of classes after summer break at Falconer Elementary School in city’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

As Lightfoot and Martinez greeted families at Falconer, they peppered students with questions about their first-day hopes and offered compliments on haircuts and lunch boxes.

Hundreds of students and parents awaited the opening bell — a signal of the official end of summer for students — including Ethan Duran, his mother, and two siblings. The third grader has been eager to return to the classroom, in part, to play on the newly installed playground.

His mother, Soledad Galvan, was cautious about the return to school. She said unknown questions around the monkeypox virus and making sure schools were secure “no matter what” were top of mind for her.

Despite those concerns, she is hopeful for a good year for her three children.

So is her son, who eyed the playground and said: “I’m excited!”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

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

Chicago Public Schools students return to class next week with looser COVID-19 rules

2022-08-19T19:59:04+00:00

Chicago Public Schools’ students returning to class Monday will find more relaxed COVID-19 protocols, as the nation’s third largest school district adapts to the changing pandemic and recently updated federal recommendations.

In an email to parents, CEO Pedro Martinez outlined the district’s coronavirus mitigation measures for the upcoming school year, which include a continuation of its mask-optional policy and school-based COVID-19 testing, but no quarantine requirement for students exposed to the coronavirus, unless they test positive.

In announcing the changes, Martinez wrote that the district wants students to be able to learn in person throughout the year.

“CPS strives to keep school communities safe while maximizing in-person learning, which we know is critical to our students’ learning and development,” he wrote.

Districts across the country have already lifted a number of restrictions as the new academic year begins — a sign that schools are trying to return to pre-pandemic norms after two tumultuous years.

In Chicago, the school district negotiated with the Chicago Teachers Union to modify their existing safety agreement. The current agreement expires on Aug. 26. Union members are expected to vote on the agreement next week, according to the union.

In his email to parents, Martinez said the district would update parents on any changes to COVID-19 protocols throughout the year. In the meantime, here is what students and families can expect when school restarts next week:

No more quarantines for close contacts, but masks on for 10 days

The district will not require unvaccinated students and staff to quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19. Instead, students and staff who are exposed will be required to wear masks in school for 10 days after exposure, regardless of vaccine status.

The district will also provide take-home rapid COVID tests, which CPS is encouraging students and staff to use on days three and five after exposure to limit the spread of the virus.

The decision to loosen quarantine measures is a significant shift from last year when the district fully reopened for the first time since March 2020. Chicago Public Schools, like schools across the country, grappled with surging variants that drove up cases and led to thousands of students and staff being quarantined because of possible exposure to the virus. Amid the omicron surge in late January, the district quarantined over 22,000 on one day, according to the district data.

But quarantines won’t go away entirely.

Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said in an interview with City Cast Chicago that students and staff who test positive will still be required to quarantine for at least five days. Upon returning to schools, they are required to wear a mask from days six through 10, she added.

“That has not changed,” Arwady said.

Chicago Public Schools will also require mask wearing if there is a positive case in an elementary school classroom and if directed by the Chicago Department of Public Health. Otherwise, mask wearing will remain optional but highly encouraged by the district, according to the email sent to parents.

COVID-19 testing

The district will continue to offer optional, weekly COVID-19 testing at schools. Last month, Chicago’s Board of Education approved an $85 million contract with vendor Thermo Fisher to continue optional surveillance testing for the 2022-23 school year.

Students whose families agree to testing will need to submit a new form for the upcoming school year. Parents can fill out the form here. With the new form, consent will be considered given as long as the student is in CPS.

More than 9,000 students have consented to school-based testing as of Aug. 16, according to the district.

Last year, the district struggled to establish an effective school-based COVID testing program. Months into the school year, just 7% of the district’s student body had signed up for testing. In some schools, fewer than five students consented to the weekly nose swabs. Concerns over testing and other safety concerns resulted in a standoff between the district and the union, whose members voted to switch to remote learning. School was canceled for five days as the district and the union negotiated a settlement.

Part of that settlement was a district promise to get at least 10% of students at every school to sign up for weekly COVID-19 testing.

After ramping up testing capacity, CPS was testing more than 64,000 students weekly throughout the district.

Vaccination

Chicago Public Schools is not requiring vaccines, but is encouraging families to get inoculated against the virus to protect against severe illness. The district will continue to offer vaccination events for students, staff and families. Information for vaccination events can be found here.

In June, children 6 months to 4 years old became the last age group approved for the vaccine. Vaccines for 12- to 17-year-olds were approved in May 2021, followed by children ages 5 to 11 approved last fall.

Across the country, the vaccination numbers for children have stagnated, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ analysis of CDC data.

In Chicago, 72.8% of 12- to 17-year-olds, 48.6% of 5- to 11-year-olds, and 2.7% of infants and children 6 months to 4 years have completed a COVID vaccine series. About 24.3% of 12- to-17-year-olds and 7.9% of 5- to 11-year-olds have also received boosters, according to city data.

About 81.6% of 12- to 17-year-olds, 55.9% of 5- to 11-year-olds, and 10.3% of the youngest age group have received one dose, data shows.

But vaccination uptake among Chicago Public Schools students lags behind the city average and varies widely. Black students are far less likely to be vaccinated than their Latino counterparts, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

Health and school officials have stressed the importance of being up to date with the vaccine to prevent severe illness from the coronavirus.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Fewer Chicago students are opting in to COVID-19 testing during summer school

2022-07-20T21:36:17+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is testing far fewer students for COVID-19 this summer than it did during the school year, even as a more contagious omicron subvariant spreads and rates of transmission remain high across the city.

Roughly 2,500 out of 57,000 students — fewer than 5% — consented to COVID-19 testing as of July 5, according to figures provided to Chalkbeat by Chicago Public Schools. These are students participating in academic summer programs, CitySpan, and out-of-school activities across 290 schools, officials said.

The numbers represent a sharp drop from the end of the school year, when about 35% of students across district-run campuses were enrolled in school-based COVID testing. The current opt-in rates also fall far below CEO Pedro Martinez’s goal during the school year to test at least 10% of students at each school.

But a district spokesperson cautioned the numbers of students who opted in to testing do not include a full accounting of all summer programs, and may be higher than 5%. Officials are still compiling the total number of students enrolled in school-based testing across all district-run summer programs.

The district’s decision to use an opt-in model, where only students who choose to participate are tested, has been a point of contention since schools fully reopened in August 2021. Last year, union leaders and some parents argued for an opt-out model — where all students would be tested unless they expressly chose not to — that would ensure a random sample of students were being tested daily as a form of public health surveillance.

The first week of summer school — July 3-9 — 2,680 tests were conducted, according to district data. The following week, the number climbed to 3,894 students and staff tested.

About 179 staff and 84 students have tested positive since the start of the summer. Among those, 122 staff and 41 student cases were self-reported, CPS data shows.

In a statement, Chicago Public Schools said it was continuing to provide COVID-19 testing during summer programming, following guidance from local, state, and federal health experts.

Unvaccinated staff working during summer school are also required to get tested weekly at their school, the spokesperson said in an email.

In addition to school-based COVID testing, the Office of Sports Administration distributed more than 20,000 home test kits for unvaccinated student-athletes. They are required to use rapid antigen test kits twice a week during the summer, according to a district spokesperson.

Across the country, cities are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 in the face of a new omicron subvariant called BA.5. Chicago is currently averaging 776 new daily cases with a 10.3% positivity rate, data shows.

The city is also designated high risk for COVID-19 transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s rating system.

Chicago Public Schools does not require masks, but has encouraged students and staff to wear masks indoors. The district was among the last in the state to lift its mask mandate in mid-March. That decision prompted a mixed response from parents, students, and teachers.

On Tuesday, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said she didn’t anticipate an indoor mask mandate returning unless the local hospital system became overburdened or threatened.

Throughout the year, the district has urged families to get vaccinated to protect against the virus, especially with all school-age children eligible for vaccines. Last year, CPS hosted over 1,500 vaccination clinics. It has partnered with local health providers including Lurie Children’s Hospital and Humboldt Park Health to expand vaccination events in high-priority areas, according to the district.

In early May, rates of vaccination among Chicago Public Schools students varied widely. Students at majority Black schools on the South and West Sides were less likely to be vaccinated than students attending schools on the North Side, according to a data analysis by Chalkbeat.

At the start of last school year, CPS struggled to implement COVID-19 testing at every school. Officials cited staffing shortages with the district’s vendor. The district also struggled to get students to opt in to testing.

In January, after a weeklong standoff between the district and its teachers union that abruptly halted school for several days, some teachers spent the first day back going through class rosters calling parents to get students signed up for the district’s school-based COVID testing.

By late March, the district ramped up testing capacity to about 66,000 tests per week. According to the district, more than 1.5 million COVID-19 tests have been administered since Sept. 1, 2021.

The district last month announced it would continue offering COVID testing for students and staff regardless of vaccination status for the upcoming school year.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

More than 2,000 Chicago children under 5 got first dose of COVID vaccine in first week

2022-06-28T21:13:21+00:00

This story has been updated.

More than 2,000 Chicago children under 5 have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, marking another turning point in the pandemic as preschoolers and infants are now eligible to be inoculated.

Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, shared figures on Tuesday for children under 5 who received their first dose after the vaccine was rolled out last week. Before Arwady got to the numbers, she shared a photo of her youngest nephew getting his first shot.

“He was the most interested in which type of Band-Aid he would be getting and, you know, said that as soon as he had the Band-Aid, it didn’t hurt anymore,” Arwady said.

Chicago’s Department of Public Health also announced a plan Tuesday to begin reopening vaccination clinics at Chicago City Colleges through September to offer shots to people of all ages during the next few months.

The city is partnering with Blue Cross Blue Shield for additional family vaccination clinics in Morgan Park, South Lawndale, and Pullman.

“We would like nothing more than for you to come in as a family and get the little one vaccinated,” Arwady said.

At least 2,097 children under 5 in Chicago received their first dose last week, Arwady said. Lurie Children’s Hospital, Swedish Covenant, Weissbluth Pediatrics, and Children’s Healthcare Association were among the top administrators of the vaccine for that age group, with about 30% of children under 5 receiving vaccines at pharmacies, she said.

There are more than 150,000 children under 5 in the city, according to the U.S. Census.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the vaccine for children under 5 earlier this month. That age group is the last to be eligible for a COVID vaccine.

Moderna’s vaccine for children 6 months to 4 years old is administered in two doses four weeks apart, while the Pfizer vaccine for the youngest children is administered in three doses over the course of 11 weeks.

Across the country, the vaccination numbers for children have stagnated, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ analysis of CDC data.

In Chicago, 72.6% of 12- to 17-year-olds and 47.4% of 5- to 11-year-olds have completed a COVID vaccine series. About 21.3% of 12- to-17-year-olds and 3.7% of 5- to 11-year-olds have also received boosters, according to city data.

Vaccination rates vary widely across Chicago Public Schools. Black students are far less likely to be vaccinated than their Latino counterparts. As of early May, majority Black elementary and high schools had an average vaccination rate of 26.7%, compared to majority Latino elementary and high schools, which averaged about 54%, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

At Lurie Children’s Hospital, Dr. Larry Kociolek said it has had a “successful” early rollout of the pediatric vaccine. He estimated the hospital’s vaccination clinic has given out about 1,200 COVID shots to children under 5 since last Tuesday.

Lurie Children’s Hospital has been administering vaccines to children since the initial authorization in late 2020 when 16-year-olds were included in the emergency authorization for the COVID vaccine developed by Pfizer.

“Currently, we are offering vaccines at the main hospital as well as a few of their ambulatory sites that allows us to increase the efficiency and volume of vaccines we can give,” Kociolek said.

The hospital is continuing to identify how it can expand vaccine access, Kociolek noted.

Following the initial rollout, the hospital will transition administration of the vaccine from clinics to primary care doctors in the coming months, Kociolek said.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education extends the district’s authority to spend on COVID-related expenses

2022-06-23T00:40:13+00:00

Chicago’s Board of Education has extended the district’s authority to spend funds on COVID-19 safety mitigations for the upcoming school year — a sign the district will continue to take precautions amid new waves of variants that could disrupt classes.

Under a resolution passed at its Wednesday board meeting, Chicago Public Schools will have the authority to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic for the upcoming school year without getting board approval for each expense. The district will provide testing, vaccinations, masks, as well cleaning supplies to respond to COVID-19 health emergencies. The resolution will take effect from July 1 and last until June 30, 2023.

During the meeting, member Sendhil Revuluri, who voted against the extension, acknowledged the need for the district’s agility to respond to health and safety needs of students, but said the district needed to be more strategic on COVID-19 expenditures.

CPS officials said the authorization will allow the district to be nimble and act quickly when unexpected purchases are needed.

CEO Pedro Martinez said he was committed to making sure board members had access to timely reports.

The district is negotiating its contract with its testing vendor for the upcoming 2022-23 school year, and could not provide a figure on spending for the upcoming year. Thermo Fisher received a $60 million contract with CPS, but it’s unclear how much the district ultimately paid for school-based COVID testing throughout the academic year.

Last week, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced it would offer every public school outside of Chicago the opportunity to use saliva-based COVID-19 testing through Shield Illinois at no cost for the upcoming school year.

When CPS fully reopened in the fall after 18 months of mostly remote instruction, the district struggled to establish an effective school-based COVID testing program.

Chicago Public Schools completed 127 tests at schools during the first week of classes between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4. At the start of the school year, the district also failed to meet its deadline to implement a testing program at every school, citing staffing shortages with Thermo Fisher.

By January, amid another surge in cases, a majority of Chicago Teachers Union members voted to teach remotely because of concerns about the district’s COVID safety measures. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the district canceled classes for five days amid the dispute with its union.

After a weeklong stalemate, district leaders and the union came to an agreement on a safety plan. The agreement included masks for teachers and students, more testing, and details for when a school or class would flip back to remote. The union’s original demands for a districtwide threshold to shut down in-person teaching and an opt-out testing program were not met.

After the mid-year disruption, the district increased testing capacity, hitting a peak of 66,134 COVID tests between March 27 and April 2, data shows.

The district moved to a mask-optional policy in mid-March, prompting frustration from some parents. In May, one school and 21 other classrooms temporarily reinstated mask mandates after recording several COVID-19 cases.

From Aug. 29 to June 16, Chicago Public Schools recorded 22,568 COVID-19 cases among students and 9,477 cases among staff, according to district records.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

COVID vaccine rollout expected for children under 5 next week in Chicago

2022-06-17T16:33:19+00:00

Maria Paula Fitz has been waiting a long time for the COVID vaccine to be approved for children under 5. Her 2-year-old son is the last in her household to be inoculated and she sees it as a safety decision that will help her pandemic-weary family.

“He hasn’t been to preschool and he stays at home with our nanny,” Fitz said, “so it’s hard for him to just have a normal childhood.”

The mother, who lives in Evanston, said the vaccine will provide her family with some relief as her youngest attends preschool in the fall.

Fitz and other parents of children under 5 could be able to get their youngest family members vaccinated as soon as next week after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccines by Modern and Pfizer on Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must still approve the vaccines, which could happen within days.

Children under 5 are the last age group to become eligible for COVID vaccines. While only 3% of U.S. COVID cases were in children from 6 months to 4 years old, according to the FDA, case numbers shot up during the wave of the omicron variant. About 75% of children 11 and under showed evidence of previous infection in February, compared to 44% in December, according to the CDC. The rates of hospitalization in this age group also increased during the omicron wave.

In Chicago, officials expect the city to receive about 15,500 doses each of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, with future shipments based on uptake, according to Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner. There are 169,000 children younger than 5 in the city, Arwady said in her weekly online segment “Ask Arwady” earlier this month.

The Biden administration and local officials expect most children in the youngest age group to receive vaccines from their pediatrician or primary care doctor. Earlier this month, Arwady said the department of health has “done extensive training” for local pediatric providers.

At Esperanza Health Centers in Southwest Chicago, which pre-ordered the Pfizer vaccine, children younger than 5 will be able to get vaccinated in already established appointments or schedule appointments to get the vaccine, said Dr. Mark Minier, medical director of pediatrics and school-based health services. Three- and 4-year-olds will also be able to get vaccinated at smaller, scaled-back versions of a vaccination clinic currently in operation.

These children will be vaccinated in an environment with a medical provider because of their young age, Minier said.

“While some of it is safety, we also realized that many of those kids need other vaccines that they’ve kind of gotten behind on during the COVID pandemic,” Minier said, “and we really want to use those opportunities to kind of check all of their vaccines to make sure they’re up to date.”

Esperanza’s pop-up, temporary spaces for mass vaccination clinics in previous rollouts are no longer in use because of declining demand, he said.

Some people may be suspicious because the vaccine for children under 5 took longer to come out and waning case numbers may have caused less appetite for the vaccine, Minier said. He encouraged people to talk to their health care providers for more information and said he trusts the regulatory process and agencies reviewing the vaccine.

“I’ve only had probably a handful of people specifically ask me about it,” Minier said.

The families asking about the vaccine are typically those in families where everyone else is already vaccinated, he said.

It is uncertain how many eligible children will get vaccinated. Only 47% of children ages 5-11 in Chicago have gotten the first two doses of a COVID vaccine since approval for the age group in October, according to data provided by the city.

A national poll by Kaiser Family Foundation conducted in April showed only 1 in 5 parents of children under 5 are planning on vaccinating their children right away. Thirty-eight percent of parents surveyed said they planned on waiting to vaccinate their children and 27% did not plan to vaccinate at all.

The Carole Robertson Center for Learning, a local provider of child care and early childhood programming, has been preparing for the vaccine rollout by providing families with information in its weekly newsletter and by pointing them to Chicago Department of Public Health webinars, said Sangeeta Solshe, senior health manager at the center.

The center will likely host an informational town hall as it has done previously during the pandemic, said Solshe, who has also contacted local health officials in hopes of scheduling a vaccination clinic.

“Even with the vaccines being rolled out very soon, it will be a much longer time before there’s any real change in the number of children at our centers who have been vaccinated and who are fully vaccinated,” said Meg Helder, senior director of monitoring and support at the Carole Robertson Center, earlier this week.

For now, policies will continue to be based on city health department guidance and case numbers in its child care facilities and Chicago, Helder and Solshe said. The center will encourage vaccination, but while there is a vaccine mandate for staff, there are no plans to do so for children.

Illinois health officials also announced earlier this week that they will support the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics in a campaign to get children under 5 vaccinated, which they had been preparing in anticipation of authorization. States were able to place orders on June 3, but no vaccines will be shipped until after federal approval, White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha said earlier this month.

The Biden administration asked states to prioritize children with highest risk and in the most difficult to reach areas as well as sites that could handle large volumes of people, Jha said. The vaccines will also be available at community-based organizations and pharmacies, according to the administration.

An FDA assessment of Moderna’s vaccine, which will be administered in two doses four weeks apart for children from 6 months to 5 years old, found it to be 37% to 51% effective against symptomatic COVID. The FDA assessment of Pfizer’s vaccine, which will be distributed in three doses over the course of an 11-week period to children 6 months to 4 years old, found it to be about 80% effective.

As a parent of a child younger than 5, Helder is excited about the vaccine rollout, but not all parents she has spoken to feel the same way.

“There’s definitely some parents similar to me who are, you know, thrilled,” Helder said. “But then, there’s a lot of people, and I’ve spoken to many, who are a little nervous about anything new for small children.”

Helder, on the other hand, is trying to figure out a way to get the first appointment available with her pediatrician.

Eileen Pomeroy is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Eileen at epomeroy@chalkbeat.org.

From enrollment declines to federal COVID relief funds: Chicago’s school year in 5 numbers

2022-06-09T20:58:03+00:00

COVID-19 surges. Staff shortages. Rocky school-based testing roll-out. Transportation challenges. Canceled classes amid a dispute over safety issues.

When Chicago Public Schools fully opened its doors to all students this fall — after about 18 months of remote and hybrid learning – the return to the classroom was expected to be a year of recovery.

But the ripple effects of the ongoing pandemic presented challenges for the district as teachers and staff worked to meet student needs such as learning loss, behavior issues, and mental health challenges.

This year, Chicago – and districts across Illinois and the nation – grappled with how to protect students and staff from COVID even as they looked for ways to regain lost academic ground and coped with staff shortages and transportation woes.

In Chicago Public Schools, the country’s third largest district, officials struggled to implement an effective COVID-19 testing program. The delta and omicron surges added to the uncertainty and safety concerns, prompting a week-long standoff between the district and its teachers union.

Here are five numbers recapping some of the biggest stories across Chicago Public Schools from this school year, which ends on June 14:

10,000 students leave the district as enrollment drops

Chicago Public Schools lost 3% of its student body and saw drops among all racial groups as the pandemic exacerbated declining enrollment. CPS shrank by a total of 10,000 students, bringing the enrollment to 330,411 as of October 2021.

More than 53,700 students left the district since fall 2020. The number of students transferring to homeschooling and private schools also increased over the past two years. A higher number of new students this year did not balance out the number of students leaving.

Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a net loss of about 25,000 students between fall 2019 and spring 2021.

Latino enrollment losses outpaced those of Black students this year, which previously emptied out schools in the South and West Side in recent years. Although causes of shrinking enrollment vary, gentrification and demographic changes have been two prominent drivers of the past decade.

The district uses enrollment as part of school-based budgeting to determine funding for schools. Union leaders and parents are concerned that the loss of students will thrust schools into cycles of fewer resources that lead to more decreases in enrollment.

Chicago’s enrollment loss is similar to the overall enrollment declines across the state. About 70,000 students, or 3.6%, left public schools statewide, according to the state board of education’s 2021 report card. The enrollment drops were highest among younger students in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

$1.26 billion in federal COVID relief money spent

As CPS finalizes its budget for the upcoming school year, critics have urged the district to keep school budgets harmless for a third year by using federal COVID relief funds.

So far, the district has spent $1.26 billion, or 45% of the federal relief funds since the first of three relief packages was approved in spring 2020. Chicago Public Schools plans to use about $730 million in the upcoming year on academics and social emotional learning supports, according to the district.

The district has used a large chunk of federal COVID dollars on existing staff, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the data. While some principals appreciated the extra breathing room, others felt those funds weren’t being used to help schools bounce back.

CPS says it has spent relief funding on COVID mitigation measures including school-based testing as well as tutors and counselors to address mental health and academic harms.

5 days of canceled classes amid a standoff between CPS and its teachers union

In January, Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Lori Lightfoot canceled classes for five days after a majority of the Chicago Teachers Union members voted to teach remotely over safety concerns as COVID-19 cases surged across the city.

Parents expressed frustration over another disruption to the school year, with some criticizing both the union and district for not including them in the discussion.

In early February, a judge in central Illinois granted a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit filed by a group of parents and over 170 school districts. The ruling halted emergency public health orders that established masking, vaccination, and testing protocols in schools. Chicago was one of the districts listed in the lawsuit, but continued to require masking until March 14. The move to mask-optional faced criticism from some parents and the teachers union.

22,114 COVID cases among students and 9,125 cases among adults

COVID cases surged in the winter because of the highly transmissible omicron variant, reaching a peak in January, according to data provided by CPS. A smaller surge began toward the end of April.

In the first month of school, from Aug. 29 through Sept. 30, there were a total of 1,073 COVID cases among students. By June 8, the district had recorded a total of 22,114 cases, according to CPS data.

As of early May, CPS reported that across all district-run schools, about 44.7% of eligible students were fully vaccinated, but rates varied widely. There was lower uptake in majority Black schools on the South and West Sides and higher uptake in schools on the North Side, according to a data analysis by Chalkbeat.

In March, almost 75% of schools had less than half of their students fully vaccinated, 34% had less than a quarter of students vaccinated, and 30 schools had less than 10% vaccinated.

The district engaged in various initiatives to boost vaccination rates throughout the school year. These efforts included hosting regional hosting vaccines hubs, mobile clinics, and a Vaccine Awareness Day in addition to partnerships with the faith community.

Despite efforts to vaccinate students, issues of access such as transportation and language barriers contributed to limited success at schools in the South and West Side.

4,000 students without reliable bus service early in the school year

Chicago Public Schools struggled to provide enough busing for students requesting transportation, a problem that hit districts across the state and country. Almost two months into the school year, CPS had 4,000 students with outstanding transportation requests; more than half were students with disabilities. In October, about 3% of students without steady transportation did not go to school at the time as a result, according to the district.

At the beginning of the school year, the district only had 500 of the 1,200 bus drivers needed. School officials also attributed busing snarls to new transportation requests, enrollment changes, and route assignments by the bus companies.

Some families received stipends to provide their own transportation and the district partnered with taxi cab companies and vendors such as RideAlong to try and close the gap. The district also sought to hire more drivers throughout the year.

In January, the Board of Education adopted a resolution that prioritized transportation for students with Individualized Education Programs, medically fragile students, and those who lived in temporary housing.

District officials said they were able to meet transportation obligations for students with disabilities in February, but at the time, 1,000 general education students were still waiting for busing assignments. CEO Pedro Martinez said Chicago Public Schools would look for alternative modes of transportation and might rely less on buses this fall.

Eileen Pomeroy is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Eileen at epomeroy@chalkbeat.org.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

As summer break approaches, Chicago will pause school-based COVID testing Friday

2022-06-07T21:19:05+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is pausing its COVID-19 testing program on June 10 — a few days before the district wraps up classes on June 14, according to Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner.

The news comes as the city’s COVID transmission rate remains high, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rating system. Amid the surge in cases, health and district officials continue to urge people to wear masking indoors. Last month, one school and 21 other classrooms temporarily reinstated mask mandates in the face of several COVID-19 cases.

Last week, 1,078 students and 467 staff tested positive between May 29 and June 4, data shows.

The district plans to bring back testing during summer school starting July 6. It will also offer COVID-19 testing for the 2022-23 school year, according to the district.

The health commissioner announced the pause of the CPS testing program during her weekly online segment “Ask Arwady” on Tuesday.

In a statement, the district said it “has made the safety and well-being of [its] students and staff a top priority since the onset of the pandemic.”

Officials have worked to promote vaccine events telling parents and students being inoculated is the best protection against COVID-19. The district has seen vaccine uptake increase since January, but rates vary widely by school.

“We are working with our schools with low student vaccination rates in order to facilitate outreach calls to our families and coordinate events with our community partners,” the district said in a statement.

Over the past year, Chicago Public Schools has made headway with its testing program after struggling to implement testing at every school. Officials cited staffing shortages with the district’s vendor. It also struggled to get students opted in to testing. The teachers union and some parents criticized the district saying the program should require parents to opt out rather than opt in for testing.

In January, after a weeklong standoff with its teachers union, some teachers spent the first day back going through class rosters calling parents to get students signed up for the district’s school-based COVID testing. About 34.64% of students are currently enrolled in COVID-19 testing across the district, according to data from the city.

Before a return to in-person learning this year, Chicago Public Schools set out to make testing a centerpiece of the district’s COVID safety strategy. In August, Interim school chief Jose Torres told WTTW the district would be testing all students and staff weekly, noting at the time: “This goes way beyond the CDC recommendation.”

But the promise of weekly testing for all students and staff never materialized. Chicago Public Schools completed 127 tests at schools during the first week of school between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4. At the start of the school year, the district also failed to meet its deadline to implement a testing program at every school.

The district has ramped up testing over the last few months, conducting more than 66,100 tests between March 27 and April 2. Last week, the district conducted over 58,000 tests, according to data from the district.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools requires masks at one school, 20 other classrooms as COVID cases increase

2022-05-24T19:01:58+00:00

As COVID-19 cases surge across Chicago and in a number of city schools, the district has reinstated a mask requirement at one elementary school and 20 classrooms at other campuses.

On Chicago’s North Side, students and staff at Oscar Mayer Magnet School, which has recorded 108 COVID-19 cases since May 1, will be required to mask until May 28, based on guidance from Chicago’s Department of Public Health, district officials said.

As of last week, a 10-day masking requirement also went into effect for 20 classrooms at other schools. The mask requirement will be lifted at various times throughout this week. The last classroom will flip back to mask-optional on May 29, according to district officials.

In the face of litigation around its masking policies, Chicago Public Schools moved to make masking optional in mid-March, but district leaders continued to encourage masking. Rather than reinstate a universal mask mandate, district officials at the time said they would be more surgical in masking by placing requirements on classrooms or entire schools in the face of a surge.

The masking requirement at Mayer Magnet School and 20 classrooms comes as Chicago Public Schools cases have increased in recent weeks, surpassing the mid-January omicron surge. About 1,946 students and 731 staff tested positive for COVID-19 between May 8-14, compared to the mid-January peak where 1,838 students and 545 staff tested positive between Jan. 16-22, data shows.

The district saw a decline in cases last week when 1,423 students and 563 staff tested positive between May 15-21.

Still, across the district, a number of schools have seen an increase in COVID-19 cases between May 1-21. Among the schools seeing an uptick are:

Lane Tech High School, 152 cases
Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, 115 cases
William Howard Taft High School, 119 cases
Mark Skinner Elementary School, 92 cases
Louisa May Alcott College Preparatory Elementary School, 90 cases
Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School, 88 cases
Thomas J Waters Elementary School, 88 cases
Jean Baptiste Beaubien Elementary School, 84 cases

Carnegie Elementary, Healy Elementary, Nettelhorst Elementary School, and Helen Peirce International Studies Elementary have recorded more than 40 cases in recent weeks, data shows.

In an email statement, Chicago Public Schools said it continues to implement “proven COVID-19 safety mitigation protocols” across the district and continues to encourage masking indoors.

“CPS will adjust these protocols under the guidance of its health partners the Chicago Department of Public Health, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” according to a district spokesperson.

The district has added capacity to its contact tracing team to help detect and limit spread and is working with public health partners to monitor increases.

On Tuesday afternoon, Dr. Alison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said she expects the city’s risk of COVID-19 transmission to move from medium to high this week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention transmission rating system. Still, Arwady said she doesn’t anticipate a mask mandate unless healthcare systems are threatened.

Asked whether masking should be required in schools amid the current increase in cases, Arwady said masking indoors was strongly encouraged, but noted that the city would not mandate masking in schools before a universal masking was put in place at the city level.

“We strongly support any schools, or school districts that decide to put a masking requirement back in place,” Arwady said. “But that is a school decision, or district decision.”

Health officials have worked with Chicago Public Schools on a focused approach to require masking at schools in the event of an outbreak in a classroom or school setting, Arwady said.

Earlier this month, CEO Pedro Martinez tested positive for COVID-19. In a statement, Martinez urged staff and families to get vaccinated and boosted.

On Monday, the Philadelphia public school district returned to universal masking due to rising COVID cases.

In March, Chicago Public Schools moved to lift its mask mandate, aligning itself with updated CDC guidance, which in late February recommended that school districts drop mask mandates unless COVID cases and hospitalizations in their region were high.

Under current policy, students and staff who test positive are required to wear masks for five days after being in quarantine for five days.

After the district announced it was lifting its mask mandate in March, the Chicago Teachers Union argued that the policy change violated a safety agreement requiring masking through the end of the school year. The agreement was forged after district officials canceled five days of classes in January when teachers voted to work remotely over safety concerns amid the rise of COVID-19 cases across the city.

Across the district, 361 staff and 2,619 students were quarantined as of Monday.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools CEO tests positive for COVID-19

2022-05-12T23:11:20+00:00

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19, the district announced Thursday.

Martinez, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, is experiencing mild symptoms. He began experiencing cold-like symptoms on Wednesday before testing positive on Thursday.

“This is a good opportunity to remind our CPS staff and families to please get vaccinated and boosted,” Martinez said in a statement. “Because of the vaccine, I expect that I will be fine.”

The district said in a statement that Martinez will work from home following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which recommends people isolate for five days or until symptoms have subsided.

Currently, the district requires people who test positive to quarantine for five days. Unvaccinated students and staff who are a close contact to someone who has tested positive for COVID are required to isolate for five days.

The news comes as Chicago is experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases. The city is currently averaging 971 new cases with a 5.2% positivity rate, data shows.

Last week, the city’s risk of COVID-19 transmission was raised from low to medium, prompting Chicago’s Department of Public Health to encourage people to wear masks indoors including school and public transportation.

“It’s not a cause for alarm, since most cases right now are mild and thankfully our COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths remain at or near all-time pandemic lows in Chicago,” Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner said last week.

Officials said the move from low to medium would not trigger a citywide mask mandate, restrictions on public gatherings, or reinstatement of vaccination requirements.

Such measures would be considered if the city moved from medium to high risk, Arwady said.

The district lifted its mask mandate in mid-March prompting criticism from some parents and the teachers union who alleged the district violated its safety agreement with the union.

About 1,062 students and 366 staff members tested positive during a span of four days between May 8 and May 10, according to school data.

Last week, the district recorded 1,403 students and 480 staff positive cases between May 1 and May 7 — an increase from the previous week when 823 students and 324 staff tested positive between April 24 and April 30, according to district figures.

About 2,128 students and 357 staff were quarantined as of Thursday, according to city data.

The positivity rate for school-based testing is shy of 1%, according to the district.

Across all district-run schools, the average school is 44.7% fully vaccinated, but rates vary widely. Although there has been a gradual increase in overall vaccine rates since December, the nation’s third largest district is still struggling to make inroads at predominantly Black schools on the South and West Sides, according to a data analysis by Chalkbeat.

Currently, majority Black elementary and high schools have an average vaccination rate of 26.7%, compared to majority Latino elementary and high schools, which average about 54%, data shows.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools partners with Lady Gaga foundation to tackle depression, mental health issues among students

2022-05-10T22:41:31+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is launching a new initiative aimed at providing mental health support for students amid increased rates of depression, suicide, and anxiety disorders among young people across the nation.

Please Stay is focused on promoting dialogue around mental health support for seventh to 12th grade students, the district announced Tuesday morning. The suicide prevention program, which coincides with Mental Health Awareness month, was created by pop singer Lady Gaga’s Born this Way Foundation and mental health grassroots organization Find Your Anchor. The campaign offers schools materials to tackle mental health issues and promote self-care among students.

School districts across the country are grappling with how to deal with the mental health fallout from the pandemic. Last month, the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention released a survey that found 1 in 3 high school students experienced poor mental health during the pandemic. About 44% of students also reported feeling “persistently sad or hopeless,” according to the survey findings.

Amid the uncertainty of the last two years, Northside College Prep senior Anmol Singh witnessed firsthand how “COVID-19 really took a toll on students’ mental health.”

“We’re all very fearful,” Singh said. “There was a sense of uncertainty in the air, and being tasked to continue with school, but also not know if it’s okay to even go outside. That was something that was very hard to manage.”

He remembers his family life being disrupted, financial hardships, and being disconnected from extended family. His mother had to take a leave of absence to care for his 3-year-old brother, while his older brother missed out on cornerstone moments of his senior year.

“We were just really devastated by the fact that we had to completely uproot everything that we knew,” Singh recalls.

“The uncertainty kind of piled on, and at times, it was really rough” to understand and put things into perspective, he said. “We were constantly trying to be hopeful of the future when not really understanding what the future would entail.”

In Chicago, mental health support has long been a concern among parents, students, and advocates who have called on the district for additional resources such as more social workers and counselors at schools to address mental health issues exacerbated by the pandemic. In March, concerns for more academic and mental interventions came to a head during a Chicago school board meeting, where members said the district was not spending funds fast enough to address immediate academic and mental health needs.

“This is an emergency,” board president Miguel del Valle said at that meeting, calling on the district to move faster on hiring for community-based organizations that provide CPS with social, emotional, and mental health support. “Schools are crying out for additional help.”

The district has allocated about $24,000 from federal COVID relief funds to launch the Please Stay campaign.

“This campaign reminds students of the importance of prioritizing their mental health and of the many supports that are available to them,” CEO Pedro Martinez said in a statement.

As part of the initiative, schools will facilitate peer-to-peer conservations, provide additional tips to cope with stress, and connect students with resources, officials said.

The district distributed materials to school communities to help spur conversations on self-care and identify “anchors,” such as activities, sports, or snacks that help steady students during times of stress.

As part of the program, students participating are asked to take a pledge to reach out for support if needed.

In a letter to parents, Martinez said the initiative was a response to a rise in depression, suicide, and anxiety disorders among young people that have been “made worse by the stress and isolation” brought on by the pandemic. “The time to address it is now,” he said.

Michael Roy, the Training and Prevention team lead with CPS’ office of student protections and Title IX, said coronavirus and its impact have created additional challenges for young people.

The initiative is designed to be an accessible way for administrators, teachers, and counselors to have conversations with young people and connect them to resources available in the school building, Roy said.

“It was important to do this as a way to really start destigmatizing the conversation around mental health,” Roy said.

The initiative is one part of the district’s efforts to support students’ social and emotional health. The district is working with Lurie Children’s Hospital to implement Behavioral Health Teams in every district-run school by 2023-24, Roy said.

Since returning to in-person learning, school officials have seen an increase in mental health concerns among students presenting with “anxiety and depression,” says Taylor Daum, a counselor at Thomas Kelly High School on the Southwest Side.

“We’re also seeing some trauma, especially in regards to the past few years of the pandemic,” Daum said.

In the coming weeks, the Southwest Side school will launch additional activities including homeroom lessons around the campaign and schoolwide interactive activities, and work with community partners to foster a sense of community while addressing persistent mental health concerns, Daum said.

The program offers flexibility for schools to customize various activities to meet the needs of students at their campuses, Roy said.

He acknowledges the initiative is only one part of the puzzle.

“We are recognizing that we have a lot of need for outreach for communities of color, for our LGBTQ+ young people who might have additional challenges” who haven’t traditionally received equitable resources and support, Roy added.

Northside College Prep senior Singh hopes this initiative is one of many steps by the district to help prioritize high quality mental health services for students — and opens a door for peers to speak openly about what they’re going through.

“It’s been a taboo for so many years,” Singh said, noting that conversations around mental health are rare in the classroom setting and at home for some students. But these dialogues, and prioritizing mental health, he says, can help students succeed in school.

“I hope that we continue to move in this positive direction, we continue to push the boundary, push the envelope,” Singh said, “and we continue to realize that students’ mental health is really important.”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

7 things to know about paid COVID sick leave for Illinois school staff

2022-05-10T16:52:45+00:00

A new law gives Illinois school employees paid leave for COVID-related reasons and restores sick days used during the 2021-2022 school year. However, there are some questions about who is covered under the new law.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law last month a measure that grants fully vaccinated school staff paid administrative leave if they have to take time off for COVID-related reasons. The law also restores COVID-related sick days to employees who had to use them in the 2021-2022 school year. School staff must be fully vaccinated by May 10 to be eligible for the benefits.

The law “ensures that if a teacher has done their part to keep their classroom safe for their most vulnerable students, they won’t have to worry for a second about their pay or their paid time off if they get COVID, if they’re required to isolate or if the school has moved to e-learning and their work can’t be done at home,” Pritzker said when he signed the bill.

Here are seven things that educators and school employees need to know about the new law:

What’s the purpose of the law?

The law restores sick days to school staff who had to take time off due to COVID-related reasons during the 2021-2022 school year and provides paid leave in the future.

Under the Illinois school code, teachers receive a minimum of 10 sick days per year — in line with national averages, according to the National Center for Teacher Quality. While the vast majority of districts allow teachers to carry over unused sick days from year to year without a limit, many educators used up their sick days for COVID-related reasons. Earlier in the pandemic, affected school staff were required to stay home for up to 10 days; it is now five days.

Who is covered?

This law, HB 1167, covers fully vaccinated employees of K-12 public schools, charter schools, community colleges, and universities throughout the state who needed to take days off because they tested positive for COVID-19, were required to quarantine by their school, or because their child tested positive or needed to quarantine.

The law also covers hourly employees such as janitors, transportation employees, food service providers, classroom assistants, or administrative staff who could not perform their duties because of school closures or e-learning days.

What age must their children be for school staff to be eligible?

This law applies to children who are in elementary or high school who had a confirmed positive case or were in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. The law does not cover children in day care or preschool.

Who is considered fully vaccinated?

The law states that people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 two weeks after receiving a full dosage of the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson vaccines. Currently, the state does not require boosters for someone to be considered fully vaccinated, according to a spokesperson for the state department of public health. The law says that can change if the Department of Public Health adopts changes made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When should educators be vaccinated to be covered under the law?

All school staff must be fully vaccinated five weeks after the bill is signed into law, or May 10, unless an employee has a medical or religious exemption protected under federal law.

Most educators were required to receive their first dose of a COVID vaccine in the fall by an emergency order issued by the governor. The state’s largest teachers unions — the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Educators Association — supported the mandate. IFT has reported that a majority of its members are fully vaccinated. In Chicago, 90% of the district’s employees are fully vaccinated, according to a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools.

What proof is needed to restore sick days or receive paid leave?

To restore sick days, Illinois school staff and their school-age children will need to provide proof of a positive lab COVID test or documentation of a quarantine because a school required it or because the employee or child was a close contact of someone who tested positive. Similar documents will be needed to receive paid leave.

Can school districts opt out of the law?

All Illinois school districts are required to follow this law, they cannot opt out. Schools cannot rescind sick days returned to a teacher or other school employees if the definition of “fully vaccinated against COVID-19” is changed by the CDC.

Chicago schools will remain mask-optional as city COVID risk level increases to ‘medium’

2022-05-09T18:44:41+00:00

Chicago Public Schools will remain mask-optional even as the city and county are seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

The country’s third largest school district will not reinstate its mask mandate for the time being, but officials said it would continue its current stance of encouraging – but not requiring – masking.

The city’s risk of COVID-19 transmission moved from low to medium last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention transmission rating system. The increase prompted local health and school leaders to urge people to wear masks, especially those who have yet to be vaccinated.

“CPS will continue strongly encouraging the use of masks in our schools, especially among our unvaccinated students, and especially when cases are rising,” CEO Pedro Martinez said in a letter to parents on Friday.

Asked whether a mask mandate would be reinstated, a spokesperson said the district would continue to follow the Chicago Department of Public Health’s guidance.

The health department on Friday issued a statement strongly encouraging masking indoors including in schools and public transportation.

“It’s not a cause for alarm, since most cases right now are mild and thankfully our COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths remain at or near all-time pandemic lows in Chicago,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s Health Commissioner.

The move from low to medium at this time will not trigger a citywide mask mandate, restrictions on public gatherings, or reinstatement of vaccination requirements, Arwady said in a statement.

Such measures would be considered if the city moved from medium to high risk, Arwady said.

The positivity rate for school-based testing is shy of 1%, according to the district.

The city is currently averaging 788 new cases with a 4.4% positivity rate, data shows.

In March, the district moved to lift its mask mandate, aligning itself with updated CDC guidance, which in late February recommended that school districts drop mask mandates unless COVID cases and hospitalizations in their region were high.

Under current policy, students and staff who test positive are required to wear masks for five days after being in quarantine for five days.

At the time, the district’s move to lift its mask mandate was met with a mixed reaction from parents on either side of the debate.

Following the announcement, the Chicago Teachers Union argued that lifting the mask mandate violated a safety agreement requiring masking through the end of the school year. The agreement was forged after district officials canceled five days of classes in January when teachers walked out over safety concerns amid the rise of COVID-19 cases across the city.

In his letter to parents, Martinez encouraged the Chicago Public Schools community to get vaccinated to “slow of the spread” and return to low-risk category.

“CPS will continue doing everything possible to provide all students with the safe, in-person learning environment they need and deserve,” Martinez said.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

TikTok videos and teacher calls: How a South Side Chicago school increased vaccine uptake

2022-05-06T19:32:04+00:00

More than a dozen elementary school students, sporting bright yellow T-shirts with the words: “Doing my part. Vaccinated,” walked down a hallway at Dunne STEM Academy and recited lines while filming a public service announcement.

In take after take, students corrected one another on pronunciation and encouraged classmates to carry on if they fumbled a line. In the PSA, they shared statistics on the health impacts of COVID-19 in children and teenagers: There were more than 8,200 COVID-related hospitalizations among children as of mid-October 2021. Some suffered serious complications such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

Before the end of the video, a handful of students walk into the frame to proclaim: “I’m vaxxed.”

For eighth grader Nandi Guy, the goal was simple: See her peers get vaccinated.

Since the height of the omicron surge in January, the Roseland school on Chicago’s far South Side has taken an all-hands-on-deck approach to boosting COVID vaccine uptake while raising awareness and dispelling myths around the vaccine, says assistant principal Jason Davis.

Teachers made calls to students’ homes, listening to parents who were interested and others who were on the fence about the vaccine. The school provided resources around the vaccine, and partnered with faith leaders and local health providers including Phalanx Family Services. And students made a public service announcement and TikTok videos to encourage classmates to get vaccinated.

In December, only 5.4% of Dunne students were fully vaccinated. But in the last few months, the school has seen an increase in uptake to 42.3% — nearing the overall district vaccination average, data shows.

The school’s effort to increase vaccination rates was born after teachers across the district voted to walk out over safety concerns in January as COVID-19 cases hit a peak in the city. During a four-hour virtual call on a Saturday that month, teachers, administrators, and staff brainstormed ways to increase vaccine uptake at the school, Davis said.

“All this came about to make the space safer for everybody,” he said.

Across all district-run schools, the average school is 44.7% fully vaccinated, but rates vary widely. Although there has been a gradual uptick in overall vaccine rates since December, the nation’s third largest district is still struggling to make inroads at predominantly Black schools on the South and West Sides, according to a data analysis by Chalkbeat.

Currently, majority Black elementary and high schools have an average vaccination rate of 26.7%, compared to majority Latino elementary and high schools, which average about 54%, data shows.

Asked about the vaccine disparities during a roundtable discussion at Phalanx Family Services in late April, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said it was a concern and frustration of hers.

“We have literally tried everything,” including public clinics at the local level, working with the faith community, financial incentives, and door knocks, Lightfoot said. “You name it we’ve tried it.”

She’s also talked to fellow mayors facing similar challenges with vaccine uptake with African American communities.

“No one has figured out the secret sauce, in part, because how do you overcome the fear? What do you do?” Lightfoot said. “The only answer is a trusted community partner.”

The mayor said working past vaccine fears and hesitancy remains a “huge priority.”

“We have to keep at it,” Lightfoot said.

From left to right: Health Commissioner Dr. A;lison Arwady, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, EverThrive Illinois executive director Chi Chi Okwu, and Dr. Melissa Simons with Illinois Unidos discuss the decline in life expectancy in the city during a roundtable on April 25.

During the April forum, where officials announced an overall decline in life expectancy in the city — the steepest drop among Latinos, the city’s health commissioner said the biggest predictor of whether a child is vaccinated is if a parent or guardian has been inoculated. Still, Dr. Allison Arwady noted, the city continues to average about 3,000 vaccines a day, and for the past month Black Chicagoans are the most likely to be getting first and second doses.

Arwady thanked community partners for continuing their work to get more people on the far South Side vaccinated.

“We have not stopped,” Arwady said. “We have not pulled back.”

Neither has the Dunne community.

“It’s been a collective effort to make sure that we were all safe,” said assistant principal Davis.

The school, in partnership with nearby Allen Metropolitan C.M.E Church, hosted a vaccine town hall that included a medical doctor to answer questions and address concerns. The aim, Davis said, was to empower parents and students to make an informed decision about the vaccine.

Dunne saw about 10% of students get vaccinated following the town hall — some of whom were inoculated at a vaccine clinic held at the school, the assistant principal noted.

“This neighborhood has some reservations about the vaccine,” Davis said. “So if we have willing participants, we want to jump right in.”

David Bryant, pastor at Allen Metropolitan C.M.E., noticed a spike in interest in the vaccine following the town hall.

“We knew that education was key,” Bryant said. “It eliminates some of the fears parents have.”

The school worked with the church and Phalanx Family Services to connect interested parents with vaccine opportunities. School staff also followed up to remind parents of their child’s second dose.

“We wanted to be supportive, and make it as easy as possible,” Davis added.

Because of a long-standing relationship with Dunne, the church worked with the school to host outdoor events that included movie screenings alongside COVID-19 tests and vaccines administered by the Roseland Community Hospital, Bryant said.

About 1,000 Roseland residents, including CPS students, were vaccinated at these events, he noted.

“We were in a crisis — a global crisis — and on the local level, we had to work collaboratively to use all the resources we had,” Bryant said.

School administrators also centered student voices after a parent told staff she was leaving the decision to get vaccinated up to her child. Dunne officials held a vaccination day and a pep rally, and partnered with nearby Corliss High School students to write and create a PSA.

“We want children to share with each other the importance of vaccination,” Davis said. “It just made a world of difference.”

The church also offered a pizza party to the class with the best TikTok video. In one TikTok video, a student dances to a remix version of “Macarena” before a classmate shares a written note that says: Get the vaccine. It saves lives!

“We are thinking of creative ways to get the message out,” Bryant added.

Projects such as the PSA and interacting with classmates again have been among eighth grader Nandi Guy’s favorite parts of returning to school.

“We missed out on a lot of things,” Nandi said. “We missed out on a lot of learning.”

Eighth grader Michael Ealey, 13, who helped write and edit the PSA, said he feels safer knowing that about half of his classmates are vaccinated.

“It’s a lesser risk that I get COVID-19,” Michael said.

In reflecting on why he got the vaccine, Jaleel Clemons said he didn’t want to catch COVID-19. The 13-year-old, who had an acting role in the PSA, worried about the health risk of catching COVID while not being vaccinated.

