Chalkbeat

Illinois education advocates grow more divided on Pritzker’s impending federal tax-credit program choice

2026-08-27T20:12:37+00:00

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An increasingly vocal contingent of Illinois education advocates, including a Chicago school board member, are calling on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to opt into the Trump administration’s federal tax-credit scholarship program.

Pritzker has about four months to decide whether he plans for Illinois to join the federal program, which offers tax credits to individuals who make donations toward private and public schools. The looming decision has created a growing schism between school advocacy groups, as some see the program as an opportunity to better fund Illinois schools while others worry it will just funnel more money into private schools.

One of the most prominent declarations against Illinois joining the Trump administration’s initiative was from the Chicago Board of Education itself. Earlier this year, it decisively passed a non-binding resolution urging the state not to opt in. However, in a noteworthy break from most of the school board, Angel Gutierrez — the only member who was absent from the vote — came out in support of Illinois’ program participation at a Thursday news conference outside South Loop Elementary School.

“I think it was politically driven,” Gutierrez told reporters, referencing the board’s resolution. “But I think that, in the space and place that we’re in now, we have to be really cognizant of any type of potential dollars that may help and directly benefit the students.”

Republican lawmakers included the creation of the federal tax-credit scholarship program in President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” last year. The initiative, called the “Education Freedom Tax Credit,” is meant to promote school choice nationwide. Taxpayers can choose to contribute up to $1,700 originally owed in federal income taxes to an education-related scholarship organization.

But the major caveat to the program that has fueled debate is the critical role of governors in choosing to opt into the program. If a governor — or whatever government entity has authority to make the choice — doesn’t decide to join, students in that state won’t be eligible to receive money generated from the program.

In Illinois, a Democratic stronghold, many advocacy groups approached the program with skepticism. Those who have come out against participating point to the intentions behind the initiative — creating an environment that drives more families toward private schools — as evidence that it will not provide equitable outcomes for public schools. It could also exacerbate existing disparities in funding, as wealthier school districts are more likely to get contributions from their families than poorer districts.

Some Illinoisans may be familiar with previous efforts this year to sway Pritzker to join, most notably a ballot measure campaign in more than 20 counties from Illinois Policy Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank. Other education officials at Gutierrez’ news conference argued that the program will roll out with or without Illinois’ participation, meaning donations for education organizations would wind up out-of-state.

“It indeed is a set, settled, and passed law at this point. We’re not interacting with it in terms of advocating for or against it, “ said Joshua Stafford, superintendent of Vienna High School in southern Illinois. “Instead, each state now gets to make a determination, and that determination really boils down to whether boys and girls and schools are going to be able to participate in this opportunity.”

Joshua Stafford, superintendent of Vienna High School in southern Illinois, speaks at a press conference in support of Illinois’ participation in the tax-credit program at a Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, news conference outside South Loop Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois.

Statewide education advocacy organizations are also backing Illinois’ participation in the program, including Stand for Children Illinois, a group that aims to improve children’s access to public schools.

Jessica Handy, Stand for Children’s executive director, acknowledged in a virtual news conference earlier this month that the federal initiative was not made with educational equity in mind. Instead, Handy suggested Illinois avoid using the program as designed and implement “creative and innovative approaches” to prioritize equitable access for all students. Illinois school districts will need to make sure they establish a scholarship granting organization to receive tax credit money, which Handy emphasized as a key reason to opt in sooner rather than later.

Further guidelines and regulations for the program’s implementation are expected to be released this fall. The governor’s office said earlier in this summer that it is waiting to see what the federal rules look like before deciding whether to join.

So far, it has been a slow trickle of Democratic governors who enrolled their states in the program. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis led the pack to opt in, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has indicated that she plans to, as well. There have also been flat-out rejections from some Democratic governors, including in Hawaii, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Oregon, according to the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit resource website.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.

JB Pritzker’s education record earns him key reelection endorsement from Illinois teachers union

2026-08-17T22:44:20+00:00

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is seeking reelection this November, received a key endorsement on his education policies from the state’s largest union this week.

Monday’s announcement marks the third time the Illinois Education Association, which represents more than 135,000 teachers, professors, and support staff statewide, has endorsed Pritzker for governor. The Illinois Federation of Teachers — the other statewide teachers union and the parent organization to the Chicago Teachers Union — has yet to make an endorsement in the race.

The IEA’s endorsement comes at an important crossroads for Pritzker, as two closely watched education issues loom over the final months of his second term.

“This governor is on the right side of history, which means a better future for public education in Illinois,” said IEA president Karl Goeke, citing Pritzker’s policies on minimum teacher salary raises, preventing book bans, and restricting cellphones in schools.