“I want to protect my family,” Jaleel said.

From left to right: Jaleel Clemons, Michael Ealey, and Nandi Guy discuss working on a student-created PSA to encourage classmates to get vaccinated.

With about six weeks left in the school year, assistant principal Davis says the school community is proud of the vision of principal Chandra Byrd-Wright and the hard work of teachers to get them through a challenging year.

“It couldn’t be done without the teachers,” Davis said. “Teachers did the heavy lifting — calling every parent, sometimes three times, leaving messages, following up. It was through their diligence that we were able to have the success that we have had.”

But Davis said there is still more work to be done around the vaccine.

“We are still pushing,” Davis said.

Thomas Wilburn contributed to this report.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s Virtual Academy will return this fall, but little is known after its first year: ‘It’s been a black box.’

2022-05-04T15:25:23+00:00

As other Chicago Public Schools students donned masks and walked into school buildings for the first time in nearly two years in the fall, Gabriel Morser powered up his laptop to start seventh grade at the district’s Virtual Academy.

Inside his Northwest Side home, the 13-year-old felt a sense of calm even as delta and omicron surges disrupted in-person instruction for many students throughout the fall and winter.

“I feel a lot safer,” said Gabriel, who has asthma. “Because I’m kind of in my prime environment. I’m totally protected.”

Last fall, as school districts welcomed students back into classrooms, Chicago Public Schools – and other districts across the country – offered limited, remote instruction for children unable to return to school buildings amid the ongoing pandemic. Chicago’s Virtual Academy was set up to serve medically fragile students with a number of specific medical needs that include cystic fibrosis, spina bifida, leukemia, and asthma.

For about 420 students such as Gabriel, the Virtual Academy has offered a chance to focus on learning this school year without the specter of a potentially life-threatening bout of COVID. He says the instruction has been engaging, challenging, and tailored to his needs. Even as other districts have announced plans to do away with similar programs in the next school year, Chicago plans to keep that virtual option and offer a few more seats.

But as the district starts accepting applications for next year, information about how well the program has served students this year remains sparse. The lack of transparency has made it difficult to evaluate the program’s effectiveness, one union leader noted. Advocates and parents have raised questions about the curriculum and others familiar with the program said the Virtual Academy failed to provide adequate support for English language learners or meet the learning needs of children with disabilities.

In a statement, Chicago Public Schools said it was “evaluating” its “efforts during the first year of the program to determine necessary improvements, including improving communication with teachers, staff and students.”

Attendance data, obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request, from the first half of the school year also shows students logged on at a much lower rate than for the district as a whole, and enrollment in the academy has fluctuated throughout the year.

“There’s not a lot of transparency around what’s happening with the Virtual Academy,” said Alex Kuske, an attorney for Equip for Equality, a nonprofit watchdog for people with disabilities.

Last summer, the district saw tepid interest in the program, with 150 applicants before extending its deadline. Some parents criticized the “confusing and chaotic” application process, lack of curriculum details, and uncertainty around whether the school would be able to support complex learning needs of students with Individualized Education Programs, a written education plan designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities, Chalkbeat reported at the time.

Of the 3,000 students determined to be eligible for the program, the district received 965 student applications. The district accepted 545 students and about 437 students were enrolled at the start of the school year, according to district figures. But student enrollment in the Virtual Academy has fluctuated throughout the year, district officials said.

For the first part of the year, elementary and high school level attendance at the high school lagged significantly behind the district, data shows.

Across the district, average student attendance was 94% in early September, compared to 84% among elementary students and 70% among high school students at the Virtual Academy. Attendance steadily increased in the months that followed, slightly surpassing the district average in late January during the height of the omicron surge, data shows.

Staff works to keep medically fragile students safe

Virtual Academy principal Wayne Bevis said staff has been working hard to accommodate the needs of families amid reopening.

“It’s been an amazing ride this year, setting up the school so that we can serve the medically fragile students of Chicago, and to keep them safe during this time of COVID,” Bevis said in an interview.

The Virtual Academy offers the same CPS curriculum for pre-kindergarten students while the school uses Edmentum, a curriculum designed for virtual learning, for kindergarten to 12th grade students. For students with disabilities, the school uses the Unique learning system curriculum modified for virtual instruction. All of the programs through the Virtual Academy, Bevis said, are aligned with Illinois education standards.

The school currently has 52 teachers, 25 special education aides, 12 bilingual special education assistants, and 12 support staff including the principal, clerks, counselors, and case managers, according to district figures.

Teachers, staff, counselors, and social workers are focused and committed to providing support and meeting the needs of students, Bevis said. He, along with the administrative staff, interact with parents on a regular basis to answer questions and get feedback from parents. They also have a bilingual advisory committee to address the needs of bilingual families and their students in the program, he said.

The aim is to “really learn about how we’re doing as a school and look for ways for improvement, because we’re always looking at how we can improve our services in our education for our students,” he added.

According to a survey of families, the principal estimates that about 90% of families have been satisfied with the program and plan to re-enroll in the coming year.

Bevis also noted the school was within 1% of the district average for medically fragile students, who typically have lower attendance due to the nature of illness and frequent doctor’s appointments.

For the Morsers, the program exceeded the family’s expectations and they plan to come back.

“A lot of people have been saying that they don’t think that students are being challenged while they’re in the virtual setting,” Taryn Morser said. “They are.”

Gabriel Morser explained that he felt “quite challenged” with teachers expecting more of students. “I’m doing high school level work and I’m getting like straight A’s from it,” he said.

His mother said the Virtual Academy was a blessing — one that has given her piece of mind regarding her son’s safety. “I know he is safe,” Taryn Morser said. “I know it’s not the petri dish like in a school.”

“It’s just been an amazing experience for both of us,” his mother added.

Parents are nervous about pushing back

But satisfaction with the program has not been universal.

Parent Katherine Buitron, a mother of three CPS students, saw early challenges with the Virtual Academy, starting with navigating the application process. Her sixth grade son, Matias, who has a medically complex diagnosis that includes primary immunodeficiency, cerebral palsy, asthma, and heart disease, was denied acceptance four times. He was ultimately accepted after multiple appeals.

“They made me jump through hoops, needles and red tape,” Buitron said.

Her other son and daughter, who are both over the age of 12 and had medical conditions including heart disease and asthma, were denied a spot in the academy, in part, because they were eligible for the vaccine, she says.

Parents and advocates expressed frustrations that siblings of eligible students were ineligible for the program. Those concerns intensified after the district moved to lift the mask mandate in March.

Buitron said she was “extremely upset” after learning her older children were not accepted. “I felt discouraged,” she said. “At that point, I even considered homeschooling my kids because we are talking about a matter of life and death with my youngest.”

Still, her older children returned to in-person learning while her youngest set out in the Virtual Academy. From the beginning, Buitron recalled classes being short-staffed and a failure to provide the additional support outlined in her son’s individualized learning program.

While her son isn’t an English language learner, Buitron joined the bilingual advisory committee to support parents’ whose children were not receiving English learning support.

During classes she found herself sometimes translating instructions to help parents who didn’t speak English. Two sixth grade classes were also combined because the school lacked enough staff.

“So at the very beginning,” she said, “there was a lot of scrambling.”

The classes were also hit or miss. In some classes, students had full teacher instruction, while in others, students watched YouTube videos for 45 minutes on which they would be tested, she recalled.

When her son started to have seizures from prolonged screen time, Buitron asked for paper copies of assignments to reduce Matias’ time in front of the computer. Parents were advised not to post concerns about the program on social media or go to the press, but instead to share their concerns with administrators, Buitron said. But after raising concerns with administrators without action, she took her son out of the program six weeks into the school year.

She homeschooled Matias for an additional six weeks before enrolling him back to in-person learning. After four days back in-person, he caught COVID-19 and landed in the ICU. He was later diagnosed with long COVID, she said.

Her son’s medical team has since created a modified schedule where he can return to school for part of the day. Still, she said the school year has been “extremely disruptive.”

Buitron has kept in touch with some parents who have said some of these issues persist.

Looking back, she said more accountability is needed for the Virtual Academy for the sake of the students and their families, especially for those considering enrolling their children for the upcoming year. “They’re failing everyone,” she said.

Parents who have signed up for the Virtual Academy are often “desperate to keep their children safe and out of brick-and-mortar schools,” or out of the district’s homebound program, which offers medically fragile students about an hour of instruction per day, said attorney Kuske.

Parents have been more flexible about what services they’re willing to accept with the Virtual Academy because the other options of returning to in-person or homebound aren’t “justifiable” options at the moment, Kuske said.

“To some degree, parents have been nervous about pushing back against the services their students are receiving because it feels to them like this is their child’s best option at the moment,” Kuske said.

In addressing questions about the curriculum, CPS said Edmentum was designed to provide teacher instruction equivalent to in-person. The Virtual Academy will implement Skyline schoolwide in the fall.

“Video clips may be used as part of both curriculums; videos are purposefully integrated into the curriculum, just like they may be used in the physical classroom at any school,” the district said.

It worked to adequately staff classrooms as more students were accepted into the Virtual Academy. In the event of a teacher vacancy, a substitute was put in place. The Virtual Academy staff also “worked consistently to meet the needs of Individualized Education Programs despite related service provider (RSPs) shortages,” the district said.

Bevis countered the claim about the combination of classes, saying the school made adjustments due to rapid enrollment at the beginning of the year to ensure English language supports were met.

“Parents have been asked to share their questions or concerns so we can address and resolve any issues,” the district said. “CPS actively encourages parents and students to participate in an open dialogue with administrators and staff at the Virtual Academy and throughout the District.”

What’s next for the Virtual Academy?

Last month, Virtual Academy announced applications for the upcoming year even as other districts nationwide are scaling back or getting rid of their virtual option

The Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) found that less than half of the 94 urban districts with a virtual option for the 2021-22 school year had plans to continue the virtual offerings for the 2022-23 school year. A majority of those returning programs pre-date the pandemic, according to CRPE.

In Chicago, the district has made some changes for the upcoming year, including streamlining the application process and acceptance policy, which has been broadened for qualifying students based on school capacity. The Virtual Academy will also manage all inquiries and the acceptance process.

The Virtual Academy will also partner with high schools to increase advanced placement and dual credit courses. Elementary students will have access to Spanish and algebra lessons.

The application for next year is open until July 1, and acceptance will be announced by July 15. A lottery will determine placement if demand exceeds 550 applicants. Qualifying students who don’t get in will be placed on a waitlist, according to the district.

Still a year into the program, the district has released little information about the Virtual Academy, leaving many parents and community members with unanswered questions.

Union vice president Stacy Davis Gates said there is still little known about the first year of the academy. The CTU lobbied for a virtual option for medically fragile teachers and students ahead of full reopening. The union asked for teachers with medical conditions to be prioritized for the teaching positions at the program.

Asked about the percentage of school teachers hired with a medical condition for the program, the district said “all teachers and administrators at the academy applied via the normal CPS hiring process.”

It’s unclear how many teachers at the Virtual Academy have a medical condition.

“The Virtual Academy is a tool to be used during a pandemic,” Gates said. “Our ability to understand its use as an effective tool means that we need as much information in the selection process and the interim evaluation of how it’s going.”

CPS has leaned very heavily on principle autonomy and discretion, even with the Virtual Academy, which makes it difficult to evaluate the program, Gates said.

“There’s a lot we don’t know,” Gates said. “It’s been a black box.”

Correction: The article has been updated with the correct spelling of Wayne Bevis’ last name and with additional responses from the principal.

Mila Koumpilova contributed to this report.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

What five graphics tell us about COVID vaccine disparity in Chicago schools

2022-03-28T15:02:44+00:00

At Lawndale Elementary Community Academy on Chicago’s West Side, only 6.7% of students are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. About eight miles north at John C. Coonley Elementary School, just over 90% of students are fully inoculated against the virus.

Those disparities reveal the difficulty Chicago Public Schools has faced in encouraging students to be vaccinated. Although there has been a gradual uptick in overall vaccine rates since December, the nation’s third largest district is still struggling to make inroads at predominantly Black schools on the South and West Sides, according to a data analysis by Chalkbeat.

The school-based data, which reflects fully vaccinated students through March 24, illustrates continued disparities in vaccination rates at predominantly Black schools.

Despite low vaccination rates among schools in areas hard hit by the pandemic, district leaders relaxed safety mitigations by dropping a universal mask mandate earlier this month. The decision was blasted by the teachers union and some parents who said the move would threaten the health and safety of a large swath of unvaccinated students on the South and West Sides.

Across all district-run schools, the average school is 39% fully vaccinated, but rates vary widely.

North Side schools in Lakeview, North Center, and North Park boost the highest vaccine rates with at least 72% of students fully vaccinated. By contrast, Greater Grand Crossing, Englewood, East Garfield Park, and North Lawndale schools average the lowest vaccine rates at 19% or below, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

The vaccination rates are even lower at charter schools. Across all charter schools, the average school is 33.4% fully vaccinated, data shows.

Here are some takeaways from Chalkbeat’s analysis of Chicago’s school-based vaccination data:

Majority Black elementary and high schools had an average vaccination rate of 22%, compared to majority Latino elementary and high schools, which averaged about 47%.
Majority Latino schools saw a 22% increase in uptake between Dec. 1 and March 24; by contrast, majority Black schools saw an increase of about 11% over the same time period.
Nearly 75% of schools across the district have less than half of their student population against the virus. More than 34% of schools across the district have less than a quarter of their students vaccinated, and nearly 30 schools have less than 10% of their students fully vaccinated.
District-run schools had overall higher vaccination rates than charters at both the elementary and high school levels.

Since July, CPS has partnered with the city’s Department of Public Health, Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote vaccines. The district has opened four regional vaccine hubs, hosted more than 600 mobile vaccination clinics and events, and canceled a day of classes for a Vaccine Awareness Day after the pediatric COVID vaccine was approved to encourage families to get their 5- to 11-year-olds inoculated.

Still, these efforts have been marginal in moving the needle, especially at schools on the South and West Side, data obtained by Chalkbeat through multiple records requests show.

North Side schools in Lincoln Park, Lake View, and North Center saw the largest rate increase of 40 percentage points or more between Dec. 2021 and March 2022, data shows.

By contrast, schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods including Greater Grand Crossing, East Garfield Park, Englewood, North Lawndale, South Shore, and South Chicago saw increases of less than 10 percentage points between Dec. 2021 and March 2022, data shows.

Even as COVID cases have declined significantly, health officials say low uptake is a point of concern and that schools should be a centerpiece in the strategy to boost rates. Educating families about the vaccine is key to combating misinformation and increasing uptake, says David Valero, a pediatrician with Esperanza Health Centers, which serves neighborhoods on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

CEO Pedro Martinez, speaking the week the district shifted to mask-optional, acknowledged the vast disparities in vaccination rates. The district remains committed to its vaccine efforts and will continue vaccination events at schools with low uptake, Martinez said.

Earlier this month, Chicago Public Schools said it would “continue to explore ways to improve access to vaccination and encourage parents to pursue this safe and effective protection.”

But Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership, a nonprofit group promoting and hosting mass vaccination campaigns across the city, previously told Chalkbeat that a region-wide effort and eliminating barriers to vaccine access is needed.

Hurdles to access such as transportation, convenient vaccination times, and language barriers still remain an issue for many working-class people, Scott Thorp, senior project manager at the nonprofit, told Chalkbeat last month.

“The more we can remove those barriers to the broader access issue,” he said, “the more likely it is that people are going to get vaccinated.”

School	December rate	As of March 24	Percentage point change
COONLEY	22.4%	90.1%	67.76
BURLEY	17.9%	90.1%	72.18
NORTHSIDE PREP HS	83.2%	89.5%	6.3
DRUMMOND	14.6%	88.2%	73.59
BELL	21.6%	87.3%	65.68
EDISON	23.6%	87.3%	63.68
LANE TECH HS	83.2%	87.0%	3.81
YOUNG HS	82.4%	86.2%	3.77
SKINNER NORTH	21.0%	86.0%	64.99
HAMILTON	13.0%	85.7%	72.75
HAWTHORNE	19.3%	85.6%	66.25
JONES HS	80.8%	85.4%	4.65
PAYTON HS	79.8%	84.8%	5.02
BLAINE	19.4%	84.6%	65.18
AUDUBON	15.8%	83.8%	68
HANCOCK HS	80.0%	83.4%	3.43
DECATUR	20.1%	82.4%	62.28
PRESCOTT	16.6%	82.2%	65.69
VON STEUBEN HS	78.4%	82.2%	3.81
WATERS	18.6%	81.7%	63.17
RAVENSWOOD	19.6%	81.5%	61.88
ALBANY PARK	62.3%	81.3%	19.03
ALCOTT ES	19.1%	81.3%	62.16
RICKOVER MILITARY HS	73.7%	80.8%	7.1
NORTHSIDE LEARNING HS	73.7%	80.5%	6.8
LINCOLN PARK HS	74.6%	80.4%	5.86
BURR	18.5%	79.9%	61.4
BACK OF THE YARDS HS	68.5%	79.6%	11.15
VAUGHN HS	68.1%	79.1%	10.95
AMUNDSEN HS	75.1%	78.8%	3.72
MAYER	15.7%	78.5%	62.78
INFINITY HS	68.4%	77.6%	9.16
HAINES	21.4%	77.5%	56.16
EDGEBROOK	16.2%	77.1%	60.96
NETTELHORST	16.8%	76.7%	59.97
TUBMAN	21.2%	76.2%	54.97
MITCHELL	16.6%	75.2%	58.58
SHERIDAN	15.0%	74.9%	59.83
MATHER HS	63.6%	74.8%	11.15
DISNEY II HS	67.5%	74.6%	7.08
LINDBLOM HS	66.8%	74.2%	7.46
OGDEN HS	61.1%	73.8%	12.72
SOLORIO HS	67.6%	73.8%	6.19
WARD J	19.0%	73.6%	54.59
BRENTANO	11.0%	72.9%	61.88
PEIRCE	16.6%	72.9%	56.32
CHAPPELL	15.6%	72.6%	57
LAKE VIEW HS	63.9%	72.4%	8.47
STEM	11.6%	72.2%	60.52
SENN HS	66.9%	71.9%	4.98
SOCIAL JUSTICE HS	62.3%	71.8%	9.54
MARINE LEADERSHIP AT AMES HS	66.6%	71.7%	5.08
DISNEY II ES	1.8%	71.5%	69.71
ALCOTT HS	66.4%	71.2%	4.84
SULLIVAN HS	59.1%	71.1%	12.07
LENART	11.2%	71.1%	59.86
CHICAGO ACADEMY HS	65.2%	70.8%	5.55
PHOENIX MILITARY HS	58.6%	70.7%	12.1
PROSSER HS	64.3%	70.7%	6.33
DEVRY HS	64.6%	70.5%	5.95
LINCOLN	15.0%	70.3%	55.31
SOUTHSIDE HS	60.2%	70.2%	9.98
SCHURZ HS	59.7%	69.9%	10.25
WILDWOOD	18.0%	69.9%	51.86
CHIARTS HS	64.1%	69.8%	5.68
GALILEO	16.1%	69.6%	53.54
LASALLE II	16.0%	69.5%	53.46
JUAREZ HS	64.7%	69.2%	4.43
CURIE HS	62.2%	69.1%	6.92
LASALLE	16.6%	69.1%	52.48
HEALY	20.6%	69.0%	48.4
WESTINGHOUSE HS	61.4%	68.7%	7.39
WORLD LANGUAGE HS	62.0%	68.5%	6.49
GRAHAM HS	60.9%	68.3%	7.36
PULASKI	13.8%	67.7%	53.99
CICS - NORTHTOWN HS	63.4%	67.6%	4.18
NOBLE - MANSUETO HS	62.3%	67.4%	5.17
THORP O	13.3%	67.1%	53.87
FRANKLIN	15.3%	67.0%	51.76
KELLY HS	62.4%	66.8%	4.44
SAUGANASH	12.9%	66.8%	53.86
BRONZEVILLE CLASSICAL	0.3%	66.7%	66.36
SKINNER	13.9%	66.6%	52.71
EVERGREEN	44.8%	66.4%	21.6
Chicago World Language Academy	15.9%	66.2%	50.3
PRITZKER	17.2%	66.2%	48.99
NOBLE - NOBLE HS	61.0%	66.2%	5.14
ACERO - SOTO HS	58.4%	66.0%	7.55
NOBLE - PRITZKER HS	58.0%	65.6%	7.67
HUBBARD HS	57.6%	65.5%	7.87
NORTH-GRAND HS	58.4%	65.2%	6.82
ROOSEVELT HS	56.3%	65.0%	8.71
BROOKS HS	57.8%	64.9%	7.06
CHICAGO AGRICULTURE HS	59.0%	64.2%	5.22
BEAUBIEN	15.3%	64.1%	48.8
ACERO - GARCIA HS	57.6%	63.8%	6.13
NOBLE - GOLDER HS	57.9%	63.6%	5.69
STONE	13.8%	63.4%	49.57
BELDING	15.5%	63.3%	47.81
DARWIN	13.0%	63.0%	50.01
INTRINSIC HS	55.8%	63.0%	7.27
SOUTH LOOP	12.7%	63.0%	50.33
CHICAGO MATH & SCIENCE HS	56.2%	62.9%	6.67
SPRY HS	50.0%	62.4%	12.35
MURPHY	17.5%	62.1%	44.61
NOBLE - MUCHIN HS	56.1%	62.0%	5.87
GOODE HS	54.3%	61.7%	7.41
TAFT HS	56.8%	61.6%	4.87
NOBLE - UIC HS	54.3%	61.6%	7.31
NOBLE - ITW SPEER HS	56.4%	61.4%	5.06
NORWOOD PARK	18.7%	61.4%	42.62
OROZCO	18.8%	61.1%	42.31
PETERSON	15.3%	61.0%	45.76
NOBLE - RAUNER HS	54.4%	60.9%	6.49
KELLER	17.5%	60.9%	43.42
INTER-AMERICAN	13.6%	60.8%	47.23
KENNEDY HS	55.9%	60.8%	4.9
VIRTUAL ACADEMY HS	50.8%	60.0%	9.25
NORTHWEST	41.5%	59.8%	18.28
KENWOOD HS	51.9%	59.4%	7.55
VON LINNE	12.9%	59.4%	46.51
INSTITUTO - HEALTH	54.3%	59.4%	5.07
ACERO - FUENTES	17.6%	58.9%	41.3
ASPIRA - EARLY COLLEGE HS	53.2%	58.7%	5.45
HIBBARD	0.5%	58.6%	58.03
DAVIS N	16.8%	58.3%	41.5
NOBLE - ACADEMY HS	50.7%	58.1%	7.34
MCPHERSON	15.6%	57.8%	42.19
GOETHE	13.6%	57.8%	44.16
ACERO - TORRES	14.6%	57.7%	43.07
CHASE	12.2%	57.4%	45.16
STEINMETZ HS	51.7%	57.3%	5.67
EDISON PARK	14.6%	56.9%	42.3
ACERO - CISNEROS	14.6%	56.8%	42.28
HERNANDEZ	41.7%	56.5%	14.83
PORTAGE PARK	10.4%	56.0%	45.57
BUDLONG	14.9%	55.9%	41
WASHINGTON HS	49.5%	55.8%	6.32
CHICAGO MILITARY HS	45.3%	55.6%	10.33
AIR FORCE HS	44.2%	55.5%	11.3
MULTICULTURAL ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	48.4%	55.5%	7.11
HITCH	16.4%	55.4%	39.02
SHIELDS MIDDLE	31.3%	55.3%	24.09
CLINTON	13.9%	55.1%	41.12
SUDER	6.8%	55.0%	48.21
BATEMAN	13.3%	55.0%	41.71
EBINGER	13.5%	54.9%	41.33
GOUDY	12.8%	54.8%	41.99
ACERO - DE LAS CASAS	14.6%	54.6%	40
NEW FIELD	0.0%	54.4%	54.37
GUNSAULUS	16.8%	54.3%	37.54
MADERO	39.6%	54.2%	14.61
SOR JUANA	0.0%	54.2%	54.19
TELPOCHCALLI	14.2%	54.2%	39.92
ROGERS	16.2%	54.2%	37.97
BOONE	15.7%	54.1%	38.37
TALMAN	15.9%	53.9%	37.97
NOBLE - BULLS HS	46.9%	53.8%	6.89
FARRAGUT HS	45.1%	53.8%	8.69
CARVER MILITARY HS	42.3%	53.7%	11.39
PALMER	12.7%	53.6%	40.97
DISNEY	10.6%	53.6%	42.99
ONAHAN	10.6%	53.5%	42.95
GARY	24.8%	53.5%	28.68
PICKARD	17.0%	53.4%	36.36
ASPIRA - BUSINESS & FINANCE HS	49.2%	53.3%	4.15
JAHN	10.1%	53.3%	43.14
ASPIRA - HAUGAN	49.6%	53.2%	3.64
CAMRAS	15.8%	53.1%	37.33
JAMIESON	15.5%	53.0%	37.59
SOLOMON	13.9%	52.9%	39.03
KELLOGG	13.3%	52.7%	39.45
POE	4.4%	52.7%	48.29
FOREMAN HS	44.3%	52.6%	8.39
SPRY ES	18.2%	52.6%	34.35
AZUELA	19.3%	52.5%	33.18
SAWYER	17.7%	52.3%	34.58
COLUMBIA EXPLORERS	15.0%	52.0%	36.94
KELVYN PARK HS	45.1%	51.2%	6.07
SOUTH SHORE INTL HS	43.0%	51.2%	8.21
TALCOTT	12.9%	50.6%	37.67
MOZART	14.3%	50.4%	36.11
YCCS - LATINO YOUTH	48.4%	50.0%	1.59
CLISSOLD	14.3%	50.0%	35.75
SWIFT	12.3%	50.0%	37.67
GARVY	12.4%	49.9%	37.54
RAY	10.7%	49.3%	38.58
CHICAGO ACADEMY ES	14.6%	49.2%	34.61
BRIGHTON PARK	17.0%	49.2%	32.21
ADDAMS	14.0%	49.2%	35.15
RICHARDSON	33.1%	49.1%	16.04
ARMSTRONG G	15.3%	49.1%	33.78
LITTLE VILLAGE	18.9%	49.1%	30.12
CRANE MEDICAL HS	38.8%	48.8%	9.97
RICHARDS HS	39.1%	48.8%	9.69
MCDADE	4.2%	48.7%	44.52
CARDENAS	15.0%	48.6%	33.66
WALSH	19.1%	48.5%	29.35
KING HS	39.0%	48.2%	9.24
GREELEY	20.1%	48.2%	28.12
FARNSWORTH	13.9%	48.0%	34.14
FIELD	22.0%	47.9%	25.9
WHITTIER	17.2%	47.8%	30.54
PATHWAYS - AVONDALE HS	41.5%	47.7%	6.19
SAUCEDO	15.8%	47.7%	31.87
GAGE PARK HS	38.6%	47.7%	9.06
CHAVEZ	15.3%	47.6%	32.33
JORDAN	12.5%	47.2%	34.69
ORTIZ DE DOMINGUEZ	0.0%	46.9%	46.88
HAYT	16.5%	46.9%	30.38
GRAY	14.6%	46.9%	32.29
GRIMES	14.9%	46.8%	31.99
SUTHERLAND	11.2%	46.8%	35.61
OGDEN ES	8.3%	46.8%	38.52
ZAPATA	18.9%	46.4%	27.5
CHRISTOPHER HOUSE	9.7%	45.9%	36.22
CLEMENTE HS	40.1%	45.7%	5.64
HURLEY	16.2%	45.5%	29.27
SABIN	16.4%	45.4%	29
NOBLE - HANSBERRY HS	36.8%	45.3%	8.54
HAMMOND	18.5%	44.7%	26.18
RUIZ	14.3%	44.6%	30.3
REINBERG	13.4%	44.4%	31.02
OMBUDSMAN - NORTHWEST HS	38.7%	44.3%	5.55
PEACE AND EDUCATION HS	42.5%	44.1%	1.64
HEDGES	12.0%	44.0%	31.99
UPLIFT HS	46.2%	43.8%	-2.4
NIGHTINGALE	13.7%	43.7%	30.07
SALAZAR	11.7%	43.6%	31.86
TARKINGTON	12.6%	43.6%	30.98
WEST PARK	11.1%	43.6%	32.46
AHS - PASSAGES	10.8%	43.4%	32.59
AVONDALE-LOGANDALE	16.9%	43.1%	26.12
PEREZ	12.0%	43.0%	31
YORK HS	39.2%	42.9%	3.7
MORGAN PARK HS	35.0%	42.9%	7.93
PATHWAYS - BRIGHTON PARK HS	41.0%	42.8%	1.87
WASHINGTON G ES	14.5%	42.6%	28.06
BURROUGHS	11.9%	42.5%	30.6
MONROE	17.4%	42.1%	24.67
MCCORMICK	0.0%	42.1%	42.05
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP	13.1%	42.0%	28.92
MOOS	11.1%	42.0%	30.82
BELMONT-CRAGIN	10.4%	41.9%	31.55
SMYSER	12.1%	41.8%	29.75
FAIRFIELD	11.4%	41.7%	30.35
VOLTA	18.1%	41.7%	23.58
KILMER	13.8%	41.7%	27.87
TWAIN	13.5%	41.7%	28.18
BURBANK	13.7%	41.6%	27.87
COLUMBUS	8.4%	41.6%	33.18
WHITNEY	14.4%	41.5%	27.15
NOBLE - COMER	34.3%	41.4%	7.08
PRIETO	16.7%	41.3%	24.67
HAUGAN	12.4%	41.3%	28.89
ACERO - IDAR	15.5%	41.3%	25.8
CLEVELAND	14.5%	41.2%	26.7
WELLS HS	36.5%	41.1%	4.59
URBAN PREP - BRONZEVILLE HS	32.0%	41.0%	8.99
LEE	14.4%	40.9%	26.52
HENRY	15.9%	40.8%	24.85
CALMECA	13.4%	40.7%	27.28
NOBEL	15.5%	40.7%	25.2
OTIS	11.8%	40.6%	28.81
CORKERY	11.9%	40.6%	28.7
KANOON	16.4%	40.4%	24
STEVENSON	14.6%	40.3%	25.69
PILSEN	17.3%	40.3%	23.01
DUNNE	5.4%	40.2%	34.83
DYETT ARTS HS	33.3%	40.2%	6.92
HOLDEN	14.7%	39.9%	25.17
HARTE	9.6%	39.9%	30.24
COOPER	14.7%	39.7%	24.99
ARMOUR	13.8%	39.7%	25.93
PRUSSING	11.0%	39.6%	28.57
CICS - ELLISON HS	23.2%	39.5%	16.32
U OF C - WOODLAWN HS	30.9%	39.4%	8.54
NEWBERRY	12.5%	39.2%	26.75
SCAMMON	13.6%	39.1%	25.48
LARA	12.1%	39.0%	26.94
BOGAN HS	32.3%	39.0%	6.74
WILLIAMS HS	27.1%	39.0%	11.86
KINZIE	13.6%	38.9%	25.37
LYON	14.9%	38.8%	23.9
NATIONAL TEACHERS	6.0%	38.6%	32.52
CATALYST - MARIA	13.3%	37.9%	24.68
DAWES	14.5%	37.9%	23.41
OWEN	7.5%	37.9%	30.44
CHICAGO TECH HS	31.2%	37.7%	6.47
ORIOLE PARK	12.6%	37.7%	25.08
YCCS - TRUMAN	32.8%	37.5%	4.73
FUNSTON	13.8%	37.3%	23.55
NOBLE - BAKER HS	31.7%	37.3%	5.54
ACERO - PAZ	12.3%	37.2%	24.99
RUDOLPH	8.3%	37.0%	28.71
EDWARDS	16.9%	37.0%	20.05
BYRNE	12.4%	36.9%	24.55
FINKL	15.4%	36.8%	21.4
MCAULIFFE	10.5%	36.8%	26.29
CLARK HS	27.1%	36.6%	9.5
BRONZEVILLE HS	27.4%	36.5%	9.09
TONTI	0.0%	36.5%	36.47
YCCS - CAMPOS	33.0%	36.4%	3.43
EBERHART	15.1%	36.4%	21.24
LEGAL PREP HS	30.2%	36.3%	6.17
PASTEUR	0.0%	36.2%	36.23
SEWARD	14.4%	36.2%	21.82
CHICAGO COLLEGIATE	24.0%	36.2%	12.17
ORR HS	29.0%	36.0%	7.08
WEST RIDGE	12.7%	35.8%	23.08
COLLINS HS	23.9%	35.8%	11.94
GRISSOM	11.5%	35.7%	24.26
ACERO - BRIGHTON PARK	17.0%	35.6%	18.65
ACERO - SANTIAGO	13.6%	35.6%	21.94
CHRISTOPHER	14.9%	35.5%	20.58
RABY HS	22.8%	35.4%	12.51
LOZANO	12.1%	35.3%	23.17
DALEY	9.4%	35.1%	25.77
TILDEN HS	25.8%	35.1%	9.26
EPIC HS	30.9%	35.0%	4.15
LITTLE BLACK PEARL HS	30.5%	35.0%	4.52
NAMASTE	12.2%	34.9%	22.66
NOBLE - ROWE CLARK HS	29.3%	34.8%	5.58
ASHBURN	12.5%	34.8%	22.24
EARHART	7.3%	34.8%	27.48
MCCUTCHEON	10.0%	34.7%	24.62
CICS - IRVING PARK	15.1%	34.5%	19.41
VANDERPOEL	13.9%	34.3%	20.37
DURKIN PARK	14.5%	34.3%	19.79
ACERO - ZIZUMBO	12.2%	34.3%	22.1
URBAN PREP - ENGLEWOOD HS	25.0%	34.3%	9.25
ACERO - DE LA CRUZ	18.6%	34.1%	15.44
SIMEON HS	25.9%	34.1%	8.14
MARQUETTE	13.0%	34.0%	21.01
BRIDGE	12.0%	34.0%	22.06
ART IN MOTION	27.0%	33.9%	6.9
SADLOWSKI	10.7%	33.8%	23.09
HORIZON - SOUTHWEST	21.0%	33.6%	12.55
HAMLINE	10.3%	33.5%	23.19
GALLISTEL	12.2%	33.5%	21.25
LOCKE J	10.1%	33.4%	23.33
CHICAGO VIRTUAL	33.3%	33.3%	0
PATHWAYS - ASHBURN HS	22.5%	33.3%	10.81
NOBLE - BUTLER HS	28.0%	33.2%	5.27
LORCA	14.8%	33.1%	18.33
PERSPECTIVES - TECH HS	28.9%	33.0%	4.13
TURNER-DREW	9.6%	33.0%	23.39
PLAMONDON	15.8%	32.8%	16.93
DORE	11.3%	32.7%	21.36
CICS - LONGWOOD	13.3%	32.6%	19.25
REILLY	15.3%	32.5%	17.17
BOWEN HS	22.6%	32.5%	9.93
JUNGMAN	10.6%	32.5%	21.87
PARK MANOR	5.0%	32.4%	27.36
INSTITUTO - JUSTICE HS	31.6%	32.3%	0.7
DEVER	13.1%	32.3%	19.14
HANSON PARK	14.5%	32.3%	17.74
PERSPECTIVES - MATH & SCI HS	22.2%	32.1%	9.94
CARSON	14.8%	31.9%	17.08
NORTH RIVER	16.0%	31.9%	15.92
SUMNER	2.3%	31.7%	29.36
CORLISS HS	22.8%	31.6%	8.8
STOWE	8.5%	31.5%	23
CASSELL	12.7%	31.4%	18.68
YCCS - ADDAMS	27.5%	31.1%	3.67
BLACK	7.2%	31.1%	23.9
HYDE PARK HS	21.9%	31.0%	9.13
NOBLE - JOHNSON HS	23.6%	31.0%	7.4
ACERO - TAMAYO	13.3%	31.0%	17.69
CLARK ES	10.8%	30.8%	20.03
PERSPECTIVES - JOSLIN HS	23.2%	30.7%	7.52
HAMPTON	9.1%	30.6%	21.52
YCCS - ASPIRA PANTOJA	29.9%	30.6%	0.63
MARSH	12.5%	30.6%	18.04
ENGLEWOOD STEM HS	21.8%	30.6%	8.74
PATHWAYS - HUMBOLDT PARK HS	30.6%	30.6%	-0.02
PERSPECTIVES - LEADERSHIP HS	23.9%	30.5%	6.64
CANTY	7.9%	30.5%	22.56
COURTENAY	8.8%	30.5%	21.64
MORRILL	12.0%	30.4%	18.45
HEARST	9.6%	30.4%	20.74
NOBLE - DRW HS	24.3%	30.2%	5.88
GREENE	0.0%	29.9%	29.86
BLAIR	0.0%	29.8%	29.82
LLOYD	0.0%	29.8%	29.76
LEARN - MIDDLE	22.3%	29.7%	7.39
PICCOLO	9.0%	29.7%	20.61
NIXON	1.3%	29.5%	28.22
BARNARD	8.4%	29.5%	21.03
HALE	14.5%	29.3%	14.79
CICS - BUCKTOWN	10.5%	29.1%	18.56
SAYRE	4.4%	29.0%	24.65
MOUNT GREENWOOD	10.3%	28.9%	18.68
MOUNT VERNON	7.1%	28.9%	21.78
ACERO - MARQUEZ	10.9%	28.8%	17.91
CHICAGO VOCATIONAL HS	19.7%	28.7%	9.04
SAFE ACHIEVE HS	20.0%	28.6%	8.57
ERIE	9.7%	28.5%	18.89
COLEMON	10.8%	28.5%	17.65
CICS - PRAIRIE	8.3%	28.5%	20.2
KIPLING	13.0%	28.4%	15.34
JULIAN HS	25.4%	28.4%	2.97
SHOESMITH	0.3%	28.3%	27.93
MURRAY	6.7%	28.2%	21.44
SANDOVAL	0.0%	28.2%	28.15
CICS - WEST BELDEN	12.3%	28.1%	15.85
SHIELDS	0.0%	28.0%	27.97
CUFFE	10.5%	28.0%	17.46
BEARD	0.0%	27.8%	27.81
CARNEGIE	8.2%	27.7%	19.54
CICS - WRIGHTWOOD	8.2%	27.7%	19.49
YCCS - ASSOCIATION HOUSE	18.5%	27.7%	9.21
BRENNEMANN	7.9%	27.6%	19.69
FRAZIER PROSPECTIVE	13.8%	27.6%	13.86
KIPP - ONE	8.6%	27.4%	18.76
DUNBAR HS	20.6%	27.3%	6.76
CARROLL	7.3%	27.2%	19.95
ACERO - CLEMENTE	11.1%	27.1%	15.99
CHOPIN	10.6%	27.0%	16.37
VIRTUAL ACADEMY ES	5.9%	26.7%	20.86
DE DIEGO	7.6%	26.6%	19.04
AUSTIN CCA HS	22.9%	26.6%	3.65
OMBUDSMAN - SOUTH HS	21.7%	26.1%	4.38
THOMAS	0.0%	26.1%	26.09
EVERETT	0.0%	26.0%	26.04
NLCP - COLLINS HS	17.5%	25.9%	8.46
NLCP - CHRISTIANA HS	15.2%	25.9%	10.67
GRAHAM ES	9.4%	25.8%	16.45
LOWELL	12.2%	25.8%	13.67
EARLE	8.4%	25.7%	17.31
HOPE LEARNING ACADEMY	0.0%	25.5%	25.53
FALCONER	0.8%	25.5%	24.67
KOZMINSKI	7.4%	25.4%	17.98
GALE	6.5%	25.4%	18.88
WACKER	7.5%	25.1%	17.66
ROWE	11.9%	25.1%	13.24
YATES	12.6%	24.8%	12.24
CASALS	8.6%	24.8%	16.16
PECK	0.0%	24.7%	24.67
TAYLOR	9.4%	24.4%	15.01
LOCKE A	7.1%	24.2%	17.09
CAMERON	9.2%	23.9%	14.78
MCCLELLAN	10.2%	23.9%	13.71
LEWIS	9.0%	23.4%	14.37
SCHUBERT	0.0%	23.4%	23.39
DIRKSEN	6.1%	23.1%	17.03
PROVIDENCE ENGLEWOOD	6.3%	23.0%	16.74
MELODY	5.2%	22.7%	17.53
FULTON	10.7%	22.5%	11.85
CICS - AVALON/SOUTH SHORE	9.3%	22.5%	13.18
DOUGLASS HS	20.9%	22.2%	1.29
ARIEL	6.1%	22.2%	16.06
CICS - BOND	0.4%	22.2%	21.82
NEIL	7.6%	22.1%	14.52
VICK	0.0%	21.8%	21.79
HARLAN HS	14.0%	21.7%	7.77
PHILLIPS HS	16.0%	21.5%	5.5
KIPP - BLOOM	7.2%	21.5%	14.24
BURNSIDE	8.3%	21.4%	13.13
SIMPSON HS	14.8%	21.2%	6.4
YCCS - WEST	8.5%	21.1%	12.63
CLAY	9.6%	21.1%	11.47
KIPP - ACADEMY	8.8%	21.1%	12.28
HENDERSON	6.1%	21.1%	14.95
DIXON	7.7%	20.8%	13.02
PERSHING	8.0%	20.8%	12.75
KELLMAN	5.1%	20.7%	15.58
CATALYST - CIRCLE ROCK	7.7%	20.5%	12.76
DAVIS M	10.7%	20.4%	9.71
SMITH	5.1%	20.4%	15.24
PULLMAN	8.2%	20.3%	12.13
YCCS - WEST TOWN	20.5%	20.3%	-0.16
WELLS ES	5.3%	19.9%	14.61
LEARN - SOUTH CHICAGO	7.2%	19.9%	12.74
IRVING	9.0%	19.8%	10.89
REVERE	4.8%	19.8%	15.03
BARRY	0.9%	19.7%	18.82
BARTON	5.2%	19.5%	14.28
KIPP - ASCEND	4.8%	19.5%	14.73
LIBBY	7.3%	19.5%	12.22
WHITE	3.8%	19.4%	15.63
LOVETT	10.2%	19.3%	9.17
LEARN - PERKINS	7.8%	19.1%	11.3
JEFFERSON HS	20.6%	19.0%	-1.55
CARVER G	3.9%	18.9%	15.03
CICS - LOOMIS	0.0%	18.9%	18.9
WARREN	4.9%	18.9%	14.03
FULLER	7.2%	18.7%	11.41
HAY	6.7%	18.5%	11.74
EVERS	8.6%	18.3%	9.73
BRUNSON	7.8%	18.2%	10.38
MARSHALL HS	14.0%	18.1%	4.07
MCKAY	8.4%	17.9%	9.5
YCCS - MCKINLEY	12.3%	17.9%	5.61
YOUNG ES	9.4%	17.8%	8.41
FISKE	4.9%	17.8%	12.89
DEPRIEST	7.4%	17.7%	10.34
MCNAIR	6.9%	17.7%	10.8
BEASLEY	7.1%	17.6%	10.48
WARD L	8.8%	17.5%	8.74
MORTON	5.3%	17.4%	12.11
BROWN R	8.7%	17.4%	8.65
JACKSON M	6.1%	17.3%	11.23
FENGER HS	13.2%	17.3%	4.13
CLAREMONT	6.2%	17.2%	10.97
OMBUDSMAN - WEST HS	15.1%	17.2%	2.11
HENDRICKS	3.9%	17.0%	13.11
YCCS - CCA ACADEMY	7.1%	16.8%	9.74
HOYNE	7.0%	16.8%	9.78
POWELL	3.3%	16.7%	13.44
RANDOLPH	7.2%	16.6%	9.43
ESMOND	6.3%	16.5%	10.21
WESTCOTT	5.2%	16.5%	11.25
CROWN	4.6%	16.4%	11.88
LEGACY	6.4%	16.4%	10.01
HOLMES	6.0%	16.4%	10.39
HIRSCH HS	11.6%	16.3%	4.65
CULLEN	5.6%	16.3%	10.72
TILTON	4.3%	16.1%	11.82
NEW SULLIVAN	7.1%	16.1%	8.98
WHISTLER	5.6%	16.0%	10.4
CICS - BASIL	5.6%	15.8%	10.25
MIRELES	6.5%	15.8%	9.25
JOPLIN	6.2%	15.7%	9.47
CICS - WASHINGTON PARK	5.8%	15.7%	9.83
ERICSON	5.0%	15.6%	10.62
CATHER	5.2%	15.4%	10.25
PIRIE	0.0%	15.3%	15.31
SMYTH	3.4%	15.3%	11.94
CALDWELL	5.5%	15.0%	9.55
DOOLITTLE	4.0%	15.0%	11.04
WOODLAWN	0.7%	15.0%	14.35
KERSHAW	7.5%	15.0%	7.52
GREAT LAKES	4.4%	15.0%	10.6
HEFFERAN	4.0%	14.9%	10.93
COLES	6.8%	14.8%	8.04
RYDER	5.1%	14.8%	9.7
MASON	5.9%	14.8%	8.93
OGLESBY	5.8%	14.7%	8.9
WASHINGTON H ES	1.9%	14.6%	12.75
MANN	6.1%	14.6%	8.45
POLARIS	5.5%	14.6%	9.07
OKEEFFE	3.5%	14.6%	11.1
NASH	1.9%	14.5%	12.55
YCCS - AUSTIN CAREER	7.7%	14.5%	6.78
LEARN - CAMPBELL	0.3%	14.4%	14.17
JOHNSON	8.0%	14.4%	6.43
FORT DEARBORN	3.6%	14.4%	10.83
LEARN - BUTLER	6.8%	14.4%	7.53
PLATO	6.1%	14.3%	8.23
ROBINSON	0.0%	14.3%	14.29
MCDOWELL	0.0%	14.2%	14.16
BOUCHET	4.1%	14.2%	10.06
BURNHAM	6.0%	14.1%	8.14
FOSTER PARK	4.6%	14.1%	9.45
BENNETT	8.0%	14.0%	5.99
EXCEL SOUTH SHORE HS	13.9%	13.9%	0.03
DRAKE	6.1%	13.9%	7.87
SHOOP	5.8%	13.9%	8.15
YCCS - YOUTH DEVELOPMENT	9.1%	13.9%	4.82
OWENS	5.0%	13.9%	8.85
YCCS - OLIVE HARVEY	15.7%	13.8%	-1.88
DETT	5.5%	13.8%	8.25
ELLINGTON	4.6%	13.7%	9.13
MANLEY HS	10.4%	13.7%	3.31
EXCEL SOUTHWEST HS	12.4%	13.7%	1.31
BROWN W	5.3%	13.6%	8.32
WADSWORTH	6.3%	13.5%	7.25
HERZL	3.2%	13.4%	10.16
MOVING EVEREST	3.0%	13.4%	10.34
CHALMERS	3.8%	13.0%	9.17
FARADAY	4.2%	12.9%	8.7
GREEN	4.0%	12.9%	8.9
SCHMID	3.2%	12.9%	9.67
NINOS HEROES	4.9%	12.8%	7.93
BRIGHT	4.2%	12.8%	8.63
FERNWOOD	5.0%	12.7%	7.77
U OF C - NKO	0.0%	12.6%	12.62
ASHE	2.1%	12.6%	10.47
TILL	3.1%	12.5%	9.49
HALEY	4.9%	12.5%	7.68
GREGORY	4.0%	12.5%	8.46
TANNER	5.8%	12.4%	6.57
OMBUDSMAN - ROSELAND HS	6.5%	12.4%	5.88
OTOOLE	4.6%	12.3%	7.75
RUGGLES	4.2%	12.0%	7.78
MANIERRE	3.6%	11.8%	8.22
CARTER	2.6%	11.8%	9.22
YCCS - INNOVATIONS	6.2%	11.8%	5.58
SHERMAN	5.6%	11.7%	6.16
SHERWOOD	3.8%	11.7%	7.91
BOND	3.2%	11.7%	8.53
STOCK	0.0%	11.5%	11.48
KING ES	2.1%	11.3%	9.22
WOODSON	5.4%	11.2%	5.77
YCCS - PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP	5.6%	11.2%	5.55
HARVARD	3.5%	11.2%	7.65
SOUTH SHORE ES	6.5%	11.2%	4.66
BEIDLER	3.3%	11.2%	7.83
DVORAK	1.7%	11.2%	9.47
JENSEN	4.5%	11.2%	6.69
CHICAGO EXCEL HS	7.7%	11.1%	3.45
SPENCER	3.5%	11.1%	7.63
STAGG	5.2%	11.1%	5.88
DUBOIS	3.7%	11.1%	7.45
HUGHES L	2.6%	11.1%	8.53
LELAND	3.6%	11.0%	7.38
HUGHES C	5.5%	11.0%	5.53
DENEEN	3.3%	10.9%	7.63
GRESHAM	5.3%	10.8%	5.57
GARVEY	3.0%	10.8%	7.76
YCCS - YOUTH CONNECTION	9.5%	10.8%	1.25
GILLESPIE	4.6%	10.7%	6.15
MAYS	5.4%	10.6%	5.15
BASS	2.1%	10.3%	8.23
MONTESSORI ENGLEWOOD	3.5%	10.1%	6.67
MADISON	3.7%	10.1%	6.37
AVALON PARK	2.3%	10.0%	7.78
BRADWELL	3.5%	10.0%	6.54
YCCS - CHATHAM	8.7%	9.8%	1.19
THORP J	3.5%	9.8%	6.24
DEWEY	3.4%	9.7%	6.34
HIGGINS	2.2%	9.6%	7.46
PARKER	2.8%	9.5%	6.74
WEBSTER	1.9%	9.4%	7.53
WENTWORTH	3.6%	9.4%	5.79
BURKE	2.6%	9.4%	6.83
EXCEL ENGLEWOOD HS	6.5%	9.2%	2.71
LANGFORD	3.1%	9.2%	6.1
YCCS - SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT	9.4%	9.1%	-0.33
PARKSIDE	3.6%	9.0%	5.4
BEETHOVEN	3.1%	8.9%	5.79
YCCS - SULLIVAN	5.8%	8.9%	3.09
COOK	2.1%	8.8%	6.64
U OF C - DONOGHUE	0.0%	8.7%	8.65
NICHOLSON	2.4%	8.5%	6.07
LAVIZZO	2.8%	8.5%	5.65
HOWE	3.5%	8.1%	4.62
ALDRIDGE	3.3%	8.0%	4.67
REAVIS	3.0%	7.9%	4.84
METCALFE	3.2%	7.9%	4.69
MOLLISON	2.7%	7.7%	4.93
CURTIS	4.9%	7.7%	2.8
DULLES	1.8%	6.9%	5.05
LAWNDALE	4.1%	6.7%	2.62
BROWNELL	0.0%	6.6%	6.59
PENN	4.5%	5.9%	1.38
LEARN - EXCEL	0.0%	5.8%	5.75
LEARN - 7	0.0%	3.8%	3.77
FRAZIER CHARTER	0.0%	0.0%	0
CICS - CHICAGOQUEST HS	0.0%	0.0%	0
SAFE ACHIEVE ES	0.0%	0.0%	0

Latest vaccination rates for CPS schools

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board ‘discouraged’ by district’s spending on academic, mental health support: ‘This is an emergency’

2022-03-23T22:27:06+00:00

Some Chicago school board members are urging the district to pick up the pace on its federally-funded push to address the pandemic’s academic and mental health fallout, saying the money isn’t being spent fast enough to meet the immediate needs of students.

The district has so far spent only 12%, or $62.9 million, on a two-year, half-billion dollar initiative called Moving Forward Together, which was designed to help students bounce back from COVID disruption. And it has made use of less than 7% of its $1.8 billion allocation under the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan, the third and final round of federal COVID relief dollars.

District officials said they have run into a slew of hurdles to spending the money faster: The delta and omicron variants diverted energy from academic recovery efforts, and the national “Great Resignation” made it harder to line up the staffing needed to roll out new programs to support students.

CEO Pedro Martinez also noted that the district had to spend dollars from earlier federal relief funding rounds first, and that not all expenses are included in the American Rescue Plan figures because the district hasn’t reported them to the state.

Some school members said they understand the challenges, but still would like to see stepped-up efforts to get help to schools now.

Board president Miguel del Valle said the district needs to expedite its hiring processes for community-based organizations that provide CPS with social, emotional, and mental health support.

“This is an emergency,” del Valle said. “Schools are crying out for additional help.”

Board member Luisiana Melendez acknowledged the persistent challenges, but said “timely interventions” for students were immediately needed to prevent more problems in child’s learning, and social and emotional development.

“I am a little discouraged by the low amount of investment so far,” she said.

The Moving Forward Together plan announced last June uses $525 million — a portion of the $1.8 billion in American Rescue Plan dollars the district received — to address academic and mental health trauma from the pandemic over the span of two years. Chicago Public Schools got a total of roughly $2.8 billion from three rounds of federal COVID relief.

The program investments include:

learning acceleration and access to grade-level content ($35 million)
targeted intervention and tutoring ($15.3 million)
supporting students with disabilities and English language learners ($7.6 million)
early literacy ($1.9 million)
transition-year support ($11.1 million)
social, emotional, and healing supports ($3 million)

Real-time spending data that Chalkbeat obtained and analyzed suggests that the district has so far used a significant portion of its federal COVID relief dollars to cover the salaries and benefits of existing teachers and support staff and other routine expenses for which it had previously budgeted state and other funds. The district told the state it would use about $764 million in federal emergency relief to pay for existing instructional positions alone. It plans to separately cover support staff such as cafeteria workers and security guards as well as pre-kindergarten personnel with COVID dollars.

During a meeting at the beginning of the school year, board members pressed district officials to spell out how they would track whether the initiative was paying off for students. Some members voiced concern about the possibility of making a substantial investment without having results to show for it.

At the time, officials said they were still exploring ways to capture the program’s outcomes, noting some challenges such as quantifying student mental health improvements. But they promised to report back with concrete measures of success.

On Wednesday, district officials didn’t outline a metric for measuring the success of the program. Rather, board members echoed Melendez’s concerns around the pace of spending for such interventions.

The school year had been dubbed as a “recovery year,” but in reality the district has been focused on reopening and keeping schools open amid surges, staffing retention, and other issues, Martinez said.

“We all wanted this to be a recovery year, but it has not played out that way,” Martinez said.

Across the country, school districts are grappling with learning gaps and mental health challenges created by the pandemic that upended the education system. The federal government has issued billions in COVID relief funding to help school districts respond.

In detailing the initiative last summer, Chicago Public School officials said about 84,500 students had been flagged for target support and another 18,130 students would qualify for more intensive outreach. The district’s effort would primarily be focused on the South and West communities hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, officials said at the time.

The initiative is broadly focused on re-engaging students who tuned out after the district shifted from in-person to remote learning in March 2020. Chicago Public Schools used portions of the funds to create behavior and mental health teams at school, while also partnering with outside providers for mental health services.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Melendez and other board members asked the district how they planned to speed up the use of these funds to ensure students were receiving necessary interventions now and in the coming years.

“This is not meant to be finger-pointing or blaming anybody,” Melendez said, “but I think this is an issue that is becoming increasingly urgent as time continues to go by and children are suffering from the long-term learning impacts — and social emotional impacts— of COVID.”

The presentation was only “a partial picture,” in part, because of the complexity around how those funds are reported, Martinez said, promising a more in-depth analysis of spending by May. Still, Martinez said the district was “doubling down” on providing support that principals were asking for including social workers, counselors, and nurses by next year.

Board member Melendez acknowledged the complexity of the funding but argued that “schools are hurting, they need support now.”

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

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Board rejects Chicago union bid to block lifting of school mask mandate

2022-03-16T18:52:11+00:00

The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board has rejected a bid from the Chicago Teachers Union to temporarily block the lifting of Chicago Public Schools’ mask mandate earlier this week.

The state labor board voted 3-2 on Wednesday to deny the union’s preliminary injunction request that, if granted, would have sent the case to a circuit court judge.

The labor board’s vote increases the likelihood that the district’s mask-optional policy will remain in place for the remainder of the school year.

“We are pleased that we can retain our authority to uphold this policy based on health data which currently lists Chicago in the low-risk category, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a Districtwide positivity rate of 0.085 percent,” the district said in response to the board’s vote. “We will continue to engage with the Chicago Teachers Union, our parents, families and our community on health and safety issues.”

On June 8, an administrative judge is scheduled to consider the union’s unfair labor practice complaint that the district violated the state’s labor relations act when it lifted the mask mandate. However, the state labor board is considering moving that hearing to an earlier date.

Last week, the district announced it would end its mask requirement for students and staff in schools starting March 14, aligning itself with the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention’s updated guidance on masking in schools last month. That guidance said masks should be required when rates of new COVID cases and hospitalizations are high in a community.

The Chicago Teachers Union argues the district violated the COVID safety agreement the two sides agreed to after teachers voted to walk out over safety concerns amid the rise in omicron cases. That safety agreement requires masks through Aug. 26, 2022.

The move by the district prompted some confusion, since it came after the Chicago Board of Education reaffirmed its commitment to masking and other COVID mitigation strategies.

However, some parents and union leaders raised concerns over the mask mandate, especially with low vaccination rates on schools on the South and West Sides.

Labor board member Steve Grossman, who voted in the union CTU’s favor, called it a “challenging case” noting the “pandemic, and its effect on the workplace” remained.

The evidence appeared “overwhelming, and virtually undisputed that the Board of Education may have violated” the Educational Labor Relations Act by “failing to bargain in good faith when it ended the mask mandate,” Grossman said.

Following the vote, union attorney Robert Bloch called the decision “unfortunate.”

“It was a crystal clear violation of the labor act,” Bloch said of the district’s decision to lift the mask mandate. “To me, it reflected reticence to do what the labor act requires just because there’s other litigation pending somewhere else in the state relating to this issue.”

In a Wednesday morning statement after the labor board’s vote, the union said it would “continue to stand up for maximum safety in Chicago’s public schools and communities.”

“Despite disregard for the collective bargaining process from Mayor Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools, our rank-and-file members remain committed to serving students and families safely, and fighting for essential pandemic safety mitigations around vaccinations, contact tracing and COVID-19 testing,” the union said.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois teachers would be able to use sick days for mental health. Will it help?

2022-03-15T21:14:46+00:00

Teachers like English teacher Briana Morales worked overtime to support their students through two years of disruptions and emotional upheaval during the pandemic. Now, Morales wonders who will help those exhausted teachers.

The fifth-year teacher at an alternative high school in East St. Louis District 189 in southern Illinois has provided academic and mental health support for students reeling from coronavirus issues, as well as gun violence and poverty that predate the pandemic. In summer 2020, she attended funerals for three of her students who were killed in shootings.

“In the fall of 2020, I had to just bounce back because my students still needed me at that time. But I had no time to process what I needed for myself,” Morales said. “On top of that no one even asked me, ‘What do you need?”

A bill, SB 3914, in the Illinois general assembly proposes one step to address the needs of educators like Morales — by allowing teachers to use sick days for mental health reasons. It comes in response to the increased demands on teachers over the last two years: shifting instruction from remote to hybrid classrooms to in-person learning while balancing the needs of students who have lost learning and need mental health support.

SB 3914 passed the Senate unanimously and is scheduled for a House committee hearing Wednesday. The bill has changed a few times throughout the legislative process; the first version of the bill would have given teachers five mental health days at full pay but now it has expanded how teachers can use sick days to include mental health concerns.

To Morales and other educators, the bill is a step in the right direction — but not enough.

Teachers burn out from the pandemic

Under the Illinois school code, teachers receive a minimum of 10 sick days per year. That puts the state in line with the average across the country, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit policy organization. The vast majority of districts allow teachers to carry over unused sick leave from year to year without a limit.

Chicago Public Schools teachers receive at least 10 sick days per year and as many as 13 based on experience level, plus three personal days. Chicago gives five days for bereavement leave and allows up to five days of sick leave to be used for bereavement.

The pandemic has made the need for additional mental health support even more important. According to “Job-Related Stress Threatens the Teacher Supply,” a report by the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research institute, one in four teachers said that they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the 2020–2021 school year. According to the report, 78% percent of teachers reported job-related stress compared to 40% of the general population. While teachers across the nation have voiced frustration with their jobs during the pandemic, a Chalkbeat analysis of data from the states and large school districts found that a mass teacher exodus has not happened yet.

The state’s largest teachers union, the Illinois Education Association, supports the bill.

“If our teachers are overworked or overwhelmed and need to take a break from the classroom for a day, they should absolutely be able to do so without fear of being punished for taking care of themselves,” Kathi Griffin, president of IEA, said in a statement to Chalkbeat.

Allowing teachers to take time off for mental health reasons would help districts retain educators and recruit new teachers, Griffin said.

The public supports giving teachers mental health days, according to an IEA survey of 1,000 Illinois residents. Of those polled, 72% supported allowing educators to take mental health days.

Not everyone agrees. Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said she’s concerned about giving more days to educators because students have to recover learning after the pandemic.

“I don’t see how having [teachers] out of school more often is going to help anyone. It may be a temporary fix, but we’ve got to put kids first here,” Walsh said. “We can’t have kids showing up to school and getting escorted into a gym to spend the day because there’s nobody to teach them.”

Are mental health days enough?

Lisa Thyer, a teacher of 16 years, has found the current school year to be the most challenging. While school district leaders have promised that this year would be a return to normalcy, it’s been far from normal, according to Thyer.

She teaches English to high school students at Consolidated School District 230 in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Thyer has struggled to figure out the academic and emotional needs of her students this school year and feels unsure about her ability to teach.

“No one knew how to do hybrid instruction and we were all doing the best we could, but I was supposed to know how to do classroom instruction,” Thyer said. “I don’t feel like I’m doing a good job anymore.”

Morales, the East St. Louis teacher, and Thyer think that the proposed mental health days would be useful, but they feel that educators will need more to stay in the profession and get past burnout.

Morales wants to see districts provide more mental health support for educators. Her district has contracts with therapists to support students and families. She would like to see that extended to educators.

Morales said that teachers have multiple obstacles blocking them from seeing therapists on their own like the cost of going to therapy and time to schedule an appointment.

“Is there a way that we can balance a school day so that both students’ families and educators are all getting the same levels of support that they need to sustain themselves during this time and going forward?” Morales asked.

Thyer is cautiously optimistic about the proposed mental health days for educators. She wants it to be the first step in the conversation on how to support teachers but worries that some will not even take sick days due to the state’s substitute shortage.

“If there’s no one who can cover your classes, taking a day off is gonna fall on your colleagues to miss their plan period or things like that to help cover your classes,” Thyer said. “It’s nice to have them but for them to actually be useful is a different thing, especially in this pandemic.”

End of mask mandate in Chicago schools prompts mixed feelings from parents

2022-03-14T19:07:25+00:00

For the first time in roughly two years, students in Chicago Public Schools were not required to wear masks on campus Monday morning. But that doesn’t mean the end of debates about masks.

For some families, the end of the mask mandate brought anxiety. Others welcomed it as a milestone on the way to normalcy amid the pandemic.

The district’s change in mask policy comes as federal, state, and local guidance have aligned. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late last month said schools could drop masks unless COVID cases and hospitalizations in the community were high.

“CPS was one of the first to require universal masking in schools, and we would not be moving to a mask- optional model unless the data and our public health experts indicated that it is safe for our school communities,” CEO Pedro Martinez said last week. “We will support our staff and students as we enter this new phase in the pandemic and continue to move forward together.”

At Florence Nightingale Elementary on the Southwest Side, many children still entered the campus wearing face coverings.

Clarita Salas adjusted her daughter’s mask before saying goodbye near the entrance to the school. She said for now, her second- and sixth-grade daughters would keep their mask on.

“I prefer that my kids continue wearing their masks,” parent Clarita Salas said in Spanish, “because you might have a child without a mask pass the virus to the other kids in their class.”

But at Kinzie Elementary, also on the Southwest Side, Robyn Peterson, the mother of a kindergartener, said the end of the district’s mask mandate comes as a relief to her family. She said her child took a month to get used to wearing a mask at school, which has felt arbitrary at times given unmasked school meals and afterschool playtime with classmates.

Peterson’s daughter went to school without a face covering on Monday morning, joining some masked and some unmasked peers.

“This was the easiest decision I have ever made,” she said.

The district will continue its school-based COVID testing and quarantine policy. Students who test positive will have to quarantine for five days and then wear a mask for five days after returning to school, officials said.

Last week, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, and Martinez said the school mask mandate could return should cases begin to climb, but they didn’t provide a metric for when they would move to reintroduce masks on school campuses.

The sudden change in Chicago’s mask policy — just weeks after the Chicago Board of Education voted to affirm its commitment to masks and other COVID mitigation strategies — has prompted swift criticism from the teachers union, which said the district violated a safety agreement the district and union signed in January.

The agreement was forged after district officials canceled five days of classes when teachers walked out over safety concerns amid the rise of COVID-19 cases across the city

The union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint that is being investigated by the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. Union leaders said dropping the mask mandate would put students and staff in danger, especially at South and West Side schools where a push to vaccinate students appears to have stalled.

About 49% of students from 5 to 17 are vaccinated, but three dozen schools on the South and West Sides had fewer than 10% of their students fully vaccinated. And more than 470 schools had less than 50% of students fully vaccinated as of March 3, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago.

Across the district, about 47% of 5- to 11-year-olds and 64% of 12- to 17-year-olds have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, according to the district’s latest figures.

On Monday, the Chicago Teachers Union and some educators took to social media to advocate for continued mask wearing, tweeting with the hashtag #maskingforafriend.

‘A teaching moment for my kids’

For Sheila Vogt, low COVID case and transmission rates, the omicron’s lower risk of serious complications, and higher vaccination rates mean it might be time to relax some pandemic rules, including universal masking.

The mom of a kindergartener and a seventh grader, she shares concerns that mask-wearing in classrooms has affected young learners’ development.

However, Vogt believes the district should empower Local School Councils to make decisions about universal masking that make sense for their school communities. At Edison Regional Gifted Center, her seventh grader’s North Side school, almost 90% of students are vaccinated. The school is small, clean, and diligent about COVID mitigation measures, so going mask-optional feels safe.

But, Vogt said, “The schools in this city are so different. A one-size-fits-all policy doesn’t seem appropriate.”

On Monday, Vogt’s children headed to school with their masks on. The family still feels the slight discomfort of masking is worth the reduced risk of getting sick or transmitting the virus to others. She said she worries her children might feel alienated if a lot of their classmates go maskless.

“But I also see this as a teaching moment for my kids — that we need to do what we believe in, even when it’s hard or others make us feel bad,” she said.

Rosalyn Walker, a South Side parent whose son attends LaSalle Language Academy on the North Side, strongly disagreed with the district’s decision to go mask-optional.

Last Thursday, she rushed to LaSalle after her seventh grader asked to be picked up when his classmate had tested positive for COVID — the third case in the classroom that week and the fourth schoolwide.

Walker, who serves on LaSalle’s Local School Council, knew her son would have a math test the following day, and she tried to persuade him to stick around until that Thursday’s math class, to review material for the exam. But he insisted on leaving right away.

She greeted the district’s decision to stop requiring face coverings by donating KN95 masks to her school.

Her son, who tested negative last week, headed to school Monday feeling on edge. But she reassured him that his vaccine, booster shot and mask would give him solid protection — even if classmates, some of whom have been pulled down their masks in defiance of the rule already, ditch the face coverings altogether.

“If you keep the mask on, it will continue to do its job,” she told him.

Parents drop off their children at Florence Nightingale Elementary School on Chicago’s Southwest Side on the first day the district has moved to make mask optional after roughly two years.

Outside Florence Nightingale, where 42% of students are fully vaccinated and 61% of the students have at least one dose of the vaccine, Andrea Hernandez said she was OK with the change in policy. Hernandez wore her mask, but said her daughter, who is vaccinated, didn’t want to wear her mask.

“She didn’t want to use it anymore,” Hernandez said.

Still, most parents at the school accompanied their children who were mostly masked to one of the school’s entrances.

Parent Martha Sandoval said her two daughters would continue to wear their masks until they see what kind of impact the shift in mask policy will have on COVID-19 cases.

“What I’m seeing is that the majority of people are still sending their kids with masks,” Sandoval said.

Maribel Martinez feels as though the district changed its policy due to political pressure from people who no longer see COVID as a threat.

But in a working-class neighborhood that has been hard hit by COVID, Martinez said it’s still very much a threat. For the time being, Martinez said she is making sure her 8-year and 12-year-old daughters continue wearing their masks to protect everyone in the family.

“We have an option so I’m choosing my kids to keep their masks on,” Martinez said, “because COVID is still out there.”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

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

How do you feel about Chicago Public Schools’ mask policy change? Tell us about it.

2022-03-10T16:58:05+00:00

After implementing a mask mandate two years ago, Chicago Public Schools will become the latest district in the country — and one of the last in the state — to lift its mask mandate in school buildings starting Monday.

The district’s change in mask policy comes as federal, state, and local guidance has aligned. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late last month said schools could drop masks unless COVID cases and hospitalizations in the community were high.

But the sudden change in Chicago’s mask policy — just two weeks after the Chicago Board of Education voted to affirm its commitment to masks and other COVID mitigation strategies — has prompted swift criticism from the teachers union, which said the district violated a safety agreement between the district and the Chicago Teachers Union. The agreement was forged after district officials canceled five days of classes when teachers walked out over safety concerns amid the rise of COVID-19 cases across the city

The CTU has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Chicago Public Schools, and demanded the district meet with union leaders at the bargaining table.

CEO Pedro Martinez on Wednesday said he didn’t anticipate a work stoppage.

Still, teachers and administrators are left navigating the change in policy. Some parents have welcomed the change, while others said they are worried, especially in communities hardest hit by the pandemic where vaccination rates remain low.

How do you feel about the change in mask policy? Tell us in the survey below. Your answers could inform our coverage of this issue.

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Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago aims to double down on vaccination efforts for schools with low uptake

2022-03-08T21:37:29+00:00

With Chicago schools poised to shift to a mask-optional policy next week, the district plans to renew a push to increase vaccination rates at schools with low vaccine uptake.

During a Facebook Live session Tuesday morning, CEO Pedro Martinez, alongside city health commissioner Dr. Alison Arwady, said the district planned to “double down” on vaccination efforts in school communities where uptake has stalled.

About 49% of students from 5 to 17 are vaccinated, but several schools on the South and West Sides had fewer than 10% of their student population fully vaccinated, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago.

Across the district, about 47% of 5- to 11-year-olds and 64% of 12- to 17-year-olds have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, according to the district’s latest figures.

The district will continue to host mobile vaccination clinics at city schools, and would be reaching out to community partners to host additional events at schools with particularly low vaccination rates, Martinez said.

The district and department of health are looking for opportunities to engage parents where vaccination hesitancy exists, Arwady said.

The decision to remove a universal mask mandate, which will take effect March 14, comes as COVID cases have declined, and federal and state guidance has aligned on masks in schools. Late last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said schools could drop masks unless COVID cases and hospitalizations in the community were high.

Other COVID mitigation efforts such as testing, contact tracing, and quarantine of unvaccinated students will remain in place. Students who have tested positive will have to wear masks for five days when returning to schools after quarantining, Arwady said.

Masking could return in the event of another surge or the emergence of another variant, Arwady said.

Still, the move to lift the mask mandate could violate a safety agreement between the district and the Chicago Teachers Union. The agreement was forged after district officials canceled five days of classes when teachers walked out over safety concerns amid the rise of COVID-19 cases across the city

The shift to mask-optional could hinder progress and harm schools with low vaccination rates, union leaders argued.

The union planned on filing an unfair labor practice complaint against the district — and could potentially set up another standoff with the district.

But Martinez said the district was working with the teachers union and didn’t anticipate another walkout.

Amid the sharp decline in COVID cases, officials have argued that the risk level in Chicago schools is the lowest since the start of the pandemic. Even with the change in policy starting next week, the district is strongly encouraging masks to be worn indoors, especially in schools with low vaccination rates.

The shift in policy was also influenced by legal challenges from a downstate attorney representing a handful of parents in Mt. Greenwood schools, Martinez added.

In avoiding a court ruling, CPS officials will maintain the ability to respond to the changes of the pandemic in a timely manner should cases increase, Martinez said.

As of Tuesday, the city is currently averaging about 191 cases, 16 hospitalizations, and about three deaths every seven days. The positivity rate is less than 1%, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health’s dashboard.

Last week, 141 students and 53 staff tested positive for COVID-19 between Feb. 27 and March 3. About 402 students and 56 staff were quarantined as of March 3, according to the district.

In response to the mask policy change, Activate Chicago Parents held a press conference Tuesday morning, where a number of parents raised concerns over the decision to lift the mandate without consulting parents.

CPS parent Jesu Estrada said she was “disgusted” but not surprised by the district’s decision. She said the move to lift the mask mandate after the St. Patrick’s Day celebration made no sense and would “imperil” kids, teachers, and families.

Her son Antonio Breed said his class had been quarantined six times since the start of the pandemic. Even as city officials move to lift the mask mandate, the sixth grader said COVID-19 still a “pressing issue.”

“It’s staggering to see how many people have been infected and affected by the pandemic,” Breed said.

Some parents offered support for a potential teacher strike to keep students protected.

But Cristine, a CPS substitute who did not share her last name, supported the district’s stance to lift the mask mandate and said a strike would be detrimental to students.

Parent Amarillis Molina-Deleon said there needed to be a balance for the best interest of the children.

“I don’t think a strike is a solution. I don’t think removing masks is the solution. We have to find a balance,” Molina-Deleon said. “We have to work for the safety and the health of our children. Our children don’t have time to waste. Time is passing, they’re graduating without the skills they need.”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools moves to mask-optional policy starting March 14

2022-03-07T19:03:33+00:00

Chicago Public Schools will lift its indoor mask mandate for pre-K through 12th grade students and staff starting March 14 – a decision met with opposition by its teachers union, which cautioned that the move violated a safety agreement and said it plans to file an unfair labor practice complaint against the district.

On Monday, the district announced it would go to a mask-optional policy, aligning with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in late February recommended that school districts drop mask mandates unless COVID cases and hospitalizations in their region were high.

Under the CDC’s COVID Tracker, Cook County, which includes Chicago, has a level of transmission that is currently considered substantial.

The change in the CPS policy will encourage students and staff to continue to wear masks, but allows parents and employees to decide whether to wear masks indoors, the district said in a statement.

“CPS was one of the first to require universal masking in schools, and we would not be moving to a mask-optional model unless the data and our public health experts indicated that it is safe for our school communities,” CEO Pedro Martinez said in a statement. “We will support our staff and students as we enter this new phase in the pandemic and continue to move forward together.”

As part of the change in mask policy, the district will continue other safety mitigations including on-site testing and contact tracing.

Following the announcement, the Chicago Teachers Union argued lifting the mask mandate violated a safety agreement that requires masking through the end of the school year. The agreement was forged after district officials canceled five days of classes when teachers walked out over safety concerns amid the rise of COVID-19 cases across the city.

The union vowed to immediately file an unfair labor practice complaint, while also requesting Chicago Public Schools bargain over the updated mask policy.

“The district’s move to make masks optional without bargaining to do so safely will have health and safety consequences, so we continue to call on CPS to drastically improve accommodations by providing greater access to the Virtual Academy,” the union said in a statement.

The union also called for the district to provide additional accommodations for staff with medical vulnerabilities, additional details on a metric for when it would re-introduce masks should COVID cases increase, and how it planned to keep students under 5, who are not eligible for the vaccine, safe.

In addition, the union wants training for staff and families to prevent anyone from being “stigmatized for continuing to wear a mask.”

Moving to mask-optional would “undo progress” and “threaten the health and the safety” of a large swath of unvaccinated students on the South and West Sides, union president Jesse Sharkey said in a Friday letter to the mayor.

About 30% of students 5- to 11- years-old are fully vaccinated, while 57% in the age group have at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. About 56% of 12- to 17-year-olds are fully vaccinated, and 68% of students have received at least one dose, according to latest figures from the district.

Last month, Gov. J.B Pritzker battled in court to keep Illinois’ emergency school mask mandate in place even as he lifted a mask requirement across the state. In February, a judge granted a temporary restraining order against masking, vaccination, and testing protocols in schools. Pritzker lost an appeal to get that judgment overturned.

Pritzker said students and staff would no longer be required to wear masks at Illinois schools starting Feb. 28 after the Illinois Supreme Court declined to take up the case.

Chicago follows other districts across the country, including New York City Public Schools, which lifted its mask mandate for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Children in pre-K and younger, who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated, must continue to wear masks at schools and day care facilities.

In Chicago, parents on both sides of the debate have spoken up in favor or against masks in classes in recent weeks.

The shift to mask-optional will be the first time Chicago will not require masks in school buildings since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

This story has been updated to include a statement from the teachers union.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

As city, state drop mask requirements, Chicago schools face period of mask limbo

2022-03-03T18:12:44+00:00

This story has been updated to include CDC data for Cook County.

Days after the city and state lifted their mask mandates, Chicago Public Schools is signaling it could soon be moving to make masks optional, aligning itself with federal guidance but potentially setting district leadership up for another confrontation with its powerful teachers union.

In an email to parents Wednesday evening, CEO Pedro Martinez said universal masking is still in place in Chicago schools, but the district expected to move to a “mask-optional model for all students and staff in the near future.” The district declined to clarify the timeline.

“This change will be consistent with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding masking, and guided by rapidly declining case counts within CPS and the City of Chicago,” Martinez and Bogdana Chkoumbova, chief education officer, said in the letter to parents.

In a letter to members, the teachers union argued that its agreement would require masking through the end of the school year.

“We are all in a better place with COVID-19 today than we were a month ago,” CTU vice president Stacy Davis Gates said, “but we also understand that schools are congregate settings, and less than 25% of students in many are unvaccinated.”

During a rally outside City Hall Monday, some parents and activists with the People’s Response Network voiced support for the mask mandate, encouraging the district to uphold its safety agreement and require masks through the remainder of the school year.

The district has stood firm on its mask stance amid legal challenges, citing a legal agreement with its teachers union forged after an acrimonious battle over inadequate safety mitigations.

Last week, the CDC said schools could drop masks unless COVID cases and hospitalizations were high. Cook County, where Chicago is located, is considered low transmission, according to the county’s data. Under the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker, however, the county’s transmission level is considered “substantial.” The guidance comes as many districts across the country and elsewhere in the state have already moved to go mask-optional in the classroom.

For the past month, Gov. J.B Pritzker has been battling in court to keep Illinois’ emergency school mask mandate in place even as he lifted a mask requirement across the state. Earlier this month, a judge granted a temporary restraining order against masking, vaccination, and testing protocols in schools. Pritzker lost an appeal to get that judgment overturned last week.

After the Illinois Supreme Court declined to take up the case, Pritzker said students and staff would no longer be required to wear masks at Illinois schools.

The back-and-forth over masking has caused confusion on the ground and chaos in some Illinois school board rooms, with late night meetings and votes stirring heated debate.

The end of mandates has also put the state’s child care providers in limbo. Earlier this week, the state’s Department of Children and Family Services, which licenses child care providers, said that children and staff at early learning centers were no longer required to wear masks, but that it was up to individual sites to decide.

That has presented a quandary for some providers, since vaccinations have not been approved yet for children under age 5.

Sonja Crum Knight, chief programs and impact officer at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, which oversees child care and after-school programs for about 2,000 children across multiple sites in the city, said her organization will continue to require masks — and quickly communicated that to parents on Monday when the city mandates lifted.

Several factors weighed in the leadership’s decision, she said, including status as a federal Head Start grantee (the federal government has not technically lifted mandates for its centers) and the fact that most children in Carole Robertson’s care are not yet eligible for the vaccine. Also, quite simply, masking has proven effective so far and helped keep classrooms open, she said.

“We’ve been rooted in masking,” said Knight. “It’s not an abstract arbitrary thing, it’s keeping everybody safe, and that’s keeping us open.”

In a statement, Chicago Public Schools said the decision to move toward making masks optional was made because of the low number of positive cases at schools and declining hospitalization rates.

About 22% of all 5- to 11-year-olds in the district have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 34% have received at least one dose, but uptake varies widely by neighborhood. About 54% of 12- to 17-years were fully vaccinated as of Feb. 14, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago.

The mask-optional announcement comes a week after Chicago Board of Education members approved a resolution during February’s board meeting to maintain COVID safety mitigations, which include a mask mandate.

Martinez told board members at February’s board meeting that he predicted there would be a day for the district to go mask-optional, possibly before the end of the year. Still, he cautioned against lifting the mandate too early.

During the board meeting, a dozen parents challenged the district to drop the mask mandate.

In affirming the board’s commitment to masks, board president Miguel del Valle last week said that while COVID cases were improving within the district, vaccination rates among students lagged behind the city.

Board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland said being “cautious was the right thing to do,” especially since the pandemic had disparate impacts on communities of color.

Samantha Smylie contributed to this report.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago doubles number of students opting in to school-based COVID testing

2022-02-18T19:18:05+00:00

The number of Chicago students consenting to school-based COVID testing has doubled in the last month, but still falls far short of the district’s goal of having 100% enrollment by Feb. 1.

Still, the increase in opt-in rates represents significant progress, after enrollment slowed to a near standstill by November.

A teacher phone banking effort and a change to allow for verbal consent have been instrumental in helping the district increase opt-in rates.

The districtwide opt-in rate currently sits at 34.18%, up from about 16% in Dec. 10, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat through a records request. But the number is still well below the goal set in the district’s agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union of getting all students signed up for testing by Feb. 1.

Still, the district is closing in on another metric set in the agreement with CTU: Getting at least 10% of students at each school consented for testing. About 95% of schools had hit that mark as of Feb. 1 and 69% have at least one quarter of their students enrolled in COVID testing, according to the data obtained by Chalkbeat.

During the January Board of Education meeting, CEO Pedro Martinez detailed the progress doubling consent of students from 40,000 to more than 90,000 students.

Prior to the winter break, more than 200 schools – about 40% of district-run campuses – had less than 10% of students enrolled in testing, but a majority of schools had since reached the 10% milestone, Martinez said at the time.

Many schools in neighborhoods with low opt-in rates have seen participation in COVID-19 testing increase exponentially from Dec. 10 to Feb. 18, data shows.

John Marshall Metropolitan High School in Garfield Park saw an 80% increase in opt-in rates. The school is now among a dozen schools — mostly on the South and West Sides — with 100% of students opted-in for testing. Arthur A. Libby Elementary in New City saw a similar opt-in rate jump from 2% to 87% from December to Feb. 1, data shows.

At Park Manor Elementary, which reported a number of COVID cases before the winter break, testing consent increased from 51% to 100%.

The increase in districtwide opt-in rates has come after CPS and its teachers union signed a safety agreement that, in part, would involve teachers in COVID mitigation strategies and pay them stipends for extra assistance with contact tracing and signing up families for testing.

When Chicago schools reopened in early January after a grueling standoff with its teachers union, some teachers spent the first day back going through class rosters calling parent after parent to get students signed up for the district’s school-based COVID testing.

The goal was simple: increase the number of students enrolled in the program.

The district’s fumbled rollout of its COVID testing program and the persistently low opt-in rates became points of contention amid an alarming wave of omicron cases sweeping across the city.

Last month, Chris Geovanis, a CTU spokesperson, said the safety agreement allowed rank-and-file members to obtain verbal consent, while helping parents circumvent the “obstructive registration process.”

Parents previously told Chalkbeat that the complicated opt-in form, language barriers, and a lack of communication were among the problems with buy-in.

“We’ve seen the numbers more than double thanks to members’ hard work,” Geovanis said in January.

Chicago Teachers Union leaders have long argued for an opt-out model that would ensure random tests for any student, rather than a small subsection of the school opted in for testing.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago sees COVID cases drop by 60% in schools, health officials say

2022-02-15T22:58:52+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is seeing a steep decline in COVID-19 cases across the district – in line with a similar drop seen across the city – but cases remain above pre-omicron levels, health officials said Tuesday.

That decline means far fewer students are in quarantine and missing school. Health officials said they were still concerned about risks to students at schools where vaccination rates are the lowest.

Last week, CPS reported that 439 students and 121 staff members tested positive, a drop of about 60% compared to two weeks ago, when 1,068 students and 284 staff tested positive for the week of Jan. 23, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said at a weekly COVID-19 press conference.

“The case rates that we see in our schools, whether that’s CPS, whether that’s the Archdiocese, whether that’s day care, they reflect what we see in the city of Chicago,” Arwady said. “We do not see being in schools adding additional significant risk.”

The district saw cases peak with 1,688 students and 1,117 staff test positive the week starting Jan. 9, data shows.

Meanwhile, the district increased COVID testing capacity to over 64,400 tests across the district last week, Arwady said.

CPS had a positivity rate of less than a percentage, compared to the city’s 2% positivity rate, according to the latest figures.

Amid the COVID-19 case decline, the district has also seen a decrease in the number of students and staff being quarantined or isolated. On Feb. 13, 155 staff and 2,873 students were isolated, according to the district’s latest figures.

The numbers are a sharp decline after a districtwide peak on Jan. 22, when 968 staff and 22,057 were quarantined, data shows.

The district shortened the quarantine period for unvaccinated close contacts from 10 to five days as of Feb. 1.

While vaccine uptake has increased across all age groups in the city, Arwady expressed concerns about the low vaccination rate among school-age children.

About 49.3% of 5- to 11-year-olds in the city have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, and 38% are fully vaccinated, compared with the national average where 32% of the age group have received one dose, and 24% are fully vaccinated, data shows.

About 80% of 12- to 17-year-olds in the city have received one dose, while 68% are fully vaccinated. Those numbers eclipse national averages where about 67% of the age group have gotten one dose, and 56% are fully vaccinated, according to the latest figures.

But Chicago Public Schools vaccination uptake trails city numbers. About 22% of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated, and about 34% have at least one shot, while about 53% of 12- to 17-year-olds are fully vaccinated and 60% had at least one dose, according to CPS.

Asked about a Chalkbeat report showing that 22% of 5- to 11-year-olds at CPS are fully vaccinated, Arwady declined to comment on the specific numbers. But she acknowledged that Chicago Public Schools vaccination numbers were “lower than the city average.”

Arwady said she was “reasonably pleased” with current uptake, which is similar to national averages.

Still, the health commissioner acknowledged the wide range of vaccine uptake, saying that children at schools with only 20% of the student body fully vaccinated were at higher risk of contracting COVID compared to those at schools where 75% of students or higher were fully vaccinated.

Mitigation strategies such as mask-wearing in schools were particularly critical in campuses with low uptake, Arwady added.

The city’s health department, and school officials, will continue to monitor vaccination uptake and work with vaccine ambassadors to increase uptake in schools, Arwady said.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago schools see slowdown in COVID vaccine uptake for 5- to 11-year-olds

2022-02-14T12:00:00+00:00

Three months after Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine received authorization for 5- to 11-year-olds, vaccine uptake in the age group has seen marginal movement with less than a quarter of Chicago Public Schools students fully vaccinated.

While Chicago Public Schools pediatric vaccination rates surpass national numbers, the gradual uptake locally — with rates especially lagging in schools on Chicago’s South and West Side — is a point of concern for local health officials. They have stressed that schools should be the centerpiece of any strategy to boost rates — and are trying to learn from schools that have launched dedicated campaigns or hosted forums for parents.

Educating families on the vaccine is key to combating misinformation and increasing uptake, said David Valero, a pediatrician with Esperanza Health Centers, which serves neighborhoods on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

“Parents need information,” Valero said.

About 22% of all 5- to 11-year-olds in the district have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 34% have received at least one dose, but uptake varies widely by neighborhood. The district rates also fall below citywide numbers, where 37% of all 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated and 49% have received at least one dose, according to district and state figures.

Across the district, CPS saw an average increase of 11% in fully vaccinated 5- to 11-year-old students at elementary schools from Dec. 1 to Jan. 18, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat through a records request.

Nationally, about 18% of 5- to 11-year-olds are fully vaccinated and about 27% have received one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention.

After initial high demand, vaccine uptake among 5- to 11-year-olds has declined significantly since November, according to an analysis of CDC data by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The low vaccination rate among that age group leaves an uncertain path for the remainder of a school year already disrupted by delta and omicron surges, which have forced some districts to quarantine thousands of students or temporarily flip whole schools from in-person to remote learning.

The vaccination slowdown also comes as some school districts have started rolling back safety measures such as masks in the classroom.

Some districts, including New Orleans, have implemented a vaccine mandate for children 5 and up, and the Detroit Public Schools Community District will allow school nurses to begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine to students with parental or guardian consent. But other districts have avoided the politically fraught discourse around a vaccine mandate.

After initial high demand, vaccine uptake among 5- to 11-year-olds has declined significantly since November, according to an analysis of CDC data by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Since July, CPS has partnered with the city’s Department of Public Health, Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote vaccines. The district has opened four regional vaccine hubs, hosted 600 vaccination mobile clinics and events, and canceled a day of classes to hold a Vaccine Awareness Day after the pediatric vaccine was approved to encourage families to get their 5- to 11-year-olds inoculated against COVID-19.

The district continues to host vaccination events and has provided more than 16,700 patient vaccines through its efforts.

In an email statement, Chicago Public Schools said it would “continue to explore ways to improve access to vaccination and encourage parents to pursue this safe and effective protection.”

Still, these efforts have been marginal in moving the needle, especially at schools on the South and West Side. Data obtained by Chalkbeat through multiple records requests show rates varying widely across the city.

Elementary schools on the North Side in North Center, North Park, Lakeview had the highest average vaccination rates, with at least 60% of their student body fully vaccinated across each neighborhood. In North Center, Coonley Elementary School had 80% of its students fully vaccinated as of Jan. 18 — the highest in the district.

Schools in these neighborhoods also saw the largest rate increase of at least 21% between Dec. 1 and Jan. 18, data shows.

By contrast, elementary schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods including Greater Grand Crossing, East Garfield Park, Englewood, North Lawndale, and Austin had the lowest average vaccination rates with less than 15% of students fully vaccinated. At Charles S. Brownell Elementary in Greater Grand Crossing, less than 1% of students were fully vaccinated as of Jan. 18.

As of Jan. 18, some elementary schools in the neighborhoods had less than 8% of students fully vaccinated. Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 18, these neighborhoods also saw the lowest vaccine uptake with less than a 5% increase in fully vaccinated students, data shows.

Those disparities hold consistent at the high school level where most students have been eligible for the vaccine since last summer. Majority Black high schools had an average vaccination rate of 28%, according to previous reporting from Chalkbeat.

Despite a stagnation in uptake districtwide for 5- to 11-year-old students, there were some bright spots.

Bronzeville Classical Elementary School saw fully vaccinated students increase from less than 1% to 41% from December to January, data shows.

In an email statement, Bronzeville Classical Elementary School principal Nicole Spicer said the school did “what many other CPS schools have done when trying to engage families and improve vaccination rates.”

Since the availability of the pediatric vaccine, Bronzeville Classical, a selective enrollment school in the South Side, has hosted on-site vaccination events and town hall meetings with families to discuss COVID-19 and vaccinations. It also included messaging about testing and vaccination when calling parents about school sports or after-school programs.

“We leaned on our school community, and they responded with positive results,” Spicer said.

Mark Sheridan Math and Science Academy, a magnet school in Bridgeport, saw the number of fully vaccinated students increase from 15% to 50% between December to January. As of Thursday, the school had 62.88% of students fully vaccinated and 73% with at least one dose, principal John O’Connell said.

The principal credited a district-created resource list of vaccination sites that the school has shared with parents through newsletters, emails, teacher communications, and handouts sent home with students.

“We provided persistent and consistent messaging” around the vaccine on a daily basis, O’Connell said. “I think that messaging is what helped get parents moving,” he added.

Since the vaccine has been made available for the 5-11 age group, some parents have decided to get the vaccine to best protect the health of their children and vulnerable family members, enroll students in sports and other activities, or mitigate any adverse effects in the event children contract the virus, O’Connell said.

Some students also lobbied their parents to let them get vaccinated after a grandparent passed away from the virus, he said.

The school as a whole, O’Connell said, has worked to “meet parents where they are” and engage them with any questions they may have around the vaccine.

While some schools have seen their fully vaccinated rates climb, nearly 300 elementary schools have fewer than 22% of students fully vaccinated with little change between December and January at many South Side schools.

There could be a variety of reasons for the plateau among 5- to 11-year-olds, Esperanza’s Valero said.

Parents of his patients have expressed concerns over the safety of the vaccine for children; others have cited misinformation for reasons why they have yet to get their children vaccinated, Valero said.

One way to help alleviate those fears is by bringing pediatricians to schools, where they can answer questions from parents and children regarding the vaccine, Valero said.

This strategy is being carried out in other cities.

In Philadelphia, school leaders partnered with the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium to help boost vaccination rates among Black and Latino students where rates fall well below city averages. Last month, Dr. Ala Stanford, who has become nationally recognized in her efforts to get Black families vaccinated in Philly, met with students to answer questions and allay fears arounds the vaccine.

Esperanza’s Valero says a city vaccine mandate for certain activities also helps.

Chicago’s vaccine mandate for indoor dining, sports events, and other indoor activities has made a difference in recent months, he said.

Chicago Public Schools has not yet made a decision on a vaccine mandate, but individual school board members have pushed for a conversation on a mandate for the upcoming school year.

During a presentation on COVID safety at a January board meeting, member Elizabeth Todd-Breland said she didn’t foresee beginning the next school year without a vaccine mandate on the table.

CEO Pedro Martinez said he thinks the issue should be handled at the federal level, but agreed on a continued conversation on the topic.

Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership, a nonprofit group promoting and hosting mass vaccination campaigns across the city, has been partnering with trusted community groups and messengers to boost vaccination rates.

Since launching an Education Roundtable last spring with school officials, the mission has evolved from getting school staff vaccinated to now shifting its focus on children, teens and parents, said Scott Thorp, senior project manager at the nonprofit.

The group has discussed inequities and disparities that play out across specific racial and ethnic groups as well as geographic parts of the city.

Thorpe points to the citywide vaccination rate among 12- to 17-year-olds, which stands at 63% – more than double the 29% rate for African American teenagers in the city.

“Those are the things that set off alarm bells for school staff” and community-based organizations reviewing this data, Thorpe said.

“A lot of the places we see numbers like this are places that are traditionally under-resourced,” Thorpe said. “Places that are less likely to have a school-based health clinic, places less likely to have those resources that communities really need to drive up those vaccination rates.”

Hurdles to access such as transportation, convenient vaccination times, and language barriers still remain an issue for many working-class people, Thorpe said.

“The more we can remove those barriers to the broader access issue,” he said, “the more likely it is that people are going to get vaccinated.”

Working with local trusted messengers and community groups to explain muddled messaging around quarantine and breakthrough infections is another way to break past reluctance and skepticism around the vaccine, Thorpe said.

He acknowledged some bright spots where educators, community groups, and health providers have gone “above and beyond,” but said those efforts weren’t happening on a “systems level.”

“If we want to move these numbers,” Thorpe said, “we have to see something much larger and it’s got to be something region-wide that’s going to reach a much larger group of people.”

Chicago Public Schools shortens quarantine to 5 days starting Feb. 1

2022-01-25T22:55:51+00:00

Chicago Public Schools will shorten its quarantine rules for students and staff from 10 days to five days starting Feb. 1.

District CEO Pedro Martinez said Tuesday the district would align its quarantine policy with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in December recommended isolation for five days, followed by strict mask-wearing for five days.

The rules will apply to unvaccinated students who are a close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID or to any students and staff, regardless of vaccination status, who are instructed to quarantine or isolate after testing positive. Any student who tests positive after Feb. 1 will be able to return on the sixth day after symptoms have resolved or if they are asymptomatic, officials said.

Vaccinated students who have been in close contacts with someone who tested positive for COVID but who do not have symptoms do not have to quarantine.

Schools will take extra precautions with masking and social distancing when students return to campus during the subsequent five days, officials said.

Dr. Alison Arwady, the city’s top health commissioner, said anyone who still exhibits symptoms cannot return to school.

When students return, the district will pay extra attention to masking and possibly limit extracurriculars during days 6-10, Arwady said.

Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said additional guidance would be shared with families before the policy is implemented.

Following changes to federal guidelines in December, school districts across the country have been wrestling with the question of how long to quarantine students. Other schools nationwide have already adopted a five-day quarantine.

The Illinois State Board of Education last week aligned its quarantine guidance for unvaccinated students with the CDC, shortening isolation from 10 to five days as of Jan. 11.

In October, Chicago schools previously shortened its quarantine rules from 14 to 10 days for unvaccinated students.

The district currently requires unvaccinated students to quarantine for 10 days after known exposure to someone who is positive for COVID, such as a teacher or classmate. Other situations can trigger quarantines, such as travel on Chicago’s travel advisory.

Last week, Chicago Public Schools recorded a total of 2,278 student cases and 670 staff cases. As of Jan. 24, 19,414 students and 809 staff members were in quarantine, data shows.

Across the district, 53% of 12- to 17-year-old students are fully vaccinated, compared with 33.52% of 5- to 11-year-old students who have received one dose, officials said.

About 115,582 students are fully vaccinated and 148,066 students have at least one dose, officials said.

The district is continuing to ramp up testing and gathering consent for school-based COVID-testing, with a focus on schools that have yet to reach a 10 % percent threshold of unvaccinated students. CPS has received consent for more than 87,000 students to date, Martinez said.

District data shows a 2.5% positivity from the 53,407 tests administered between Jan. 16 and Jan. 22, data shows.

Chicago faces an imminent deadline to sign up more students for COVID testing

2022-01-25T00:45:28+00:00

Facing a Feb. 1 deadline for full participation in its COVID surveillance testing program, Chicago Public Schools is allowing educators to get verbal consent from parents and is working with partner organizations to help with translation assistance to boost opt-in rates.

The district is trying to hit the reset button on a fumbled COVID testing rollout that, in part, contributed to a weeklong impasse with its teachers union. Per the agreement reached with the union, the district and its teachers are required to work together.

How the departure of the district’s chief medical officer, Kenneth Fox, will impact the testing push is not yet clear. Fox will retire effective February, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

As of Friday, the district had 83,000 students signed up for testing, which is just under a third of the students in its district-run schools. That’s more than double the number of students it had signed up in December, but significantly short of its goal of getting 100% of students signed up for school-based COVID testing.