The first issue for Pritzker, who has championed public schools, is whether Illinois will opt into the Trump administration’s federal tax credit scholarship program by the end of the year. Starting in 2027, individuals can donate up to $1,700 to specific education nonprofits and be reimbursed by the federal government. Governors have the sole responsibility for deciding whether their states will participate, although their ability to mold programs to their liking seems increasingly unlikely.

Pritzker hasn’t indicated publicly whether Illinois will participate, although text messages obtained by the Chicago Tribune signaled he was wary of the program earlier this year. So far, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is the only Democrat to have opted his state into the program, although a handful of other Democratic governors have said they intend to opt in.

The other problem facing Illinois’ governor is how to respond to the Chicago Board of Education’s demand for $150 million additional state dollars to fill the district’s budget deficit during the upcoming veto session. Chicago’s school board voted to pass a budget that assumes it will receive that funding last month, but the request faces an uphill battle to get approval from state lawmakers and Pritzker.

Pritzker’s name has also circulated in the past year as a possible contender in the 2028 presidential race. Education remains a core point of contention across the country, meaning Pritzker’s record on Illinois schools could wind up on the national stage.

Facing off against Pritzker in his bid for reelection is Darren Bailey, a former Republican state lawmaker. This is the second time voters will see this matchup on their ballots, as Pritzker handily defeated Bailey in 2022 to win his second term as governor.

This story has been updated to include mention of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.

Firms linked to 2 men convicted of public corruption have gotten campaign business from JB Pritzker and the CTU

2026-08-11T22:04:41+00:00

This story was originally published by the Illinois Answers Project.

Two political campaign firms with close ties to men with public corruption convictions have gotten business in recent years in Chicago and statewide political races, including the current, hotly contested race for Chicago School Board president and more than $1.5 million from Gov. JB Pritzker in his gubernatorial campaigns, records show.

In the governor’s campaigns, about $1.2 million went to a firm formed by a former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services deputy director, Bamani Obadele, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to a state contracting scheme under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Obadele was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to repay more than $80,000.

Pritzker’s gubernatorial campaigns also spent more than $420,000 with the firm tied to Isaac “Ike” Carothers, a former Chicago City Council member who pleaded guilty in 2010 to taking $40,000 in home improvements from a developer who wanted to build homes in an industrial area in Carothers’ 29th Ward on the West Side.

In the school board race, the Chicago Teachers Union has spent more than $36,000 with the two firms and a company tied to a campaign worker, Karina Escobar-Perez, who pleaded guilty last year to forging signatures on campaign petitions in Indiana for the presidential race. The CTU work was for the campaign of Hilario Dominguez, whom the teachers union endorsed in June for school board president in a five-way race.

Dominguez’ campaign has reported $99,500 in contributions as of its latest filings, on Aug. 5. All of that was in-kind contributions from the CTU, and about one-third was to firms linked to Obadele, Carothers and Escobar-Perez.

The CTU’s political organization has used Carothers’ and Obadele’s firms in other school board races, and all three companies have done extensive work in other political races.

The Dominguez campaign did not respond to questions about the firms.

The governor’s campaign did not answer questions about Obadele’s and Carothers’ work but said: “The campaign hires consultants who are experienced and well-known organizers in their communities.”

A CTU spokesperson said the people and groups they contracted with as “vendors are the same as those hired by Gov. Pritzker, Rep. [Margaret] Croke, and numerous other candidates.” In her statement, she didn’t explain those choices, focusing instead on their endorsed candidates: “What voters should know about the candidates we are supporting is that they will be the fiercest advocates for Chicago’s children instead of administrators of unnecessary cuts to their education.”

Pritzker is seeking reelection this year, again running against Republican Darren Bailey, whom he defeated by more than 12 percentage points in 2022. In 2018, Pritzker defeated incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner by more than 15 percentage points.

Pritzker, who was among contenders to be Kamala Harris’ 2024 vice presidential running mate, has been attending political events across the country amid speculation he might run for president in 2028.

Obadele is president and director of Goshen Impact Solutions, according to state records. He admitted in federal court that in 2004 and 2005, when he was at DCFS, he steered contractors working for the state agency to buy promotional items from a company he owned and overcharged them, using proceeds for personal expenses, including an all-expenses-paid vacation for himself and friends to Jamaica.

Separately, he admitted having generated business for a company whose board he sat on by telling DCFS contractors to hire the firm.

Records show Pritzker’s campaign paid Obadele’s firm more than $1 million during the 2022 election, though that spending appears to have escaped notice during the last election. So far, in the governor’s race, the campaign has spent $76,000 with the company, state records show.

Since 2015, just under half of all the state and local campaign cash that went to Obadele’s firm came from Pritzker’s campaign organization. Pritzker started using Obadele’s firm in 2022.