CEO Pedro Martinez last week said the district continued to work to ramp up its testing consent and capacity to ensure campus safety. The district hit a milestone by carrying out 17,000 tests in one day and 36,000 tests during a span of three days, Martinez said.

Opt-in rates for school-based testing vary widely by school, with some South and West Side campuses having fewer than five students opting in. At more than 200 schools, the opt-in COVID testing rates fall short of the district’s previous 10% threshold among students opting in for testing. At 70 schools, 10 or fewer students are enrolled in the school-based testing program, according to Chalkbeat analysis of data obtained through a public records request. Parents have pointed to a complicated opt-in form, language barriers, and a lack of communication as among the problems with buy-in.

Testing capacity and opt-in rates among students were a point of concern in the negotiations between the district and teachers union, and in the coming weeks will be a focus as the district seeks to fix the flaws in the testing program, boost sign-ups among reluctant parents, and deliver more tests throughout the district.

The new agreement between Chicago Teachers Union and the district has allowed rank and file members to obtain verbal parental consent, while helping parents circumvent the “obstructive registration process,” said Chris Geovanis, a CTU spokesperson. “We’ve seen the numbers more than double thanks to members’ hard work,” Geovanis said.

Still, Geovanis said much more could be done.

Chicago Public Schools said that, in addition to allowing verbal consent from parents, it is using its Family and Community Engagement department to reach households in areas with highest testing needs. Specialists will continue working with the district to increase outreach, build awareness around the opt-in process, and distribute information around the school-based testing program. Testing consent pages will be translated into Spanish, Chinese, Urdu, Polish, and Arabic, the district said in an email statement.

“Leveraging a network of more than 60 partners, FACE has worked to ensure community leaders are helping encourage families to opt into weekly testing,” the district said in a statement.

The district also will use rapid tests, purchased from the governor’s office, to help reach the district’s goal of testing at least 10% of all consented students at each school. The district shipped rapid tests to schools to help staff test at home. Nurses and other school staff will help administer on-site COVID tests for students.

The district said it spent more than $1.8 million on the additional 350,000 COVID tests.

As Chicago passes omicron peak, CPS looks to shorten quarantine to 5 days

2022-01-19T21:37:39+00:00

As the city passes its omicron peak, Chicago Public Schools is considering a move to shorten its quarantine rules for unvaccinated students from 10 days to five days.

District CEO Pedro Martinez said Wednesday that the district was working to revise changes to quarantine policy to align with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which in December recommended isolation for five days, and wearing a mask for an additional five days when around others.

“By next week, I will be able to give you a very clear timeline,” Martinez said. “Absolutely, we are going to be adopting that, but I want to make sure we do it right.”

The move comes as Chicago restarts school operations after a standoff with its teachers union over safety measures that closed campuses to students for five days. Staffing shortages at schools due to COVID illnesses helped galvanize teachers, who voted to work remotely. The district refused.

Chicago Public Schools is working with the city’s health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady to identify and understand operational logistics and putting a plan in place at schools, Martinez said.

The news comes as the health commissioner announced the city had “formally passed the omicron peak.”

“We are a long way from being out of the woods,” said Arwady, who urged unvaccinated residents to get immunized and for Chicagoans to follow mitigation measures to minimize spread.

Following changes to federal guidelines in December, school districts across the country are wrestling with the question of how long to quarantine students. Philadelphia schools Wednesday adopted a five-day quarantine.

The Illinois State Board of Education last week aligned its quarantine guidance with the CDC, shortening isolation from 10 to five days as of Jan. 11.

In October, Chicago schools previously shortened its quarantine rules from 14 to 10 days for unvaccinated students.

As of Jan. 18, 13,236 students and 1,117 staff members were in quarantine, according to district data.

Across the district, 53% of 12- to 17-year-old students are fully vaccinated, compared with 32.8% of 5- to 11-year-old students who have received one dose, officials said.

About 111,653 are fully vaccinated and 146,524 students have at least one dose, Martinez said.

The district was committed to keeping students safe through its key strategies which includes: expanding testing consent, testing capacity, increasing vaccination, and investing in more PPE, Martinez said.

Before the winter break, the district had received parental consent for 40,000 students, which has now doubled to nearly 83,000, Martinez said.

The vast majority of the consent increase has been unvaccinated students, Martinez added.

The district has been focused on getting consent from schools with low consent rates and high rates of unvaccinated students, Martinez said.

The district, under an agreement with its teachers union, aims to get 100 percent of students consented for testing, with a plan to test at least 10% of each school population.

The district has been working to ramp up testing capacity. The district has reached a sustainable capacity of 10,000 tests per day, but has exceeded that with 17,000 per day on Tuesday alone, Martinez said.

School nurses and other school staffers with COVID-related duties will help support testing staff, Martinez said.

District data shows a 4.3% positivity from the 3,800 tests administered between Jan. 16 and Jan. 18. Last week, the district tested 35,126 students and staff and had a 5.4% positivity rate, data show.

Can Chicago schools get 100% of students signed up for COVID testing?

2022-01-14T23:12:15+00:00

Chicago Public Schools has struggled from the outset to establish an effective school-based COVID testing program — a key component of the district’s strategy to keep campuses open safely and something it promised from the day schools opened last August.

After a fumbled rollout, just 16% of students had signed up for school-based testing as of Dec. 10, according to data Chalkbeat obtained in a records request. The district has not answered questions about whether it would be disclosing more up-to-date testing data.

Now, under a new deal with the teachers union after an impasse delayed the return to school after winter break, the district has an ambitious goal: getting consent to test 100% of students in the next two weeks.

That goal is a critical part of an effort to keep a fragile peace with the union following a standoff that saw the nation’s third largest school district cancel five days of classes after teachers voted to go remote over the district’s COVID mitigation strategies.

Testing capacity and opt-in rates among students were a point of concern in the negotiations and, in the coming weeks, will be a focus as the district seeks to fix the flaws in the testing program, boost sign-ups among reluctant parents, and deliver more tests throughout the district.

The agreement reached by the union and district does not lay out a clear pathway to do that.

But there have already been steps taken to boost testing participation.

At some district schools this week, teachers have been allowed to get verbal consent from parents for testing — an alternative to a series of online forms that some parents said were cumbersome to complete.

The district also confirmed it had received 350,000 rapid test kids from the state and would use them for the remainder of the year. On Thursday, the district emailed parents to promote its testing program, stating that it plans to offer testing to 10% of students at each school and provide additional testing at schools with higher rates of COVID cases.

“The agreement we have reached with the Chicago Teachers’ Union honors our shared commitment to our students, families, communities, and each other,” the district told families in the Thursday letter. “We return to the classroom as one family, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in service of our young people.”

But the district didn’t respond to questions regarding possible changes that would make it simpler to get testing consent from families, how it planned to get 100% student participation in testing without it being a requirement, or how it planned to use the additional 350,000 tests obtained through the governor’s office.

Cooper Dual Language Academy has one of the lowest testing opt-in rates in Chicago at 1.56%.

Flaws in the testing system

Before a return to in-person learning, Chicago Public Schools set out to make testing a centerpiece of the district’s COVID safety strategy. In August, Interim school chief Jose Torres told WTTW the district would be testing all students and staff weekly, noting at the time that “This goes way beyond the CDC recommendation.”

The district has ramped up testing over the last few months, conducting more than 33,300 tests the week before winter break between Dec. 12-18, data shows. Currently, it has the capacity to test about 40,000 students and staff per week.

Months into the school year, local school councils and union leaders raised concerns of insufficient testing supplies and infrequent testing at schools across the district. At some schools, testers wouldn’t show up. But most troubling, schools in neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID were not signing up for surveillance testing, data shows.

As of Dec. 10, about 16% of the district’s 330,000 students — up from 7% in October — had opted into testing across the district, and the rates of testing vary widely by schools. South and West Sides schools with predominantly Black and Latino student populations have among the lowest opt-in rates.

More than 200 schools still had fewer than 10% consented for COVID testing as of Dec. 10, according to the testing data Chalkbeat obtained. About 70 schools have fewer than 10 students enrolled.

That’s compared to 36% in New York City, 74% in Detroit, and 32% in Newark — though an analysis by the Center for Reinventing Public Education shows requiring all students and staff to be tested is rare.

In Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school district, all students and staff members are mandated to test weekly to go to school. The district also required all students and staff to have a negative COVID-test before returning to campuses Tuesday due to the omicron surge.

In Washington, D.C., students and staff were required to present a negative COVID test before returning from winter break.

Amid the latest COVID surge, Detroit is mandating testing for students for in-person, or they’ll be transferred to remote learning beginning Jan. 31. New York officials are considering moving from an opt-in model to an opt-out model, but have yet to make a decision.

Woodlawn Community School has the highest opt-in rate in the district at 89%.

Looking ahead

Under the district’s latest plan with the union, weekly testing will be offered to at least 10% of students randomly selected from the consented student population at each school, and school nurses, school assistants, and other staff will be recruited to help increase testing capacity.

The district aims to reach 100% consent by Feb. 1. through phone banking at schools. Staff will be paid a non-instructional rate of pay for time spent phone banking outside of their regular work day, according to the agreement between CPS and the union.

At Woodlawn Community School on the city’s South Side, more than 89% of students have opted into the testing program — the highest rate across district schools. The school took a hands-on approach by calling, emailing, and meeting parents to get them signed up for testing since children returned to the classroom in the fall.

It’s not clear how the district will deliver on getting all students consented. But on Tuesday, teachers were already working their class registers, they said, calling parents to get verbal consent.

Hilario Dominguez, who teaches students with disabilities at Cooper Dual Language Academy, said he spent his first day back at the Lower West Side school calling parents to increase the overall opt-in rates at the school, which currently sits at about 1.56%.

He discovered his school’s low testing opt-in rates from a Chalkbeat report last week.

“I called parents all day getting students signed up for testing if parents wanted and resources for vaccination,” Dominguez said Tuesday. “Many of my families that I called shared their fear of going in with everything happening.”

Language barriers, lack of promotion, and a cumbersome opt-in process could be contributing to the low number, according to some parents who spoke with Chalkbeat.

In October, parent Sarah Spraker, whose son and daughter attend Ole A. Thorp Elementary Scholastic Academy, told Chalkbeat she nearly missed opting her children in because the email notification came from a laboratory and not the school.

“I don’t feel like CPS has blasted parents enough to sign up for this,” Spraker said. “It takes a lot to get parents’ attention. I think more parents would opt in if there was more communication.”

During dropoff Wednesday morning at Cooper Dual Language Academy in Pilsen, parent Jenny Reyes said she hadn’t even heard about the school-based testing program until she received a phone call from her daughter’s teacher a day earlier.

“I had never received information or I missed the email,” Reyes said.

Parent Marisol de Paz gave consent for her two sons at the Pilsen school after getting notification from a community group a day earlier.

“I think it’s easier for them to do it here weekly,” de Paz said. “At the same time, if I notice any symptoms I get them tested. I’m the most interested in making sure my kids and family are healthy.”

Some parents remain wary about the testing program run by the district. Reyna Garcia reached out to the district to get clarity on the testing program, but received conflicting information.

In those conversations, she decided not to consent to testing. If her son is sick, Garcia said, she just won’t send him to school.

“I don’t see the point of some getting tested and some not,” Garcia said. “What’s the point of him getting picked every week when other kids aren’t going to do it? It doesn’t make sense.”

Chicago faces fourth day of canceled classes. What do both sides want?

2022-01-10T02:38:19+00:00

This is a developing story.

7:40 p.m. Classes officially canceled Monday

Chicago Public Schools has officially canceled classes for a fourth day after negotiations failed to yield a compromise between the district and the teachers union over the weekend.

The school district notified parents Sunday night that classes would be canceled on Monday and asked them not to send children to school unless their school principal notifies families about in-person activities.

In a joint statement, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and district CEO Pedro Martinez announced the cancellation of classes “out of fairness and consideration for parents.”

“Although we have been negotiating hard throughout the day, there has not been sufficient progress for us to predict a return to class tomorrow,” Lightfoot and Martinez said.

The district and union planned to continue negotiations “through the night” and city and CPS officials would provide an update if there is “substantial progress,” the statement reads.

Last Tuesday, union leaders voted not to teach in person until an agreement was reached on COVID safety protocols or the current surge subsides.

Chicago Public Schools and the teachers have been locked in a stalemate on how to reopen campuses for in-person instruction for days.

In an email statement Sunday afternoon, union leaders said they wanted to reassure parents and guardians of Chicago students that they would remain at the bargaining table until an agreement was reached to return to in-person “safely and equitably.”

On Sunday night, a group of parents hosted a Facebook Live conversation with Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, to ask questions about COVID in schools. The parents asked about the unique risks of the omicron variant, safety mitigations on campuses, student vaccination rates versus the general population, and why Arwady does not recommend remote learning.

While school cases go up when community cases do, Arwady said school itself had not been shown to be a major driver for COVID spread. Even though quarantine numbers had surged in December, she said fewer than 5% of children who had been quarantined had tested positive for COVID. She said the health department next week will distribute 1 million additional KN95 masks to the community next week and is in talks with the SHIELD testing program, developed by the University of Illinois, to boost testing capacity at community sites.

After the call with Arwady, several parents said their school communities are divided over the issue, and some are afraid to speak out because they don’t want to be viewed as criticizing their child’s teacher. They expressed frustration that, in three years, three disputes between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union have interrupted the school year.

“It feels like we are caught in the middle of a custody war,” said parent Vanessa Chavez.

3 p.m. Negotiations continue

As negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union continued Sunday, parents and students in the nation’s third largest school district faced the likely reality of starting the week without school.

Classes in the 330,000-student district have been canceled since Wednesday, after union members voted not to teach in person because of concerns over COVID protocols. Many schools have preemptively canceled classes Monday.

What exactly are the points of contention bringing learning to a halt?

The teachers union Saturday detailed its latest proposal calling for remote learning to start Wednesday and a return to in-person learning on Jan. 18. The union reiterated demands for opt-out COVID testing districtwide, and a metric to flip the district to remote learning.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS chief Pedro Martinez, in a joint statement Saturday afternoon, rejected the proposal, stating that students needed to be in school as soon as possible.

“That’s what parents want. That’s what the science supports. We will not relent,” the Saturday statement said.

Union members voted last Tuesday to stop reporting to work in person until the district reaches an agreement with the CTU or the omicron surge subsides.

The mayor and district leaders have criticized the union, calling the action an “illegal work stoppage” that is harming vulnerable students. The union has accused the mayor, and the district, of not doing enough to ensure students and staff safety.

During a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lightfoot said she was doing everything she could to get students back in classes this week. “We can get a deal done if there is good will on both sides,” Lightfoot said.

In the same interview, Lightfoot slammed the teachers union’s action as an “illegal walkout” and said they “abandoned their post and they abandoned their kids and their families.”

Despite dueling press conferences and statements, the union and district have made progress on various safety standards.

As of Sunday afternoon, the district and the union had reached agreement on:

KN95 masks for all students and staff
The reinstatement of health screeners decided on a school-by-school basis
Incentives for substitute teachers
Unpaid leave of absence accommodations for teachers and staff; and school-based contact tracing teams

The district also said Saturday that the governor will sell 350,000 COVID tests to Chicago to boost campus-based testing, something the union has called for.

Amid a new round of negotiations, the union and district have been unable to compromise on the following:

In person learning:

The CTU has proposed that teachers return to schools starting Monday to help distribute electronic devices, and for remote learning to begin Wednesday, Jan. 12. In-person learning would resume on Tuesday, Jan. 18. The district has rejected the proposal and called for in-person learning to start as soon as possible.

District-wide remote learning:

The district has rejected union calls for the entire district to flip to remote learning if the city’s COVID-19 positivity rate increases for seven consecutive days.

School-by-school remote learning:

The district has agreed to set a school-by-school metric for when schools would flip to full remote learning, but the two sides can’t agree on the numbers. The teachers union is calling for specific schools to transition if 25% of employees are absent for two consecutive days with COVID-19 or if 30% of students in an elementary school homeroom are isolated or quarantined. Middle schools and high schools would flip if 25% of students are isolated or quarantined. The district’s earlier proposals called for schools to flip if half of campus enrollment is isolated or quarantined, or if 40% of teachers are out sick.

Testing:

The union has called on the district to switch to opt-out COVID testing that would test 10% of students and staff, while also providing at-home tests to all students exhibiting symptoms. The district agreed to test 10% percent of students, but has rejected opt-out testing saying parental consent is needed for COVID testing. The district has expressed concern about securing tests, which are currently in short supply nationwide.

Make-up days:

The union proposed for instructional days to be made up, with no punishment or loss of pay against members who participated in the work action. The district does not want to pay teachers who have not been reporting to work. Whether or not to provide “back pay” during union actions loomed large in the end of a 2019 strike that suspended school operations in the city, with Chicago ultimately giving in to the demand.

Expedited arbitration:

The union proposal to select an arbitrator within seven days to resolve certain disputes has been rejected by CPS.

Chicago schools COVID vaccination, testing rates vary widely by campus, data shows

2022-01-07T23:01:09+00:00

At Manley Career Academy High School on Chicago’s West Side, only 10% of students are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That’s a sharp contrast with Lane Tech High School on Chicago’s North Side where 83% of students have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Even at the district’s regional vaccination hubs – created to make COVID vaccines more accessible to students — rates swing widely from 56% at Theodore Roosevelt High School on the Northwest Side to 19.6% at Chicago Vocational Career Academy on the Far South Side

The school-based COVID vaccination data, which reflects fully vaccinated students through Dec. 1, was obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request. It illustrates the vast disparities in vaccination rates within the city and touches on the heart of the debate that has abruptly shuttered Chicago schools this week — that safety measures look vastly different school to school.

Chalkbeat also obtained data through Dec. 10 showing wide variances among campuses for school-based COVID testing enrollment, which sits at 16% across city schools.

Here are several takeaways from Chalkbeat’s analysis of Chicago’s school-based vaccination and testing data:

Majority Black high schools had an average vaccination rate of 28%, compared to majority Latino high schools, which averaged 57%.
Opt-in rates for school-based testing, like vaccine rates, vary widely by school, with some South and West Side campuses having fewer than five students opting in.
At more than 200 schools, the opt-in COVID testing rates fall short of the city’s 10% threshold goal. At 70 schools, 10 or fewer students are enrolled in the school-based testing program.
Vaccination and opt-in rates don’t always correlate. Some schools with high vaccination rates have lower than average COVID opt-in rates for testing.

School	% enrolled in testing	% vaccinated
ACERO - BRIGHTON PARK	-	16.98%
ACERO - CISNEROS	-	14.56%
ACERO - CLEMENTE	-	11.09%
ACERO - DE LA CRUZ	-	18.64%
ACERO - DE LAS CASAS	-	14.62%
ACERO - FUENTES	-	17.62%
ACERO - GARCIA HS	-	57.62%
ACERO - IDAR	-	15.46%
ACERO - MARQUEZ	-	10.90%
ACERO - PAZ	-	12.25%
ACERO - SANTIAGO	-	13.62%
ACERO - SOTO HS	-	58.44%
ACERO - TAMAYO	-	13.28%
ACERO - TORRES	-	14.59%
ACERO - ZIZUMBO	-	12.17%
ADDAMS	15.10%	14.01%
AHS - PASSAGES	-	10.76%
AIR FORCE HS	6.32%	44.19%
ALBANY PARK	20.25%	-
ALCOTT ES	33.22%	-
ALCOTT HS	14.85%	66.38%
ALDRIDGE	13.36%	-
AMUNDSEN HS	5.50%	75.05%
ARIEL	11.41%	-
ARMOUR	52.34%	13.75%
ARMSTRONG G	6.83%	15.34%
ART IN MOTION	-	26.98%
ASHBURN	15.50%	-
ASHE	2.81%	-
ASPIRA - BUSINESS & FINANCE HS	-	49.15%
ASPIRA - EARLY COLLEGE HS	-	53.23%
ASPIRA - HAUGAN	-	49.59%
AUDUBON	19.80%	-
AUSTIN CCA HS	1.26%	22.93%
AVALON PARK	0.89%	2.26%
AVONDALE-LOGANDALE	9.75%	-
AZUELA	10.06%	19.28%
BACK OF THE YARDS HS	8.24%	68.48%
BARNARD	36.26%	-
BARRY	3.87%	-
BARTON	56.31%	-
BASS	25.59%	-
BATEMAN	20.93%	-
BEARD	8.33%	-
BEASLEY	8.79%	-
BEAUBIEN	12.97%	-
BEETHOVEN	17.69%	-
BEIDLER	0.98%	-
BELDING	18.01%	-
BELL	26.99%	-
BELMONT-CRAGIN	15.42%	-
BENNETT	2.57%	-
BLACK	11.66%	-
BLAINE	17.56%	-
BLAIR	11.47%	-
BOGAN HS	6.94%	32.27%
BOND	8.23%	-
BOONE	27.00%	-
BOUCHET	10.89%	-
BOWEN HS	18.52%	22.56%
BRADWELL	6.92%	-
BRENNEMANN	7.62%	-
BRENTANO	55.90%	-
BRIDGE	11.67%	-
BRIGHT	6.15%	-
BRIGHTON PARK	9.64%	-
BRONZEVILLE CLASSICAL	45.26%	-
BRONZEVILLE HS	42.62%	27.42%
BROOKS HS	19.03%	57.83%
BROWN R	16.03%	-
BROWN W	14.44%	-
BROWNELL	1.19%	-
BRUNSON	17.75%	-
BUDLONG	49.54%	14.89%
BURBANK	5.14%	-
BURKE	5.20%	-
BURLEY	25.43%	17.88%
BURNHAM	20.51%	-
BURNSIDE	3.25%	-
BURR	31.49%	-
BURROUGHS	8.16%	-
BYRNE	2.12%	-
CALDWELL	6.67%	5.45%
CALMECA	3.31%	-
CAMERON	2.83%	9.15%
CAMRAS	30.61%	15.79%
CANTY	6.98%	-
CARDENAS	33.72%	14.96%
CARNEGIE	60.40%	-
CARROLL	1.56%	-
CARSON	2.05%	14.83%
CARTER	6.88%	-
CARVER G	0.23%	-
CARVER MILITARY HS	24.38%	42.26%
CASALS	45.61%	-
CASSELL	6.09%	12.71%
CATALYST - CIRCLE ROCK	-	7.69%
CATALYST - MARIA	-	13.26%
CATALYST - MARIA (HS)	-	49.18%
CATHER	6.57%	-
CHALMERS	27.57%	3.81%
CHAPPELL	34.91%	15.64%
CHASE	19.29%	-
CHAVEZ	43.00%	15.27%
CHIARTS HS	-	64.07%
CHICAGO ACADEMY ES	14.97%	14.62%
CHICAGO ACADEMY HS	10.85%	65.24%
CHICAGO AGRICULTURE HS	10.44%	58.96%
CHICAGO COLLEGIATE	-	23.99%
CHICAGO EXCEL HS	-	7.66%
CHICAGO MATH & SCIENCE HS	-	56.24%
CHICAGO MILITARY HS	22.95%	45.27%
CHICAGO TECH HS	-	31.19%
CHICAGO VIRTUAL	-	33.33%
CHICAGO VOCATIONAL HS	17.22%	19.69%
Chicago World Language Academy	29.66%	-
CHOPIN	3.13%	-
CHRISTOPHER	0.60%	-
CHRISTOPHER HOUSE	-	9.71%
CICS - AVALON/SOUTH SHORE	-	9.30%
CICS - BASIL	-	5.57%
CICS - BOND	-	0.36%
CICS - BUCKTOWN	-	10.50%
CICS - CHICAGOQUEST HS	-	0.00%
CICS - ELLISON HS	-	23.21%
CICS - IRVING PARK	-	15.09%
CICS - LONGWOOD	-	13.31%
CICS - LOOMIS	-	0.00%
CICS - NORTHTOWN HS	-	63.41%
CICS - PRAIRIE	-	8.27%
CICS - WASHINGTON PARK	-	5.82%
CICS - WEST BELDEN	-	12.25%
CICS - WRIGHTWOOD	-	8.20%
CLAREMONT	25.54%	-
CLARK ES	8.43%	10.78%
CLARK HS	10.13%	27.11%
CLAY	3.30%	-
CLEMENTE HS	7.94%	40.09%
CLEVELAND	6.92%	-
CLINTON	30.47%	13.94%
CLISSOLD	15.17%	-
COLEMON	6.70%	-
COLES	1.64%	-
COLLINS HS	4.38%	23.87%
COLUMBIA EXPLORERS	8.64%	15.01%
COLUMBUS	6.70%	8.37%
COOK	3.02%	-
COONLEY	42.76%	-
COOPER	1.53%	-
CORKERY	4.82%	11.86%
CORLISS HS	21.00%	22.76%
COURTENAY	15.38%	-
CRANE MEDICAL HS	9.11%	38.82%
CROWN	7.09%	-
CUFFE	47.11%	-
CULLEN	17.51%	-
CURIE HS	5.23%	62.17%
CURTIS	0.51%	4.85%
DALEY	4.12%	-
DARWIN	13.27%	-
DAVIS M	29.61%	10.71%
DAVIS N	16.48%	-
DAWES	22.20%	-
DE DIEGO	1.94%	-
DECATUR	57.23%	-
DENEEN	23.38%	-
DEPRIEST	14.01%	-
DETT	12.85%	-
DEVER	4.13%	-
DEVRY HS	18.52%	64.56%
DEWEY	14.48%	-
DIRKSEN	7.08%	-
DISNEY	8.25%	-
DISNEY II ES	14.73%	1.75%
DISNEY II HS	10.20%	67.49%
DIXON	5.19%	-
DOOLITTLE	15.23%	-
DORE	11.54%	-
DOUGLASS HS	4.55%	20.93%
DRAKE	59.79%	-
DRUMMOND	50.32%	-
DUBOIS	9.60%	-
DULLES	13.45%	1.80%
DUNBAR HS	2.03%	20.55%
DUNNE	-	-
DURKIN PARK	13.70%	-
DVORAK	0.31%	-
DYETT ARTS HS	34.82%	33.27%
EARHART	4.81%	-
EARLE	44.98%	-
EBERHART	3.74%	-
EBINGER	39.97%	13.53%
EDGEBROOK	37.09%	-
EDISON	66.02%	-
EDISON PARK	14.84%	-
EDWARDS	3.31%	-
ELLINGTON	9.05%	-
ENGLEWOOD STEM HS	4.10%	21.82%
EPIC HS	-	30.89%
ERICSON	5.43%	-
ERIE	-	9.65%
ESMOND	16.42%	-
EVERETT	2.88%	0.00%
EVERGREEN	7.46%	-
EVERS	15.49%	-
EXCEL ENGLEWOOD HS	-	6.46%
EXCEL SOUTH SHORE HS	-	13.90%
EXCEL SOUTHWEST HS	-	12.37%
FAIRFIELD	16.44%	-
FALCONER	1.78%	-
FARADAY	13.04%	-
FARNSWORTH	11.90%	-
FARRAGUT HS	4.74%	45.06%
FENGER HS	32.79%	13.15%
FERNWOOD	1.34%	-
FIELD	2.86%	-
FINKL	8.56%	-
FISKE	6.20%	-
FOREMAN HS	7.03%	44.25%
FORT DEARBORN	1.73%	-
FOSTER PARK	2.50%	-
FRANKLIN	40.28%	-
FRAZIER CHARTER	-	0.00%
FRAZIER PROSPECTIVE	11.59%	13.75%
FULLER	11.50%	-
FULTON	0.92%	-
FUNSTON	1.49%	-
GAGE PARK HS	59.47%	38.61%
GALE	14.80%	-
GALILEO	31.32%	-
GALLISTEL	1.84%	-
GARVEY	17.51%	-
GARVY	19.12%	-
GARY	3.34%	-
GILLESPIE	9.73%	-
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP	-	13.06%
GOETHE	32.88%	-
GOODE HS	15.17%	54.26%
GOUDY	38.67%	12.78%
GRAHAM ES	7.51%	-
GRAHAM HS	32.68%	60.93%
GRAY	50.50%	-
GREAT LAKES	-	4.36%
GREELEY	6.18%	-
GREEN	5.83%	-
GREENE	5.48%	-
GREGORY	1.76%	-
GRESHAM	11.29%	-
GRIMES	4.58%	-
GRISSOM	5.76%	-
GUNSAULUS	36.98%	16.77%
HAINES	10.23%	-
HALE	19.10%	-
HALEY	18.08%	-
HAMILTON	41.65%	-
HAMLINE	4.13%	-
HAMMOND	9.52%	-
HAMPTON	5.77%	-
HANCOCK HS	11.29%	80.00%
HANSON PARK	1.36%	-
HARLAN HS	9.22%	13.95%
HARTE	6.34%	-
HARVARD	6.37%	-
HAUGAN	13.85%	12.44%
HAWTHORNE	24.65%	-
HAY	4.10%	-
HAYT	12.53%	-
HEALY	20.49%	-
HEARST	2.60%	-
HEDGES	12.78%	-
HEFFERAN	5.36%	-
HENDERSON	8.51%	-
HENDRICKS	4.62%	-
HENRY	14.03%	-
HERNANDEZ	22.25%	41.69%
HERZL	15.31%	-
HIBBARD	13.88%	-
HIGGINS	9.96%	-
HIRSCH HS	50.00%	11.63%
HITCH	21.84%	-
HOLDEN	7.77%	14.73%
HOLMES	1.56%	-
HOPE LEARNING ACADEMY	-	0.00%
HORIZON - SOUTHWEST	-	21.02%
HOWE	0.51%	3.50%
HOYNE	-	-
HUBBARD HS	9.88%	57.60%
HUGHES C	-	-
HUGHES L	12.36%	-
HURLEY	23.22%	-
HYDE PARK HS	41.01%	21.87%
INFINITY HS	15.96%	68.42%
INSTITUTO - HEALTH	-	54.33%
INSTITUTO - JUSTICE HS	-	31.62%
INTER-AMERICAN	33.77%	-
INTRINSIC HS	-	55.76%
IRVING	34.01%	-
JACKSON M	2.37%	-
JAHN	18.97%	-
JAMIESON	20.74%	-
JEFFERSON HS	-	20.57%
JENSEN	14.00%	-
JOHNSON	8.30%	7.97%
JONES HS	23.37%	80.79%
JOPLIN	1.58%	-
JORDAN	30.89%	-
JUAREZ HS	3.23%	64.73%
JULIAN HS	18.37%	25.38%
JUNGMAN	10.53%	10.60%
KANOON	3.42%	-
KELLER	43.40%	-
KELLMAN	8.92%	-
KELLOGG	26.98%	-
KELLY HS	7.49%	62.40%
KELVYN PARK HS	4.09%	45.14%
KENNEDY HS	8.66%	55.87%
KENWOOD HS	9.86%	51.88%
KERSHAW	9.31%	-
KILMER	20.67%	-
KING ES	5.71%	-
KING HS	24.76%	38.98%
KINZIE	7.49%	13.56%
KIPLING	9.64%	13.04%
KIPP - ACADEMY	-	8.77%
KIPP - ASCEND	-	4.78%
KIPP - BLOOM	-	7.22%
KIPP - ONE	-	8.60%
KOZMINSKI	36.40%	-
LAKE VIEW HS	4.02%	63.90%
LANE TECH HS	15.41%	83.18%
LANGFORD	1.72%	-
LARA	3.09%	12.09%
LASALLE	35.18%	-
LASALLE II	47.41%	16.03%
LAVIZZO	1.51%	-
LAWNDALE	0.93%	-
LEARN - 7	-	0.00%
LEARN - BUTLER	-	6.82%
LEARN - CAMPBELL	-	0.27%
LEARN - EXCEL	-	0.00%
LEARN - MIDDLE	-	22.32%
LEARN - PERKINS	-	7.78%
LEARN - SOUTH CHICAGO	-	7.16%
LEE	7.67%	14.42%
LEGACY	-	6.40%
LEGAL PREP HS	-	30.16%
LELAND	14.52%	-
LENART	55.00%	11.24%
LEWIS	9.48%	-
LIBBY	2.11%	-
LINCOLN	18.47%	-
LINCOLN PARK HS	7.50%	74.55%
LINDBLOM HS	28.60%	66.76%
LITTLE BLACK PEARL HS	-	30.48%
LITTLE VILLAGE	18.63%	18.93%
LLOYD	2.06%	0.00%
LOCKE A	-	7.14%
LOCKE J	3.91%	-
LORCA	7.83%	14.79%
LOVETT	18.63%	-
LOWELL	2.57%	-
LOZANO	10.92%	-
LYON	21.00%	-
MADERO	2.64%	-
MADISON	83.51%	-
MANIERRE	1.88%	-
MANLEY HS	34.38%	10.39%
MANN	4.44%	-
MARINE LEADERSHIP AT AMES HS	11.15%	66.58%
MARQUETTE	4.18%	-
MARSH	9.41%	12.52%
MARSHALL HS	19.25%	14.02%
MASON	2.61%	-
MATHER HS	5.57%	63.61%
MAYER	26.05%	-
MAYS	19.46%	-
MCAULIFFE	36.43%	-
MCCLELLAN	8.22%	-
MCCORMICK	0.21%	-
MCCUTCHEON	19.74%	-
MCDADE	20.31%	-
MCDOWELL	8.77%	0.00%
MCKAY	3.38%	-
MCNAIR	10.56%	-
MCPHERSON	18.46%	-
MELODY	10.32%	-
METCALFE	8.38%	-
MIRELES	9.27%	-
MITCHELL	45.97%	16.62%
MOLLISON	3.36%	-
MONROE	20.83%	-
MONTESSORI ENGLEWOOD	-	3.45%
MOOS	13.16%	-
MORGAN PARK HS	12.04%	34.98%
MORRILL	5.41%	-
MORTON	3.87%	5.33%
MOUNT GREENWOOD	1.83%	10.25%
MOUNT VERNON	50.00%	-
MOVING EVEREST	-	3.03%
MOZART	42.50%	-
MULTICULTURAL ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	12.02%	48.35%
MURPHY	14.35%	-
MURRAY	22.93%	-
NAMASTE	-	12.24%
NASH	28.51%	-
NATIONAL TEACHERS	21.32%	6.03%
NEIL	14.77%	-
NETTELHORST	22.52%	-
NEW FIELD	36.21%	-
NEW SULLIVAN	11.60%	-
NEWBERRY	10.88%	-
NICHOLSON	39.73%	-
NIGHTINGALE	27.70%	-
NINOS HEROES	2.15%	-
NIXON	20.24%	-
NLCP - CHRISTIANA HS	-	15.18%
NLCP - COLLINS HS	-	17.47%
NOBEL	5.80%	15.48%
NOBLE - ACADEMY HS	-	50.71%
NOBLE - BAKER HS	-	31.71%
NOBLE - BULLS HS	-	46.91%
NOBLE - BUTLER HS	-	27.95%
NOBLE - COMER	-	34.30%
NOBLE - DRW HS	-	24.27%
NOBLE - GOLDER HS	-	57.86%
NOBLE - HANSBERRY HS	-	36.80%
NOBLE - ITW SPEER HS	-	56.35%
NOBLE - JOHNSON HS	-	23.58%
NOBLE - MANSUETO HS	-	62.26%
NOBLE - MUCHIN HS	-	56.12%
NOBLE - NOBLE HS	-	61.02%
NOBLE - PRITZKER HS	-	57.95%
NOBLE - RAUNER HS	-	54.43%
NOBLE - ROWE CLARK HS	-	29.26%
NOBLE - UIC HS	-	54.28%
NORTH RIVER	21.62%	-
NORTH-GRAND HS	10.30%	58.39%
NORTHSIDE LEARNING HS	9.02%	73.66%
NORTHSIDE PREP HS	8.93%	83.19%
NORTHWEST	8.76%	-
NORWOOD PARK	44.76%	-
OGDEN ES	20.92%	8.29%
OGDEN HS	21.02%	61.11%
OGLESBY	1.84%	-
OKEEFFE	6.11%	3.46%
OMBUDSMAN - NORTHWEST HS	-	38.73%
OMBUDSMAN - ROSELAND HS	-	6.47%
OMBUDSMAN - SOUTH HS	-	21.72%
OMBUDSMAN - WEST HS	-	15.05%
ONAHAN	18.28%	-
ORIOLE PARK	19.81%	-
OROZCO	10.18%	-
ORR HS	1.39%	28.96%
ORTIZ DE DOMINGUEZ	0.51%	0.00%
OTIS	17.15%	-
OTOOLE	0.30%	-
OWEN	22.10%	-
OWENS	4.11%	-
PALMER	23.15%	12.65%
PARK MANOR	51.03%	-
PARKER	13.23%	-
PARKSIDE	14.11%	-
PASTEUR	3.63%	-
PATHWAYS - ASHBURN HS	-	22.52%
PATHWAYS - AVONDALE HS	-	41.50%
PATHWAYS - BRIGHTON PARK HS	-	40.95%
PATHWAYS - HUMBOLDT PARK HS	-	30.58%
PAYTON HS	11.23%	79.78%
PEACE AND EDUCATION HS	9.09%	42.50%
PECK	1.37%	0.00%
PEIRCE	28.28%	16.58%
PENN	3.62%	-
PEREZ	16.38%	-
PERSHING	11.75%	-
PERSPECTIVES - JOSLIN HS	-	23.18%
PERSPECTIVES - LEADERSHIP HS	-	23.90%
PERSPECTIVES - MATH & SCI HS	-	22.19%
PERSPECTIVES - TECH HS	-	28.89%
PETERSON	26.13%	-
PHILLIPS HS	12.21%	15.99%
PHOENIX MILITARY HS	11.93%	58.56%
PICCOLO	11.17%	-
PICKARD	8.49%	-
PILSEN	3.49%	-
PIRIE	13.57%	-
PLAMONDON	4.10%	15.83%
PLATO	-	6.06%
POE	57.64%	-
POLARIS	-	5.49%
PORTAGE PARK	14.99%	-
POWELL	5.41%	-
PRESCOTT	23.37%	-
PRIETO	8.50%	-
PRITZKER	40.61%	-
PROSSER HS	8.98%	64.32%
PROVIDENCE ENGLEWOOD	-	6.28%
PRUSSING	11.68%	-
PULASKI	36.66%	-
PULLMAN	25.67%	-
RABY HS	27.27%	22.84%
RANDOLPH	5.08%	-
RAVENSWOOD	26.16%	-
RAY	33.04%	-
REAVIS	1.07%	-
REILLY	2.80%	-
REINBERG	6.77%	-
REVERE	48.40%	-
RICHARDS HS	12.81%	39.08%
RICHARDSON	3.68%	-
RICKOVER MILITARY HS	19.51%	73.73%
ROBINSON	5.66%	-
ROGERS	9.67%	16.18%
ROOSEVELT HS	2.18%	56.32%
ROWE	-	11.85%
RUDOLPH	13.40%	-
RUGGLES	5.45%	-
RUIZ	5.82%	-
RYDER	13.46%	-
SABIN	20.86%	-
SADLOWSKI	10.74%	-
SAFE ACHIEVE ES	-	0.00%
SAFE ACHIEVE HS	-	20.00%
SALAZAR	8.64%	11.72%
SANDOVAL	1.54%	0.00%
SAUCEDO	11.88%	-
SAUGANASH	23.10%	-
SAWYER	6.80%	-
SAYRE	7.89%	-
SCAMMON	14.85%	-
SCHMID	5.29%	-
SCHUBERT	1.44%	-
SCHURZ HS	9.46%	59.65%
SENN HS	7.81%	66.87%
SEWARD	10.33%	-
SHERIDAN	14.72%	15.02%
SHERMAN	10.31%	-
SHERWOOD	14.57%	3.83%
SHIELDS	1.24%	-
SHIELDS MIDDLE	1.54%	31.25%
SHOESMITH	25.48%	-
SHOOP	10.30%	-
SIMEON HS	7.22%	25.93%
SIMPSON HS	26.09%	14.81%
SKINNER	12.26%	-
SKINNER NORTH	39.55%	-
SMITH	31.77%	-
SMYSER	15.30%	12.06%
SMYTH	6.44%	-
SOCIAL JUSTICE HS	7.57%	62.26%
SOLOMON	11.43%	-
SOLORIO HS	7.99%	67.61%
SOR JUANA	27.76%	-
SOUTH LOOP	22.40%	12.65%
SOUTH SHORE ES	11.79%	-
SOUTH SHORE INTL HS	5.15%	42.99%
SOUTHSIDE HS	1.89%	60.22%
SPENCER	4.16%	-
SPRY ES	34.15%	-
SPRY HS	22.73%	50.00%
STAGG	1.61%	-
STEINMETZ HS	5.49%	51.65%
STEM	38.76%	11.63%
STEVENSON	9.76%	-
STOCK	4.98%	-
STONE	24.27%	-
STOWE	7.35%	-
SUDER	36.24%	-
SULLIVAN HS	18.12%	59.06%
SUMNER	21.10%	-
SUTHERLAND	21.29%	-
SWIFT	10.02%	-
TAFT HS	4.40%	56.77%
TALCOTT	24.32%	-
TALMAN	23.50%	15.92%
TANNER	16.83%	-
TARKINGTON	9.76%	12.58%
TAYLOR	17.19%	-
TELPOCHCALLI	24.60%	-
THOMAS	21.37%	0.00%
THORP J	2.76%	-
THORP O	25.91%	13.26%
TILDEN HS	33.70%	25.79%
TILL	0.64%	-
TILTON	21.34%	-
TONTI	17.29%	-
TUBMAN	26.72%	-
TURNER-DREW	10.95%	9.60%
TWAIN	7.97%	-
U OF C - DONOGHUE	-	0.00%
U OF C - NKO	-	0.00%
U OF C - WOODLAWN HS	-	30.89%
UPLIFT HS	16.28%	46.15%
URBAN PREP - BRONZEVILLE HS	-	32.04%
URBAN PREP - ENGLEWOOD HS	-	25.00%
VANDERPOEL	30.59%	-
VAUGHN HS	21.80%	68.10%
VICK	9.12%	-
VIRTUAL ACADEMY ES	-	5.87%
VIRTUAL ACADEMY HS	-	50.75%
VOLTA	6.70%	-
VON LINNE	26.02%	12.91%
VON STEUBEN HS	16.35%	78.38%
WACKER	19.37%	7.46%
WADSWORTH	20.00%	-
WALSH	8.98%	-
WARD J	18.95%	19.02%
WARD L	8.39%	-
WARREN	8.47%	-
WASHINGTON G ES	6.23%	-
WASHINGTON H ES	19.82%	-
WASHINGTON HS	6.10%	49.45%
WATERS	22.22%	-
WEBSTER	2.25%	-
WELLS ES	19.81%	-
WELLS HS	22.93%	36.48%
WENTWORTH	5.41%	-
WEST PARK	1.02%	-
WEST RIDGE	18.44%	12.74%
WESTCOTT	8.51%	-
WESTINGHOUSE HS	19.80%	61.35%
WHISTLER	2.82%	-
WHITE	61.06%	-
WHITNEY	22.78%	-
WHITTIER	13.48%	-
WILDWOOD	13.54%	-
WILLIAMS HS	38.10%	27.12%
WOODLAWN	87.93%	-
WOODSON	9.03%	-
WORLD LANGUAGE HS	6.58%	62.03%
YATES	10.93%	-
YCCS - ADDAMS	-	27.46%
YCCS - ASPIRA PANTOJA	-	29.93%
YCCS - ASSOCIATION HOUSE	-	18.48%
YCCS - AUSTIN CAREER	-	7.69%
YCCS - CAMPOS	-	33.01%
YCCS - CCA ACADEMY	-	7.07%
YCCS - CHATHAM	-	8.65%
YCCS - INNOVATIONS	-	6.17%
YCCS - LATINO YOUTH	-	48.41%
YCCS - MCKINLEY	-	12.28%
YCCS - OLIVE HARVEY	-	15.71%
YCCS - PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP	-	5.63%
YCCS - SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT	-	9.42%
YCCS - SULLIVAN	-	5.79%
YCCS - TRUMAN	-	32.77%
YCCS - WEST	-	8.51%
YCCS - WEST TOWN	-	20.45%
YCCS - YOUTH CONNECTION	-	9.52%
YCCS - YOUTH DEVELOPMENT	-	9.09%
YORK HS	-	39.23%
YOUNG ES	1.76%	-
YOUNG HS	11.99%	82.44%
ZAPATA	6.14%	18.90%

Vaccination and testing by school

Elementary students were removed because they became eligible for vaccines only weeks before the Dec. 1 data request.

Low vaccination rates among Black and Latino teens, a surging COVID rate due to the omicron variant, and a botched testing regimen are all issues that have galvanized Chicago’s teachers union in the past week. The district’s opt-in testing approach, in particular, has been a key sticking point in an impasse that has shut down classes in the nation’s third largest school district for three days — and possibly for days to come.

The union has asked for a negative COVID PCR test for each student to reopen. Union leaders have also called on the district to automatically enroll students in school-based COVID testing programs, to set a metric for when to close schools in the event of a COVID outbreak, and to allow more teachers with medical conditions the accommodations to work remotely.

The teachers union has also asked for more transparency around opt-in testing and for vaccination rates to be made public.

Districtwide, about 51% of Chicago Public Schools’ 12- to 17-year-old students are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to figures released by CPS Tuesday. Across the city, 73% in that age group are fully vaccinated, but that does not break out teenagers in public schools versus private ones. The national average for 12- to 17-year-olds is 53%, latest figures show.

About 24% of 5- to 11-year-old students in CPS have received at least one dose, compared with 34% of children in that age group across the city, according to figures shared Tuesday. About 12% of 5- to-11-year-olds in the district were fully vaccinated, according to the Tribune.

However, the city and district averages don’t reflect the wide range of vaccination rates revealed by the data obtained by Chalkbeat, which shows that, at some schools, the vast majority of students remain unvaccinated.

Although the city has acknowledged that rates for both testing and COVID vaccinations are lower than they had hoped and pledged to do more, city health officials and schools chief Pedro Martinez have argued that closing school buildings would be a setback for efforts.

“If we go into a week and another week where we have kids out of school for long periods of time, I worry a lot about what happens next,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s public health commissioner, as the threat of a shutdown loomed.

Chicago Public Schools did not respond to questions regarding vaccination and opt-in testing rates across the district.

Chicago schools have been canceled for three days after the teachers union voted not to teach in-person over safety concerns amid the city’s largest COVID-19 surge.

Vaccination rates lag even at some regional ‘hubs’

Chicago public health officials began 2022 touting progress in the city’s child COVID vaccination rate, after a worrying lag in uptake among 12- to 17-year-olds that persisted through most of the fall.

The role schools play in the vaccination strategy has been a key debate in the dispute between district officials and union leaders, with union leaders calling for more school-based sites. Chicago Public Schools offers four regional vaccination hubs with a regular rotating schedule of appointments, and a mobile van that travels to schools. Many schools have also organized single-day mass vaccination events. Those with events on their calendar next week were making pleas for families to still come.

The union has argued that a regular rotation of school-based vaccination sites would offer parents and families access at pickup and drop off — and that should be a priority. District leaders, meanwhile, have expressed frustration at the low uptake at some of its school-based events, saying this summer, low demand was preventing the district from opening more school-based vaccine centers across Chicago and running them for longer hours.

The district needs “the right messengers” to book those slots, officials said.

“We need teachers to tell their students to go get vaccinated. To tell their parents,” interim CEO Jose Torres said in July.

The school-based vaccination data show a wide variance among the four regional schools that consistently offered vaccines on a rotation each week.

Among the four sites — Theodore Roosevelt High School on the city’s Northwest Side, Richards High School in Back of the Yards, Michele Clark High School on the West Side, and Chicago Vocational on the Far South Side — only Roosevelt, where the student body is majority Latino, reported a rate higher than the 56% average for all high schools.

Richards came close, with 39% of students vaccinated, but only 19.6% of Chicago Vocational High School students were fully vaccinated, data shows.

Across all high schools, rates of vaccination vary widely, with schools in neighborhoods on the South Side averaging among the lowest vaccine uptake more than half a year after pediatric vaccines were made available for teenagers.

High schools with more than 50% Black students had an average vaccination rate of 28.09%. Those with fewer than 50% Black students were much higher at 57.62%, according to Chalkbeat’s analysis.

By contrast, high schools with more than 50% Latino students averaged 56.76% vaccinated. Those with less than 50% Latino student population averaged 37.49%, data shows.

The high schools with the highest vaccination rate in the city, Northside College Prep and Lane Tech High, both had an 83% vaccination rate, compared to an average rate of 46% as of Dec. 1, the cutoff date for the data provided through the records request. Both are selective enrollment, or test-in, high schools.

Board certified pediatrician and internal medicine specialist Dr. Beth Van Opstal says there is a need for consistent messaging about the benefits of COVID vaccines and wonders if a coordinated messaging campaign backed by both the union and the district would boost rates among children.

Van Opstal said she was pleased to see the health clinic at her school, National Teachers Academy, offer vaccinations to the students there. Parents could easily stop by with their children — and as quarantine notices began going out, having a vaccinated child meant fewer days at home (Chicago Public Schools requires unvaccinated children to quarantine, but vaccinated children are supposed to be allowed to continue classes).

Chalkbeat did not report rates among elementary students because the data cutoff was only weeks after the federal government approved vaccine use in children ages 5 to 11.

“It’s a clear message that CPS and CTU could have pushed more – if your kid is vaccinated, your kid can stay at school,” she said.

Van Opstal said she’d like to see a joint effort between the school district and teachers union to boost access to families and spread messaging that vaccinated individuals tend to see milder COVID symptoms.

Health officials have said that students are more likely to get vaccinated if their parents are vaccinated. Auburn Gresham, North Lawndale, Austin, Hyde Park, Avalon Park, Washington Heights, West Pullman, South Deering, Garfield Park, Galewood, and Grand Crossing all averaged a vaccination rate lower than 10% among schools there, records show. Those neighborhoods are also in zip codes with some of the lowest adult vaccination rates in the city.

By contrast, schools on the North Side and in and around the Loop had the highest vaccination averages. The high schools in Network 14, which covers the North and Northwest Side, together had the highest averages among high school networks at 60%.

By contrast, schools on the South Side such as Carver Military, Bronzeville HS, Corliss, and Chicago Vocational High School, averaged just under 30%.

University of Chicago medical ethicist Dr. Will Parker, who is an ICU physician, studied COVID vaccine access in Chicago during the first wave of release to adults over 65. His study documented rates of vaccine access and found differences by neighborhood.

In his initial study, vaccine supply was limited. That’s no longer the issue — Chicago has ample supplies of vaccine doses for children between 5 and 17, but some families may experience barriers to access, he said, such as not having a car to drive to the vaccination site or needing to work instead of accompanying a child to an appointment.

“We should be doing more to lower those barriers of access,” he said.

Opt-in rates for school-based COVID testing remain low

Since the outset, the district’s school-based COVID testing — a key component in its strategy for reopening schools safely — has been mired in problems.

It’s been hampered by a lack of communication, language barriers, poor promotion, a lack of testing supplies, and unstable rollout.

CPS, which contracted with Massachusetts-based vendor ThermoFisher to roll out a voluntary testing program that families had to “opt in” to, is far from the only district to have struggled. Nationally, school districts across the country have had to try and build testing programs and expertise, something city and state governments were struggling, and still struggle, to do.

Chicago’s program asked parents to give their consent online through a platform some families found cumbersome. ThermoFisher was supposed to set up testing at least once a week at every school where children would mostly use nasal swabs themselves under supervision.

After promising a testing program would be ready the first week of school, the district experienced multiple delays across several weeks setting up the program, with some schools saying that, even after the rollout was complete, testing vendors didn’t consistently show up. But the biggest challenge was that, three months into reopening schools, fewer than 10% of students had signed up for the district’s school-based COVID testing.

School-level data obtained by Chalkbeat show that, by mid-December, that rate had increased to 16% citywide but some schools still only had a handful of children signed up.

As of Dec. 10, nearly 300 schools — 58% of district-run schools — had hit the 10% threshold. More than 200 schools still had fewer than 10% of students and – even more concerning – about 70 schools had 10 or fewer students signed up. At more than 20 schools, fewer than five students had opted into testing at Little Village, North Lawndale, Englewood, and Austin schools, data shows.

Union leadership has called on the district to shift to opt-out testing, something city officials have rejected. The district previously stated that it was following guidance from the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, Illinois Department of Public Health, and Illinois State Board of Education, which “states that testing should not be conducted without the informed consent of a parent or guardian.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday said they would not conduct “a quasi-medical procedure on children without their parents’ knowledge or consent.”

Since the outset, the district’s school-based COVID testing — a key component in its strategy for reopening schools safely — has been mired in problems.

Testing increase at one school required “all-hands-on-deck”

Still, some schools have managed to buck the low opt-in rate through persistent staff outreach.

One principal at a South Side elementary school, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to speak on the topic, said that boosting her school’s rates required a parent-by-parent approach. “As families began to see test results come back, more signed up.”

At Woodlawn Community School on the city’s South Side, more than 89% of students have opted into the testing program — the highest rate across district schools. Marcia Olivier, a school clerk at Woodlawn Community School, noticed the opt-in link sent to parents early on didn’t yield much buy-in. She said she knew early on they needed to do more.

Olivier sent out the link herself, provided paper copies to teachers to be sent home with students, made calls, and met with parents to assist them with completing the online forms. When some parents expressed concern over the nasal swab tests, Olivier walked them through the testing logistics.

Other parents, she said, were wary of filling out their child’s information online.

With the help from teachers, it was an “all-hands-on-deck” situation to make sure they could get as many students signed up to protect students and staff, Olivier said.

Olivier is still working to hit 100% opt-in rates.

Amid a surge of cases, Olivier said her next goal is to employ the same strategies of speaking directly with parents to get 5- to 11-year-old students vaccinated.

“It’s hard work,” Olivier said, “but everyone has to pull together to get that buy-in.”

CPS chief says schools will reopen as planned Jan. 3 — but more classrooms could go remote

2021-12-21T21:46:49+00:00

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said he expects schools to reopen after winter break but that more classes could go remote amid a surge in COVID due to the omicron variant.

At a Tuesday press conference, Martinez said he didn’t foresee districtwide closure, even as the city announced stricter measures for businesses. Instead, the district expects to shift more classrooms to remote learning on a granular scale going “school by school, class by class,” he said.

Martinez also urged families to return COVID tests sent home with students last week in an effort to mitigate and further spread when classes resume on Jan. 3.

Anticipating a rise in cases, Martinez said the district would take a conservative approach and move more classes to remote learning when cases arise. He didn’t specify what would lead to a school being closed.

CPS said in a statement Monday that in-school transmissions remained low and that the district would double down on mitigation strategies after the winter break.

The omicron surge has prompted teachers union leaders and some teachers to amplify their call for Chicago Public Schools to set a threshold on when to shift an entire school to remote learning. District officials have not agreed to such a threshold this fall.

Martinez, who has been on the job for under three months, said recently that he would reconsider a metric for when to pause schools if cases get too high, but the district has yet to establish one.

The emphasis on returning to school after winter break comes as Chicago faces a surge in coronavirus cases, averaging about 1,776 daily cases — a 79% spike increase from the previous week, according to latest figures from the health department.

The city had more than 2,800 cases diagnosed on Dec. 15, officials said.

As of Friday, the omicron variant accounted for 73% of all confirmed COVID cases across the country, according to data from the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot also announced plans requiring all patrons 5 and up to show vaccination proof to enter restaurants, bars, fitness centers, theaters, or other establishments that serve food or drink starting Jan. 3. Schools are exempt from this order, Lightfoot said.

As the city struggled with the latest surge, CPS acknowledged in a statement the district was also experiencing a surge. “However, we know so much more now about what works than when the first wave began,” the district said in a statement Monday.

The district planned to double down on vaccination, testing, contact tracing, and layered protections including universal masking, social distancing, and strong hand hygiene when classes resume.

Chicago Public Schools has struggled to get students opted into school-based COVID testing.

About 10% of students are enrolled in school COVID testing districtwide. The number of students who have opted in to the testing program varies widely across the district.

More than half of the district schools have less than 10% of students opted-in, with some schools having fewer than five students getting tested, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of data obtained through a records request that showed rates through Nov. 1.

“Despite the city’s surges, and though cases occur among unvaccinated CPS students and staff, the fact of the matter is that in-school transmission of the virus in the district remains low,” the district said in a statement.

Ahead of winter break dismissal, the district distributed about 150,000 take-home COVID test kits to students across 300 schools in hard hit areas.

Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commission, said the city was experiencing the biggest COVID surge since before vaccines were made available. The city is in the midst of a delta and omicron surge, Arwady said.

Arwady previously said she expected a rise in cases at schools and some individual schools may need to go remote, but she didn’t expect that to happen for the entire district.

Amid the latest surge, schools across the country are already adjusting with a few announcing back to remote learning to curb another surge.

Prince George’s County Public School in Maryland moved to remote learning ahead of winter break “in light of a stark rise in COVID-19 cases throughout our school system,” officials announced. The district would stay remote until Jan. 18.

In at least three New York City schools, administrators decided to switch to remote learning after a dozen people at each school tested positive. In the face of an upswing in cases, some Newark classrooms and grades moved to remote learning and will potentially stay remote when students return in January.

The uncertainty around the omicron variant and the rapid surge in cases has forced some universities to remote instruction for at least two weeks when classes resume in January. DePaul University made the announcement in early December, followed by Stanford and Harvard. Northwestern and the University of Illinois at Chicago made similar announcements on Tuesday. Officials at other universities including Penn State, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Southern California are also mulling over an online start for next semester.

While officials have said in school transmissions remain low, Chicago Public Schools has seen an uptick in cases in recent weeks. Following Thanksgiving, 1,759 students and 647 staffers tested positive for COVID from Nov. 28 to Dec. 15, according to city data.

The number of students being quarantined has also seen a significant increase.

The district quarantined 10,000 students on Dec. 9, up from 4,655 students on Dec. 4, data shows.

The district’s reluctance to set a citywide threshold for closures could end up pushing more tough decisions down to some campuses — and, in some cases, to teachers. In December, teachers at a South Side school pivoted to remote instruction without official district permission following the death of a special education assistant and a surge in COVID cases at the school.

Following the walkout at Carnegie Elementary in earlier this month, district officials agreed to provide additional resources including more custodial help, vaccination events, and more testing at the school.

5 things we’ve learned about COVID in Chicago schools

2021-12-16T00:26:32+00:00

From staffing shortages to stumbles with school-based COVID testing, Chicago Public Schools has faced a number of challenges as it reopened campuses this fall.

The city’s board of education heard a rundown of the district’s safety efforts — including successes and where improvements still need to be made — on Wednesday in its last meeting of 2021. The numbers provide an overview of the district’s COVID response at the traditional midpoint of the academic year, as students and teachers prepare to go on winter break.

District officials have managed to avoid large-scale school closures as students returned to in-person learning. Still, critics have questioned the district’s mitigation efforts, including its school-based testing opt-in rates as well as contact tracing.

Here are five things we’ve learned about Chicago’s efforts so far:

School-based transmission remains low.

Since schools reopened in the fall, the district’s contact tracers have confirmed nearly 6,000 COVID cases among students and staff, officials said during Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting.

There have been 4,550 confirmed cases among students and 1,397 cases among staffers between Aug. 29-Dec. 11, CPS chief health officer Dr. Kenneth Fox told board members.

With only 6,000 cases in a school district of about 341,000 students, Fox said in-school transmissions remained “extremely low.”

The positivity rate remains below 1%, Fox added.

School district caseloads have largely followed the rise and fall of the city’s positivity rate.

With the city averaging about 929 daily COVID cases, Fox acknowledged Chicago was in a “wicked post-Thanksgiving COVID surge.”

“When cases surge in the city, so do they surge in the district,” Fox said.

Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting — and the district’s winter break — district officials announced plans to distribute 150,000 COVID-home tests to students at 300 schools hardest hit by the pandemic.

Martinez said the district is trying to stave off a post-holiday surge with home test kits.

“We know that families will be gathering for the holidays, so we are providing these tests to our students who may be at most risk so we can reduce the spread of COVID and protect our school communities,” Martinez said.

Chicago Teachers Union Jesse Sharkey called it a “wise move” and suggested the district take more similar actions. Sharkey also called on district officials to set clear guidelines moving forward to ensure students and staff safety and avoid an uncertain winter like last year.

Board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland suggested district officials use the take-home testing as an opportunity to promote the district’s in-school testing to drive up opt-in rates.

Chicago has tested 400,000 students. The union says it should have done much more.

So far this year, Chicago Public Schools has conducted 400,000 COVID tests districtwide. More than half of the surveillance tests, about 263,000, have been conducted since September, Fox said.

At the start of the school year, the district struggled to implement testing at every school. For months, the district worked to ramp up testing capacity to about 40,000 tests per week, CEO Pedro Martinez said.

Still, the district has a low percentage of about 10% of students enrolled in school COVID testing districtwide. The number of students who have opted in to the testing program varies widely across the district.

Union leaders have lobbied for district officials to move to an opt-in model to ensure the safety of students and staff members inside Chicago schools.

Fox and other district officials have repeatedly said that consent is needed for testing.

Contact tracing remains slow, despite pledges to speed it up.

During public comment at Wednesday’s school board meeting, a handful of speakers raised concerns about the district’s contact tracing programs.

One parent said she wasn’t notified about a positive case at her children’s school until nine days later. Another speaker at a different school said it took the district 11 days to notify the school community about a positive case there.

In responding to questions from board members, Dr. Fox said the district’s contact tracers were working hard and notifying parents. Contact tracers were working closely with principals to notify people “promptly,” Fox said.

The district’s efforts are now more streamlined with contact tracers closing about 1,000 cases per week, Fox said.

Still, he acknowledged that there are mistakes and delays that occur. He said they are working to address those as they arise.

CEO Martinez said any close contacts are notified immediately, but larger communication to the rest of the school takes more time.

Quarantines have complicated the return to learning — and that’s something Martinez plans to address.

In recent weeks, the number of students being quarantined has increased significantly. As of Monday, 363 staffers and 9,039 students were quarantined, according to the district’s latest figures.

Over the last 10 days, the number of students quarantined has doubled. On Dec. 4, 4,655 students were quarantined and that number peaked at 10,000 on Dec. 9 and 10, according to the district’s data.

Fox urged families to get eligible children 5 and up vaccinated to curb the number of students being quarantined. Vaccinated students do not have to quarantine unless they have symptoms, Fox said.

Amid the current COVID surge, CEO Martinez said the district was taking extra precautions and would rather over-quarantine “out of concern to minimize any kind of spread.”

Fox said the district aimed to minimize quarantine but remained “laser-focused” on avoiding in-school transmission.

Chicago Public Schools has been trying to curb the number of students being quarantined through surveillance testing. Last month, the school district rolled out a test-to-stay pilot program at one school.

Martinez said he was committed to the test-to-stay pilot. “My goal is to ramp up capacity after the surges so we can minimize quarantine,” he said.

Until the district sees a “significant increase” in vaccination, the CEO said, “we have to be more on the cautious side.”

Chicago schools sending 150,000 at-home COVID tests to students

2021-12-14T21:16:28+00:00

Chicago Public Schools will send about 150,000 at-home COVID tests to students at more than 300 schools hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

District officials announced plans to send the test kits out ahead of the winter break so families can test students before returning to campus in January. Instructions will accompany the COVID tests, officials said in a news release.

Families are being asked to test on Tuesday, Dec. 28 and drop samples off to a nearest FedEx box on the same day.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez attributed current COVID cases in schools to social events outside of schools.

The announcement comes amid a surge in quarantines across the district.

As of Monday, 363 staffers and 9,039 students were quarantined, according to the district’s latest figures.

Chicago Public Schools has been trying to curb the number of students being quarantined. Last month, the school district rolled out a test-to-stay pilot program at one school.

Chicago’s pilot is in line with guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education, which earlier this fall issued a “Test-to-Stay” protocol that gives districts some flexibility to relax quarantine rules when thorough testing programs are in place. Under the policy, students in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 can return to campus without a quarantine period if they are tested regularly and present a negative test before returning to school and adhere to rules around mask wearing and social distancing.

Under the state guidance updated in September, vaccinated students should be tested by districts on days one, three, five, and seven following exposure to stay in classes.

Chicago Public Schools has struggled to get students opted into school-based COVID testing.

The majority of Chicago schools have fewer than 10% of students signed up for the district’s school-based COVID testing. Most of these campuses are on the South and West Sides that are also among the hardest hit by the ongoing pandemic.

The distribution of home testing kits is part of the district’s plan to provide testing to neighborhoods designated high-risk, district officials said in its statement.

The district is encouraging families that are not provided a test to be tested over the winter break. Here is a link to COVID testing events.

Amid the surge, school officials have urged families to get their students vaccinated and tested before returning to school after winter break.

“We know that by taking these critical steps, our students will stay healthy and safe and be ready to learn in January,” CPS Chief Health Officer Dr. Kenneth L. Fox said in a statement.

Chicago Public Schools agrees to more protections at South Side elementary after teachers go remote

2021-12-10T20:03:34+00:00

Chicago Public Schools agreed to hire more custodians, increase school surveillance testing, and set up a campus vaccine clinic at a South Side elementary school after teachers moved to remote learning following a colleague’s death from COVID.

In an effort to call attention to COVID cases at Carnegie Elementary School, teachers taught remotely for two days without permission. They returned to the campus Friday morning.

In a letter released Friday by the teachers union, the school district’s chief labor relations officer, Kaitlyn Girard, said that CPS agreed to offer more testing, provide home testing kits to unvaccinated students, and host a vaccination clinic on Monday at the South Side school.

The district also said it planned to hire more janitorial support and provide additional cleaning resources.

How the teachers’ refusal to teach in person at one school — and the district’s stepped-up response — could affect broader efforts around testing, vaccination, and cleaning remain to be seen.

“This week, Carnegie showed our union and our city what real sacrifice looks like, and that leadership will inspire more schools to stand just as strong for the safety of their students and colleagues,” teachers union President Jesse Sharkey said.

At Carnegie Elementary, where staff and students are mourning the death of jonL Bush, a special education assistant, quarantine numbers have increased from five on Nov. 27 to 113 as of Dec. 5, city data show. The school has recorded 29 COVID cases since the start of the school year, with 20 of those since Nov. 22, according to data from Chicago Public Schools.

In a statement Friday, Chicago Public Schools offered its condolences to Bush’s family, friends and colleagues, calling the educator a “valued colleague” of the Carnegie community.

“This employee’s death late last month has shocked and grieved us all,” the district said.

Since the outset of school reopening, union leaders have called on the district to come up with a metric for when to shut down a school if there is an outbreak. In October, Illinois State Board of Education defined a school outbreak as multiple cases comprising at least 10% of students, teachers or staff within a core group.

Chicago Public Schools spokesperson Mary Fergus said the district had investigated recent cases at the school and “found no evidence of widespread or unchecked in-school transmission,” and cited “strong layers of protections” at the school.

In a statement, district officials confirmed the letter shared by the union, saying they had conducted “extensive surveillance testing” over the past two weeks and would continue making school-based testing available through the end of the year, as well as providing a school vaccination clinic in December and January.

“This elementary school is open; there is no public health recommendation or requirement to close this school. CPS and Chicago Department of Public Health will continue to monitor cases and testing results closely and will communicate any updates,” the statement said.

In responding to the union’s demand, Girard, the chief labor relations officer, said that CPS would continue reviewing when an “operational pause is needed at a school, given that particular school’s circumstances.”

Bush, who was fully vaccinated and had received his booster, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Nov. 23 and died Nov. 26, according to his family and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. It’s not clear whether Bush contracted COVID at the school.

During a vigil Thursday evening, the educator’s family members called for more protections to be implemented to prevent the loss of another life.

Dette Bush, his sister and a Carnegie substitute teacher, said the conditions at the school were unsafe. After her brother’s death, she said she wouldn’t be returning until she “sees some changes.”

Second grade teacher Faith Mitchell said she and her colleagues were taking a stand by working remotely, without permission, for a lack of resources and to do what’s best for students and teachers.

“We’re still doing what we’re supposed to do, and I think the thing that inspired most of us to walk away is the fact that nobody from CPS even came out to see if any of us were OK,” Mitchell said. “Nobody gave their condolences.”

“We hope we inspire other schools, who we know are dealing with the very same issues and they shouldn’t have to,” Mitchell said. “Nobody should have to beg and plead and almost give up their jobs to make the stance that we deserve more. We deserve better.”

Speaking this week at a press conference about safety protocols, the educator’s mother, Claudette Bush, remembered her son as someone who loved and was good at his job.

“I’m not just hurt,” she said. “I’m angry.”

The death has brought fresh urgency to lingering safety concerns, teachers and union officials said.

Lisa Coleman, a math teacher at the school, said during Monday’s press conference that she feared for her life walking into the school building.

“I think we have a problem,” Coleman said. “I need for CPS to understand that we need to be proactive, not reactive. Let’s not wait until another Mr. Bush happens. Let’s do something and let’s do something now. We need to be on remote learning.”

Is Chicago’s school staffing crunch about to get worse?

2021-12-08T23:49:18+00:00

Double-digit staffing shortages for days in a row. Classes of 60 to 80 pre-teens combined in the cafeteria and gym with one teacher. Special education assistants pulled to fill in for missing substitutes, and security staff monitoring lunch.

The return to in-person learning hasn’t been so seamless at some Chicago schools.

“Every day feels like a new sort of chaos in our building,” said Madeleine Greene, a seventh grade teacher at a Southwest Side elementary school, describing a worsening staffing crunch. “It severely disrupts climate and culture because students are combined into spaces that don’t have structure” — and spaces that have fewer adults.

School staffing shortages have been a persistent problem this fall in Chicago and across the country. But an uptick in teacher quarantines, missing bus drivers and janitors, substitute shortages, and longer-term vacancies due to burnout has put the squeeze on an already tight staffing situation. Principals have been stepping in as substitutes or filling in for crosswalk duty and teachers such as Greene have given up prep periods to cover other classes and even help with cleaning.

As district leaders try to find solutions for the staffing issues, the post-Thanksgiving spike in COVID cases and the emergence of the omicron variant could further complicate the existing staffing problems.

Because of staffing issues, some school districts nationwide have opted to partially return to remote learning, or shorten the school week to control outbreaks and properly sanitize campuses, but mostly to avoid an exodus of staffers already stretched thin. The crunch has gotten so bad in Detroit that the school district introduced a temporary, four-day school week — an announcement that has generated debate among parents.

Greene, the Southwest Side teacher, worries about the impact on student safety. Combining classes that aren’t typically together can prompt disruptions — even fights between students and make it harder to socially distance. She also worries about burnout among her peers.

“Every day is all hands on deck,” she said. “I don’t know how we sustain this.”

Chicago Public Schools officials have scrambled all fall to relieve the pressure from staffing problems — from bus driver shortages that foiled some transportation routes to substitute shortages. Last month, the district and the teachers union reached a $10 million agreement to boost school staffing. The agreement prioritizes hiring additional full-time substitutes and expanding the substitute teacher pools for the 2021-2022 school year.

A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said that since Sept. 1, the district has hired more than 100 substitute teachers, bringing the total substitute pool to more than 4,000. In a statement Wednesday, the district said it was using federal COVID-19 relief funds to hire substitutes, part-time seasonal employees, and even school assistants “to ensure safety protocols are met at the school level.”

The district said it continues to work to fill vacancies in permanent positions. As of Dec. 1, Chicago Public Schools had 22,400 teachers on staff with a 2.9% vacancy rate and 12,300 education support staff with 800 vacancies, according to figures provided by the district. The overall vacancy rate has gone down since the start of the year, when Chicago Public Schools reported a 3.3% vacancy rate the first week of school — a stronger staffing position than in previous years.

The December teacher vacancy rate is slightly higher than it was at this time last school year, when it was 2.4%, but lower than in December 2019 when the district and its teachers union were fresh off a strike, data show.

The school district currently has more than 4,400 special education teachers compared to 3,900 in 2019 and said the number of counselors has increased to 770 from 740 over a similar time period.

“CPS is ardently working to attract and hire qualified candidates to fill all of these vacancies,” the district said in a statement.

At a Tuesday evening virtual forum to get input on the district’s budget, one principal said Chicago must start thinking proactively about retaining and supporting educators and other veteran staffers. Jasmine Thurmond, the principal at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy of Social Justice, a South Side elementary, said staffing challenges have severely tested school leaders this fall.

She commended the district for recent bonuses to attract substitutes and new district hires. As part of the bonus, substitutes now get an extra $420 per month if they fill in 12 or more times. But she said she worries about an impending exodus of more seasoned employees.

“A lot of these folks are burning out at an alarming rate,” she said.

The district should consider financial and other incentives for educators and support staff to boost retention, she said, in response to a question about the district’s most pressing needs this school year.

Outside the classroom, unfilled custodial and crosswalk vacancies are putting pressure on schools, too.

At Goudy Technology Academy, Kristin Brody, vice chair of the local school council, said they’ve “begged” the district and Board of Education for help with staffing issues to ensure students safety during the pandemic.

At the school, which is down two custodial staff members and a crossing guard, teachers, administrators, and students are pitching in to help keep the campus clean. The principal and assistant principal are now the crossing guards, Brody said.

“Our staff is going above and beyond to keep our children safe and educated,” Brody said, “but the levels that we are having to go as families, staff, and students to keep our school clean and safe is not acceptable considering that CPS received (billions) from the federal government to fill these holes.”

The city’s teachers union has voiced the same criticism, arguing the district should immediately direct more COVID relief funds toward ramped up hiring of teachers and substitutes as well as deeper cleans, more testing, and tougher COVID-19 protocols.

The death of a special education assistant at Carnegie Elementary in Woodlawn has brought fresh urgency to lingering safety concerns, union officials said. The teacher, jonL Bush, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Nov. 23 and died Nov. 26, according to his family and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Speaking this week at a press conference about safety protocols, the educator’s mother, Claudette Bush, remembered her son as someone who loved and was good at his job.

“I’m not just hurt,” she said. “I’m angry.”

The omicron variant could further complicate the existing staffing problems.

The Monday following Thanksgiving, more than 1,300 COVID cases were diagnosed across the city — the most COVID cases detected since Jan 2021, the city’s top health official, Dr. Allison Arwady, said.

As of Tuesday, the city was averaging about 828 cases per day, the health commissioner said.

Similarly, COVID-19 cases have gone up among district staff and students. From Nov. 15-19, 73 adults and 312 students tested positive for COVID-19. The week following Thanksgiving, Nov. 29-Dec. 3, 136 adults and 419 students tested positive for the coronavirus, according to district data.

The rise in cases prompted an increase in students and staff in quarantine.

As of Tuesday, 278 adults and 6,572 students were quarantined, according to latest figures from Chicago Public Schools.

At Carnegie Elementary, where staff and students are mourning the loss of Bush, quarantine numbers have increased from five to 113 since Nov. 27, city data shows. The school has recorded 29 cases since the start of the school year, and 20 of those since Nov. 22.

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Mila Koumpilova contributed to this report.

Chicago hopes to curb number of quarantined students with test-to-stay pilot

2021-11-30T21:15:58+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is rolling out its new test-to-stay pilot aimed at curbing student quarantine numbers that currently exceed 4,800 per day.

CEO Pedro Martinez on Tuesday said the program will give unvaccinated students exposed to COVID-19 the option of regimented testing to stay on campus and minimize the overall number of students being quarantined.

The district will first start at a yet to be named elementary school before expanding the testing program to other campuses throughout the academic year, Martinez said. The school will be selected from a short list of interested elementary schools once a case is identified, officials said.

“We are starting small with our test-to-stay,” Martinez said. “We are planning for the long term so we keep building it up.”

As of Monday, 4,877 students and 185 staff were quarantined, according to the district’s latest figures. Currently, Chicago requires unvaccinated students to quarantine for 10 days after known exposure to someone who has tested positive for COVID. Under CPS policy, that is defined as being within 6 feet of a person with COVID for 15 minutes or more, with or without a mask.

Still, district and health officials are urging students and families to get vaccinated to best protect students and staff. So far, 49.6% of students are fully vaccinated and 12.6% of students of 5- to 11-year-olds have at least one shot, Martinez said.

The test-to-stay pilot comes amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases across the city, as well as the emergence of the new omicron variant, which has added new urgency to the fight against COVID.

Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s top health commissioner, said health officials globally were working to understand the new variant and its impacts.

Arwady said it was “critical” for people to get vaccinated or get their boosters.

Even with the new test-to-stay program, the district has made little progress in getting families to sign students up for the school-based testing months into school reopening. Only about 9% of the district’s student body, or about 31,100 students, had enrolled in the testing program across Chicago Public Schools as of Nov. 1, according to public records.

The majority of Chicago schools have fewer than 10 percent of students signed up for the district’s school-based COVID testing. Most of these campuses are on the South and West Sides that are also among the hardest hit by the ongoing pandemic.

Some schools in Little Village, North Lawndale, and Austin had fewer than five students enrolled for the district’s school-based COVID testing. Districtwide, 48 schools had less than five students enrolled as of Nov. 1, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request.

About 203 schools, or 40 percent of district-run schools, hit the 10% threshold as of Nov. 1, compared with 301 schools with less than 10%. About 188 schools had fewer than 5% of students opted in for the testing program as of Nov. 1, records show.

Some parents told Chalkbeat the district’s opt-in forms were convoluted and said the district had not communicated clearly about the program.

Asked about the low opt-in rates, Martinez said the district hopes to get at least 10% of students opted in at each school to get a representative sampling of students. Since the start of his tenure, Martinez said the district has been working to ramp up testing capacity to “catch up.”

Chicago schools’ decision to revisit quarantine rules comes as younger students are receiving the pediatric COVID vaccine, which was rolled out in early November.

Vaccinated students aren’t required to quarantine after an exposure unless they show symptoms, officials said.

Chicago’s pilot is in line with guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education, which issued earlier this fall a “Test-to-Stay” protocol that gives districts some flexibility to relax quarantine rules when thorough testing programs are in place. Under the policy, students in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 can return to campus without a quarantine period if they are tested regularly and present a negative test before returning to school and adhere to rules around mask wearing and social distancing.

Under the state guidance updated in September, students must be tested by districts on days one, three, five, and seven following exposure to stay in classes.

As part of the CPS pilot, district officials said they will provide more communication so families understand the process. Chicago Public Schools will take lessons learned at the pilot school as they expand the program, officials said.

In a statement released after the press conference, the Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey said the district needed to step up testing and vaccination in schools, calling Chicago’s vaccination outreach “inadequate.”

The district’s failure to hit a 10% opt-in rate per school was “irresponsible,” Sharkey said.

Sharkey said the district and Mayor Lori Lightfoot also needed to use the $2.6 billion in federal COVID funds to support students.

“Our students aren’t seeing those resources,” Sharkey said. “Our school communities aren’t seeing those supports.”

At some Chicago schools, fewer than 5 students signed up for COVID testing

2021-11-30T00:11:02+00:00

Months into reopening, the majority of Chicago schools have fewer than 10 percent of students signed up for the district’s school-based COVID testing. Most of these campuses are on the South and West Sides that have been among the hardest hit by the ongoing pandemic.

Some schools in Little Village, North Lawndale, and Austin had fewer than five students enrolled for the testing program. Districtwide, 48 schools had less than five students enrolled, records show.

Chicago Public Schools’ COVID testing program has had a rocky start with multiple failed deadlines, staffing problems with the testing vendor, and a complicated opt-in process.

As district officials weigh pulling back on quarantine measures and relying more on testing, the opt-in data shows how far the district still has to go to hit the 10% threshold at every campus. Public health officials have said that threshold is key to effectively screen for the virus.

The emergence of the omicron variant has also added new urgency to the fight against COVID.

Chalkbeat obtained the data, which reflects sign-ups through Nov. 1, through a public records request.

Despite efforts in recent weeks to ramp up testing capacity, district officials have struggled to get students opted-in for COVID testing at schools on the South and West Sides, according to the data.

About 203 schools, or 40 percent of district-run schools, have hit the 10% threshold as of Nov. 1, compared with 301 schools with less than 10%. About 188 schools have fewer than 5% of students opted in for the testing program, records show.

Only about 9% of the district’s student body, or about 31,100 students, has enrolled in the testing program across Chicago Public Schools as of Nov. 1, according to public records.

Some parents previously told Chalkbeat that the opt-in forms were convoluted and said the district had not communicated clearly about the program.

The district said in a statement it was committed to “providing a safe and healthy learning environment” throughout Chicago Public Schools.

“CPS has made the case for why testing is useful and made obtaining it simple, free, and widely available across the District,” the district said.

Asked about the low rate of signups at some schools, the district said it had promoted testing on its website and through webinars and meetings with school administrators, staff, community organizations, and “targeted informational campaigns during report card pick ups.”

“The options and opportunities to test in school are many,” the district said. “CPS will continue to provide educational and informational resources for parents and families.”

In addition to testing, the district said it was working to increase vaccination among students, staff, and families to best protect school communities against the virus.

Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, has said the goal is to test 10% of a school’s unvaccinated population to screen for the virus.

Englewood, which reported 3,090 COVID cases and 105 deaths since the start of the pandemic, had 15 schools with fewer than 10% of students enrolled in district testing, according to city data. In Austin, 12 schools had less than 10% of their student body enrolled. The neighborhood, which includes the 60644, 60639, 60651, and 606707 ZIP codes, recorded 33,327 cases and 632 deaths, according to city data.

Garfield Park, Little Village, and Belmont Cragin each had 12 schools with 10% of students signed up. Humboldt Park and New City each had 10 schools in the neighborhoods that failed to reach the 10% threshold.

The data shows opt-in rates vary widely across the district.

Woodlawn Community Elementary School near the University of Chicago had the highest opt-in rates with about 96% of its student population enrolled, followed by Gage Park High School on the city’s Southwest Side with 61% and Thomas A. Edison Regional Gifted Center on the North Side with 58%.

CEO Pedro Martinez earlier this month said the district planned to roll out a test-to-stay program Monday that will allow unvaccinated students exposed to COVID-19 the option of frequent testing to stay on campus. The pilot aims to curb the number of students being quarantined at a given time.

In an effort to drive up opt-in rates, district officials plan to call parents to enroll in testing, Martinez said.

During November’s school board meeting, the CEO said the district had worked to ramp up testing. Currently, the district is conducting about 8,000 COVID tests per day, Martinez said.

The district conducted 26,469 COVID tests between Nov. 14 and Nov. 20, compared to 14,921 tests between Sept. 26 and Oct. 2.

In the months since Chicago schools reopened, the district’s testing program and low opt-in rates have come under fire by the teachers union leaders and some parents, who have questioned the program’s effectiveness. Union leaders and some parents have called for an opt-out approach.

The district opt-in rates still trail behind other cities, including New York City, where at least 35% of eligible students have opted in for testing. About 50% of students have submitted consent forms for school testing in Detroit. In New Jersey, Newark Public Schools struggled to start its testing last month, but still had about 24% of students signed up for its program.

In Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school district, all students and staff members are mandated to test weekly to go to school.

Chicago Public Schools officials previously told Chalkbeat they need parental consent for COVID testing and there are legal reasons it requires parents to opt in for testing and not the other way around.

“No one should be tested for COVID-19 against their wishes or without explicit, written informed consent,” a district spokesperson said in a Monday evening statement.

‘Where are the federal dollars?’: Chicago Teachers Union says COVID relief is not reaching high-need schools

2021-11-17T21:56:17+00:00

Three months into the new school year, the Chicago Teachers Union says the $535 million in federal COVID relief funds promised to schools still isn’t reaching high-need campuses on the South and West Side.

As evidence, the union pointed to Frazier Elementary in North Lawndale, where the school librarian has become a substitute teacher and the principal has taken over an algebra class amid a substitute shortage.

A union call for more federal pandemic relief spending on additional staffing has been one of the key sticking points in negotiations over a fall reopening agreement with the district that still remains elusive.

District leaders and school board members have pointed out that their pandemic recovery plan for the coming two years includes millions of dollars for new special education teachers, counselors, and other positions. But they have stressed that investing significant resources into new hiring will set the district up for a painful and disruptive fiscal cliff when the federal funding expires.

The district is leaning more heavily on community-based organizations, mental health providers, and other outside groups to provide after-school, mental health, and other services. At its Wednesday board meeting, for instance, the board approved $45 million worth of contracts over three years with 91 vendors to provide these types of services.

The union has dismissed these arguments, insisting that schools need more bodies to address pandemic-era needs now.

Schools across the country are confronting staffing shortages in critical areas, from classroom teachers to bus drivers and cafeteria workers. Some of the shortages predated the pandemic, but COVID-19 has exacerbated the problem. Experts say the infusion of federal emergency cash may complicate matters, since more schools are hiring and competing against each other for staff.

Outside Chicago Public School headquarters on Wednesday, union president Jesse Sharkey said the staffing shortages at Frazier and other schools show that district leaders and Mayor Lori Lightfoot have failed to live up to their promises of directly supporting students and their families with COVID-19 relief funds. At Englewood STEM High School, staffers are scrambling since nine educators are out with COVID-19, Sharkey said, and substitutes are in high demand.

Chicago Public Schools expects to receive about $2.6 billion from three federal COVID stimulus packages.

Yet schools continue to contend with lack of cleanliness, staffing shortages, and sparse support resources, Sharkey said.

“Those supports have not arrived to our schools,” Sharkey said. “Where are the federal dollars? Why haven’t they arrived to our schools?”

CTU President Jesse Sharkey says schools are contending with a lack of cleanliness, staffing shortages, and sparse support resources.

Over the summer, the city launched “Moving Forward Together.” The two-year plan promises to use $535 million of the $2.6 billion federal COVID relief funds to address the academic and mental health impact from the ongoing pandemic.

In a statement, Chicago Public Schools said that it recognized the critical importance of equitable funding and resources for all schools, especially those that serve Black and Latino students from low-income households.

The district said it is investing federal funds in addressing unfinished learning and supporting students’ social and emotional needs. This past spring, it rolled out a $24 million plan to expand care teams for students’ behavioral health at every school over the next three years. The district said in a statement it is also investing more in programming to help students with disabilities, including doubling the capacity of its summer offerings.

As for the educators’ complaints about cleanliness, a spokesperson for the district said it is working with school communities to determine the best course of action but that improving school facilities and ensuring a safe and sanitary learning environment was a “priority.”

At the monthly school board meeting Wednesday, CEO Pedro Martinez acknowledged complaints about cleaning problems with some schools and said his team won’t shy away from accountability. There had been some improvements, Martinez said, asking board members to keep in mind there are over 600 schools in the district.

The district continued to make progress, completing a deep cleaning on Friday and planning additional deep cleaning during the Thanksgiving weekend, Martinez said.

He asked community members not to generalize this issue for the entire district based on one school.

“That is not fair to the district,” Martinez said. “That is a discredit to our staff. That is a discredit to our leadership. That is not the right thing to do.”

Frazier teacher Sandra Ochoa said this week the school was in dire need of a nurse, a psychologist, a case manager, a technology coordinator, a tutor, and more mental health support resources.

“Our community is in a crisis,” Ochoa said. “Our students need stability.”

During a press conference at Frazier Tuesday, educators underscored the need for more staffing.

Tolu Solola, a science teacher, said the school — which offers the prestigious International Baccalaureate program — has had five IB coordinators in six years, and educator turnover overall is high.

“We have a crisis that has been ignored for far too long,” she said. “The teachers as well as the students and parents have had enough.”

Solola broke down when she spoke about students having to adjust to a new teacher or a substitute after mid-year educator departures.

“I’m tired of telling my students it’s not their fault their teachers leave,” she said.

Parents and educators at other schools described similar frustrations on Wednesday. Cortney Ritsema, who serves on the Local School Council at Goudy Elementary, said that families are on three-month wait lists for mental health services provided by an outside organization connected to the school. The wait is even longer, she said, for families seeking services in languages other than English.

Teacher Caroline Rutherford said the same issues at neighborhood schools were being experienced at the charter level at Acero Marquez.

“We are missing the same resources,” Rutherford said. “The biggest resource we need is staffing.”

The school needs counselors, social workers, and academic interventionists, Rutherford said. “Our students need more adult attention and they are not getting it.”

After canceling classes, Chicago vaccinated about 6,600 students

2021-11-16T22:56:25+00:00

More than 6,600 Chicago school district students received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine last Friday as part of the citywide Vaccination Awareness Day aimed at getting school-aged children inoculated.

But rates of uptake were not even across the city, with Black and Latino students trailing behind.

Chicago’s health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez on Tuesday lauded the vaccination campaign after 6,687 Chicago Public Schools students, or about 1% of the school body, were inoculated as part of the latest push.

Overall, about 8,300 children across the city received their first doses last Friday — the single-largest day for youth vaccination to date, Arwady said.

“I’ve been very pleased about the early uptake” for 5- to 11-year-olds, Arwady said.

Nearly 13,000 Chicago students, age 5-17, received the vaccine through the weekend.

Still, Arwady and Martinez stressed the importance of protecting families and school communities by getting vaccinated amid an uptick in coronavirus cases across the city.

“Getting your children vaccinated is the number one thing you can do to help not disrupt their education,” Arwady said.

The latest calls to get vaccinated come days after a citywide campaign dubbed “Vaccination Awareness Day.” As part of the effort, Chicago Public Schools canceled classes on Nov. 12 to allow parents to get their children vaccinated after the federal government approved the COVID-19 vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds.

More than 5,800 students age 5-11 were vaccinated on Friday. Through the weekend, the number of 5- to 11-year-olds getting vaccinated exceeded 11,400.

“This is the beginning,” Martinez said. “I’m very pleased we had strong numbers.”

Vaccination rates among students 12 and up, who have been eligible for the vaccine since May, saw an increase but remain low. About 48% of students age 12-17 have received at least one dose of the vaccine as of the last week of October, compared with a citywide average of 76% among residents 18 and older.

While the weekend saw an increase among vaccinations for Black and Latino students, Arwady and Martinez acknowledged lagging rates in the respective communities compared to Asian American and white students.

As the district analyzes numbers, Martinez said officials are working with principals and teachers to understand and work through lingering vaccine hesitancy among parents. They plan to work with trusted regional providers for upcoming vaccine events.

Moving forward, the district plans on hosting over 133 events through the end of the year.

Ahead of last week’s “Vaccination Awareness Day,” Arwady and Martinez urged parents to take their students to get vaccinated at their pediatrician’s office. They said the school sites were only meant to complement doctor’s offices, clinics, and pharmacies.

The teachers union, parents, and activist groups have long called on the district and city to open more school vaccination sites for greater vaccine access, especially for children who don’t regularly go to a pediatrician.

“CPS families should not have to travel miles or cross major neighborhood boundaries to get their children vaccinated,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said last week.

Sharkey said Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the district needed to prioritize “neighborhoods with limited access, low vaccination rates for outreach and engagement, and putting a vaccination site in every school community.”

Along with the push to get as many students vaccinated, Chicago schools plan to roll out a test-to-stay pilot program, aimed at curbing the number of students quarantined across campuses. Such programs will allow unvaccinated students exposed to COVID-19 the option of frequent testing to stay on campus. Vaccinated students aren’t required to quarantine after an exposure unless they show symptoms, officials said.

The school-based testing program has been criticized for its convoluted opt-in process. Months in the school year, the opt-in rates across the district remain low.

The district plans to implement the test-to-stay program at the end of the month, Martinez said.

5 Things to Know If You Need an IEP from Chicago Public Schools

2021-11-11T20:26:11+00:00

A version of this article first appeared on citybureau.org. Read Here.

Thousands of Chicago families have been waiting for Chicago Public Schools to create new Individualized Education Programs (IEP) — a legally binding document that outlines services for students with disabilities — or update old ones for students since the pandemic started. Many are still waiting this year.

Chalkbeat Chicago and City Bureau hosted a public conversation in October about IEPs and why they are vital to ensuring that students with disabilities are academically successful. Panelists Chris Yun, formerly of Access Living; Barb Cohen, Legal Council for Health Justice; and Rachel Shapiro, an attorney at Equip for Equality, spoke about how Chicago delayed or denied IEPs in the past up until the current school year.

This year, Cohen said, parents are still being ignored. “Parents are being told that their kids won’t be evaluated,” she said. “I understand a big part of this is that they are overwhelmed with that backlog.”

Here are five takeaways:

During the 2019-2020 school year, CPS failed to complete thousands of IEP evaluations

“Once a year, students and their parents are supposed to have an IEP meeting,” Smylie said. These meetings should identify a student’s disability, as well as what kind of instruction or related services (think: speech pathology or physical therapy) they’ll need. State law requires that schools conduct student evaluations before they’re provided with an IEP (students with an existing IEP must be re-evaluated every three years). After filing a FOIA request, Smylie found that during the 2019–2020 school year, CPS failed to complete more than 10,000 evaluations and annual reviews. (Chicago has a little over 330,000 students; about 14 percent have IEPs.) No evaluation? No updated IEP for students.

Students across Chicago’s South, West, and Far East Sides were most likely to have IEP delays

Smylie said the data they obtained as part of their FOIA request showed CPS students in Networks 11 and 13 were unlikely to receive re-evaluations during the school year. These networks include Englewood, parts of the Southwest Side, as well as neighborhoods on the city’s far south and far east sides. Shapiro said she heard from CPS parents all over the city who felt that CPS lacked a sense of urgency when it came to addressing its IEP backlog.

Shapiro said one of the students she represented went without services for five to six months because CPS didn’t conduct their re-evaluation on time. “The reality is no matter how many services we give [them] now, that can’t make up for the fact that, for those five or six months delay, they didn’t get the support they needed,” she said. This lack of support threatened and likely slowed the student’s progress in school.

Parents should prioritize frequent communication with their kid’s teachers

CPS’s struggles to provide IEPs for students with disabilities predates the pandemic. As Yun put it: “Denial of special education services is a product of CPS culture.” As far back as 2015, CPS was found to be in violation of federal standards that require schools to provide IEPs to their students. Cohen, a parent of a former CPS student with disabilities, said it’s hugely important for parents to communicate with their children’s teachers as much as possible.

“Teachers have always appreciated the communication and the troubleshooting we can do together,” Cohen said. “I think [that relationship] leads to better IEPs.”

Get everything in writing, and request documents you can use to show which services you’re owed.

“Whatever you do, get it in writing,” Cohen said. “If you just [verbally] say to a teacher or case manager that I think I’d like to have my child evaluated...officially, it never took place.” Emails are best because they have the date on them.

Hazel Adams-Shango, an attendee at the Public Newsroom who advocates for students with disabilities in New York City, said that right now is the time to request a copy of attendance and service logs, which you’ll need whenever you request makeup services from CPS.

Word choice matters; consult free legal services before you file any complaints

You don’t need a lawyer to file a state complaint, but it helps to have someone who knows special education law look over your complaint before you send it in. That’s because slight wording changes can make a big impact. “The law doesn’t require a school to do what’s best for your child,” Shapiro said. If you tell officials that a one-on-one aide for your child is what’s best for them, they have no legal obligation to make it happen. Instead, Shapiro says, tell educators and officials that your child “needs” a one-on-one aide or other service.

Equip for Equality provides free services for folks at (866) 543-7046.

If you’re interested in advocating for yourself, your student, or want to help make a difference in your local CPS network, here are a few places to start:

Stay in touch with our guests:

Rachel Shapiro: (312) 895-7308, rachel@equipforequality.org
Barb Cohen: (312) 605-1948, bcohen@legalcouncil.org
Access Living education advocacy team: (312) 640-2100, advocacy@accessliving.org

More coverage on the issue:

“What more than 50 special education parents in Chicago told us about schooling this fall,” from Chalkbeat
Read about outstanding CPS transportation requests, of which students with disabilities account for more than 50%, from Chalkbeat
Read this report on how CPS fell behind on IEP plans, from Chalkbeat

COVID vaccination rates low for Black and Latino children in Illinois

2021-11-11T00:45:29+00:00

The scramble for parents to get COVID vaccine appointments for young students has obscured a problem officials chose to spotlight Wednesday: low vaccination rates among Black and Latino children in Illinois.

In Chicago and Cook County, vaccine hesitancy among Black parents is nearly three times higher than among white parents, even though Black Chicagoans comprise a disproportionately greater number of coronavirus deaths compared to other racial groups, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Health, testified Wednesday before a hearing by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

As of Nov. 7, Illinois has given 15,470 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to 5- to 11-year-olds. Out of the children who received doses, 67% are white, while only 12% are Latino and 3% are Black, Ezike said at the hearing held in Chicago.

The low vaccination rates could be due to the lack of access to health care providers in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods and misinformation about the vaccine.

At the hearing, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot noted that getting the vaccine to students requires getting “the parents on board. That’s really what it’s about.”

The numbers reported by the state come shortly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 5-11. The Biden administration has urged governments to make schools the centerpiece of their outreach strategy.

In an interview with Chalkbeat in September, Ezike said the state would be working with pediatricians and pediatric groups, family physicians, and different providers to reach younger children. In addition, she said Wednesday, the state will continue to work with schools to establish vaccination clinics.

Ezike and Lightfoot testified about the city’s and state’s efforts to vaccinate residents and how they have tried to combat hesitancy, especially among people of color.

Statewide, among residents who are fully vaccinated, 60.4% are white, 14.6% are Hispanic, 10.6% are Black, and 6.6% are Asian American.

Misinformation and the lack of retail pharmacies in Black and Latino neighborhoods have contributed to hesitancy among Illinoisans of color, Ezike told the subcommittee. Recent research found that, from 2007 to 2015, there were fewer pharmacies in Black and Latino neighbors than in white communities, said Ezike.

According to early data from the state, people living in communities with more Black residents were more likely to have to drive long distances to the closest COVID-19 vaccination site.

During the panel, Ezike asked federal officials to provide resources to combat and track misinformation because local health departments do not have the capacity to do so, but it is harming their efforts to vaccinate more residents.

“The ‘infodemic,’ if you will, is a very powerful tool that’s working against the COVID response efforts,” Ezike said.

Chicago Public Schools are closing this Friday for Vaccination Awareness Day, an effort to get younger students vaccinated. As of Nov. 9, Chicago Public Health Department reported that 69.5% of residents between 12 and up have received both doses of the vaccine.

Dr. Ian Jasenof, chief medical officer of the Miles Square Health Center in Chicago, said that in addition to getting buy-in from parents, his clinic has to consider supply chain challenges, education for staff, and storage.