The CTU spent more than $16,000 with Obadele’s firm for work on behalf of Dominguez’s campaign. The union also gave his firm $5,250 for work related to Katherine Dunneback’s campaign in school board District 9b. The union endorsed Dunneback and a slate of other school board candidates in July.

In 2018, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul came under scrutiny for spending $13,000 with Obadele for campaign work.

Obadele said his work on campaigns includes a variety of get-out-the-vote efforts across the South Side and elsewhere in Cook County. “I have done this the past 15 years with fidelity,” he wrote in response to questions.

In a written statement in response to questions, Obadele defended the work he’s done: “I’m neither ashamed nor proud of my past conviction. I paid my debt to society and have remained committed to pushing forward in a positive and impactful way. Since then, I have built and operated a successful professional business … This work has provided hundreds of individuals, including those who face barriers to employment. I stand for and believe in second chances and the importance of allowing people who have also paid their debt to society to receive the same opportunities I too was given.”

Obadele is also the “community and civic engagement director” for Acclivus Inc., a community health organization focused on violence prevention that has had dozens of state contracts in recent years worth more than $100 million, including $16 million in contracts for this fiscal year with the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Obadele said he doesn’t run Acclivus and that he’s proud to work there because of the anti-violence work it does in Chicago.

“My role there is to oversee community engagement and workforce development,” he wrote.

The governor’s office wouldn’t comment.

Sheila Regan, the chief operating officer for Acclivus, said, “It’s unclear what connection could be made between Obadele’s campaign work and Acclivus grants because there is no relationship between them.

“All state grants to Acclivus have been awarded in alignment with state law, primarily via competitive grant processes,” she said.

Obadele’s campaign business has also worked for Mayor Brandon Johnson, Ald. Pat Dowell, Rep. Kam Buckner, Croke and a Pritzker-backed group that campaigned unsuccessfully for a graduated income tax in 2020.

Another firm, Senior Wizdom Consulting (which is listed under various spellings in election records), is closely tied to Carothers and was paid more than $366,000 by Pritzker’s gubernatorial campaign in 2022 for “strategic field consulting” and has already made $55,000 for work done for the governor this year.

Carothers was indicted in 2009 over taking home improvements and sporting tickets from a developer who wanted to build homes at Galewood Yards, partly in Carothers’ ward. Carothers wore a wire to help the federal government in other investigations before being sentenced to 28 months in federal prison. He also admitted in his plea agreement that he took cash payments from two other individuals looking to develop property in his ward and another person who wanted to run carnivals there and needed city permits.

It appears that Pritzker is Carothers’ largest client for state and local campaign work, accounting for nearly half of all of Carothers’ campaign work in state disclosures since 2015, although a precise figure is difficult to determine given the various spellings of the company’s name.

Senior Wizdom also received $11,600 from the CTU to help the Dominguez campaign. As for CTU, records show the union paid Carothers’ firm at least $47,000 since 2023, including to work on Johnson’s mayoral campaign. It also paid Carothers’ firm $3,920 this summer to support Michilla Blaise, the CTU-endorsed candidate in the District 5b Chicago School Board race.

While dozens of Chicago City Council members have gone to prison, Carothers has the distinction of following in the footsteps of his father, former Ald. William Carothers, who also went to prison in a political corruption scandal.

Campaign records indicate Carothers has had dozens of other clients over that time as well, including former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, state Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, and several Cook County judges.

Carothers could not be reached for comment.

A third consulting firm, Moving Forward Strategies, received $8,250 for work on Dominguez’ campaign. The union also reported $10,000 paid to the firm earlier this year. According to state records, the business is run by Escobar-Perez, a Chicago-area campaign operative.

In 2025, Escobar-Perez was charged with forging signatures on behalf of a 2024 presidential candidate named Dean Phillips in Indiana. She pleaded guilty to a felony for the forgeries and was sentenced to a year in prison and a year of probation. Escobar-Perez served one day in custody, and the prison sentence was suspended. Indiana court records show she owes more than $1,100 in fees and fines.

Escobar-Perez and two companies linked to her have taken in more than $400,000 for campaign-related work since 2020, most of which was from before she was charged. Since Escobar-Perez’ plea deal, the CTU has been one of Moving Forward Strategies’ largest clients.

Escobar-Perez did not return a written request for comment but told a police investigator she felt pressured to turn in the Indiana campaign petitions within a five-day deadline, according to a police report.

Despite state funding increase, gap to adequately fund schools widens in most Illinois districts

2026-08-08T00:07:47+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is further away from having enough money to meet its students’ needs as defined by the state, according to new data released by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Under ISBE’s calculations released Friday, CPS is now considered a little over 70% adequately funded, compared with 73% last year. CPS isn’t alone in that shift. More than 700 school districts regressed from hitting the state’s target of 90% funding adequacy, a metric reached by assessing a district’s student population and ability to pay for a variety of common cost factors.