Chicago officials tout 200 COVID vaccine sites for ‘Vaccination Awareness Day’

2021-11-09T23:21:20+00:00

Chicago school and city officials defended a last-minute decision to cancel classes Friday as part of the district’s Vaccine Awareness Day by pointing to about 200 sites where students can get the pediatric COVID vaccine.

During a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s health commissioner, said doses of the vaccine would be available at pediatricians’ offices, pharmacies, community clinics, hospitals, and school sites to reach more than 210,400 Chicago children ages 5-11.

Arwady said the health department is distributing doses to all providers across the city asking for the vaccine. A priority is to have children vaccinated with a pediatrician, which is where they see “much better uptake,” Arwady said.

The district is also operating four regional school vaccination sites, meant to complement the vaccination efforts happening citywide, Arwady said. Some parents and teachers union leaders have long called for more school vaccination sites.

City officials have been pushing a large-scale marketing campaign around the pediatric vaccine, including the last-minute announcement canceling classes for Friday’s Vaccine Awareness Day.

Chicago schools CEO Pedro Martinez said the vaccination event was an “investment for the rest of the school year.”

“We want to have a strong second semester and we want to have stability in the classroom,” Martinez said at the Tuesday press conference.

Vaccination rates among students age 12 and up, who have been eligible for the vaccine since May, have been low. About 47% of students ages 12-17 have received at least one dose of the vaccination as of the last week of October, compared with a citywide average of 75% among residents 12 and older.

More than 6,000 5- to 11-year-olds in the city have received the pediatric vaccine in the first few days of availability for that age group, Arwady said.

As the holidays approach and people start gathering, Arwady said now is the time for parents to get their children vaccinated.

“I really don’t want to watch families fall into the ‘I’m going to wait and see’ trap here,” she said.

The decision to cancel classes came last Thursday, two days after the federal government approved a pediatric COVID vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds.

The abrupt scheduling of the Vaccine Awareness holiday has irked many parents, who say they are scrambling for child care. Some parents and school employees are also questioning whether staffing shortages — rather than the vaccination push described by district and city officials — prodded district officials to stage the unscheduled school holiday.

Katheryn Rose, who has a child in kindergarten and two in pre-kindergarten, said if the district was “sincere about vaccinating kids, they would bring the vaccine to students at schools.”

”Is every school building going to offer vaccinations and child care?” Rose questioned.

“Clearly not,” she said. “This really leaves parents in a lurch.”

Rose said it was “insulting” for the district to cancel classes on a week’s notice, placing a burden on parents to “try to secure child care.”

No district, regardless of the size, should be able to change the calendar so abruptly, Rose said. “I would expect the school board would have to weigh in on a decision like that. In this case, it doesn’t seem like that happened.”

A Chicago Public Schools principal, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, said the district arrived at the Vaccination Awareness Day idea after it became clear schools would not be able to line up substitutes for educators and other staff members taking Friday off following the Veterans Day holiday.

Martinez held a virtual meeting with school leaders last Wednesday to float the idea of cancelling classes that day, the principal said

With that staffing crunch looming, many colleagues were supportive of the idea, the principal said. But there were also deep concerns about working parents scrambling to line up child care on such a short notice, especially during what some educators in the district call “No School November.”

“This is not taking to heart what our mission and purpose is, which includes providing safety for poor children,” that principal said, calling the move irresponsible. “We need stability in school for our kids.”

The principal said school leaders have been clamoring for more student and family vaccination opportunities on campus: “If we want to get 90% of kids vaccinated, we need to be doing it at school. I really don’t understand why we are not doing this.”

During Tuesday’s press conference, Martinez acknowledged a substitute shortage nationwide but said the district would have had enough substitutes had they not canceled classes on Friday.

Asked whether parents were consulted before canceling classes, Martinez said the decision was made because the district wants to avoid more students being quarantined in the event of a surge during the holiday season.

The Chicago Teachers Union last week supported the district’s decision to give teachers paid time off and allow families to get their children vaccinated.

While neighborhood schools will observe canceled classes, the Noble Charter School network will have classes as previously scheduled. Noble Charter School has been educating students and families around vaccine awareness as well as hosting town halls and vaccine clinics at all school campuses, said Matt McCabe, spokesman for the charter network.

Last year, Noble Schools partnered with Esperanza Health Centers to host a mass vaccination site at Mansueto High School on the Southwest Side in Brighton Park.

Acero Charters Schools said they would also be observing the Vaccination Awareness Day to give students and teachers a chance to be vaccinated, said Helena Stangle, a spokeswoman for the Acero schools.

Starting next Tuesday, vaccination clinics will be open at every Acero campus along with vaccination events across the network, Stangle said.

In response to the child care concerns, the city and district said they were working with the parks and libraries to offer programs for families on Thursday and Friday. Libraries will offer computer access, grab-n-go kits, and vaccine information. The Park District will also offer programs at 54 different parks across the city.

Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science of Industry will offer free admission to CPS students. The YMCA also planned to offer “full-day education and child care” to families struggling to find support on Vaccination Awareness Day.

The pediatric COVID vaccine will be available on rotating days at four CPS schools serving as regional hubs: Michele Clark Magnet High School on the city’s West Side; Richards High School and Chicago Vocational on the city’s South Side; and Roosevelt High School on the city’s Northwest Side. The district says it also will deploy the vaccine via a mobile van that travels to schools and appointments at additional school sites.

Children are eligible for a $100 gift card for getting a first dose of a vaccination at a site operated by the school district or public health department.

A list of pediatric vaccination sites can be found here.

Even as the district moves forward with the Vaccination Awareness Day, parents still feel the district needs to better communicate with them about COVID safety procedures.

Parent Blaire Flowers first learned about Friday’s canceled classes for Vaccination Awareness Day from her daughter on Monday. “The communication is poor,” Flowers said. “We have to hear about it word-of-mouth.”

Flowers, who said she’s still on the fence about the vaccine, said a day dedicated to vaccine awareness, makes it feel like “they are forcing people to get their children vaccinated.”

“There is an echo of uncertainty with CPS right now,” Flowers added. “It feels like they don’t know what they’re doing so they’re winging it right now.”

Samantha Smylie contributed to this report.

Chicago moves to offer increased COVID testing in lieu of student quarantine

2021-11-02T20:33:58+00:00

With a pediatric vaccine on the way and improvements in its rocky rollout of COVID-19 testing, Chicago Public Schools will move to eliminate quarantines for students who agree to be tested, CEO Pedro Martinez said Tuesday.

The district plans to launch a test-to-stay pilot program that would give unvaccinated students exposed to COVID-19 the option of frequent testing to stay on campus, said Martinez, who appeared alongside the city’s top health official, Dr. Allison Arwady.

The district plans to use school-based COVID testing “to really look at how we minimize quarantine,” Martinez said. “The biggest concern I’m hearing right now is that we are quarantining too many children.”

As of Tuesday, 3,754 students and 121 staff were quarantined, according to the latest figures presented by district officials. Currently, Chicago requires unvaccinated students to quarantine for 10 days after known exposure to someone who has tested positive for COVID. Under CPS policy, that is defined as being within 6 feet of a person with COVID for 15 minutes or more, with or without a mask.

Last month, district officials shortened the quarantine rules for unvaccinated students from 14 to 10 days. Vaccinated students aren’t required to quarantine after an exposure unless they show symptoms, officials said.

One potential impediment to the district’s plan, however, is the low rate of parents who’ve opted their children into COVID-19 testing. So far, only about 8% of the district’s student body, or about 29,000 students, have enrolled in the testing program across Chicago Public Schools, according to the district’s latest figures.

Months into the new year, there has been little buy-in from parents, some of whom told Chalkbeat earlier this month that the district has not communicated clearly about the program.

District officials also have flagged the low rate of vaccination among eligible students. As of last week, only 46.7% of eligible Chicago Public Schools students 12 and up had received the vaccine, compared to nearly 76% of eligible Chicago residents over 18.

Still, Martinez said the district hopes to launch the test-to-stay pilot program in November. As part of the program, CPS would be calling parents directly to get more students opted-in for testing, Martinez said.

District officials plan to outline the test-to-stay program next week, Martinez said.

The Illinois State Board of Education issued a “Test-to-Stay” protocol that gives districts some flexibility to relax quarantine rules when thorough testing programs are in place. Under the policy, students in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 can return to campus without a quarantine period if they are tested regularly and present a negative test before returning to school and adhere to rules around mask wearing and social distancing.

As part of the guidance updated in September, students must be tested by districts on days one, three, five, and seven following exposure to stay in classes.

The test-to-stay protocol comes after Chicago Public Schools says it has bolstered its testing capacity.

Over the last month, district officials say they have ramped up testing capacity at every school. The district conducted 23,121 COVID tests between Oct. 24 and Oct. 30 compared to 14,921 tests between Sept. 26 and Oct 2.

Even with increased testing capabilities, Martinez said the district aims to provide 40,000 tests for unvaccinated students and staff a week before the end of December.

Chicago’s decision to revisit quarantine rules comes as a pediatric COVID vaccine nears federal approval.

Arwady, on Tuesday, said the final approval and pediatric vaccine could come in the coming days. Depending on final approval, the city could start providing vaccines this weekend or early next week, Arwady said.

Why few Chicago parents may be signing children up for school-based COVID testing

2021-10-25T16:12:35+00:00

Nearly two months after Chicago Public Schools reopened classrooms, the district’s school-based COVID testing — a key component in its strategy for reopening schools safely — has had a rocky start, with multiple failed deadlines, staffing problems with the testing vendor, and a complicated opt-in process.

There has also been little buy-in from parents, some of whom told Chalkbeat the district has not communicated clearly about the program.

So far, only about 7% of the district’s student body, or about 23,720 students, have enrolled in the testing program across Chicago Public Schools, according to the district’s latest figures.

Those numbers trail behind other cities, including New York City, where at least 35% of eligible students have opted in for testing. About 50% of students have submitted consent forms for school testing in Detroit. In New Jersey, Newark Public Schools struggled to start its testing last month, but still had about 20% of students signed up for its program.

In Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school district, all students and staff members are mandated to test weekly to go to school.

In the weeks since Chicago schools reopened, the district’s testing program and low opt-in rates have come under fire by the teachers union leaders and some parents, who have questioned the program’s effectiveness.

The school district initially said the program would be in place at the start of the year but it was pushed back twice.

Calls by the Chicago Teachers Union for an opt-out model, similar to Los Angeles public schools, intensified after two mothers of Jensen Elementary School students died, possibly due to complications of COVID. At the time, 11 out of 17 classrooms at Jensen were quarantined.

But district officials say they need parental consent for COVID testing and there are legal reasons it requires parents to opt in for testing and not the other way around.

The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, Illinois Department of Public Health, and Illinois State Board of Education “guidance states that testing should not be conducted without the informed consent of a parent or guardian,” the district said in a statement. “Furthermore, there is no legal authority that allows a school district to conduct health screenings for infectious diseases making consent a necessity.”

The district is still scaling up its testing program to provide weekly testing to students and unvaccinated staff by the end of the month, according to Chicago Public Schools.

But standing outside Belmont Cragin Camras Elementary School on Monday morning, union leaders, teachers, and local school council members said the testing program was still spotty and plagued with issues, such as insufficient testing supplies and infrequent testing at schools across the district.

Union president Jesse Sharkey said weekly testing was promised to all students during the summer but in some schools, students are rarely being tested.

Teacher Nidia Carranza said the neighborhood had suffered among the highest rates of COVID-19 in the city, and was still suffering from the trauma of the pandemic.

“We were promised eight weeks of testing, so far we have only received two. That 25% is a failing rate,” Carranza said. “We deserve better.”

Howard Heath, vice chair of the school’s local school council, said they were disappointed the Board of Education had not lived up to its promise on testing.

“We are very concerned about that,” Heath said. “We want to get back to normal and we think testing is going to be a key component in that.”

Members of the group said they are planning on reaching out to parents to sign more children up for school-based testing or register individuals for vaccines.

About two months into the new school year, the numbers of parents giving consent for their children to participate has increased only marginally over the last few weeks. Language barriers, lack of promotion, and a cumbersome opt-in process could be contributing to the low number, according to some parents who spoke with Chalkbeat.

Outside Pilsen Community Academy during a recent school pick-up, Julia Lopez said she had enrolled her vaccinated son, who has asthma, into the school’s testing program. She wasn’t sure how many other students at the school had opted in to the program, which she said had been rolled out in recent weeks.

Lopez found the overall district numbers “a little concerning,” especially with younger unvaccinated children.

While she’s happy testing was an option, Lopez said she would feel more “comfortable” if testing was mandatory.

Other parents said they hadn’t heard whether COVID testing had been implemented at the school.

Nicole Dziubczynski, who has two children at Pilsen Community Academy, planned on opting her students in for testing but hadn’t yet heard whether the program was available at the Lower West Side school.

“I haven’t heard or seen anything about testing here,” Dziubczynski said. “But as soon as I hear about it, I’m going to sign them up.”

Dziubczynski said she decided not to opt in her youngest child, who attends preschool at nearby Jungman Elementary, for testing because the self administered test would be difficult for her 4-year-old who has an Individualized Education Program, which outlines the services and interventions a student with a disability should receive.

“He won’t be able to give himself a COVID test,” Dziubczynski said.

Another Pilsen Community Academy parent, who declined to give her name, said she hadn’t heard about testing at the school either.

It’s unclear how district and school officials are reaching out to parents to increase student participation. Chicago Public Schools didn’t respond to questions from Chalkbeat regarding outreach and engagement efforts.

Bree Dusseault, of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which has been tracking school reopening, said districts and schools are facing a number of challenges including supply and cost to implement such programs.

Among major hurdles, schools simply may not have sufficient staffing to execute such programs so they may not be promoting these testing programs, Dusseault said.

“Testing, in general, is a really helpful ... no-brainer strategy for helping prevent spread of COVID,” Dusseault said. “However, on the ground, how it gets executed, and whether schools have the capacity to execute it ... is one of the biggest barriers.”

Earlier this month, Chicago’s new CEO Pedro Martinez acknowledged its Massachusetts-based vendor, Thermo Fisher, didn’t have sufficient staffing to provide testing at every school. Martinez also said he was looking into simplifying the consent form, which he described as “very complicated.”

“It is intimidating,” especially for parents for whom English is a second language, Martinez said.

At the same time, Martinez said he was looking at school data to see how the district could strategically focus testing in areas that need it most.

Currently, Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s top health official, said the goal is to test 10% of unvaccinated people at a school setting in a given week.

“There are some schools that have many more than 10% turn in permission slips, and there are some that perhaps have not had 10% permission slips,” Arwady said during an Oct. 5 press conference. “I don’t know the details of that but that’s something that we will be looking at.”

Chicago Public Schools did not provide Chalkbeat with opt-in rates by school, saying they were still compiling that data.

District data shows 21,623 tests were administered between Oct. 17-23, an increase of about 20% over the previous week. Fewer than 1% of tests came back positive and 1.8% were inconclusive.

Even as school officials continue ramping up testing capabilities, parent Sarah Spraker, whose son and daughter attend Ole A. Thorp Elementary Scholastic Academy, said the district could boost opt-in rates with better communication.

She nearly missed opting her children in because the email notification came from a laboratory and not the school, Spraker said.

Both of her children were recently tested, but she was shocked to learn only one of her son’s classmates was tested — in a class of 30. About half of her daughter’s class had been tested in the same week, she said.

Boys of color were hit hard by the pandemic. What do they need now?

2021-10-05T09:00:00+00:00

As students across the country wrestled with pandemic stress last winter, sophomore Nathaniel Martinez logged on to a virtual retreat. Forty mostly Black and Latino teens in Chicago were getting a crash course on gauging how their peers were coping.

They also opened up about pressures they faced amid the COVID-19 outbreak and an uptick in gun violence, from depression to disengagement from school.

Nathaniel spoke about struggling to focus in virtual classes as he grappled with isolation and insomnia.

The project offered Nathaniel a support group of sorts as he returned to full-time in-person learning this fall, short on credits but bent on regaining his footing. It also gave him an active role in reimagining how schools can better help teens of color.

School systems have long vowed to shrink the disparities in graduation, college enrollment, and other outcomes that leave Black and Latino boys consistently behind girls of color. The pandemic’s disruption further widened such gaps. In Chicago and nationally, data show a steeper drop in attendance and a more marked increase in failing grades for male Black and Latino students.

This is the third installment in a Chalkbeat series about how Black and Latino young men navigated an unprecedented school year — a year in which pandemic disruption collided with a rise in gun violence, a citywide battle over reopening schools, and the national reckoning over race. Reporter Mila Koumpilova decided to focus on this group of students because they have historically faced large academic disparities.

In Part One, co-published with USA Today, Koumpilova followed a trio of students throughout the school year as they grappled with the pandemic’s fallout, attended virtual classes, volunteered for racial justice causes, and applied to college. Part Two examined data suggesting the crisis widened disparities for male students of color in Chicago and other cities. Here, in Part Three, also co-published with USA Today, Koumpilova explores efforts to address the academic and mental health needs of these students — often, by enlisting them in the search for solutions.

Accompanying the package is this powerful first-person account about what Chicago needs to do differently, written by the CEO of a youth outreach nonprofit who recently lost her stepson to gun violence.

The country’s reckoning over race has brought a greater sense of urgency to the search for solutions, and districts are flush with billions of federal pandemic relief dollars. But so far, most efforts to rethink learning for male students of color seem to be relatively small-scale, often driven by nonprofits rather than schools and colleges, say experts such as Roderick L. Carey, professor at the University of Delaware who studies the educational experiences of Black and Latino boys and young men.

“I’m not seeing many concrete steps to reimagine schooling in the wake of what we have experienced with racial unrest and COVID-19,” Carey said. “Folks seem to be just trying to get back to business as usual.”

Still, advocates are encouraged by initiatives that show promise, including new programs to steer more Black and Latino males into teaching, and efforts such as the project Nathaniel joined that give students more agency in helping find solutions. The project, a partnership between Chicago’s Lurie Children’s Hospital and nonprofit Communities United, was just named among 10 finalists in the Kellogg Foundation’s international Racial Equity 2030 Challenge, which comes with a $1 million planning grant and a shot at winning up to $20 million.

Pedro Martinez, the former San Antonio superintendent who took over as Chicago schools chief at the end of September, says addressing the pandemic’s fallout for Black and Latino boys will be a priority.

“We wanted to shift the gaze of research away from the trauma and the pathologies and toward solutions,” said Dr. Claudio Rivera, a clinical psychologist at Lurie Children’s who is part of the research project. “These young men are our mental health expert partners and co-researchers. That to me is empowering and hopeful.”

Boys of color as agents of change

The idea behind the Lurie-Communities United initiative: Since Chicago’s South and West Side neighborhoods had seen the heaviest health and economic toll from the pandemic, local youth were in the best position to assess what teens like them need to bounce back.

That original group has since shrunk to a core group of about a dozen who continue to meet. Those boys have found a sense of belonging and license to be vulnerable with each other. Some students refer to the group as a “brotherhood” and “family,” Rivera said. Others have reached out to him and other facilitators for advice and support.

The evening after Chicago Police released a video of an officer fatally shooting 13-year-old Adam Toledo last spring, the teens conveyed their shock and grief at seeing the killing of a student who shared a ZIP code and life experiences with some of them.

They spoke about encounters with law enforcement they had in their schools and neighborhoods. One member of the group told a Lurie facilitator that the conversation had overwhelmed him and he needed to step away from the screen — which Rivera saw as evidence of the trust and camaraderie the project had built.

“The most important thing you can give young men of color is an outlet,” said Nathaniel, who identifies as Afro-Latino. “They don’t really get an outlet that’s healthy.”

The pandemic and the national racial reckoning have fired up educators and advocates focused on male academic achievement, said Edward Smith, a program officer at the Michigan-based Kresge Foundation. But amid this unprecedented confluence of crises, he and other advocates are losing patience with incremental efforts to break with harmful practices, from disproportionate school discipline to curriculums that don’t reflect student experiences.

Instead, there is an appetite for a more comprehensive, radical reimagining — especially efforts to engage boys and men of color as partners and agents of change.

Smith points to a New Orleans program Kresge supports called Brothers Empowered to Teach, which steers Black male students to careers in education, where boys of color face a shortage of role models.

By 2020, the program, which has come to partner with 20 school districts and college and university campuses, had graduated about 50 participants. About 75% started teaching or went into teacher training programs such as Teach for America. About 60% remained in education jobs two years after graduating.

Roseland Reconnection Hub leaders Pauline Sylvain-Lewis and Laura Bailey, and Iona Calhoun-Battiste of Thrive Chicago stand outside the Hub, hosted by the nonprofit Phalanx Family Services in the West Pullman neighborhood in Chicago. The Hub steers young people who are not in school and not employed to education and job opportunities.

Tragedies close to home

This fall, Chicago Public Schools and the nonprofit Thrive Chicago — a local partner of former President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative — are launching a similar pilot project at five district high schools, where 100 male Black and Latino students will take a new, year-long “Introduction to Urban Education” course.

There, they will explore the idea of teaching as a form of activism for young men of color and get mentoring and support as they eventually continue to education programs on local college campuses.

Sonya Anderson, Thrive’s president, says the pandemic strengthened her belief in the importance of programs geared toward supporting male Black and Latino youth. Then came a personal tragedy. Earlier this summer, her 18-year-old stepson, Miles Thompson, was shot and killed in an apparent robbery while visiting his father in Austin, on the city’s West Side. Anderson’s 10-year-old son discovered his brother’s body in the yard the morning after the shooting.

For Anderson, the tragedy redoubled her sense of purpose. By speaking out about the loss of her stepson — a college-bound athlete from a well-to-do suburb — she wants to explode a false narrative that Chicago’s young gun violence victims are invariably troubled youth living in the city’s most troubled neighborhoods.

“‘Those people’ feel very different from us,” she said. “Now it’s not ‘those people over there.’ I have two Ivy League degrees and worked for Oprah, and my son died in the backyard because somebody shot him.”

She plans to be more vocal in pushing city and civic leaders to back investments in mentoring, social and emotional support, and job development. Those, she says, could reduce violence and disrupt a “pipeline of disconnection” that Chicago youth, especially boys and young men, face.

Thrive already partners with nonprofits in Roseland and Little Village in operating two Reconnection Hubs: one-stop shops for education, employment, and mental health support for “opportunity youth,” 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in school or working, a majority of whom are male. The Hubs, which have served 1,230 young people since 2018, have seen more demand amid the pandemic. Most recently, the nonprofit Phalanx Family Services, which hosts the Roseland Hub, steered 500 participants to a city of Chicago summer jobs programs.

“We can only create lasting system change when the Chicago Public Schools of the world are at the table,” Anderson said.

Sidney Johnson mentors Ti’Shawn Clark at the Roseland Reconnection Hub in the West Pullman neighborhood in Chicago, which helps youth ages 16 to 24 reengage with school or find employment.

Giving students a say

Last spring, Al Raby High School on Chicago’s West Side set out to measure its students’ sense of belonging and connectedness to the campus amid the pandemic’s disruption.

The school, which serves a mostly Black and low-income student body, wanted to know what the boys were feeling: Did they think their teachers cared about them? Did they feel valued? Drawn by Al Raby’s popular football program, boys outnumber girls at the school about 2 to 1. But, a survey used by educators showed, their connection to the school is tenuous.

“Our boys did not feel their identities were recognized and did not feel as much a part of our classrooms as our girls,” said Michelle Harrell, the school’s principal.

With a grant from the Chicago Public Education Fund, the school launched an effort to re-engage freshman and sophomore boys who read below grade level. Al Raby will explore a conference model in which a teacher checks in with a small group of students each week, fostering all-important relationships.

The school will continue to host a mentoring program called Becoming a Man. Learning at home last year challenged boys of color, who can be more reluctant than girls to reach out for guidance and support. The program this fall will strengthen its focus on empowering young men to advocate for themselves, says Phillip Cusic of Youth Guidance, the nonprofit that runs it.

Al Raby also plans to strike up mentoring relationships between those freshmen and sophomores and its upperclassmen.

“We are really trying to elevate and be responsive to student voices this fall,” Harrell said. “If that means we have to scrap all the planning we did over the summer, so be it.”

In recent years, some districts across the country have touted new commitments to racial equity, but fewer have launched programs geared specifically toward Black and Latino boys.

A notable example is a program called Kingmakers of Oakland, which sprang out of Oakland Public Schools in California more than a decade ago and has since been embraced by eight districts in three states, including Seattle. The program cultivates male Black student leaders through mentoring and the study of Black history, and more.

In Chicago, the school district vowed in 2019 to prioritize Black and Latino boys in its push to raise achievement but, two years later, it still has not spelled out specific strategies.

The district, which was under interim leadership over the summer and intensely focused on reopening schools for full-time in-person learning at the time, declined an interview for this article. But last spring, Maurice Swinney, now Chicago’s interim chief education officer, pointed to an effort to connect students to jobs that do not derail their education and to a districtwide initiative to train educators to respond to students’ mental health needs.

District data shows a deeper plunge in attendance and a steeper increase in failing grades for Black and Latino boys last school year than for girls of color.

The district, which received almost $3 billion from three federal pandemic relief packages, is using a formula to push more funding to schools with higher student needs, where principals have some leeway on how to spend it. At the district level, the money will largely power more sweeping efforts such as the mental health training initiative rather than programs targeting specific student groups.

Educators have a powerful opportunity to connect with male students of color as they return to school campuses this fall, says Carey at the University of Delaware.

In the fall of 2019, Carey started The Black Boy Mattering Project, in which he and other researchers met regularly with a group of high school students to explore how they perceived their value and worth in school and society. Many told him that few of their teachers brought up the high-profile police killings of Black men and racial unrest following George Floyd’s murder — even as they regularly asked how students coped with the COVID outbreak.

The students felt a major part of their lived experience went unacknowledged.

This fall, Carey said, educators should tip to students’ experiences with this “dual pandemic” and use the crises in their lesson plans to stir discussion.

“The pandemic exacerbated feelings of nonbelonging and not-mattering; already tenuous relationships between schools and Black boys became more frayed,” said Carey. “We can use COVID as a miraculous opportunity to change schools for the better.”

Nathaniel Martinez takes a quiz in a geometry class at Roosevelt High School in June, when he was among a minority of Chicago high school students who returned to part-time in-person learning.

This fall, Nathaniel’s group of young researchers is signing up participants for a mental health survey and research interviews in their neighborhoods. The results could inform trauma response training for Chicago’s educators.

In the meantime, Nathaniel started the school year at Roosevelt High School in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood as the district returned to full-time in-person learning. He had tried to make up several classes in summer school, but illness prevented him from finishing them.

What does he need from his school to bounce back?

Grace, for one. Too much homework can derail students like him who will be juggling regular school with evening courses to make up for classes they failed last year, he said.

And more of the social and emotional outreach that educators embraced during the pandemic.

“A simple ‘Hey, how’s your day going?’ from a teacher,” Nathaniel said, “makes a big difference.”

What does school quarantine in Illinois look like? Tell us your experience.

2021-09-16T20:26:35+00:00

With most Illinois students back in classrooms this fall but children age 11 and under still waiting for vaccines, schools across the state are grappling with yet another new COVID-19 reality: quarantined classrooms.

In Chicago Public Schools, nearly 5,500 students and staff have been identified as close contacts of a confirmed COVID case since the start of school, which would make them candidates for quarantine, according to data made public by the school district on Wednesday.

The state does not publicly post the number of students in quarantine, but in the past 30 days, it has logged school exposures at 1,478 campuses across the state and outbreaks of two or more campus-related cases at 128 schools.

State guidelines say that districts can quarantine certain students, classrooms, or even entire schools in consultation with health officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines encourage schools to quarantine only COVID-19 positive students and staff, unvaccinated individuals, and those with symptoms.

We want to know what quarantine looks like for educators and students across the state. Please contribute to our reporting by answering the questions below. Having trouble viewing the form on mobile? Go here.

Illinois gives school districts leeway for remote instruction amid COVID outbreaks

2021-09-08T22:05:02+00:00

Illinois districts will be required to offer remote learning to all students who are quarantined after being potentially exposed to COVID-19 in school, under a resolution passed Tuesday by the state board of education.

In an earlier resolution issued by the board, remote instruction was limited to students who are unvaccinated or ineligible for a COVID vaccine if they were under quarantine orders from a local public health department or the state department of health.

The new public health guidelines also give school districts the ability to close school buildings under an “adaptive pause” if there is an outbreak at schools. The updated resolution comes amid the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant and a spike in COVID case numbers and hospitalizations throughout the state.

The number of schools on the state’s campus outbreak list grew to 81 as of Sept. 3; another 1,007 schools reported potential exposures. More districts have also been forced to contend with sizable numbers of students in quarantine.

In Springfield school district 186, which serves more than 13,000 students, more than 1,400 students were in quarantine as of Wednesday, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard. The district is considering asking the state board of education and the state’s health department to mandate student vaccinations.

At the special state board meeting Tuesday, Illinois schools chief Carmen Ayala tried to walk the line between giving districts more flexibility if case counts rise and ensuring students return to classrooms after 18 months of hybrid or virtual learning.

“The door to remote learning needs to be narrow,” she said. “Our goal is to further ensure continuity of learning for all students who are excluded from school, as well as support their safe and speedy return to in-person learning.”

Many Illinois school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, had interpreted the original resolution to mean that students with medical conditions could be excluded from in-person learning and offered medical exemptions to a small number of students.

On Tuesday, some parent organizers in Chicago and the city’s teachers union began circulating the state board’s change on social media and arguing that Chicago Public Schools should broaden access to its “Virtual Academy,” which has been strictly limited for children with medical conditions and has so far enrolled fewer than 1,000 students.

Mark Klaisner, president of Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, said school districts are trying to figure out how to keep quarantined students connected to classrooms. Unlike last year when school districts were able to keep school buildings closed or bring in a certain number of students in a hybrid learning model, students who are under quarantine this year may be out of the classroom for up to 14 days.

“Districts are trying to mobilize on a system where they can stream what’s happening in the classroom so they can live and remote simultaneously,” said Klaisner. “I think a few people are calling that ‘room and zoom’ where some kids are home and some are in classrooms.”

Klaisner’s concern is ensuring that districts have access to resources to keep students connected because the pandemic has highlighted inequities throughout the state.

“One district, in particular I remember, didn’t have Xerox machines to send students packets,” said Klasiner. “But I can look out my window and point to a school district where every kid has their own individual learning device.”

As of July 30, 2021, 53.2% of children age 12 to 17 in Illinois were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of last Friday, 18 Illinois school districts were on probation for failing to comply with the state’s school mask mandate.

Cassie Walker Burke contributed to this report.

COVID-19 surge on Illinois school campuses shows need for mask, vaccine mandates, health official says

2021-08-26T22:10:35+00:00

At Carlyle Community School District 1, a downstate district on probation for violating the Illinois mask mandate, 40 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 200 students are set to be quarantined, state health officials said Thursday.

Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, pointed to the surge of coronavirus cases at newly reopened campuses, including Carlyle in Southern Illinois, to defend a weeks-old universal school mask mandate and a new decision to require teacher vaccinations.

By contrast, Algonquin’s Community Unit School District 300, a much larger district that is following the state’s mask mandate, is currently reporting that 48 students have tested positive for COVID-19 and two have been hospitalized. Carlyle, which has moved back to universal masking, has a little less than 1,000 students, while Algonquin, in the West suburbs of Chicago, has an enrollment of about 20,000.

“If we actually want our kids to be in school for in-person learning, masking is a great protection and our best bet,” Ezike said Thursday. “The bottom line is that masks are effective. Vaccines are effective.”

The state public health department is currently tracking the number of school outbreaks and potential exposures. As of Aug. 20, the public health department is reporting five school outbreaks — two of which were connected to sports, according to the state health department. On that list is Brown County High School, in the western central part of the state, where the school district was on probation until Tuesday for not complying with the Illinois mask order, according to state school board records. The district has since reversed course.

Other outbreaks have been reported at Colona Grade School, ROWVA High School, and United Township High School, all in counties near the Iowa border; and Reavis High School in suburban Burbank. An outbreak is defined as five or more cases that be traced back to exposure on school grounds; more broadly, there have been 307 exposures at campuses across the state within the last 30 days. The vast majority involve fewer than five cases.

A rise in cases amid a return to school and under threat from a highly contagious delta variant could present new complications for school districts in Illinois and across the country that have moved to limit when schools can offer remote learning.

In an effort to strongly encourage full-time reopening this fall, Illinois school superintendent Carmen Ayala issued a July order specifying that only students who had not been vaccinated and who were under quarantine orders could be given the option of remote learning.

But that could limit what options districts have amid outbreaks, as some other areas of the country have experienced. Under a separate part of the school code, written pre-pandemic, local school boards can only adopt remote education policies for individual students — not classrooms, campuses, or districts. Asked recently if school districts can create broader remote learning options as they did last year, a spokeswoman for the state school board said “no.”

Under pressure from Chicago’s teachers union, Chicago Public Schools’ interim CEO José Torres told the school board Wednesday that he made a commitment to union President Jesse Sharkey that he would personally approach Gov. J.B. Pritzker to advocate for an emergency declaration allowing broader remote learning should community transmission reach dangerous levels.

In Kentucky, where school has already been open for weeks in many districts, several superintendents were forced to cancel school due to staffing shortages and large numbers of students out on quarantine. There, a new state law intended to encourage in-person instruction has had the unintended consequence of limiting how many days school districts can run remote programs, so some districts aren’t offering virtual instruction during the closures. Instead, students have take-home packets.

Virus outbreaks also have forced closure of multiple districts in Texas. The Associated Press reports that the shuttered districts all had mask-optional policies, in line with the Texas governor’s executive order banning local entities from issuing mask mandates. In at least one of the districts, in Odessa, Texas, officials said they could not immediately provide a virtual learning option, but teachers would be available via email.

Correction: Sept 1, 2021: A previous version of this story incorrectly quoted Dr. Ngozi Ezike as saying at an Aug. 26 press conference, “Masks are effective as vaccines.” She said, “The bottom line is that masks are effective. Vaccines are effective.”

Illinois announces teacher vaccine mandate as millions of students return to classrooms

2021-08-26T16:14:13+00:00

Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that K-12 teachers, higher education employees, college students, and all healthcare providers will be required to get the coronavirus vaccine beginning Sept. 5.

A statewide indoor mask mandate for residents 2 and up starts Aug. 30.

“Vaccination remains our strongest tool to protect ourselves and our loved ones to restore post-pandemic life to our communities,” said Pritzker at a press conference on Thursday. “Most crucially to maintain our healthcare system’s ability to care for anyone who walks through their doors that needs help.”

School employees, students, and healthcare providers must get the first dose of the vaccine shot in September or submit to testing at least once a week or more. If individuals do not do either, they will not be able to enter healthcare facilities or school buildings.

Illinois is the latest state to institute a vaccine mandate for school workers, joining California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington.

The Illinois mandate comes as nearly 2 million K-12 students and about 680,000 students in higher education are returning to classrooms across the state and the highly contagious delta variant is causing a surge in coronavirus cases.

The U.S. Food and Drug administration approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday for those 16 and older. For children between 12 and 15 and immunocompromised individuals who need a third dose, the vaccine will continue to be available under emergency use authorization.

The administration’s decision has opened a pathway for school districts around the country to require school employees to get vaccinated with fewer legal roadblocks.

Several Illinois school districts had already issued vaccine mandates for teachers before FDA approval. Earlier this month, Chicago Public Schools, the largest school district in the state and the third largest in the country, ordered teachers to be vaccinated by Oct. 15 unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption. Educators who do not comply will be ineligible for work.

Smaller school districts throughout the state such as Stevenson High School District 125 and Wheeling Community Consolidated District 21 have similar mandates.

Earlier this month, Pritzker announced that all K-12 public schools employees and early childhood care providers were to wear masks in schools and during indoor extracurricular activities.

Schools that do not implement the mask mandate the state board of education could lose state recognition, resulting in a loss of state funding and blocking sport teams from participating in state athletic associations. This has caused tension between school leaders, parents, and the state board of education which heated up during the board’s recent meeting.

41 Illinois school districts now under probation for violating state mask mandate

2021-08-19T20:34:52+00:00

Dozens of Illinois districts have been placed under probation for refusing to comply with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s universal mask mandate for preschool through high school.

Forty-one of the state’s 852 districts are on probation for not enforcing the order, which requires all school employees and students to wear face coverings indoors, according to Illinois State Board of Education spokeswoman Jackie Matthews. Two private schools and three public school districts have reversed their decision and will now follow the mandate issued by Pritzker in early August.

The action comes amid a growing debate over mask mandates as states and school districts grapple with a COVID-19 surge and the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics have recommended that students and school staff wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.

The Biden administration this week urged the federal education department to step in on the issue and open investigations or take other actions against any state or local rules that might interfere with schools reopening.

The Illinois board of education says it will reach out to districts to discuss the mandate requirement. Within 60 days of the conference, the districts on probation must submit a corrective plan to the regional superintendent of schools and state superintendent. If the school district does not submit a plan within 60 days, it will lose state recognition, resulting in a loss of state funding and blocking sport teams from participating in state athletic associations.

After Pritzker issued his mandate, State Superintendent Carmen Ayala followed up with a letter to superintendents threatening to take away state funding from public and private schools that do not comply with the mandate.

During a state board meeting Wednesday, superintendents pushed back against the state’s current position, calling it an overreach of power and asked the board to allow local school boards to create their own reopening plans.

One of those superintendents was Tonya Evans of Central Community School District 4. After the state required school mandates, she told the board, the school district received a backlash and threats. With the situation becoming so intense, the district has requested police presence at the district.

“We are in a community where we are 30 miles away from police presence,” she said. “This is not what school should look like for children, where we’re asking for police presence due to the unrest.”

Remote learning options for Illinois students are slim as school districts enter new year

2021-08-16T21:39:29+00:00

As Illinois school districts prepare to reopen for classes, many are grappling with how to offer remote learning for students with medical conditions and other learning needs while following a state board of education resolution mandating in-person learning this fall.

Some of the state’s largest school districts such as Chicago Public Schools and Elgin’s U-46 are creating virtual academies for medically fragile students. Springfield School District 186 is allowing students with medical conditions to apply for remote learning, while Rockford School District 205 is only offering in-person learning.

Last school year, Illinois districts shifted from in-person learning to remote learning as COVID-19 cases spiked. Many landed on a hybrid learning model that gave families the option to send students into classrooms for a few days a week or to remain at home. In some cases, districts remained closed for the entire year.

This year, however, both the state and federal governments are pressuring school districts to fully reopen in the fall. In Illinois, the state board has made it clear that schools must be in-person with limited opportunities for remote learning.

The state board of education is leaning heavily on masks to make reopening schools work and keep quarantining unvaccinated students to a minimum. State schools chief Carmen Ayala recently wrote a letter to superintendents statewide warning that any school district failing to implement the mask mandate will lose state recognition. That would result in losing state funding and access to sport associations.

“We know that consistent and correct mask use is the simplest, most effective way to keep students safely in school, where they can learn and grow to their fullest potential,” Ayala said in the letter.

Timothy Christian Schools, a private school in Elmhurst, lost state recognition earlier this month for not implementing a mask mandate. The state recently reversed its decision last week after the school said it will comply with the state’s mandate.

In addition to masks, the state’s school code allows local school boards to adopt a remote learning plan and, with the consent of a parent or guardian, provide it to students based on their learning needs. Schools around the state have taken different approaches to this option.

Elgin’s U-46, the second largest school district in the state, has a Distance Learning Academy for unvaccinated students with medical conditions that increase risk of serious complications related to COVID-19. Students must submit documentation from a medical professional and a parent or guardian must provide a statement on the medical condition.

The district says that slightly more than 100 students applied for the distance learning academy by the deadline in early June and about two dozen students will participate starting Aug. 16, the district’s first day of school. Students will be assigned a full-time distance learning teacher who will provide live instruction each day.

Springfield School District 186, with over 13,400 students making it one of the largest school districts in the state, plans to reopen school buildings to students on Sept. 2. As in Elgin, the district will require parents to apply for remote instruction through a “medical certification for home/ hospital instruction” form. To qualify, students must have a mental or physical medical condition that qualifies them to be temporarily educated away from a school building by a qualified teacher. The school district requires a physician to complete the form with a specific diagnosis.

The district is still registering students and doesn’t have a total of how many students will receive this exemption.

Rockford School District 205, the third largest school district in the state, has yet to finalize its back-to-school plans. At the moment, Rockford, which starts classes on Sept. 2, is only offering in-person learning.

Chicago Public Schools has doubled down on its commitment to limit virtual learning, but some parents there are pushing for a remote option. Preliminary reports showed uptake was low for the district’s Virtual Academy, which will only serve medically fragile students next year. Many parents whose students are eligible for the Virtual Academy aren’t enrolling their children because their questions about the academy have gone unanswered, while others whose students aren’t eligible for the Virtual Academy are interested in enrolling their children.

A petition posted last week by parent advocacy group Raise Your Hand in favor of expanded virtual learning has garnered over 1,000 signatures so far.

“There’s a growing sentiment from families all over the state that a remote option is necessary, at least for the first quarter, until the littlest can get vaccinated and families can feel safer,” Raise Your Hand parent leader Cassandra Kaczocha said in a Wednesday meeting with parents and reporters.

The district has not yet released clear guidance on whether it will close classrooms exposed to COVID-19 or require teachers to do double-duty teaching both students in a classroom and students via screens, a practice the city’s teachers union firmly criticizes.

This story has been updated to reflect that Cassandra Kaczocha is a Raise Your Hand parent leader, not an organizer.

COVID cases among kids are rising — but Chicago’s top doc says schools can reopen safely

2021-08-11T22:33:49+00:00

Even as Chicago reports its highest confirmed COVID-19 case count in three months, Chicago’s top doctor is insisting that it is safe for students to return to classrooms.

The public push by Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady is unfolding as the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools debate what safety measures to put in place before public schools reopen Aug. 30. Arwady this week did not weigh in on particulars such as COVID-19 testing frequency — one of the issues currently being debated — but she and Dr. Abigail Hodges of Oak Park Pediatrics did underscore the need for a full-time reopening in a Tuesday Twitter livestream.

“When you look at the risk-benefit … to us, it’s very clear,” Hodges said. “We’ve wanted kids in school.”

Although more young people are testing positive for coronavirus in Chicago, Arwady said the delta variant doesn’t appear to be making them sicker than previous strains.

Chicago’s positivity rate currently sits at 3.8%, up from 3.4% a week ago, with a daily average of 364 confirmed cases and 22 hospitalizations. Coronavirus cases among children are rising nationally, with young people accounting for nearly 15% of the country’s newly reported cases. Arwady said the rise is happening because children under 12 aren’t yet eligible to be vaccinated, and the delta variant is much more contagious than the original COVID-19 strain.

Still, hospitalization rates have remained relatively flat for 0-17 year-olds all summer, according to city data.

With appropriate mitigation strategies — masking, pods, testing, and contact tracing — Arwady said schools can open safely, based on evidence from last year.

Chicago Public Schools will require all students and teachers to wear masks indoors — every district in the state is now required to do so under Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s executive order. Although the exact testing protocol for students and teachers is still being negotiated with the union, the district said Wednesday that it plans to offer weekly testing to all students, regardless of vaccination status. Testing of vaccinated students had been a point of contention with the union.

“One of the reasons we at the Chicago Department of Public Health are advocating so hard for in-person education was that we saw the data that schools could be open, even before vaccines,” said Arwady, referencing a study conducted last year that monitored about 20,000 students enrolled in local Catholic schools. That study found the spread of the virus within classrooms did not outpace the spread of the virus in the broader community, but some critics said the research did not take into account different student populations and building conditions among local non-public schools.

Children between the ages of 5 and 11 could be eligible for vaccines toward the end of fall or the beginning of winter, Hodges said. Researchers are expanding their sample sizes and collecting more information before they approve the vaccine for young children.

“Kids are not just little adults. They’re different,” Hodges said. “We want to make sure all that safety data is there.”

The next group eligible would be children between 2 and 5 years old, followed by babies 6 months and older.

In the meantime, during the final weeks of summer, Hodges recommends that parents encourage their children to wear masks for brief intervals of time, such as on trips to the grocery store.

“If the expectation is that your kid is going to wear a mask, they are going to do that,” Hodges said. “Practice for shorter increments — [don’t just] say for the first day of school, ‘Here, put this on all day.’”

Hodges has found that a rewards system helps teach her 2-year-old to keep wearing her mask. So she keeps plenty of M&Ms and stickers on hand.

Pritzker issues universal mask mandate for Illinois schools

2021-08-04T21:48:32+00:00

Illinois students and school staff in K-12 and early childhood care centers will be required to wear masks indoors, under a new mandate from Gov. J.B Pritzker.

The mask mandate, announced at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, extends to extracurricular activities such as sports. Student athletes and coaches will be required to wear masks for indoor sports. Masks will not be required for outdoor activities.

“My goal has always been to safely bring all kids back into the classroom. At the start of the school year and, crucially, to keep them there,” said Pritzker. “Without these measures, we would likely see more outbreaks than in the latter half of the last school year.”

Pritzker’s order comes as schools in Illinois prepare for full-time, in-person learning and grapple with the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant. His decision follows the Illinois Department of Public Health recommendation to adopt new guidelines issued last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which urged universal masking in schools, regardless of vaccination status.

Chicago Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, announced in late July that it would require all staff and students to wear masks inside schools regardless of vaccination status. Illinois school districts that had relaxed mask mandates will have to align to the governor’s guidelines.

Around the country, rising COVID cases, low vaccination rates, and reports of breakthrough cases in people who are vaccinated have sharpened the debate around mask mandates. In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he regretted signing a ban on mask mandates and is asking state lawmakers to reverse the law amid a spike in coronavirus cases in that state. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, in contrast, issued an executive order banning mask mandates, but some Florida schools have decided to move ahead with mandating masks in schools.

Earlier in the summer, Illinois public health officials and the state board of education, citing CDC guidance at the time, did not require vaccinated students and teachers to wear masks in classrooms due to the rise in vaccination rates. A few weeks later, state public health officials reversed their recommendations after new federal guidance.

Pritzker announced that his administration will supply masks to school districts that need them and that the state will provide free COVID-19 testing supplies to all public schools statewide.

COVID cases and hospitalizations in Illinois have increased significantly for younger people, Ngozi Ezike, director of the state health department, said at the press conference. In July, 15% of children younger than 10 made up COVID-19 cases, an increase from a little over 5% in January. Those between 10 and 19 made up 23% of cases last month. Hospitalizations tripled for those who are younger than 20, jumping from about 2% to 7.8%. Many of the cases were linked to youth camps, Ezike said.

According to the state health department, 51.2% of Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated and about 58% of 12- to 17-year-olds in the state have been fully vaccinated. Children under 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers unions in the state, applauded the mask mandate. Union president Dan Montgomery said he hopes that schools will also continue to use other protective measures against COVID-19 such as social distancing so the school year can proceed without interruptions.

That would allow students to not only have in-person learning, but also “Friday night football games, school plays and the jazz band, clubs, and all the other things that happen at school that make kids want to come to school and help grow healthy human beings,” said Montgomery.

Chicago fell behind on plans for students with disabilities during COVID-19. New data show the depth of the problem.

2021-08-03T11:00:00+00:00

Before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools last year, David Rushing was an energetic 15-year-old who liked to play basketball and baseball. He was an avid swimmer and a member of the Jesse White Tumblers — performing high-energy stunts like backflips and somersaults, sometimes in front of large audiences.

Then COVID-19 swept across the country and forced Chicago schools to close, leaving David, who has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, unable to participate in sports and without the proper support to help him focus in online classes.

At the beginning of his freshman year at Dunbar Vocational Career Academy last fall, David’s Individualized Education Program, a legally binding document known as an IEP that outlines what special education services and interventions a student should receive, was set to expire on Nov. 5, 2020. He was to be re-evaluated for a new plan the month before. But that didn’t happen.

Within a matter of months, David’s life spiraled out of control.

Yvonne Bailey, David’s biological grandmother who adopted him at a young age, noticed David behaving differently.

David “got involved with the wrong people in the neighborhood,” Bailey said. “He was running away from home and staying out all night.”

David’s case is not isolated. The pandemic year has uprooted support for students with disabilities in Chicago and nationwide, creating a backlog of old IEPs that could lead to widening academic gaps for students in need of special education services. Students with disabilities make up 14.6% of Chicago’s enrollment, almost 50,000 students. Nearly half of those students are Latino, and about 40 percent are Black.

New data obtained by Chalkbeat shows that during the 2019-20 school year — which saw an 11-day teacher strike and COVID-19 school closures — more than 10,050 re-evaluations, initial evaluations, and annual reviews were incomplete, a more than threefold increase over the previous school year. More than 3,500 students, like David, were waiting for a re-evaluation that is required by federal law.

The data shows improvements during the 2020-21 school year, but 1,768 students were waiting to be re-evaluated and 230 were waiting for an initial evaluation to get an IEP.

Hidden from public view

Delays in IEP re-evaluations were a pre-pandemic problem that landed Chicago Public Schools under state review. In 2018, the state board of education appointed a monitor to ensure that Chicago was not denying or delaying special education services to students. In June of this year, the state board of education approved another year of state oversight.