The backslide is due, in part, to the state changing how it counted low-income students. Officials said they decided to count students “who were eligible for federal social programs as of July 1,” including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The widening gap in funding adequacy for hundreds of districts, including Chicago, adds fuel to the Chicago Teachers Union’s argument that the city’s schools need lawmakers to commit more money. The Board of Education echoed this sentiment when they recently passed a budget assuming the state will increase funding during the fall veto session in November.

Illinois Federation of Teachers and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates called the funding distribution a “wake-up call” to the state. However, amending the state’s budget now would be hard and require a three-fifths majority vote.

Illinois’ way of funding schools assumes students with higher-needs cost more to educate. Adequacy targets for each district fluctuate annually based on the students being served, which is why an increase in low-income students raises the cost the formula says is necessary to reach adequacy.

Identifying low-income students for the formula is likely to change further next year. Illinois lawmakers put $200,000 in this year’s budget for the state education department to come up with a new way to count low-income students in response to the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which cut funding for many social programs.

There was a 43% rise in low-income students this year, according to ISBE. That coupled with lower property tax revenues and increases in teacher salaries and instructional material costs are what is driving districts away from being adequately funded, state Superintendent Tony Sanders told reporters in a webinar Friday.

Schools get at least the same amount of money they received the year prior. Districts furthest from achieving adequate funding are first in line to receive more money. Lawmakers added $350 million — the typical annual funding commitment — this year as part of the state budget.

Despite more districts faltering in their march toward adequate funding, total state spending on K-12 schools totals over $9 billion. That’s up by more than $2 billion since evidence-based funding was introduced in 2017.

Notably, that money is unrestricted. So districts do not have to use the money exactly in line with where the state identified heightened needs.

Zooming in on Chicago’s state funding this year

Chicago Public Schools remains one of the neediest districts in Illinois.

Overall, CPS will get about $1.9 billion from the state for the 2026-27 school year. That’s nearly $66 million – or about one-fifth — of the $350 million increase in state education funding. But it falls just short of the $2 billion the Chicago Board of Education hopes to get.

Last week, the school board passed an amended budget that increased the amount it expected to get from the state through the evidence-based formula, from $1.9 billion to $2 billion. Additionally, it assumes $50 million more from a separate pot of state funding that’s meant to reimburse CPS for other services, such as special education and student transportation costs.

The board also directed CPS CEO Macquline King to reverse hundreds of staff layoffs as part of its new budget.

If the funding doesn’t come through, schools may be forced to cut staff or programs in the middle of the school year. While King urged the board not to assume more funding than CPS was expecting, she and board members have said they will press the state to boost its support during the Illinois legislature’s November veto session, which would require three-fifths of lawmakers in the state House and Senate to approve.

“We will be working with our government partners at both the city and the state level to secure the additional funding that our schools need, and we really hope that you stay tuned so that we can inform you how you can help us with that advocacy for additional school funding,” King said Thursday evening during a webinar for the public.

If lawmakers agreed to give CPS more money, Sanders said ISBE would advocate that all districts get a funding increase.

Disbursements of funds to districts should start Monday, according to ISBE.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org. Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Seeking to reverse layoffs, Chicago school board approves budget, assuming more state money will come

2026-07-31T01:50:09+00:00

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Bucking warnings from Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King, the school board amended and narrowly passed a roughly $10 billion budget proposal Thursday that assumes the district will receive $150 million more in state funding than projected.

Eleven board members voted to reverse hundreds of school-based staff layoffs included in King’s proposal, heeding the demands of the Chicago Teachers Union and the principals union.

Appointed board members Anusha Thotakura, Debby Pope, Cydney Wallace, Angel Velez, Ed Bannon, Emma Lozano, Karen Zaccor, Michilla Blaise, and Norma Rios-Sierra, as well as elected board members Jitu Brown and Ebony DeBerry voted to increase the state funding projection of $2.78 billion by another $150 million.

Elected board members Angel Gutierrez, Carlos Rivas, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, Ellen Rosenfeld, Jennifer Custer, Jessica Biggs, and Therese Boyle voted no. Elected board member Yesenia Lopez abstained.

District officials pushed the school board to approve the budget this week so they could secure short-term borrowing by Sept. 2 — two days before paychecks go out — and avoid a “de-facto shutdown” of schools. In a statement after the vote, a spokesperson said the district “cannot guarantee that CPS will receive financing in time for the September 4 payroll” given the board’s changes.

“Failing to meet payroll is unacceptable,” the statement said. “This places the District at significant risk of being in violation of the law and collective bargaining agreements. It may also damage our credit rating and severely restrict our future borrowing capacity for capital projects and operational needs. Most critically, any disruption in pay directly threatens the stability of our schools, impacting our students, families, and dedicated staff.”