Even though the coronavirus pandemic made it difficult to conduct IEPs in person, schools were still responsible for updating the plans and had to provide remote evaluations. Yet despite issuing waivers for such activities as standardized testing, the U.S. Department of Education never waived any part of federal law meant to protect students with disabilities.

Correspondence between Chicago, the state board of education, and special education advocates in the city shows that as far back as September, officials had evidence that the pandemic had disrupted students’ services.

In a September letter obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request, the district’s Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services acknowledged that some evaluations were left “indeterminate.” The district promised in the letter that all evaluations would be completed during the 2020-21 school year.

Some parents and advocates say that did not happen, and data released by the district show some students were still left waiting during the 2020-21 school year. But the full scope of the problem is not clear because Chicago Public Schools continues to withhold key data points that indicate compliance with federal special education law, including the race of children whose families seek evaluations and how many referrals were initially requested by parents or educators.

Chalkbeat sent Freedom of Information Act requests to both the state board of education and Chicago Public Schools in March asking for data on how many students were waiting for initial evaluations to create an IEP and how many students needed to be re-evaluated to update their current IEPs during the 2018-2021 school years.

The state board referred Chalkbeat back to Chicago Public Schools officials, saying that the state only has limited access to the district’s database that tracks the status of students’ IEPs. Chicago Public Schools extended the information request deadline several times. In April, Chalkbeat went to the state’s Attorney General Public Access Bureau for assistance, but the district still refused to provide the data. In late July, the district partially released data weeks after Chalkbeat filed a lawsuit against the school district in the Cook County Circuit Court. (Chalkbeat is represented by Loevy & Loevy, a civil rights firm.)

The data Chicago released in late July offers a first public look at end-of-year numbers for the 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21 school years and shows how many re-evaluations, initial evaluations, and annual reviews were completed and how many were left incomplete. Across the three categories, students in need of annual reviews were most likely to face delays, with about 8.7% of eligible students waiting in 2019-20 compared to 1.7% the year prior.

Network	2021 Incomplete	2020 Incomplete	2019 Incomplete
Other	66.08%	62.41%	N/A
AUSL	18.53%	40.63%	8.16%
Options	17.61%	45.89%	20.48%
Network 15	17.54%	14.44%	1.80%
Network 3	14.02%	24.76%	1.06%
Chicago Average	13.13%	25.14%	7.75%
Network 16	12.44%	15.97%	6.79%
Network 13	12.43%	36.47%	0.82%
Network 6	12.14%	24.39%	2.65%
Network 11	10.88%	31.53%	2.02%
Network 10	10.84%	32.46%	1.10%
Network 12	10.70%	26.49%	3.67%
Network 17	9.75%	18.36%	0.87%
Charter	8.48%	17.80%	5.40%
Network 4	8.37%	29.57%	0.23%
ISP	8.28%	21.37%	1.03%
Network 9	8.23%	28.40%	0.90%
Contract	8.22%	13.33%	1.49%
Network 1	7.37%	27.18%	0.79%
Network 8	5.70%	18.04%	0.25%
Network 7	4.58%	23.05%	0.69%
Network 14	3.58%	12.05%	0.51%
Network 2	3.57%	28.07%	1.91%
Network 5	3.23%	21.19%	1.53%

Rates of incomplete education plan re-evaluations in Chicago schools

NOTE: “Other” includes students who are enrolled in a separate day school, have been evaluated but have not yet enrolled, or attend a private school but receive services from CPS, such as therapeutic day schools.

Annie Fu, Chalkbeat

According to the data provided by the district, broken down by network, the 2019-20 school year saw the highest numbers of students waiting for a re-evaluation. The number of students waiting depended on where they attended school in the city and what type of school it was. Students who attended schools in Networks 11 and 13 — the former spans Englewood and parts of the Southwest Side and the latter cuts across neighborhoods on the city’s far south and far east sides — were unlikely to be re-evaluated during the school year.

Also, the district’s turnaround school operator, the Academy for Urban School Leadership, or AUSL, which was tasked with managing some of the lowest-performing schools in Chicago until the district decided to phase out the program earlier this year, had a higher rate of non-compliance during the 2019-20 year, with 40.9% of re-evaluations left incomplete. Charters as a whole tended to perform better than city averages during 2019-20, with 17.8% of re-evaluations incomplete compared with a citywide average of 25%. The following year, however, charters did not comply as well as most of the district-run networks, reporting some of the highest numbers of incomplete annual reviews and initial IEP evaluations and reporting middle-of-the-pack numbers for re-evaluations.

Chicago Public Schools denied a Chalkbeat request to interview a representative from the district’s special education department. However, district spokesman James Gherardi said there were complications re-evaluating students with disabilities due to the pandemic and a year of related school closures.

“The COVID-19 pandemic added a layer of difficulty to the evaluation process that our school leaders and staff are still working through to ensure each student that needs an evaluation receives one,” said Gherardi.

Families search for options

Dunbar High School freshman David Rushing (center) was one of over 3,500 students affected by Chicago Public School’s failure to re-evaluate IEPs for its students in a timely manner.

That still leaves family members such as Yvonne Bailey, David Rushing’s mother, desperate to find help for struggling students.

Bailey went to Equip for Equality, a nonprofit legal service organization, to get help with getting David’s evaluation. With Equip for Equality’s help, David was re-evaluated in the spring and a new IEP was written in April.

Unlike Bailey, many Chicago parents are not able to access legal services. Instead, some have decided to leave the school district to ensure that their child receives special education services.

For some families, the issue wasn’t the timeline. It was poor execution.

Courtney Aviles moved to Cincinnati after spending a year trying to get her 5-year-old son re-evaluated for an IEP. When her son was in preschool, a teacher raised concerns about his fine motor skills, especially his ability to write.

Before schools shut down in March 2020, Aviles’ son had an annual IEP meeting to assess current goals, at James B. McPherson Elementary School, on the city’s north side. Aviles, a former teacher in Florida, was taken aback to see that her son’s teachers and case manager, who previously worked with him, were not there to speak about his needs in the classroom. Legally, schools are required to have teachers and case managers present at IEP meetings.

“As a former teacher myself, I feel that it greatly impacted our ability to conduct the IEP meeting,” said Aviles. “Having his teachers there to share their experience with and to advocate for my son would have made the meeting more productive.”

During the annual meeting, Aviles and the IEP team agreed that her son would be evaluated for occupational therapy to help him write. However, schools across the state were shuttered in response to the coronavirus pandemic and Aviles’ son did not receive special education services for the remainder of the year.

At the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, Aviles transferred her son to Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies. Prior to the start of the school year, Aviles emailed the school’s case manager to inquire about the occupational therapy evaluation discussed at her son’s last IEP meeting in August.

Aviles did not hear back from the case manager until October.

The case manager emailed Aviles to say that her son’s previous school had not finalized the assessment plan needed to get him evaluated for occupational therapy. Aviles signed a consent form to be connected with the school’s occupational therapist for an evaluation.

However, Aviles’ son, who was supposed to be evaluated by Jan. 22, 2021, never received an assessment. In February, Aviles and her son’s IEP team again gathered to update his program. The team concluded that Aviles’ son would need a full re-evaluation — but that didn’t happen.

By March, the family moved to Ohio. Aviles called it a “spur of the moment” decision after visiting friends for her son’s birthday. Aviles and her husband felt that they could make a good life for their children in Cincinnati. She said that while she loved Chicago, struggling to get special education services for her son was a major factor in her decision to move to another state.

Aviles wished she would have pushed harder for her son’s services, but felt she had to maintain a good relationship with the school’s staff. “It could be a really delicate balance,” she said.

A national problem emerges

Rachel Shapiro, an attorney at Equip for Equality, believes that schools in Chicago used the pandemic to cover their shortfall in evaluating IEPs.

The stakes for students who do not receive a re-evaluation are high, according to Rachel Shapiro, an attorney at Equip for Equality.

“We explain it to parents that your child’s development could progress or there could be regression,” said Shapiro. “We have no way of knowing that without having some kind of standardized data.”

When the district delayed special education services for David Rushing and Aviles’ son, both boys saw a regression in their skills and changes in behavior. David started to run away from home and Aviles’ son struggled to learn how to write.

While working with parents, Shapiro claims that schools in Chicago were using the pandemic as a cover to only review IEPs and not perform evaluations.

“Part of the evaluation is that it has to be thorough and contain multiple different assessments because we don’t want to diagnose students based on one assessment,” she said.

A student’s IEP team — which includes teachers, case managers, and therapists — are supposed to meet every year to review a student’s progress, address any concerns, and update that student’s goals. The state requires re-evaluations every three years. Parents must be proactive in ensuring that their child gets what they need, said Shapiro.

Correspondence between Chicago, the state board of education, and special education advocates in the city shows that as far back as September, officials had evidence that the pandemic had disrupted students’ services.

Shapiro suggests parents document requests in writing and ask for standardized assessments, progress data, and requests for IEP meetings. If things don’t go well, Shapiro says, parents can request a mediator from the state board of education or file a complaint with the board.

According to Lindsay Kubatzky, policy manager at the National Center for Learning Disabilities, an advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., school districts across the country have a backlog of evaluations due to the pandemic. Also, some school districts were concerned about the validity of doing evaluations remotely.

Kubatzky recommends that school districts communicate with parents about what to expect from the evaluation process this year.

“We see that the strongest indicator of whether a school district is doing a good job at evaluating or re-evaluating is whether parents have the information that they need and have a good understanding of what the process will look like,” said Kubatzky.

Kubatzky also urged school districts to use emergency federal funding to increase staff for evaluating students.

“So one thing that they could do is hire additional paraprofessionals to work with students to do some of the evaluations or contract with outside evaluators to help with the workload,” said Kubatzky. “There’s resources outside of the school building that could be beneficial for students and families.”

Chicago Public Schools said that it will spend $17 million to hire 78 nurses, 44 social workers, and 51 special education case managers for next school year.

What’s next for students

Since leaving Chicago, Aviles has turned to private occupational therapy for her son and has seen a lot of growth in his writing skills. In the fall, the 5-year-old will be attending kindergarten at a smaller school district in Cincinnati.

“At CPS, he couldn’t even hold a pencil. He can write his name, he’s writing letters and he’s recognizing letters,” said Aviles. “It’s a huge amount of growth in a super short period of time and it’s really unfortunate that it took a move to do that.”

Yvonne Bailey’s son, David, has been doing much better since he received an updated IEP. At the end of the school year, Bailey signed him up to attend in-person school two days a week. This summer, David was enrolled in the school’s football camp.

David will be returning to Dunbar for his sophomore year. Bailey feels that in-person learning will be better for him, especially when more students are at school.

“David does well around people. He likes hanging out with the kids like any kid at this age,” said Bailey. “So I think it’ll be better.”

Samantha Smylie began this project at Chicago Headline Club’s FOIAFest 2021 Boot Camp under the mentorship of journalist Angela Caputo, an investigative reporter at APM Reports.

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In Chicago, poor turnout at student vaccination sites perplexes school officials

2021-07-29T21:47:19+00:00

Three weeks ago, Chicago Public Schools touted the opening of three school-based sites for student vaccinations, as well as mobile clinics and home visits. Now, the district has the capacity to vaccinate up to 200 students a day, but fewer than 70 have been showing up.

District officials sounded perplexed when recounting those statistics Wednesday. South Shore Works vaccine ambassador Melody Jones, who’s 19, isn’t surprised.

Jones is part of a team of 10 young adults who have spent the past three weeks toting facts and pamphlets door-to-door and room-to-room to engage in dialogue with vaccine-hesitant Chicagoans. Based on the conversations she’s had, Jones said fear and misinformation are getting in the way. Students are learning the bulk of their information on vaccines from their parents and potentially unreliable media, allowing hesitancy to fester. Many aren’t sure what’s in the vaccine or how a dose could affect them.

“They say, ‘I got the flu shot, and I got sick off that,’” Jones said. “[They have] very limited experience with vaccines and shots, period. We try to ease that fear. ”

The campaign to get students and their families vaccinated comes as the countdown to the district’s reopening begins in earnest: Only one month remains before students are set to return to classrooms.

Yet coronavirus cases are rising sharply across the city due to the delta variant, and the window of opportunity for students to be fully vaccinated before the first day of school has closed.

Low vaccine uptake is concerning district officials and adding uncertainty to an already fragile start of school after a year and a half of disrupted learning. About three-quarters of available appointments and walk-ins are going unfilled at the district’s vaccine distribution points, which started opening the week of July 12. The vaccines are available to students and their families.

According to interim CEO Jose Torres, low demand is preventing the district from opening more school-based vaccine centers across Chicago and running them for longer hours. The district needs “the right messengers” to book those slots, officials said.

“We need teachers to tell their students to go get vaccinated. To tell their parents,” Torres said.

By mid-July, 44% of Chicago’s 12- to 17-year-olds had received a first dose of the vaccine and only 33% had been fully vaccinated, according to city data. That number includes CPS students as well as young people who attend private school or another form of education. As part of its reopening demands, Chicago’s teachers union on July 5 pushed for 80% of the district’s qualifying students to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1 through a mix of home visits and vaccines on school grounds. The district hasn’t yet committed to a vaccination rate target.

As of June 25, about 70% of CPS staff had received a first dose of the vaccine, and 82% of teachers had gotten their first shots, according to district data. New York City on Monday mandated that all teachers get vaccinated before schools open on September 13 or be tested weekly. Chicago hasn’t passed a teacher vaccine mandate yet.

After a person receives the first shot, it takes at least five weeks to build maximum protection from the virus: they must wait three weeks between their first and second doses, and two weeks after their second dose for the vaccine to act at its full potential. According to that timeline, July 26 was the last day a student could have received their first shot to be fully vaccinated by the first day of school.

The district had pledged to hire teens to conduct vaccine advocacy alongside other community-building activities through its Summer Kickback Series, but Jones says beyond her own team, she hasn’t met any other youth ambassadors.

Plenty of CPS parents are canvassing through city initiatives to encourage vaccinations, though. At a mid-July vaccine canvassing event in Bronzeville, Breakthrough Urban Ministries contact tracing supervisor Maya Johnson said through her advocacy, she’s found herself walking between two worlds. She’s vaccinated, and she’s pushing for other residents to follow suit, but her 18-year-old son has opted not to get a shot.

It’s a tricky tension. She understands that perceived risk will deter some from ever getting their shots. But that gap means it’s even more important for parents to get their shots, to ensure they don’t bring the virus back home to their children.

“We have a responsibility to the community,” Johnson said.

She’s hopeful vaccination rates will balance out enough to shield Chicago from the highly infectious delta variant. In the meantime, she’s leading her vaccine outreach with compassion. It’s all she can do.

After CDC reversal, Illinois recommends universal mask requirements in schools

2021-07-28T20:47:57+00:00

After saying earlier in the summer that masks are optional for vaccinated students and staff, Illinois is now recommending that schools set universal masking rules indoors.

The state quickly adopted new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control on Tuesday as coronavirus cases rise across the country due to the highly contagious Delta variant.

In addition to masking indoors, the state board of education asked that school districts continue to work with local public health officials to determine other necessary prevention strategies by monitoring community spread and the vaccination rate, and screening for cases in K-12 schools. The board of education tweeted in favor of the guidelines this morning, but has not released an official statement.

Both the state health department and board of education warn that if schools do not follow the current guidance that they will be putting those in the school’s community at risk.

“School boards that choose not to implement public health guidance are putting their students and staff at risk and should consult with their insurers as to potential liability,” said Januari Trader, a state board of education spokesperson.

One of the state’s largest teachers union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, released a statement early Wednesday morning in support of the new federal and state mask guidance.

“CDC’s recommendation reminds us all that this pandemic is not over. Its harsh impact is still being felt by our students and their families— and will be felt for years to come,” IFT president Dan Montgomery said in a statement.

“We need a comprehensive, layered approach that addresses the immediate safety needs of our students and educators and promotes the holistic recovery of our communities in the long term,” Montgomery added.

Although the state public health department and board of education have aligned with the CDC guidance, it is not clear yet if school districts will be required to adopt the guidance. Several school districts have already decided to make masks optional for older children, and heated debates have unfolded across the state on the issue.

In Troy, Triad Community Unit #2 Schools are currently giving parents the option of requesting a mask-mandatory classroom for their students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The district is aiming to set up one fully masked classroom in every grade at each of its large elementary schools, but says it can’t guarantee parent requests will be met.

Triad last week announced it wouldn’t put a mask mandate in place. Instead, the district encourages students to bring a mask to school daily to wear on school buses or as directed by adults. The district also warns that temporary mask mandates could take effect throughout the school year if transmission rates are high.

While stopping short of a mask mandate, the Collinsville District 10 school board Monday recommended unvaccinated students and staff wear masks, and said masks will be required at times when three feet of distancing is not possible. Outside a recent school board meeting, parents from the Collinsville Unmasked District 10 Facebook group pressured the Southwest Illinois district against a mask mandate.

Mask mandates have become a political flashpoint across the country. Florida’s governor Monday threatened to take legislative action to prevent a mask mandate, and Texas’ teachers union pressed the governor Tuesday to withdraw his prohibition on mask mandates.

Chicago Public Schools will require masks — but three feet of social distancing is not guaranteed

2021-07-22T23:17:55+00:00

Students, staff, and visitors will be required to wear masks inside Chicago’s public school buildings during the upcoming academic year, regardless of vaccination status, district officials announced Thursday.

District leaders said ensuring access to full-time in-person learning this fall is its “highest priority,” in line with state, local, and national health guidance. Chicago Public Schools, however, will not guarantee three feet of social distancing at all times due to school population and classroom constraints.

The updated set of safety measures come as parents express concern about district reopening plans and just days after city officials sounded the alarm about the highly contagious delta variant. The state school board has said masks can be optional for vaccinated students and teachers, but local administrators can set more strict rules. Debates have erupted in some suburban districts about mask requirements.

Masks will not be mandatory while eating or drinking indoors, or during outdoor activities like recess and sports, the district said in the email to parents and staff.

The school system will enforce three feet of social distancing “wherever possible.” While eating meals, students will be divided between cafeterias and other spaces, such as classrooms, to facilitate three feet of distance. Where distance is not possible, schools will rely on safety measures, including air purifiers, hand sanitizer, cleaning and disinfecting protocols, contact tracing, and cloth face coverings.

“Based on widespread scientific consensus, we know that proven strategies like the ones announced today will keep students healthy, safe and supported,” said the email, signed by interim schools chief Jose Torres.

The district said Thursday it would update health protocols when necessary according to public health guidance.

Chicago Public Schools unveils student vaccination program, including three standing sites and mobile clinics

2021-07-07T17:23:10+00:00

Chicago Public Schools will open three school-based COVID-19 vaccination sites for students beginning the week of July 12. The announcement comes a day after Chicago’s teachers union included a demand for student vaccination targets in a preview of its proposal for a fall reopening agreement.

The sites are located at Chicago Vocational Career Academy in Avalon Park, Michele Clark High School in Austin, and Theodore Roosevelt High School in Albany Park, and will be open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. through the summer. At those three locations, CPS hopes to administer up to 600 first doses of the vaccine each week.

In the proposal made public Tuesday, CTU called for the district to vaccinate 80% of students over 12 by Oct. 1 through a mix of home visits and vaccine clinics on school grounds. CTU pressed for a vaccination partnership between the district, CTU, and the Chicago Department of Public Health, but the district is only partnering with the health department, according to Tuesday’s release. CPS hasn’t set a vaccination target yet.

CPS is also holding vaccination events at schools with large numbers of students in temporary living situations and in communities with low vaccination rates, according to Wednesday’s announcement. Times and dates will be determined in partnership with individual schools. District events with high attendance, such as Back-to-School Bashes and Freshman Connection, will also have district-backed vaccination opportunities. In the fall, CPS plans to set up standing school-based vaccination sites according to neighborhood vaccine rates and student need.

The district can’t mandate vaccination — only the state’s department of public health has that authority. But families will be asked to submit notice of their student’s COVID-19 vaccination status along with information about other regular childhood immunizations at the start of the school year.

CPS launched staff vaccination sites in February. About 78% of district staff is fully or partially vaccinated, based on self-reported data from the start of July.

Here’s the district’s page with information for families to register for a school-based vaccine appointment. No proof of insurance or citizenship status will be required to receive the vaccine, which is free. And here’s the city’s calendar of COVID-19 vaccination events.

Three Chicago teens, one pandemic year: How COVID-19 widened education gaps for boys of color

2021-07-01T09:00:00+00:00

As the promise of spring hung over Chicago, three teenage boys tussled with insomnia, sifting through the fallout of a pandemic year’s interlocking crises.

In Little Village on the West Side, senior Leonel Gonzalez often couldn’t sleep, beset by stubborn what ifs. What if next fall, one of the panic attacks that dogged him during the COVID era creeps up on him on a college campus? What if he didn’t pick the right school? What if he didn’t graduate and go to college at all?

Several miles away one morning before dawn, Derrick Magee and his stepsister, Anna, griped about virtual high school, which Derrick had tuned out weeks ago. Anna pleaded with him not to give up on a trying junior year at Austin College & Career Academy — and with it, on his entire high school career.

And farther north in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood, Nathaniel Martinez would stare at the ceiling and make plans. The sophomore had joined a new push to remove cops from city schools, at a time Chicago was reeling from the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo. But school had receded in Nathaniel’s mind, leaving his grade report card in shambles.

In Chicago and across the country, there is growing evidence that this year has hit Black and Latino boys — young men like Derrick, Nathaniel and Leonel — harder than other students. Amid rising gun violence, a national reckoning over race, bitter school reopening battles and a deadly virus that took the heaviest toll on Black and Latino communities, the year has tested not only these teens, but also the school systems that have historically failed many of them.

Last fall, the nonprofit education news outlet Chalkbeat set out to take a deep dive into how Black and Latino boys were navigating an unprecedented school year. In Chicago, the pandemic’s disruption collided with an uptick in gun violence, a citywide battle over reopening schools, and the national reckoning over race. Against that backdrop, Chalkbeat reporter Mila Koumpilova decided to focus on this group of students because they have historically faced some of the largest academic disparities.

Koumpilova followed a trio of students throughout the school year. She spent time with them while they attended virtual classes, volunteered, hung out with peers, and took part in virtual student advocacy. To understand their experiences better, Koumpilova spoke with family members, teachers, mentors, and principals.

Data on the 2020-2021 school year is more limited since many school districts did not administer standardized tests, but Koumpilova used public records requests to obtain attendance and grading data by race and gender. That data showed marked differences in academic performance by male Black and Latino students compared to female students — a pattern also evident in newly released national data. She also conducted numerous interviews with educators, advocates, and experts about the pandemic’s impact on male students of color and the apparent widening of academic gaps it triggered. Part Two of the series looks more closely at the data. Part Three of the series examines emerging efforts to close the gaps.

Chalkbeat is partnering with USA TODAY to publish the story.

It has severed precarious ties to school, derailed college plans and pried gaping academic disparities even wider.

But in this moment of upheaval, educators and advocates also see a chance to rethink how schools serve boys of color. With billions in federal stimulus funds on the way, the crisis is fueling a patchwork of efforts to bring diversity to the teaching cadre, support college-bound teens and more, though a bolder, wholesale overhaul is yet to emerge.

The stakes are high. Even before pandemic disruption set in, boys of color were most likely to drop out, skip college, and end up unemployed.

“This is a critical moment of opportunity to help young men of color,” said Adrian Huerta, a faculty member in the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California, who studies the educational experiences of boys and young men of color. “It’s a national issue, and it will take a national investment.”

Against this backdrop, Leonel tried to become the first in his family to go to college despite sometimes debilitating anxiety. Nathaniel tried to strike a balance between the demands of school, the draw of advocacy, and the escape of video games. Derrick tried to stay in school.

By spring, they faced decisive moments, in the making since the school year’s early weeks.

Leonel Gonzalez outside of Solorio Academy High School. He wants to become the first in his family to go to college. During the school year, he grappled with pandemic-induced anxiety attacks and self-doubt about whether he would get into college.

FALL: Chicago struggles to recreate the school day online

On a sunny Wednesday in October, Leonel, 17, sat in a classroom at Solorio Academy High School, eerily hushed on his first day back since the previous March. In a hoodie and ripped jeans, his hair tied in a ponytail, he had returned to take the SAT, the college entrance test, with other seniors.

But Leonel could not focus.

The hand sanitizer bottles, the masking signage, the one-way traffic stickers — it all unsettled him. He started every time the proctor coughed, exchanging alarmed glances with several girlfriends. They were marooned at socially distanced desks, but having his friends nearby after months of isolation gave him comfort.

He read a passage about astronauts in the English section, but its meaning crumbled.

Even before its COVID-19 makeover, Solorio — a highly rated district school in the Gage Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side, where Leonel lived before his parents split up — hadn’t always felt inviting. In his freshman year, Leonel was bullied in a locker room, and, worried his family would hear about the incident, came out as gay to his parents in a Mother’s Day card. Even as a junior, he walked to school some days, paused in front of the building — and headed back to his house.

Now, at home full-time, his attendance was near-perfect and his grades were up.

But not everything was going so smoothly.

Leonel was in a program called OneGoal, the Cadillac of college application support groups, giving him daily access to a seasoned mentor. But the pandemic had confined their interaction to Google Meet, putting two screens between Leonel and his adviser, Chris Vienna.

Sometimes Vienna felt he was not getting through to Leonel. One minute, the teen rushed to apply to a $32,000-a-year college in Iowa that sent him a marketing email. The next, he seemed paralyzed, making little headway for weeks.

Leonel’s GPA was lackluster, but Vienna pointed to his extracurriculars, such as his service on a string of Solorio committees, where Leonel was usually the only male student: “This is where you look like a badass.”

Leonel, who wants to be a social studies teacher looking out for kids who don’t fit in, yearned to head out of town for college. But he knew his family wanted him to stick around.

That morning at Solorio, Leonel reassured himself the colleges he eyed had made SAT scores optional amid the pandemic. Still, a decent score could boost his spotty high school record.

He tried rereading the astronaut passage. The words jumbled. Finally, he filled out the bubbles next to a string of remaining questions. One random C after another.

Before the pandemic, male Black and Latino students such as Derrick, Nathaniel, and Leonel were key, if complicated, players in Chicago’s storyline of academic resurgence.

District leaders feted them for driving some of the steady growth in test scores and graduation rates that helped erase a one-time label of the nation’s worst school district. A 2017 Stanford University study showed students here grew in reading and math faster than 96% of districts, outpacing wealthier suburban locales. Leaders have credited efforts to cultivate stronger principals, an unflinching look at data, and an ecosystem of nonprofits dedicated to supporting boys of color.

But the five-year graduation rate for Black male students, at roughly 71%, remains almost 15 percentage points behind that for Black females. Latino boys, who have gained on other student groups faster in recent years, still lag almost 10 percentage points behind Latinas. Such gender gaps are the norm nationally as well, the product of a complex tangle of factors, from pressure on young men to contribute financially to disparate school discipline to a shortage of male role models.

On the cusp of the pandemic, Chicago leaders decried signs of backsliding for Black students, such as a dip in SAT scores.

Then came the COVID-19 outbreak — with its disproportionate death toll and economic devastation in America’s Black and brown communities, including the neighborhoods the three Chicago boys call home. By November, the virus had killed more than 3,000 Chicagoans. Black residents, who make up less than 30% of the city’s population, accounted for 40% of COVID deaths.

In Austin, on Chicago’s West Side, Derrick, 18, stared at his school-issued laptop. It was late October. Another school day afternoon cooped up in his bedroom. Another blur of impassive rectangles representing classmates who had turned off their cameras in Google Meet, no one but the teachers saying anything for hours. Another gauntlet of virtual classes and educational videos.

It was the same thing over and over again — Derrick’s mantra. A waste of time when he could be doing something to chip in for the family budget. Except today, Derrick would try something different: He would set up an Instagram account for his new business — using stencils to personalize sneakers, at $80 a pop.

Derrick Magee has remained engaged with Chicago’s VOYCE program over the past year, but had struggles with virtual learning.

Staff at Derrick’s high school, Austin College & Career Academy, where almost all students are Black and poor in one of the neighborhoods hit hard by both the coronavirus and a rise in gun violence, were on social media as well. They tweeted at students with upbeat hashtags: #MondayMotivation or #WellnessWednesday. “Email your teachers to create action plans for getting on track,” they implored. “You and your education matter.”

But Derrick did not follow his school on Twitter. His connection to Austin Academy was shaky even before the pandemic abruptly shuttered the building last spring. At that point, he had decided to sit out the remainder of the year. He thought all his teachers would pass him amid a pandemic. He thought he could return to a reopened school building in September.

He was wrong.

Over the summer, district officials had made a plan to return to in-person learning. But amid teachers union pushback, an uptick in COVID cases, and skepticism from Black and Latino families, they scrapped it. Instead, they set out to rebuild online the brick-and-mortar school day, with its seven classes and scrupulous attendance-taking.

In the fall, short on credits and motivation, Derrick returned to a virtual school that seemed designed to torment guys with ADHD like him. He tried playing monotonous instrumental beats on his laptop as a soundtrack to his classes to settle his mind. But staring at a screen for hours only made him want to pace his apartment. Being isolated just hardened a long-held conviction: Whatever Derrick’s school might tweet, his education didn’t matter to anyone.

Mikala Barrett, an organizer with the student leadership group VOYCE, told Derrick that showing vulnerability was a sign of strength. But Derrick never thought to ask his teachers for help. Not even after his grandma died that fall. Nah, they would not be swayed.

It was the same thing over and over.

He should probably just chuck school until summer and make up his classes then. He pictured himself as a self-reliant entrepreneur, his shoe business taking off.

Anna Robinson holds up her Nike sneaker customized with skeletal art by her stepbrother, Derrick Magee. Derrick started a side business stenciling sneakers during the pandemic to help his family financially.

Nathaniel, the Belmont Cragin sophomore, imagined himself as a student leader, triumphing over a shortage of confidence. On Election Day, the 16-year-old waited in front of a laptop in a church basement in Albany Park, his legs jiggling to the muzak pouring out of the speaker. He sipped nervously from his Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup while the system autodialed registered voters. At any time, someone might pick up, and Nathaniel would have seconds to nudge him to the polls.

Like Derrick, Nathaniel was involved with VOYCE, and the group had gathered teens for a get-out-the-vote push in Albany Park, on the city’s Northwest Side, where Nathaniel and his mom used to live. In the group, he had found a sense of belonging as he sorted through the complexities of his adolescent identity: Black and Latino, shy gamer and aspiring activist.

This year, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, VOYCE pushed the school district to remove police officers from its campuses. To Nathaniel, the issue felt personal — and complicated.

Nathaniel Martinez bikes to school through the Northwest Side of Chicago.

In 2020, when 774 people were killed in Chicago amid a major violence surge, shootings doubled in Albany Park, pitting its alderman — an advocate for defunding the police — against residents who wanted more neighborhood cops. Nathaniel embraced the goal of replacing school cops with counselors, but after his school’s governing council voted to remove the officers, he also worried about gang tensions seeping in.

Nathaniel went to the neighborhood Roosevelt High School, but his heart wasn’t in it that fall. There was the impulse to get involved through advocacy. Then, there was the pull of video games, which took up more and more of his time. With his school’s new gaming club, Nathaniel played “Among Us,” a game turned wildly popular among teens seeking virtual camaraderie during the pandemic.

In the church basement on Election Day, the muzak cut off, and Nathaniel straightened, stumbling over the voter’s name on his screen.

“I’m calling to remind you to vote — or, um, I guess, see if you already voted,” he said, and cringed.

WINTER: More Fs, fewer students logging on, and a brewing battle with the Chicago Teachers Union

In December, amid a spike in coronavirus cases that had caused infection rates in the city’s majority Latino neighborhoods to soar, Leonel’s assistant principal emailed him. A teacher had flagged her after Leonel said he needed a day off. On a hour-long Google Meet, the assistant principal talked up positive thinking and mindful breathing. Touched by the unexpected offer to help, Leonel opened up about the pressures of that winter.

At first, he had believed the presidential election’s uncertain outcome explained his relentless panic attacks. The stakes had felt high for a gay kid from an immigrant family. But Joe Biden had been declared the winner, and still the panic attacks kept coming.

After one episode, Leonel’s mom gently broached an issue that had hung over them: “I don’t think you are ready to live on your own.”

Leonel Gonzalez has worked with a OneGoal mentor through the pandemic to prepare him for the next step after high school.

Leonel, who was scrambling to meet college application deadlines, didn’t push back. His mom was probably right. But part of him clung to the idea of striking out on his own.

That afternoon on Google Meet, he told the assistant principal about allowing himself to cry recently — a release from his upbringing’s expectation that, as a man, he remain stoic. They made a plan: He would get a physical, and then the school would refer him to a therapist.

In the coming weeks, Leonel waited for the school to check in with him, wishing staff would follow up. But he knew that many teens — at Solorio and across the country — were struggling with mental health. His challenges, by comparison, felt insignificant — even as they threatened to derail him.

Early data has made it clear that the pandemic’s academic fallout has been wildly uneven, setting back further students, including Black and Latino youth, who were already vulnerable. Much less is known about the effect on gender disparities.

Girls have faced their own set of hurdles, including handling child care and remote learning for younger siblings. But some educators believe the disruption has hit boys harder, causing them to disengage at higher rates. And some solid evidence is trickling in.

Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that while college and university enrollment dipped across the board last fall, the drop was seven times larger among men. That decline was especially steep at community colleges, which serve more diverse, first-generation students like Leonel.

In a new data analysis of fall 2020 test scores by the NWEA, Black and Latino boys made significantly less of their typical growth than Black girls and Latinas, who themselves showed less growth than white and Asian peers.

“We know many of these kids were already behind before the pandemic,” said Megan Kuhfeld, a NWEA senior research scientist. “This is compounding already existing inequities.”

And in Chicago, attendance and grading data for the first half of this past school year showed disproportionate impact by both race and gender as well.

The reasons for that uneven fallout are not entirely clear, but advocates and experts say a slew of factors likely are at play. There’s the added pressure young men feel to pitch in to family budgets, and the research suggesting girls are better at staying on task independently, a key skill during remote learning.

Educators such as Vienna, Leonel’s OneGoal mentor, say computer school took away opportunities to peek over students’ shoulders and offer suggestions, or bond informally in hallways. That’s significant because, as research has shown, boys are less likely to reach out to educators for guidance, notes Huerta, the University of Southern California professor. Home and community culture, with a premium placed on male self-sufficiency, play a part. But school norms have fed into this dynamic as well.

“In the classroom, boys are conditioned to sit down, shut up and not be a disruption,” Huerta noted. “Do we really expect them to reach out and ask for help 10 years later?”

At Austin Academy, Derrick’s math teacher, Steven McIlrath, didn’t wait for students to ask for help. On some days that winter, the school’s virtual attendance dipped below 40%. A quarter of McIlrath’s students went missing, and he called some homes as many as 10 times.

McIlrath repeatedly called Derrick’s mom and emailed the teen: Why wasn’t he logging on?

On a cool, blustery February evening, Derrick sat at a long table in an office off the sales floor of an Austin bicycle shop, where Mikala Barrett’s VOYCE group had started meeting in person. In an “Outlaw Cycles” jacket with faux leather peeling under his arms, he slumped in his chair, peering at his cell phone. His shoe stencil business idea had fizzled out months ago.

Later, the half dozen students spoke about a friend who was shot and killed last year, one of two teens lost to gun violence for whom they recently held a candlelight vigil. Barrett paused and looked around the room.

“So, how’s school?” she asked. “For the two of you who are still going?”

Derrick stopped logging on to virtual school last semester, and failed his classes. But he clung to a precarious connection to his school. He never turned off the Google Classroom notifications on his phone, and it pinged each time teachers posted assignments. And he continued to respond to emails from McIlrath, just to say hello.

Derrick Magee with his stepsister Anna Robinson. Anna encouraged Derrick to stick with his classes, but he has had difficulties staying engaged with school.

Anna, 16, Derrick’s stepsister, a sophomore at Englewood STEM High, urged him not to give up. Yes, virtual learning was rough. An A and B student, Anna also struggled with motivation. But did he want to send her and his other younger siblings the message that it’s cool to drop out?

“It’s like when your basketball team is down by so much,” Derrick countered. “There’s no point in watching any more.”

To Derrick, returning to Austin Academy’s classrooms seemed the only way out of his stalemate. But district and teachers’ union officials were caught up in one of the most acrimonious standoffs over reopening elementary schools nationally. There was no plan or target date to reopen high schools — and little discussion of improving teens’ virtual experience.

In the meantime, Derrick put in applications at a couple of big box stores, but had not heard back. He fell back on his mantra: It was the same thing over and over.

At the bike shop meeting, he looked up from his phone.

“School’s going great,” he offered.

Barrett held his gaze until he looked away.

Unlike Derrick, Nathaniel continued to log on to classes daily, but he was increasingly struggling to stay engaged.

One afternoon, Nathaniel unmuted his laptop mic during a virtual drama class and called out to his partner on a project due in a couple of days. Nathaniel sat cross-legged on the floor, wedged between his bed and a dresser, a cup of ramen cooling on the windowsill. His view was a brick wall an arm’s length away, his room immersed in gloom even on a sunny day.

Nathaniel Martinez maintained his attendence throughout the pandemic, but was often distracted by both his student activism and gaming.

“Hey, real quick,” Nathaniel asked. “Which character did you pick for the costume design?”

But like him, his fellow student had his camera off — and had apparently wandered away from the screen.

His classes these days were nothing like the lively virtual meetings with his VOYCE group. Nathaniel had even gotten to MC a virtual town hall, where students said they wanted the city to invest its school cop dollars into counselors, librarians, and restorative justice coordinators.

After many meetings to prepare for the event, Nathaniel came off as confident and laidback.

But the more he got the hang of student activism, the harder it seemed to keep his mind on school work. He failed two classes during the first semester, and should have signed up for evening credit recovery courses. But that was when VOYCE students met to chart next steps in the district’s “Whole School Safety” initiative.

Next up was a Civil War documentary for history class. But 10 minutes in, Nathaniel’s attention had drifted. He donned headphones in front of a larger screen on his wall and started a video game, which whisked him from the 19th-century battlefield to a stark futuristic landscape.

Nathaniel Martinez plays the video game Titanfall while a documentary on the Civil War plays on his school laptop during history class.

SPRING: Chicago high schools reopen. But where are the students?

In April, Chicago reopened its high schools, but Leonel opted out of in-person learning. The decision weighed on him: Returning might help him catch up after he and his entire family got sick with COVID, sidelining his studies. But he was too worried about having a panic attack in the building.

By spring, several colleges had accepted Leonel. One admissions counselor, at Arrupe College in Chicago, gave him a call to share the news, sealing the deal. Leonel was drawn to the supportive, small-school feel at the affordable community college within the private Loyola University. Already, Leonel was reaching out to staff there almost every week, forging a bond.

Settling on a college shifted his perspective. After working so hard to achieve this goal, would he really let anxiety keep him away from college classrooms in the fall? Besides, he spent time with his friends for the first time in months and was astounded by the change in his sense of well-being.

“When I am with my friends,” he told his mom, “I forget I have anxiety.”

Leonel decided to go back in person after all. At first, school officials said the deadline had passed. But a couple of weeks later, he got the green light and returned to finish his senior year on campus.

In Chicago, nonprofits that focus on boys and young men of color kicked into gear that spring, questioning how the city can reimagine the way it serves these students. More robust mental health support is top of mind here and nationally.

VOYCE, the group Nathaniel and Derrick work with, has partnered with Lurie Children’s Hospital on a new project called Ujima, in which teen boys of color will weigh in on addressing the mental health needs in their communities.

The school district along with the nonprofit Thrive Chicago and My Brother’s Keeper, one of President Obama’s signature initiatives, are launching a pilot project in the fall to steer more Black and Latino boys to careers in teaching, presenting education as a form of activism, said Sonya Anderson, Thrive’s president.

Maurice Swinney, the Chicago district’s inaugural chief equity officer and now interim education chief, hosted a focus group with Black male students who spoke about the pressure they feel to contribute to family budgets amid the crisis. Swinney says the district is working to cultivate after-school job and internship opportunities that complement students’ long-term goals.

OneGoal adviser Chris Vienna stands for a portrait outside Solorio Academy High School. OneGoal mentors have worked through the pandemic to prepare students like Leonel for the next step after high school.

Vienna, the Solorio adviser, says internet school starkly exposed a chronic failure to teach students skills needed to succeed in college, including advocating for themselves, managing their time, and working independently. Next fall and beyond, he says, schools like Solorio should double down on cultivating these skills.

“Many within education want to go back to business as usual,” Vienna said. “I sincerely hope we don’t.”

That spring, Derrick gave school another try. His mom and school officials teamed up to encourage him, promising teachers would help him get caught up. But his comeback didn’t stick.

He had missed the email inviting him to opt into in-person learning. Once Derrick felt that opportunity would change everything. Now it seemed the moment to seize it had vanished.

In early June, Derrick got an unexpected call from a new mentor his school assigned him: She urged him to enroll in summer school and told him he would go to an alternative high school in the fall. He wants to start taking classes to get licensed to sell life insurance — another crack at his entrepreneurial dream he knows will require a high school degree.

Nathaniel Martinez is still readjusting to the routine of in-person learning, and the school is working to help students catch up after a year away from the classroom.

Across the district, about a third of high schoolers, including Nathaniel, returned to in-person classes. On a crisp Friday morning in late April, his mother, Miriam, dropped him off at Roosevelt, more than a year since he had last been on campus. By then, almost 5,500 people had died of COVID in Chicago.

At first, Nathaniel couldn’t recognize anyone, and no one seemed to want to talk. Still, both mother and son had high hopes for his return.

A month earlier, a furious Miriam had stormed into Nathaniel’s bedroom, holding his first semester grade report. He teared up — the first time he had cried in front of her.

“I don’t want to disappoint you,” he told her, and she softened.

That first day back, Nathaniel’s photo was on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times, with a story in which he and other students argued that Toledo’s killing in a Little Village alley strengthened the case for removing cops from campus. That afternoon, the district announced that it would pull officers from its high schools for the remainder of the school year.

Nathaniel had come into his own as an advocate.

Nathaniel Martinez was among a third of Chicago high schoolers who returned to in-person classes this spring.

But school was another story. Returning to the building two days a week was not a cure-all. He was still trying to relearn the routines of in-person school. Some mornings on his in-person days, he just stayed at home to log on remotely. Roosevelt was working on a plan to help Nathaniel and other students who had remained engaged in learning to get caught up over the summer and into fall.

In early May, Nathaniel again lay awake in the early dawn hours, all his screens dark, sleep still elusive. The coming months loomed: a grueling slog and a thrilling ride rolled into one, make-or-break.

“Nate, you are all over the place,” he admonished himself. “You gotta get back on track.”

Illinois superintendents press state for decision on social distancing, quarantining, masks in schools

2021-06-24T21:43:36+00:00

Illinois superintendents are pressuring the state board of education to release public health guidance immediately as school districts prepare to reopen classroom doors in the fall.

The Large Unit District Association, which represents 52 of Illinois’ largest school districts and more than half a million students throughout the state, sent state superintendent Carmen Ayala a letter this week demanding that the state publish public health guidelines for schools aligned with the Phase 5 reopening plan.

“We request that social distancing, quarantining, and masking guidelines in schools be consistent with health guidelines of Phase 5 as applied to other venues in Illinois,” said the letter.

John Burkey, executive director of the Large Unit District Association, said in an interview with Chalkbeat Chicago that school districts are excited to get students back into classrooms after the pandemic year, but district leaders need immediate guidance to bring back students.

According to Burkey, some school districts are planning to start classes in early August and only have a few weeks to plan for the school year over the summer.

The state board of education passed a resolution in May requiring school districts to reopen in the fall with limited exceptions for remote learning. Since school districts have to operate at full capacity, the letter raises concerns about social distancing, masks and quarantining students who have or are exposed to COVID-19.

“Under the 6-feet social distancing guidelines, it is impossible for most of our schools to operate at 100 percent capacity, “ said the letter. “Using 3-feet social distancing guidelines, full capacity is possible in most cases, but only with significant modifications.”

Echoing similar concerns raised by superintendents during the state board meeting earlier this month, Burkey said current social distancing guidelines will not allow for all students to come back to classrooms. School leaders have also said they will have a hard time planning classroom structure and activities like lunch without new rules.

Most classrooms use tables instead of desks to get young students to work collaboratively, but with current social distancing rules, school districts will have to purchase more desks, Burkey said.

“I have a couple districts that have told me that they’ve got an order for desks ready to go, but they don’t want to buy the desk if the guidance is going to change,” said Burkey. “That’s obviously a wasted expenditure.”

On Tuesday, Ayala said in a weekly message that the state board of education is working with the Illinois Department of Public Health to issue guidance as soon as possible.

Illinois superintendents share grievances over inconsistent COVID guidelines

2021-06-16T23:50:31+00:00

As this school year winds down, Illinois superintendents are looking ahead and trying to make crucial budget decisions as they prepare staff and students to head back to classrooms in late summer and early fall.

That requires clear guidance for the 2021-22 academic year from both the Illinois State Board of Education and the state’s Department of Public Health, several district leaders told the board Wednesday.

At a five-hour-long meeting of the state board, superintendents from several school districts across Illinois pressed for updated guidelines on everything from contact tracing and social distancing to close contact protocols and lunch service.

Adrian Talley, superintendent of Indian Prairie School District 204 — the fourth largest school district in the state — said contract tracing requirements should be changed to fit current public health guidelines.

During the spring, the state allowed schools to place students three feet apart instead of six feet as coronavirus cases decreased. That meant more students could return to school but it also required sending home “hundreds of our children” when a COVID case was suspected in their classrooms, said Talley, whose district in Aurora, Illinois serves more than 26,000 students.

“If it was deemed appropriate to reduce the social distance from six feet to three feet,” Tally said, “then it should be appropriate to change contact tracing.”

Talley also described his struggles with planning for lunch. This school year, his district paid $200,000 to rent tents in which to serve lunch for elementary school students. However, space constraints meant they could not safely serve lunch to high school or middle school students.

In the coming year, Talley plans to serve lunch from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for younger students. But he might need to find new spaces for older students to eat, Talley said. “We may have to repurpose the use of our gyms, because they are bigger than our cafeterias.”

Tents will not be an option for Talley’s school district this year, he said, because they do not provide heat. Instead, the district is looking to purchase 3,000 chairs to make seating available at schools.

Tammy Prentiss, superintendent of Hinsdale High School District 86, which serves about 4,000 students 20 miles west of Chicago, also said social distancing rules should match close contact protocols so schools don’t have to send home students who are in a classroom with a child who might test positive for COVID-19.

As of now, Prentiss says the only way to limit the number of students who will need to quarantine is by testing unvaccinated students and staff weekly, costing an initial payment of $5,000 and an additional $10 per student and staff member for each test.

State schools chief Carmen Ayala said she is working closely with the state department of health to create guidance as quickly as possible.

Last school year, superintendents across the state had to scramble to put together learning plans, buy personal protective equipment and other items, and negotiate with teachers unions to safely reopen classrooms after Ayala and Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced school could reopen in late June when many school districts were closed for the summer.

Districts partially opened classrooms to young learners at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year but went back to remote learning as coronavirus cases surged statewide in the fall. In the spring, districts brought more students into classrooms, including older students, as the state pushed to reopen schools and districts worked to get teachers vaccinated.

Win, lose, or compromise: Clock ticks on key education bills in Springfield

2021-05-27T16:44:09+00:00

After a COVID year and a short lame-duck legislative session, the Illinois legislature has come roaring back with hundreds of bills introduced by its members.

Many bills address problems created or exacerbated by the pandemic, while some have to do with an ambitious push to remap the state’s legislative districts. A number gaining steam this week are education-focused, covering hair discrimination, Asian American history curriculum, and the ongoing debate over whether Chicago should have an elected school board.

In addition to weighing bills to send to the governor’s desk before the legislative session ends May 31, the General Assembly has to decide on the state’s budget. Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed earlier this month adding $350 million in the state’s evidence-based funding formula, after saying that he would keep the budget flat.

With the session set to adjourn Monday, here are the education bills we are closely watching.

Bills with strong momentum in the final week:

Asian-American history curriculum requirement: Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz and Sen. Ram Villivalam introduced a bill, HB0376, that would require schools across the state to teach elementary and high school students about Asian American history. The murder of six Asian women in Atlanta and a rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans galvanized the conversation. Both the House and Senate have passed the bill, which now goes back to the House for a procedural vote before heading to the governor’s desk.

Protecting districts from enrollment drops: Illinois reported a bigger-than-usual decline in enrollment numbers this year: About 35,000 students, or 1.9%, left public schools with significant declines among kindergarten through third-graders. Since state school funding is tied to student enrollment — and to prevent school districts from being penalized due to some possibly pandemic-related declines — this bill, SB0813, would essentially hold districts harmless for recent losses, allowing them to use enrollment figures for the 2020-2021 or 2019-2020 school year, whichever is more advantageous, for the fiscal years 2022-2024. The bill has passed both chambers of the general assembly and is heading to the governor’s office.

Banning hair discrimination in schools: The Jett Hawkins Bill, SB0817, named after a preschool student who was forced to remove his braids at a Chicago private school, would prevent private and public schools, including charter schools, from discriminating against students based on hairstyles historically associated with race, ethnicity, or hair texture. While efforts to ban hair discrimination have surfaced in other states, Illinois’s bill would be one of the more comprehensive measures, extending beyond public school districts. It has cleared the Senate by an overwhelming margin and is currently in the House.