The vote came after hours of public testimony and an unusual two-hour recess. During that time, CPS lawyers provided legal advice about amending the budget, according to multiple sources.

Earlier this week, after a push from SEIU Local 73, CPS took furloughs out of its proposal by increasing the amount it expects to receive in special taxing district dollars, known as TIF surplus dollars, which are controlled by the mayor and City Council.

But board members and the Chicago Teachers Union want more pressure on state lawmakers, who have not yet fulfilled a goal to fund all schools to what it considers 90% adequacy. The state considers CPS funded at 73%.

“If we’re not including the state in this conversation, we are fooling ourselves and we are robbing our kids of opportunities,” said appointed board member Michilia Blaise, who introduced the plan to revise King’s budget. “Let’s make it clear to our students that cuts to school communities will not come lightly.”

With the state’s veto session scheduled for November, it’s not clear any new money would come in time for this school year.

Some key Democratic lawmakers have promised to help boost school funding, including House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch. At the board meeting, State Senator Robert Martwick, who represents parts of the Northwest Side and some suburbs, told board members he will fight for more funding.

King warns of consequences to revising her budget proposal

Before the vote, King defended her budget plan, noting that CPS has lost 45,000 students in the last seven years but has hired 10,000 more staffers. Despite school-level cuts, she noted most laid off staffers are rehired in other vacant positions and highlighted an increase in special education and bilingual staff.

She also warned of the risks of assuming more state funds will come through. King recalled her time as a principal in 2017, when CPS had adopted a budget expecting more state funding than previous years that didn’t come through after then-Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed related legislation. CPS imposed big cuts, and King had to lay off staff at her school.

“This was severely disruptive to my students,” King said. “Those are the faces that I see. Those are the conversations that I recall, and that is why I put forth the recommended budget that I did.”

School board has a heated debate

Board members were starkly divided.

Several elected board members not aligned with the teachers union and Mayor Brandon Johnson underscored the risks of assuming there will be more state money.

Elected member Jennifer Custer called the idea of expecting a $150 million increase in state money a “hallucination.” Elected board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith said he will help advocate for more funding from the state and the city.

Smith, a rapper and songwriter, recited a poem he crafted in response to one delivered during public comment by a CTU member: “They say the mayor owes a billy, give it again and again, and don’t make us look silly,” referencing the $1 billion in TIF dollars the mayor and City Council surplused last year, of which CPS got $577 million.

Board president Sean Harden warned TIF surplus is not a guarantee either.

At least a dozen school staffers, clad in bright red CTU shirts, urged the board to revise the budget and push the state to pay up. Several teachers said teacher layoffs mean bigger class sizes and breaking relationships with students.

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates acknowledged the difficult decisions King and her team faced and laid the blame on state lawmakers, including Gov. JB Pritzker. She said the union will help CPS pressure the state.

“Let’s assume that doing this together makes it impossible for people to keep telling us no,” said Davis Gates, who is also the president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Board member Jitu Brown also said he believes the “political will” to boost state education funding is there.

Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 73, which represents 16,000 support staffers, remained skeptical that a majority of state lawmakers will agree to increase CPS funding.

“Unsecured revenue cannot pay our (Special Education Classroom Assistants) rent in September,” Palmer said. “It cannot guarantee a bus aide on the bus when school opens. Our students do not get to wait for Springfield to make up its mind, and neither should this board.”

Kia Banks, head of the principals union, supported an amended budget. She said she was encouraged that Illinois House Speaker Welch is interested in boosting funding.

“If (funding) doesn’t come through, like in 2017, it’s devastating, and I don’t think they would want that on their record,” Banks said of state lawmakers.

But Justin Marlowe, director of the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, said the state now has “far less” incentive to act. If the state can’t come up with the money, “CPS will have to own the consequences,” he said in an email.

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

How should schools use AI? Illinois is providing some guidance for teachers and districts.

2026-07-10T19:55:13+00:00

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Illinois state education officials issued a 400-page document Thursday that provides teachers with an extensive framework for using artificial intelligence responsibly in the classroom.

How the technology gets used in schools is ultimately up to district leaders and the guidance document emphasizes the importance of human relationships in teaching and learning. It also discloses that popular AI chatbots ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini assisted in early drafts of the framework.

Rather than releasing a state mandate, state lawmakers directed the Illinois State Board of Education to develop AI recommendations for district policymakers last year — a step a majority of states have already taken. That flexibility is by design, as the guidance emphasizes “informed decisions based on local context, capacity, and community priorities,” according to the state’s top education agency.

“Our responsibility is to help schools navigate new technologies in a way that strengthens instruction, protects students, and builds trust for informed AI use between districts and the families and communities they serve,” state Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders said in a statement.