Making up for lost services: HB2748 would allow for special education students who turned 22 during pandemic-related school closures to extend their services through the end of the following school year. In Illinois, students typically lose access to special education services the day before their 22nd birthday. This bill passed the Senate unanimously this week and now heads back to the House for a procedural vote.

Bills with an uncertain future:

Sex education overhaul: This measure would require public schools, including charters, to teach personal health and safety beginning in kindergarten and age-appropriate, medically-accurate comprehensive sexual education, from sixth grade through high school. Lessons would include healthy relationships, anatomy, puberty, gender identity and sexual orientation and identity. Opponents of SB0818 have said local districts should be able to decide the sweep of their curriculum; advocates have said Illinois is now in the minority of states without a comprehensive set of state standards. One point of contention: Whether to require districts to teach consent — the latest amendment suggests they should but does not require it.

Elected school board for Chicago: The clock is ticking on a compromise on an elected school board bill that would establish elections for a 21-person elected board by 2023. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has pushed a different bill that would establish a smaller, hybrid board with some elected members, but a majority of appointees. Rumors of compromise measures have been floating around Springfield, but there has yet to be a consensus. The house version of the bill, HB2908, sponsored by Rep. Delia Ramirez will head to a Senate committee meeting on Wednesday.

Unionizing principals: Chicago’s principals could join colleagues in San Diego and New York and unionize if HB3496 passes. The bill narrows the definition of who is a manager in only one Illinois school district — Chicago — and faces considerable opposition. Proponents argue that unionizing would give principals more flexibility to make decisions. Critics have said it singles out the state’s largest school district and that principals already enjoy considerable autonomy in the district. The bill is slated for a hearing on the Senate floor this week.

Creating bachelor’s programs for early educators at community colleges: This bill, SB1832, aims to tackle high turnover and low pay in the early education industry by establishing bachelors-level early childhood education programs at community colleges across the state. Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, who introduced SB1832, said the goal of compromise discussions is to better bridge community colleges and four-year universities so students may stay in their communities and attend classes at two-year institutions while having some access to university-level coursework.

Bills that have sparked conversation but have a narrow pathway to pass:

Another bill that addresses the public education cutoff that students with disabilities face when they turn 22 22. HB0040 would apply more broadly, extending the time that young adults can receive special education services until the end of the school year. This bill has made it out of committee but time is ticking for broader debate this session.

Update: This story has been updated to reflect that special education transition bill HB2748 replaced another transition bill, SB1821.

How can Illinois schools reconnect with missing students? Text messages, ‘putting on gym shoes’

2021-05-25T14:22:06+00:00

The five siblings had not been logging on to remote school, so Kari Glenn set out to determine why.

They were among the tens of thousands of Illinois children who lost touch with their schools during the pandemic. Their family phone was disconnected; letters yielded no response.

The school referred the case to Glenn, a regional youth outreach coordinator and truancy officer who works in west suburban Kane County. Glenn knocked on the family’s door, but the family had moved. Four addresses later, she found the family bunked up with a relative. A parent had lost a job; the family needed food.

“School is obviously super important, but my goal is to figure out what we need to put in place for families before we even care about school,” said Glenn. “So we take care of all the barriers first. School is the last thing on parents’ minds when they are trying to survive.”

Glenn said connections to a food distribution program and support from a community group nudged the five siblings back to school — an example of how school districts can reconnect with families amid troubling drops in attendance and even enrollment.

That was the topic of a recent conversation hosted by Chalkbeat Chicago, where educators, experts, and students described what’s working, what’s not, and what they need to help families. (Find the video here.)

Panelists included Glenn, who conducts home visits for three Kane County school districts; Jasmine Thurmond, a principal at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy of Social Justice on Chicago’s South Side; Ariel Kalil, a University of Chicago professor and behavioral psychologist who co-directs the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab; and two high school students, Lux Delagarza of Solorio Academy High School and Brenda Levya of Theodore Roosevelt High School.

The problem is still coming into focus. Illinois reported a larger-than-average enrollment drop this year of nearly 36,000 students — nearly 2% of all public school enrollment. Attendance data is harder to come by, but early data show 1 in 5 Chicago high schoolers did not attend school the first week of fourth quarter in April — not appearing virtually or reporting to school buildings as campuses reopened. And nearly 15,000 elementary parents did not respond to reopening surveys leading up to Chicago’s campus reopening.

Panelists agreed there isn’t a one-size-fits-all way to re-engage families, but some efforts appear promising: home visiting, high-frequency text messaging campaigns to parents, in-person school events, even summer camps. Kalil, the U. of C. researcher, described a pre-pandemic study that showed 20% improvement in chronic absenteeism rates among early learning families after 18 weeks of regular text messaging — messages that included everything from encouraging tidbits, to data on how much school students had missed, to what lessons they missed out on.

Leyva and Delagarza, the students on the panel, underscored the value of personal outreach from trusted teachers and in-person social gatherings, even socially distanced and outdoors. “Sometimes you just feel so small compared to how big your school is,” said Delagarza.

“Sometimes you just feel so small compared to how big your school is.”

Thurmond, the Chicago principal, argued that educators need to harness the summer: deploying educators and support staff to community fairs, concerts, and parks with fliers to nudge families, and offering parents and students summer opportunities at school. Her school will offer a four-week summer camp with a dual focus: catching up on academics and rebuilding community through play. “The students I serve are often the most vulnerable,” Thurmond said, whose student body is 98% low-income. “So it’s really important that we get them engaged and comfortable with being in the building.”

During the virtual discussion, panelists also described reconnection campaigns that may be showing diminishing returns. Schools and school districts have to do more than email blasts, robocalls, and truancy letters, they agreed — especially considering the frequency of disconnected phone numbers and how many families moved during the pandemic.

After multiple rounds of emails and phone calls failed to reach some families, “we put on our gym shoes and walked the neighborhood,” said Thurmond. “Nothing is more impactful.”

“We put on our gym shoes and walked the neighborhood. Nothing is more impactful.”

Five- and 10-day truancy letters didn’t do much to convince Delagarza, the Solorio sophomore, to return to remote learning after the weight of the pandemic and isolation became too much and he stopped logging into school. What convinced him: a meeting his mother organized with his teachers.

“They gave me ways to catch up on what I had been missing,” he said. “They (were) understanding and compassionate.”

What became clear during the panel was that schools and districts throughout the state are using different approaches. That presents many advantages — flexibility, tailoring the approach to families and schools — but panelists said more centralized efforts are needed.

Illinois is loosening mask rules — but changes won’t apply to schools, daycares for now

2021-05-18T21:19:59+00:00

Even as the state loosens restrictions for residents who have been vaccinated, officials will continue to require students and educators in Illinois schools and daycares to wear masks.

The state clarified its position on schools after Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Monday that Illinois residents who have been fully vaccinated can stop wearing masks and practicing social distancing in more indoor and outdoor settings, aligning with the Centers for Disease Control’s guidance last week.

Chicago health officials said Tuesday that the city will no longer require fully vaccinated residents to wear masks indoors. According to public health data, 44% of Chicago residents were fully vaccinated as of Monday.

“With public health experts now saying fully vaccinated people can safely remove their masks in most settings, I’m pleased to follow the science and align Illinois’ policies with the CDC’s guidance,” said Pritzker in a press release.

He continued, “I also support the choice of individuals and businesses to continue to mask out of an abundance of caution as this pandemic isn’t over yet.”

Nationally, the debate over mask wearing has become polarized, and schools are caught in the middle. It’s not clear how the new guidance will impact school districts’ summer programming or reopening schools in the fall.

Chicago Public Schools has not yet spelled out its fall requirements and Pritzker’s recent announcement did not address the next academic year.

The chancellor of New York City Schools, Meisha Porter, told Staten Island parents this week that she foresaw continuing masking requirements in the nation’s largest school district into the fall. Meanwhile, Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado announced last Friday that the state will phase out mask requirements in schools, if districts agree.

Chicago reopened high schools this week. Here’s what we’re watching.

2021-04-22T14:12:58+00:00

In the week before her high school reopened for some in-person instruction, principal Melissa Resh found herself up late one evening wrestling with a COVID-era math problem: How many students could safely fit in the hallway of her school at one time?

Her school, Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, had the highest number of students returning for in-person learning among Chicago’s high schools, and the logistical challenges were huge. She had to juggle teachers’ technology needs, staggered school start times and staff schedules.

“‘I’m just so excited that we have students back in the building,” Resh said.

Chicago reopened its high school buildings for the first time Monday, capping off months of parent pleas, stop-and-start labor negotiations and concerns about new COVID-19 variants.

That effort was celebrated by district leaders, who promised at a Monday press conference held at Payton, that the goal is to open all schools to all students five days a week this fall. “I have been fighting to get our kids back since the beginning of the school year,” schools chief Janice Jackson said. “My goal is to have every kid back in school full time.”

We looked at four lingering questions that have come up in the first few days of the reopening, which could affect what in-person school looks like in the coming months:

What safety protocols are specific to high schools?

Opening high schools is more complicated than reopening campuses for elementary or middle grades. High school students change classes more often, which makes it difficult to establish the strict pod structure that elementary and middle schools have adopted to minimize contact.

Instead, school leaders have been instructed to adapt the normal high school routines to the new reality of COVID-19. That can mean staggered entrance times and passing periods, limited time that students can use restrooms, and putting the responsibility for sanitizing desks on students themselves.

All of these measures are set up to ensure that, in the case of a positive COVID-19 test in a high school, the district’s team of contact tracers will be able to make recommendations for who should quarantine.

Right now, the district said there are 12 contact tracers, along with several other employees managing the program, who will be the backbone of Chicago’s COVID-19 alert system in schools, and support for a total of 30 contact tracing positions if additional capacity is needed.

What will the remote experience be like for students staying home or learning online in classrooms?

Chicago school buildings may be open for all students, but remote learning is still a part of most school days.

First, not all students have returned for in-person learning. Some 26,000 high school students were expected to return to in-person classrooms, or 35.6% of eligible students, according to district figures released last week. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s 73,000 eligible high school students will continue learning from home.

And many of the students who opted into in-person learning will continue to learn from home most of the week. The district is implementing a three-tiered reopening schedule that would have students at the biggest high schools returning to buildings as little as one day a week, those at medium-sized schools coming back two days a week, and at smaller schools, students learning in person four days a week.

High school students, along with many parents, have been more vocal on what they’d like to see in school this year and next. Many want the option for schooling five days a week. But students have also said they want less computer time, more access to counselors, and less grading.

For Resh at Payton, creating a school culture that bridges the in-person and remote experiences was important. Teachers at the school used multiple screens to engage with both sets of students, and they held ice breakers and small group discussions to open the door for some social-emotional engagement.

“We wanted to make sure that there was intentional work around community building for at-home and in-person students,” she said. “How does everyone feel connected in that?”

With all school buildings open, can Chicago keep them fully staffed?

After issuing nearly 6,000 remote work accommodations to teachers and other staff in the first stage of reopening this winter, officials called back most teachers this spring, citing broad access to vaccination appointments and the expectation that more students will opt for in-person learning in the fourth quarter.

So far, most information shared publicly shows the district has been able to avoid major staffing crunches. About 90% of the expected in-person high school staff have returned to school buildings, according to district officials. Some schools also have additional support staff and cadre substitutes where needed, part of the 2,000 additional staff the district promised to hire to support reopening.

Jackson, speaking at a press conference to mark high school reopening on Monday, said staffing had certainly been a challenge when reopening elementary schools but was no longer immediately urgent. “We feel extremely confident that we have the staff in our buildings to provide instructional programs,” she said.

School leaders say that having committed in-person staff is crucial, but the complicated day-to-day realities of staffing amid COVID-19 mean that even with most staff returning, having adults where they need them is not a given. In-person staff, including those who are vaccinated, must complete a daily health screener and, if they have any symptoms that might be COVID-19 related, remain home.

That leaves principals to rearrange schedules or pull other teachers to supervise those classes. At Payton, where the vast majority of staff members have returned, Resh said staffing remains her most urgent question.

Preparing for that includes having a schedule showing when certain staff members can fill in for classroom teachers, and having an understanding throughout the building that staff may have to step in to fill those gaps, she said.

“It’s the constant threat,” she said. “How will we put the right adults in the right spaces?”

When and how will students get vaccinated?

With older students more likely to catch and spread COVID-19 than younger students, and Illinois further along in its vaccination efforts than in earlier reopenings, whether high school students would get the shot, and how, was a much bigger part of the school reopening negotiations this spring.

The teachers union made vaccines for students and their families a part of its demands over the high school reopening agreement. In the final agreement, the district agreed to ensure that students and families in the top one-fifth of Chicago communities most vulnerable to COVID-19 could access vaccines, and use district-run clinics to help make it happen. Chicago Public Schools also said it will offer shots at district-run sites to students who are 18 years or older, and work with the union and health department to help students and their families access vaccine opportunities through informational flyers.

That’s on top of broader access: On Monday, Chicago made all adults age 16 and older eligible to receive a vaccine, though snagging vaccines in easy-to-access city sites has been a challenge.

Available doses may not translate immediately into easy access for appointments, especially in Chicago, where the health department head has encouraged residents to drive to nearby Indiana because that state has shorter wait times for an appointment.

Chicago Teachers Union threatens to go back to teaching remotely Wednesday if no high school deal is reached

2021-04-12T13:48:28+00:00

Amid a stalemate in reopening negotiations, the Chicago Teachers Union is threatening a Wednesday labor action in which high school educators would refuse to work from school buildings unless an agreement is reached with the district before then.

That means high school educators will walk into buildings Monday on their planned return date, but would revert to teaching remotely Wednesday if a reopening agreement remains out of reach.

High school students have the option to return to school buildings starting April 19. But some students are supposed to report to classrooms Tuesday to take the SAT.

The resolution, passed Sunday evening by members in the union’s House of Delegates, aims to put pressure on the school district to reach an agreement, with a de facto Tuesday evening deadline before the union’s first labor action.

It’s a tactic reminiscent of the bitter labor dispute between the union and Chicago Public Schools this past winter that delayed elementary and middle school reopening dates several weeks. On social media, some parents lamented another threat of infighting and the potential for fresh disruption.

At a Monday morning press conference, Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said that young people have driven an uptick in COVID-19 infections in the city. The union is pressing the district to make surplus shots at four school-based vaccination sites available to high school students and vulnerable family members. Sharkey stressed that the union wants a program in place to begin vaccinating students before high school buildings reopen — and said the union is not asking that all students are offered shots or that a portion are actually vaccinated.

“We’re asking for some basic safeguards and reassurance we are not pouring gas on the fire,” he said.

Sharkey said that if high school teachers do refuse to report to school buildings Wednesday and the district locks any of them out, that could set off “broadening implications,” presumably affecting in-person instruction for younger students as well.

Union officials criticized the city of Chicago for so far failing to open up vaccinations for teens ages 16 to 18, even as the rest of Illinois and neighboring states have moved to do so (the city has said it plans to expand eligibility Apr. 19 due to supply concerns).

If teachers revert to remote work, it could limit the amount of time they would have to set up their classrooms, potentially delaying the return date for students. Many teachers haven’t returned to their rooms since schools closed last spring.

High school teachers were asked to return to Chicago school buildings on Monday for the first time since schools were first shut down a year ago. But without a labor agreement — and with ongoing questions about how many students will return to in-person learning — there are big questions about what Chicago’s high school reopening will look like.

Initially, district and union officials suggested discussions were promising and had taken on a more collegial tone compared to the protracted battle earlier in the year around reopening elementary and middle campuses.

But that optimism soured last week, with the union publicly raising concerns about reopening high schools amid an uptick in city-wide COVID-19 rates. The district, for its part, has said it is committed to the April 19 reopening date it set a month ago, and believes classrooms can be reopened safely for older students.

An agreement to reopen Chicago’s high schools would cover about 5,000 teachers and paraprofessionals. Educators who were expected in buildings earlier this year but received health accommodations have also been asked to return to classrooms Monday.

Union officials have said they want an agreement that grants educators a remote work day Wednesday, child care and health accommodations for teachers who request them, and a student vaccination plan for ages 16 and older. Chicago Public Schools said they are working with the city’s public health department on such a vaccination plan, but the district has not shared any details.

At the Monday press conference, union officials said high school class schedules and accommodations to allow some members to work remotely still remain sticking points in the talks after the weekend. Still, union leaders underscored the demand for a high school student vaccination plan, saying the district must act decisively to rebuild trust with students and their families.

“Schools are already set up to administer vaccines,” said Mike Smith, a member of the union’s bargaining team. “Why can’t we shift it to the community? That’s what builds trust?”

He said some of his students at Englewood STEM High School have been asking about the possibility of getting vaccinated; some have gotten sick or have seen family members get the disease.

The union is still demanding a weeklong delay in bringing high school students back, though Sharkey said that could change if an agreement with the district is reached quickly.

The back and forth shows how much more complicated it is to open high schools compared to elementary or middle grades. High school students change classes more often, which makes it difficult to establish the strict pod structure that elementary and middle schools have adopted to minimize contact. Older students are also more likely to catch, and transmit, the virus, research shows.

At a union press conference held last week, teachers said they wanted a firmer plan for keeping students and teachers safe. Taft High School teacher Eden McCauslin said she was worried that the district will reopen and “figure it out as we go along.”

Another teacher, Mary Rose O’Shea, said last week at the press conference that educators in her building who requested accommodations hadn’t heard back yet.

A Chicago principal at a small high school, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, said she was prepared to reopen her building for students on April 19, but that effort had been hard won.

She said she learned the date that students would return just as it was released to the general public in mid-March.

While she estimated that the majority of her staff will return to work in person, she only learned who had received accommodations after spring break, setting off a two-week scramble to find additional staff or shift schedules to fill those gaps. “That doesn’t give me a lot of time to make alternative plans,” she said.

Only around a third of her students said they would be returning to in-person learning for the fourth quarter. That’s in line with the district average: among the city’s 72,947 high school students, 35.6% said they would return, 45.3% said they would continue to learn at home, and 7.5%, or nearly 2,000 families, didn’t reply.

Because it is a relatively small school, her building will be open for students four days a week. Her message to families, and the district, is that principals need to be included earlier in reopening plans for the process to run smoothly.

She suspects that some families opted out of in-person learning because she didn’t have answers to some of their questions about school safety. “The reason we don’t have a lot of answers for them,” she said, “is because we learned about high school reopening at the town halls, the same way they learned about it.”

Buildings have been open for pre-K to eighth grade, and some elementary school students, since March. About 1 in 4 Chicago elementary and middle school students came for in-person learning.

District leaders have said that they are determined to reopen high school buildings to students this school year, and the district’s elementary and middle school reopening has paved the path for returning high school students to classrooms.

Still, even when students return to the classroom, the complicated nature of remote work accommodations and class setups to reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 infections mean that many students will still be learning online. A survey by a Chicago’s principals group says students in as many as one-third of reopened classrooms may have an educator teaching virtually from home — and this scenario is much more common in schools that serve primarily Black and Latino students.

Essence-Jade Gatheright, a senior at Lindblom Math & Science Academy, is sticking with remote learning through the remainder of the school year. Remote learning has been “extremely hard,” she said, and she didn’t feel she received enough support with college applications or enough guidance on school work. But with COVID-19 rates rising again in the city, she doesn’t feel safe returning to the building and doesn’t fully trust the district with mitigation measures.

Still, she expects the district’s high school reopening will affect her as well. She doesn’t think teachers juggling in-person and virtual students will be able to engage with students learning remotely as much.

“I can’t see this getting any better,” she said. “It’s just not ideal for anyone.”

Talks between union officials and district leadership were expected to resume Monday.

Illinois, Chicago differ on whether seniors need SAT to graduate

2021-03-18T22:24:08+00:00

Now that the Biden Administration has said that states must administer standardized tests, Illinois is looking for ways to get creative: It’s giving districts the option of pushing standardized tests to the fall and offering most seniors an out on SAT testing.

But Chicago Public Schools will still require some of its current 12th graders who haven’t taken the exam to sit for it, upsetting some parents. Seniors will have to take the exam April 13.

The difference in opinion over whether students should take the high-stakes college entrance exams comes as the coronavirus pandemic has upset the schedule for testing. Some colleges around the country are not requiring test scores for admission. Also, some families fear for students to head back to campus to take the exam.

Jonathan Goldman, whose daughter is a 12th grader at Jones College Prep in downtown Chicago, said Chicago’s testing requirement doesn’t make sense. His daughter took the SAT in the fall of her junior year prior to applying for college. But she will have to take the exam again because the state’s guidelines say that only in-school SAT exams allow students to meet the graduation requirement, not tests they might have taken previously. Goldman’s daughter will have already heard from each college she applied to prior to the April 13 testing date, he said.

“Colleges recognize the uniqueness of the situation this year. So many colleges have gone to test optional in terms of their admissions practices. If they see that there’s no point in having the kids take these tests this year I don’t know why CPS can’t,” Goldman said.

He continued, “Having her take the test now serves no purpose whatsoever and is potentially a threat to her health.”

According to the state’s guidance, current 12th graders will not need the test to graduate. Current 11th graders may choose to take the exam this spring or in the fall. The essay portion of the SAT has been waived for all students. Freshmen and sophomores will not have to take the PSAT in the spring or fall.

The state board of education said it planned to petition the federal government for maximum flexibility on timing, the number of students required to sit for each test and how exam data is used. If approved by the federal government, this will allow for school districts to have flexibility on when to administer tests, and data from the exam will not be used to punish school districts.

State Superintendent Carmen Ayala said during Wednesday’s board of education meeting that the majority of school districts have elected to administer tests in the spring. Of high school districts, 95% choose to administer the SAT in the spring.

Since the testing window for school districts has been extended to the fall, Ayala predicted that the state report card will be released mid-December or sometime in January instead of October.

The board said that it would pursue accountability waivers immediately after the U.S. Department of Education released guidance in late February calling for states to administer standardized tests this school year. The department said that states can request to shorten assessments, provide tests remotely, or extend the time students can sit for the exam.

However, district leaders and advocates were hoping that Illinois would be able to waive state assessments as schools are in the process of reopening school buildings to students.

As of Monday, the state board of education is reporting that about 1.7 million of the state’s students are doing some in-person learning — with more than 1.3 million students in a blended learning model and almost 360,000 attending school in person full time. More than 200,000 students are fully remote.

In class but onscreen: Chicago’s return to school buildings brings new tradeoffs

2021-03-05T22:07:22+00:00

Anika Matthews’ daughter returned to her Chicago elementary school this week, thrilled to reunite with peers and educators after almost a year of learning in front of a computer screen.

Back in the classroom at National Teachers Academy on the city’s South Side, she fired up her tablet and logged back into her virtual classroom.

For half the day, the fourth grader learns with an educator teaching from home and a teaching assistant supervising in the classroom. For the rest, another teacher and her classmates in the room log on to virtual classes with peers who chose to continue learning remotely.

With roughly a third of Chicago teachers currently working from home, the scenario of in-person students learning with a virtual teacher has been one of the inevitable compromises families and educators have faced during this week’s transition to in-person learning for Chicago’s elementary schools.

Some principals worry that such a scaled-back version of classroom learning fails to deliver its full benefits and that disparate versions of what in-person instruction looks like across schools will lead to inequitable outcomes. District officials cannot say how common these arrangements are, but they have led some families to sit out in-person learning for now.

But some parents and school leaders say in some cases, the arrangement seems to be working out more smoothly than expected, and students are responding positively.

“Just being in the classroom with other students, being able to discuss and laugh together — that experience is way better than being at home alone,” Matthews said. “It’s a really good benefit for her soul.”

Under its reopening agreement with its teachers union, the district has granted accommodations to work from home to roughly a third of the 10,800 teachers expected to return to school buildings so far. As of earlier this week, the district had hired just more than half of the 1,000 promised cadre substitute teachers and about 700 of planned support staffers to help reopen schools.

“So-called in-person learning”

Troy LaRaviere, the president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, addressed the district’s school board last week to caution that staffing issues at some schools could impact the quality of in-person instruction. The former principal said many students will return to their campuses, “only to sit in a classroom and look at a screen so they can learn from a teacher who’s teaching from home.”

“The CEO and the mayor are not mentioning that extremely important fact when they talk to the public about reopening, which puts principals in a horrendous situation with parents,” he told the board.

No one appears to know how common the scenario is. LaRaviere says he does not have data. Nor did LaTanya McDade, the district’s academics chief. In an interview this week, McDade said that schools have worked to adjust schedules and student rosters so that, when possible, remote teachers work with remote students and vice versa. But when students in person are learning with a teacher logging in virtually, McDade said the goal is to make the most of the adult supervising in the room, looking for opportunities for small-group and one-on-one work.

“Of course, the ideal situation is to ensure that all of our students in person have a teacher in front of them in person,” she said.

On some online family forums this week, some families said they decided to stick with fully virtual learning when they realized their students would be in the classroom two days a week with teachers working from home.

Two principals, who spoke with Chalkbeat anonymously because the district had not authorized interviews, said staffing has been a central challenge. They both said lean staffing and a substitute teacher shortage were “pre-existing conditions” worsened by the pandemic, as one school leader put it. Both were able to offer four days of in-person learning to at least some students who returned, given small enough groups of students in each classroom. But they were not able to ensure a certified teacher in front of students in each classroom.

The principal at one West Side school said a special education classroom assistant, a substitute teacher or one of the miscellaneous support staff the district hired is in the classroom overseeing learning while students are on their computers with their teachers. The principal said it’s especially disappointing not to be able to offer in-person support from certified teachers to students with special needs, who were often the ones struggling the most with virtual learning: All of the school’s special education resource teachers got accommodations.

A North Side school principal said the school has been able to line up substitute teachers for classrooms whose teachers are virtual, but the substitutes are not versed in the curriculum and often lack technology skills to assist with online learning. The school has not had the time or staff available to train them. Besides, the school has experienced sluggish internet connections as the number of students logging on has strained its bandwidth.

“I wish we had more staff to fully support the experience of students who took that leap and returned,” the principal said. “If we’re talking about equity, I don’t feel this is equitable. All students should have a certified teacher in front of them in the classroom.”

Still, the principals said they feel the return to the classroom has still been worthwhile, giving students an important social and emotional boost. The West Side principal said virtual instruction in the classroom is working better than expected. For instance, one kindergarten teacher worked solo with almost 30 students in a remote class earlier this year. Now, some of those students are in the classroom with her on the screen — and another adult is in person who can troubleshoot, answer questions in real time, oversee some small group learning and build a connection with them.

The principal said the more common district scenario — in which teachers are back in the classroom working with students in person while some students log in from home — has proved more challenging. Educators have shared they are struggling to engage their remote students effectively.

Wendy Oleksy, the principal at Columbus Elementary in Ukrainian Village, said classrooms are being supervised in person by new support staffers who don’t have teaching credentials. She brought them in early to go over classroom management tips and other preparation.

“In every email with parents, the message is, ‘Please expect changes, flexibility, understanding,’” she said. “We have put it out there, and things might change again.”

A spark for learning

Matthews, the National Teachers Academy mother, said her fourth grader handled remote learning well academically, keeping up her grades and attendance. But she sorely missed the social aspects of school in person.

“She practically ran into the school that first morning,” Matthews said. “When she came out of the school, you could see her joy.”

At National Teachers Academy, fourth graders have separate social studies and math/science educators, so her daughter’s class has a teacher in person for half the school day and a remote teacher during the other half, with a teaching assistant in the classroom. The girl spoke excitedly about recess and lunch with her classmates.

One of those classmates is Beth Van Opstal’s daughter. Van Opstal, who is a pediatrician, said it was important to her family that all teachers at the schools who wanted to work from home were accommodated. Even with a teacher logging in from home, students still get to interact with peers and get guidance from adults in the room.

“We are still in a pandemic and making the best of it,” she said. “Nothing is going to be perfect.”

Van Opstal’s prekindergarten son has been in the same situation since January. His teacher is projected on a screen, while a teaching assistant and a long-term substitute teacher are overseeing learning in the classroom. The arrangement seems to be working out well: Her son talks about his teacher as though she is in the classroom.

Alyssa Choate, who has a first grader at Oscar Mayer Magnet School on the North Side, said her school’s principal wanted to avoid assigning remote teachers for in-person students. Chaote’s family faced a tough decision: To return to campus, her daughter would have to switch teachers and classrooms. Her daughter insisted she wanted to go back to school.

The classroom is different. In contrast to the hands-on, collaborative Montessori approach the school typically practices, desks are spaced six feet apart, lunch is eaten behind plexiglass dividers, and recess is held within an area for each student marked with chalk. But Choate said her first grader has been thrilled to be back.

“I was up at night wondering if we made the right decision,” she said. “Seeing her joy and excitement and spark for learning return has been so reassuring.”

District leaders have said that as the pace of teacher and staff COVID-19 vaccinations picks up, they expect more employees will return to campuses during the school year’s final quarter. Schools leaders say they, too, are hopeful more students will return in April, and more teachers and staff will be back after receiving vaccines.

“I know students are struggling at home,” the West Side principal said. “We see it in their grades and attendance.”

Cassie Walker Burke contributed to this report.

Biden has said spring testing will happen. What’s next for Illinois?

2021-02-25T23:30:40+00:00

Illinois is among several states that petitioned the federal government to delay standardized testing another year amid the pandemic. Now that the federal government has said testing must happen, what’s next?

The Illinois State Board of Education says it now will pursue waivers where it can, including for school ratings. The state also hopes to get permission to bypass the 95% participation requirement for federally required standardized tests, which would mean districts could test fewer students.

“While we had advocated for blanket waivers of federally required assessments this spring, we are committed to providing you with every possible support and flexibility to ensure a safe and equitable assessment administration,” said state Superintendent, Carmen Ayala, in a statement to school district administrators.

This announcement comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Education’s guidance that states across the country must administer standardized tests this school year. In the department’s letter, states can request to shorten assessments, provide tests remotely, or extend the time students can sit for the exam.

The board of education had been debating whether or not they should have standardized tests this school year amid the coronavirus pandemic. While advocates have been pushing for tests without accountability measures to account for learning loss, superintendents around Illinois have been pushing back against standardized testing citing the difficulties that schools face with reopening.

Over 600 of the state’s superintendents — accounting for almost two-thirds of Illinois schools districts — signed a letter urging the state department of education not to go forward with spring testing because they are struggling to reopen school districts. Many families are not comfortable yet with sending their children to classrooms, and there aren’t guarantees that all staff have opportunities for vaccinations.

As of Feb. 24, the state board of education reported that about 1.7 million of the state’s students are doing some in-person learning — with more than 1.3 million students in a blended learning model and about 350,000 in person full time. More than 200,000 students are fully remote.

Illinois sees bigger than expected drop in K-12 student enrollment this year

2021-02-18T23:25:05+00:00

During an unusual school year, Illinois public schools saw student enrollment drop in greater numbers than expected, according to recent projections by the state board of education.

The state said Thursday during a monthly board meeting that an estimated 35,822 students, or 1.9%, left public schools this year, exceeding a projected drop of about 20,000 students, or about 1.1%. Between 2015 and 2020, Illinois schools have seen enrollment drop an average of 1% per year, the board said.

Many states have reported enrollment losses during the pandemic, even those that typically see a boost every year. A fall analysis by Chalkbeat and The Associated Press looked at kindergarten to 12th grade enrollment data from 33 states that showed that school districts lost 500,000 students, or about 2%, since the same time last year.

Chicago Public Schools announced an enrollment decline of about 4% in October — the sharpest enrollment decline in two decades.

Across the state, kindergarten through third grade enrollment saw significant declines, while middle schools and high schools saw modest or low declines. Kindergarten enrollment declined by 7.8%, first grade by 4.6%, and second and third grades by more than 3%.

While enrollment fell among all four of the largest race/ethnicity groups — Asian, Black, Latino, and white — the drop was steepest among white students. The board had estimated a decline of 52.5%, but instead numbers of white students fell by 71.4%, or 35, 471 schoolchildren. Between 2015 to 2020, Black and white student numbers remained steady or had modest declines, while Asian and Latino students saw an increase in enrollment. This year, Asian student enrollment dropped by 3.2% and Latino students declined by 13.6%.

Enrollment is a key factor for new evidence-based funding from the state. Currently, school districts will not be penalized for losing students and will retain current funding. However, they will not be eligible for any additional funding.

Keeping the state education budget flat for another year due to the coronavirus pandemic means that school districts will not receive additional funding even if they see an influx of students once the pandemic subsides. This could create budget shortfalls for districts that saw enrollment fall sharply.

“Districts that have an influx of students will be provided funding based upon a percentage of adequacy from the prior year when they had a lesser enrollment due to the pandemic,” said Robert Wolfe, chief financial officer of the state board.

“We’ll have disharmony between the resources that are provided and the actual student population that that school district is going to have to provide services for.”

Board members said they suspected students were lost to homeschooling, private schools, or public school districts in other states. Currently the state board does not require non-public schools to provide enrollment data, nor does it require homeschooling families to register with the state, making it difficult to determine where students went. School districts can identify where students transferred, and there is a voluntary form for homeschooled students to complete.

Pritzker’s proposed budget keeps Illinois school funding flat for a second year

2021-02-17T18:21:15+00:00

Illinois will not increase its budget for education for a second year despite advocates’ concerns that a stagnant budget could make it difficult to address lost learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Facing down a $3 billion budget deficit, Gov. J.B. Pritzker laid out plans Wednesday for a 2022 state operating budget of $41.7 billion that does not increase taxes for residents but relies on hiring freezes and the closure of a series of corporate tax loopholes. The state’s education budget for kindergarten to 12th grade will remain stagnant at almost $9 billion with no increase to the evidence-based funding formula.

The budget plan keeps funding for early learning and higher education mostly flat, too, but the governor outlined Wednesday some modest increases to the Monetary Award Program, or MAP, that provides grants for low-income college students.

Pritzker said that in drafting his budget proposal he prioritized agencies on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response that are addressing public health and unemployment. Ultimately, schools will see a boost of funding, he said, due to $2.8 billion in emergency federal dollars for education.

“In March of 2020, I promised schools that they wouldn’t lose funding because of the pandemic, and this budget keeps that promise. The federal government has made extraordinary efforts to support schools during this time, with $2.8 billion allocated to schools thus far – and more is expected,” Pritzker said.

“No schools will have to reduce spending,” he promised, “and they can instead focus on meeting the needs of students who have tried to learn in a chaotic and trying time.”

Pritzker also said Wednesday he hoped that schools would use some federal emergency dollars to “follow the Biden plan for restoring safe in-person learning.”

The proposed budget will head to the state’s general assembly to be approved in the March legislative session.

Pritzker’s proposal to keep the state education budget flat comes at a critical time for schools. Last month, the Illinois State Board of Education recommended that the state increase the almost $9 billion budget by $412 million for the next school year to adequately fund schools statewide and help districts deal with potential learning loss from school shutdowns and uneven remote learning experiences.

With no new money for the funding formula, some advocates are worried about longer-term disruption to a bipartisan effort to direct more money toward public education after years of chronic underfunding. In 2017, the state revamped the way it funds school districts, earmarking additional money each year to systems with the highest need. Key to that effort was a bipartisan promise to grow the state’s education budget by at least $350 million a year. This is the second straight year that no more new money will be added to the formula.

Whether the state could see a third round of federal funding for schools, and end up meeting that pledge, remains unclear.

Public education advocates warn that plugging gaps with federal funding shortchanges an underfunded system at a time when costs are rising due to the coronavirus response. Superintendents have said they must spend more on smaller class sizes, cleaning and sanitizing schools, hiring contact tracers, and other health and safety protocols related to the pandemic.

“It is true that there are federal funds coming to help schools reopen,” said Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois, a nonprofit policy and advocacy organization. But, she adds, “we have got to get state dollars to do the deeper structural work. What you can’t do with federal funds is make long-term staffing changes and programmatic changes that school districts need in order to truly serve children well and close equity gaps.”

Steans acknowledged Pritzker’s record as an advocate for public education and the extent of the financial challenges facing the state. The governor pledged to invest more money in public schools last year — but that pledge hinged on voters approving a graduated income tax that would have raised income taxes on the wealthiest residents. It was expected to bring an additional $1.4 billion in revenue annually. Voters did not pass the amendment.

Mimi Rodman, executive director for Stand for Children, said that not increasing the budget is actually a budget cut because it does not account for inflation and, with two years of cuts, it will limit the kinds of resources available to students.

“The extent of learning loss for students in Illinois is going to continue to be revealed over the next few months. We don’t even know about the impacts on social emotional learning, reading and math across the state and across different demographics,” said Rodman.

She continued, “If we can, right now, renew our commitment to stay with the promise of the evidence-based funding formula, we are also investing and addressing those future disparities before they start revealing themselves.”

Public education advocates throughout the country have warned that the coronavirus pandemic will have major consequences on states’ education budgets. However, those dire warnings have yet to materialize as the federal government so far has passed two stimulus efforts that included emergency money for schools.

Governors in some other states have also proposed flat education budgets or spending plans that similarly rely on federal emergency money to help make up for budget shortfalls. Tennessee’s budget largely remains flat, but the budget includes modest raises for teachers. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo cut state contributions for schools but said additional federal dollars would actually yield budget increases.

Majority of Illinois school superintendents sign letter against spring testing

2021-02-05T22:07:56+00:00

With the pressure mounting on the Biden administration to decide whether states can waive spring tests, the majority of Illinois superintendents have signed a letter opposing spring assessments.

More than 600 superintendents — representing more than two-thirds of Illinois school districts and over a million students — statewide have signed the letter, which says that while school leaders welcome accountability, they have concerns about administering tests during a pandemic.

“We are working diligently to get a larger portion of students back into schools for in-person instruction, working to address the social and emotional, and academic, needs of our students which includes plans to address lost opportunities, getting staff and community members vaccinated, and serving as a lifeline for so many members of our communities,” says the letter.

Many school districts in the state are in the process of reopening school buildings. The state is currently reporting that more than a million students in Illinois are participating in remote learning, about 925,000 have the option of some in-person learning.

The state’s top educator backs the superintendents’ call. On Friday, state Superintendent Carmen Ayala wrote her own letter to school district leaders to say that the state also will be advocating for the U.S Department of Education to provide waivers for the spring 2021 assessments. If they do, Illinois plans to apply for one.

“We believe it is more important to focus on supporting our students’ transition back to in-person learning, than to focus on assessments. Our focus belongs on building our students’ reconnection with their teachers and re-engagement in learning in the classroom,” Ayala wrote in the letter.

Depending on what the federal government decides, the state has said that districts can push testing timelines back to mid-March.

This week, Biden’s pick for education secretary, Miguel Cardona, has been sending mixed messages on his position on spring assessments. While he does not feel that students need to be brought into school buildings to be tested, he believes that students should be assessed.

“If we don’t assess where our students are and their level of performance, it’s going to be difficult for us to provide targeted support and resource allocation in the manner that can best support the closing of the gaps that have been exacerbated due to this pandemic,” Cardona said.

Some national education advocates are pushing the federal government to continue with state assessments. In a joint letter to the federal Department of Education, groups like The Education Fund, National Center for Learning Disabilities, National Urban League, and others said that assessing student learning is key to ensuring that students have the resources they need to recover from learning loss during the pandemic.

“As state leaders, policymakers, and families continue to navigate this uniquely challenging time and take steps to accelerate learning, it is imperative that they have accurate information on how students are performing, so that scarce resources can be directed to the students, schools and districts that need them most,” the letter said.

States use testing data to assess overall academic achievement and to focus on the performance of a variety of groups, including students who live in poverty, English language learners, and students with disabilities. In Illinois, the data is used to help draft district improvement plans and to send more money to districts with pronounced test-score gaps. Without the data, it’s not clear how states will decide how to financially support districts that need the most help.

Some Illinois school districts are pressing ahead with reopening despite slow vaccine rollout

2021-02-03T23:24:05+00:00

Algonquin School District 300 reopened school buildings for all students on Jan. 11. With so many questions and unknowns around the COVID-19 vaccine then, the union decided not to make it a sticking point in its talks with the school district.

“It’s the managerial right among administration to say, ‘This is how we’re going to do the opening.’ They told us they were reopening on the 11th. We tried to figure out how to make it as safe as possible,” said Mark Williamson, president of the Local Education Association District 300.

Williamson said the union did suggest waiting to reopen schools until the vaccine was available but there were too many questions regarding the rollout. Chief among them: how long it would take for teachers to be fully vaccinated, given the current three- to four-week waiting period before the second dose is administered. Also, the district had experimented with reopening schools safely in September and both sides felt that doing so on a larger scale was possible given that the region has not had a lot of COVID-19 cases.

Vaccination of Algonquin’s teachers is underway. The state cleared teachers and other essential workers to receive doses on Jan. 25. Williamson said teachers received their first shots earlier than expected because there were leftovers from the first phase of vaccinations, which included frontline workers and those in long-term care facilities. The local public health department plans to roll out more doses for district teachers on Feb. 8.

In Chicago, where a reopening debate has captured national interest, the union has argued that schools shouldn’t reopen until vaccinations are widespread. But vaccinations haven’t appeared to be a wedge issue in other Illinois districts trying to reopen schools. Some are too worried about the slow rollout or supply issues complicating their timeline. Others have been small enough to direct excess supply to teachers already or develop strong communication plans. What’s more, unlike in Chicago, teachers unions haven’t overwhelmingly pushed the issue either.

Steve Grossman, president of North Suburban Teachers Union, said the union was not able to get agreements that it wanted for all the school districts in which it represents teachers. The union represents 2,000 educators across the northern suburbs of Chicago with 16 councils to represent those schools. Some school districts have been open since August.

“We put a big emphasis on making sure that teachers were at the table with the school district to negotiate the terms of reopening. It was very mixed in terms of which councils had leverage to get better deals and which school districts were more open minded about safe openings,” said Grossman.

In Niles Township High School District 2019, a robust communication campaign helped ease teachers’ concerns, Grossman said. The district, which is located in Skokie and serves over 4,500 students between two high schools, has been remote the entire year with plans to reopen with a hybrid learning model on March 1.

Pankaj Sharma, a social science teacher at Niles North High School and vice president of the union, has said that Skokie’s public health department has worked closely with the district to vaccinate teachers and support staff for the last few weeks.

“The public health department notified Skokie schools, the schools then sent emails to their teachers, once someone saw that email they started texting all of their friends. You know, you’d send a text to all your colleagues like, ‘Hey it’s live. Sign up now if you can,’” Sharma said.

As a teacher who will be heading back into the classroom, Sharma said he and his colleagues are excited to get back into a classroom, even though it will be a challenge to teach students in person and those who chose to stay remote.

In addition to the challenges of remote learning, Sharma wants to ensure that the district and teachers are able to make families feel comfortable with their decision to come back to classrooms or stay home.

“Some of my students are very excited and looking forward to coming back and some aren’t. They are nervous and not feeling comfortable and have chosen not to come back yet,” he said. “ I think it’s really important that we all respect where our students and their families are.”

While school districts and unions are concerned about receiving vaccines, there has yet to be word of when families can expect students to get vaccinated.

The state is currently reporting that over a million of Illinois students are participating in remote learning, while 725,000 students are doing hybrid learning and fewer than 200,000 are in person.

Other states throughout the country also are including vaccination in their school reopening plans. Colorado’s governor moved up the date for teachers to receive vaccines to Feb. 8. Tennessee expects to vaccinate teachers sometime this month or in March and they plan to recruit school nurses to administer the vaccine to teachers and staff at schools. In New Jersey, the Newark school district plans to vaccinate teachers this month and expects that all teachers will be vaccinated by April when schools are slated to open.

On Wednesday, the educator advocacy group Educators for Excellence released a survey that showed only a slight majority of all teachers (56%) rated the vaccine as “critically important” to feel comfortable in a safe return to classrooms. They were more concerned with sanitized schools, personal protective equipment, and consistent plans for testing, contact tracing, quarantining.

As Elgin reopens, teachers raise questions about safety, missing data

2021-01-26T23:04:54+00:00

Elgin, the state’s second largest school district, reopened school buildings this month to kindergarten to 12th grade students for some in-person instruction, but the teachers union has raised new safety concerns and asked for missing student data.

Elgin’s reopening, and labor clashes in other Illinois districts such as Cicero, show that even when districts reopen, they are continually confronting unprecedented questions and challenges.

Union leaders raised questions at Monday’s board meeting, saying they needed more data about who attends in-person classes, how many students are in school buildings, and the number of students switching from hybrid to remote learning.

“Without this data we cannot have honest discussions about the state of the hybrid instruction, the grade level transition committees need to see the data to understand how the hybrid system continues to operate, and to work with the district accordingly to make additional improvements, if needed,” Barb Bettis, president of the Elgin Teachers Association, said.

The district has reported that 50% of students signed up for hybrid learning, which includes some in-person instruction, while 50% of students have continued remote learning. The district brought all grades back to school campuses throughout this month — kindergarten to sixth grade returned the week of Jan. 11, middle school to 10th grade came back the week of Jan. 18, and high school juniors and seniors arrived Jan. 25.

Attendance reports from larger districts such as Chicago and New York have shown that fewer students than anticipated actually reported for in-person learning. In Chicago, only 60% of prekindergarten and special education students who said they were returning to campuses did.

Superintendent Tony Sanders described the district’s reopening as a success. He said a few classrooms have returned temporarily to remote learning because of lack of staff or quarantining from exposure to COVID-19.

“The past two weeks have gone pretty well. I can’t thank our teachers enough for their dedication to their craft and welcoming students back into their classrooms. It’s been a joy to see kids actually following our protocols, masking up, I have not seen issues with students wearing masks,” he said Monday evening.

Jose Rosa, a teacher, said the district wanted to create a hybrid system that would bring students back to school, especially Latino students, who make up a majority of the district’s student population. But he said he has not seen a lot of Latino students returning to classrooms for in-person instruction.

“Our schools are empty because the community doesn’t feel safe,” Rosa said.

He asked the board to talk to Latino parents about their concerns and to go to schools to see how many students are actually in classes.

Scott Sternal, vice president of Elgin Teachers Association, questioned the board on excused absences for teachers who have compromised immune systems or live with family members who would be the most vulnerable to COVID-19.

“We have members who were encouraged to fill out paperwork to get accommodations and those were denied. They were told to fill out (family and medical leave) paperwork, and those were denied. It seems that at every turn, when we have had the opportunity to do what is right, we have chosen to do the thing that puts more stress on our teachers,” he said.

In addition to accessing student data, Bettis asked the board to clarify for the union what’s happening with contract tracing and sick days because teachers are not sure when to call in a sick day and how quickly teachers will be notified if there is a COVID-19 case.

Olivia Howell, student advisor to the board and a 12th grader at South Elgin High School, said that she was excited to go back to school and felt safe.

“Today was the first day that I could go back to school since March. Believe it or not, I could not wait to sit at a desk again. I was a little nervous at first, but I just wanted to let people know that at South Elgin all safety protocols were followed. As a student, I felt really safe at school,” she said.

State school board members raise concerns about Illinois’ proposed high school graduation requirements

2021-01-22T23:05:24+00:00

Should Illinois put into place more stringent high school graduation requirements amid a pandemic and a teacher shortage?

Some state board of education members this week raised concerns about one of the proposals in an ambitious education bill that is heading to the governor’s desk. The Black legislative caucus passed a bill that would require high schoolers to take two years of a world language, two years of laboratory science and a course with computer literacy — matching general admission requirements at the University of Illinois. The new requirements could go into effect as early as the 2024-2025 school year.

The bill has not yet been signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Susan Morrison, chair of the education policy planning committee, was concerned about whether school districts would have enough educators to teach the required classes as the state is facing a teacher shortage, especially of world language teachers.

“I know an elementary school in our area who was looking for an immersion program, which I would strongly urge support at the elementary level. They couldn’t find a second language teacher so they could continue to have that program,” she said.

Morrison recommended that the board assess its current high school graduation requirements before adding more onto local school districts, teachers and students.

And while college prep programs might be a priority for some students, state school board member Christine Benson, a former educator, said not all students want to go that track.

“I’m looking at all the [career and technical education] people who have worked so hard to get away from college prep being the only image that you go for, and we forget, we have students with all decisions to make to their passions, and we’re not allowing them to make these decisions,” she said.

Donna Leak, a state school board member who is superintendent of Community Consolidated Schools District 168, agreed with Morrison and Benson, saying that high schools have worked hard to create tracks for students to ensure that their courses match their career goals.

The bill would mandate changes to all of Illinois schools. Chicago, the state’s largest school district, made those changes in the mid-1990s, but the transition was bumpy and, in some cases, had negative consequences for students.

Elaine Allensworth, director at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, said that many schools in Chicago were not prepared to drastically change their curriculum to a college preparatory curriculum. Schools did not have enough teachers who could teach college preparatory classes and the quality of instruction went down.

“For students who would have been taking more of the general classes they actually became more likely to fail,” said Allensworth.

To avoid that, Allensworth recommended providing students with support to succeed in their classes and more close monitoring of student performance.

One learning strategy Allenworth mentioned is giving students with weaker skills in one subject another class with the same teacher. For example, if a student struggled with math concepts, that student would take a math class in the morning and a second class with the same teacher in the evening. That student will have a chance to catch up with their peers and keep the first class on the same pace.