Educators across the country are grappling with how to ethically use the cutting-edge technology in the classroom. In some ways, Illinois is late to the game compared with much of the country.

At least 34 states have adopted some form of guidance on using AI in K-12 schools, according to AI for Education, an advocacy group that trains teachers on how to use AI responsibly. A handful of other states also issued guidance this month, including Oklahoma, which added restrictions on educators using AI to grade or discipline students.

Illinois’ document states that educators shouldn’t only ask if AI can do a task, but “whether its use supports the purposes of schooling.” Illinois’ guidance also lays out four main principles:

Emphasizing the importance of human interaction in teaching and learning
Acknowledging schools’ role in engaging with their communities civically
Delineating AI as a tool to inform teaching rather than replace it
Recognizing that informed use of AI requires schools to identify purposes that are “deliberate, context-sensitive, and locally determined”

Initial language for the guidance was created without AI, the ISBE document reads. Instead, officials relied on AI to provide links for sourcing, check over sections for conciseness, and give feedback on the guidance’s clarity. Much of those tasks were checked over by a human to ensure accuracy.

Throughout the document, the agency gives specific examples of how teachers can use AI to enrich their planning process depending on grade level. That includes writing more effective prompts for chatbots to assist with lesson plans.

It also provides examples of instances where teachers may encounter ethical issues, such as student data privacy, transparency about using AI in email communications, cultural bias, and misinformation spread through AI hallucinations — a term used to describe when a chatbot presents incorrect or fabricated information as factual.

Over the next school year, ISBE will continue to release further guidance to schools, as well as create professional training on how to implement the AI framework, according to the department. The current guidance includes multiple templates for districts to develop their own AI policies.

Along with the guidance, the legislation also tasks schools to include internet safety instruction about the dangers of inappropriate AI-generated content as a form of cyberbullying.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.

What’s next for the Illinois Department of Early Childhood? Secretary Teresa Ramos gives a sneak peak.

2026-07-01T10:01:00+00:00

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The Illinois Department of Early Childhood is officially open after years of development by state and local leaders.

The Wednesday launch serves as the first major milestone for the fledgling agency, which is tasked with consolidating most early childhood services previously split across three state departments. Despite the behemoth undertaking to house early childhood programs under one roof, the hard work has only just begun.

At the Illinois Department of Early Childhood’s helm is Teresa Ramos, the first secretary of the new agency. Ramos, who earned a doctorate from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, most recently worked as the first assistant deputy governor for education in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office. Before that, she held leadership positions at education nonprofits Illinois Action for Children and Advance Illinois.

Chalkbeat sat down with Ramos last week just before she addressed a lecture hall of providers, educators, and advocates attending a conference put on by Northwestern University’s Early Childhood Research Alliance of Chicago. The interview was forward-facing, aimed at getting Ramos’ perspective on the new department’s future beyond its July 1 start date.

The following questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

As you’re rolling out the department, one of the main things is getting information out to families and providers. What is your plan over the next year to make sure that families and providers are informed about the department and know how to get the services they need?

We have, since the fall of 2023, been listening to families and providers about what they want. We have been really clear about setting up multiple ways of communicating and receiving communication from families. So we have work groups, we have our own internal and external infrastructure. We have conversations with you and others locally, and then preparing letters to providers. We sent one out last month, and then we’ll send one out to families in a couple of days.

Our short-term goal is a seamless transition, which means families shouldn’t really feel a big disruption in their services or care. They should feel like where they’ve gone before is where they can go again, and over time it should feel easier to navigate. For childcare providers who are out there supporting those families directly, we want to make it easier for them to do that work.

Obviously, the department doesn’t exist in a bubble. We’re in a time where, at the federal level, things are volatile, especially in the childcare and special education sector. How are you approaching leadership of this new department given this tumultuous period?

The volatility at the federal level means a lot of uncertainty and confusion for parents, but especially providers who might get information from a Tweet or commentary on the news. We have been really intentional about continuing to collaborate with the State Board of Education, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Children and Family Services, to make sure that we are all aligned and using every communications vehicle possible to share what we know definitively and what we don’t know.

That way, we are limiting the confusion and noise, and again, we become this place where providers and parents can go to ask their questions and get them answered. That’s how we’re managing that volatility in practice. I think, should it turn into our worst fears, there might be cuts or changes in priorities, meaning our programs will look very different than they look today.

With the new state budget going into effect at the same time as the Illinois Department of Early Childhood rolling out, there were some programs that did get an increase in funding. Others didn’t, they were just kept at a flat rate. What’s your vision for the new department’s role in advocating for early childhood funding at the state level to make sure programs are meeting families’ needs?

Our role is to listen to families’ wants and needs, and to understand what it takes for providers to deliver that across the racial, regional, cultural, linguistic diversity of the state. It’s also figuring out how to orient our grants, contracts, and funding to be aligned to that, and be in a cycle of continuous improvement, continuous listening as families’ needs and dynamics change.

We have to then take that information and say, ‘OK, this is what it would take to make sure that this is not a one size fits all program that only works for some.’ It’s a program that has to work in a rural community, in Chicago, across the diversity. So our job is to listen and really try to understand the costs, and do that in partnership with the field. We will share that with the many decision-makers in state government — the agency, the governor’s office, the General Assembly — to get incremental progress, which I see in the investment in early intervention and our operating infrastructure this fiscal year.

I’m curious what this role means to you personally given the significance of leading this department. How do you feel about taking that on?

It is an honor to get to do this work every day. I love it. It is so purpose driven, and I have a team of folks who are really early childhood education and care public servants. They want to work to make government services work for other people, and that fuels all of the work.

I’m also a mom of a 6-year-old. It is hard to juggle being a mom with a full-time job and having a 6-year-old and care options and piecing those together. I want to make it simpler. I understand the juggle, and it’s not even the most extreme for me. I know we can do better. I want to be accountable and responsible for doing better to drive equity and efficiency, and ultimately programs that work for everybody across the diversity of the state.

In a year from now, what in your mind would be considered an accomplishment that shows you’ve done your job well running the Illinois Department of Early Childhood?

We will have turned on July 1 into a central place of truth for the field, for parents, and for providers on where to get accurate information. In a year from now, it will feel like people know where to go to ask a question and someone is accountable to get them an answer or to keep them updated on that. That really leads our orientation toward serving the field.

I hope by next year at this time, we should see a launch of new technologies that support an improved operation infrastructure. Nothing will be done, but we’ll probably be in some user testing with parents and providers to make sure that how we are transforming how people engage with the state or our contract and grant partners is better.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois opens a new agency handling services for kids under 5. Here’s what it means for families.

2026-07-01T10:00:00+00:00

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Illinoisans raising young children now have a one-stop shop to get assistance for most of their needs — including childcare, early intervention, and preschool — thanks to a new state agency that opened Wednesday.

Three years after its inception, the Illinois Department of Early Childhood officially launches today, marking the start of its mission to streamline services for families. Instead of splitting programs across three state agencies, the Department of Early Childhood will house most of the services Illinois’ youngest children have relied on for decades.

Illinois now joins a growing list of other states that have opened their own agencies dedicated to providing early childhood services. But unlike most of its peer departments across the country, the Illinois Department of Early Childhood is entering its inaugural year amid a much more unpredictable federal landscape, especially in regard to Head Start and childcare subsidies.

The agency is headed by Secretary Teresa Ramos, who will oversee more than 500 staffers. Those include about 340 employees who will transfer from the state’s Department of Human Services, the Department of Children and Family Services, and the State Board of Education.

Illinois Department of Early Childhood Secretary Teresa Ramos answers a question from an attendee at the Northwestern University Early Childhood Research Alliance of Chicago's research conference in Chicago on June 25, 2026.

While Wednesday’s launch marks a milestone for state officials, who have a $86 million operating budget to work with, progress on improving historically labyrinthine services won’t happen overnight. In the coming months, the department will continue to roll out new initiatives — meaning families and providers will need to stay up-to-date on changes that could affect them.

Still, understanding the role of the new agency might feel overwhelming for families and providers unaware of the change. Here’s what we do — and don’t — know about the Illinois Department of Early Childhood so far.

Why is Illinois creating a new department for early learning and care?

Magda Zalewska, a mother to three young children from Romeoville, has wanted the intricacies of Illinois’ fragmented early childhood services to be simplified for a while. She’s become all too familiar with waiting on the phone for hours trying to get an answer about one of her children’s benefits while working a full-time job.

“I’ve been dealing with the system for half a decade, and it’s just very treacherous from a parental perspective,” she said. “Hearing that there’s change coming to the system is very relieving.”

Experiences like Zalewska’s are largely what prompted the formation of the Illinois Department of Early Childhood. Policymakers had long known how “bewildering” parents found the early childhood system in Illinois, but the state had always lacked a “whole system approach” to address those concerns, said Elliot Regenstein, a Foresight Law + Policy firm partner who specializes in early education.

Then came the pandemic, which only made it clearer that the state’s approach to early childhood was “never as coherent as it needs to be,” Regenstein said.

Edna Navarro Vidaurre is a regional council manager for Birth to Five Illinois’ Region 1-A, which encompasses Chicago and is a part of a broader network of 39 regions that provides community feedback for the state’s early childhood policymaking process. In her role, she often speaks with families, who she said often describe the tangle of early childhood services as a “spaghetti noodle.”

“It’s like a spider web, and so all of it is so complicated,” she said. “At the end of the day, the parents don’t really care where the money’s coming from. They just want to get into a program.”

In 2023, Pritzker announced his intent to create the Illinois Department of Early Childhood, which was shortly followed by a bill from state lawmakers codifying it into law in 2024. That legislation kickstarted the multi-year process to build the department, which opened up opportunities for community input on what people wanted out of the agency, said Bela Moté, president of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning in Chicago and chair of the department’s transition advisory committee.

“Historically, we as a state came to providers and parents and community members at the end of a design process,” Moté said. “This kind of flipped it to say, we actually need to design it with them.”

What programs will be under the Illinois Department of Early Childhood?

The Illinois Department of Early Childhood, or IDEC for short, is consolidating programs from ISBE, DHS, and DCFS — as well as the Governor’s Office for Early Childhood Development.

That means several vital early childhood services will no longer fall under those departments’ jurisdiction, and will instead move to IDEC. The total budget for implementing those programs totals $4.4 billion, according to the department. These include:

Childcare grants
Early intervention
Head Start and Migrant & Seasonal Head Start
Home visiting programs
Preschool for All
Early Childhood block grant system
Childcare licensing
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health aid

The unification of services may be especially helpful in Chicago, where families have a diverse array of childcare and preschool options available to them, Navarro Vidaurre said. Some children receive money from a couple funding streams to get a slot at a local center. By housing the different programs under one department, Navarro Vidaurre said it should hopefully ease the process in Chicago.

Will state services for my child be disrupted or delayed?

Ideally not. The department has repeatedly assured families that there should be no noticeable change to the way they access services for their child.

But major updates are still under development, which Moté said is an intentional feature of the agency’s incremental opening to avoid significant interruptions to care.

“There is a danger to flipping every light switch on and saying ‘We’re going to do this this way, and this way, and this way,’ and not having people be able to process the change and catch up with the expectations,” Moté said. “Taking it in bite-sized pieces, I actually think will go a long way.”

Zalewska, who also works as a developmental therapist in early intervention, has attended meetings to inform providers like her, as well as discussions catered to the public. But she said she still doesn’t have a clear idea on when to expect shifts that affect her profession. Most answers she said she receives include one qualifying phrase: “for now.”

“‘For now’ means there’s change to come, right?” Zalewska said. “But no one’s addressing that change to come, no one’s addressing any timelines.”

What about impacts to childcare providers?

Not much should be different for providers right away, either. Providers will still be paid through the current payment systems they have used before, according to the department. Ratios and teacher qualifications will also remain the same for childcare center licensing.

The only big change the department has flagged for providers is a shift to unify grants under one management system called EUNA. That system will be used to distribute all of the department’s grants for the next fiscal year, such as the Early Childhood Block Grants.

Where can I ask questions or give input?

All questions on early childhood programs in Illinois can be directed to the department’s customer service team by emailing Questions.IDEC@illinois.gov.

The agency’s bottom-up approach to creating policy and informing its decisions is also expected to continue. By the end of the year, the department’s transition advisory committee will submit a set of recommendations to the governor’s office and the early childhood department based in part on community members’ feedback on what issues they need fixed in the space.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s school board is supposed to have a noncitizen advisory board. It still doesn’t exist.

2026-06-29T21:00:54+00:00

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When state legislators created Chicago’s elected school board, they also required the city’s mayor to name a noncitizen advisory board, meant to give people without citizenship a more formal voice in school board matters since they cannot vote or run in elections.

But about four months ahead of this year’s school board races — and 18 months after the city’s first elected members were seated — Mayor Brandon Johnson still hasn’t created that advisory panel.

“There is no clarity on this,” Socorro Diaz, a mother of three Chicago Public Schools graduates who is interested in serving on the panel, said in Spanish through a translator. “How is this going to be organized? Because education is too important.”

This year, Chicago will transition from a partially elected school board to a one that is fully elected. The election for all 21 school board seats is Nov. 3.

The panel is supposed to advise the Board of Education on various issues that impact noncitizen children, including on how to create an “inclusive learning environment” and more generally sharing perspectives from noncitizen families. State law maps out almost no instructions for the mayor: It doesn’t establish a deadline for the mayor to create the advisory board, the number of people to appoint, or even whether any of the picks must be immigrants or noncitizens.

For parents who had pushed for this board, its absence felt especially deep last fall during an intense federal deportation campaign in Chicago known as Operation Midway Blitz. At the time, the mayor’s office told Chalkbeat that it was finalizing applications for the advisory board, but it was figuring out how to protect people interested in participating without putting them in the crosshairs of the federal government.

That application still doesn’t exist. The mayor’s office did not answer a question about the status of the application, but in a statement last week, a spokesperson said they hope to create the board by the fall.

“Given the nature of recent immigration enforcement, the Mayor’s Office is working to develop a process that allows community members to participate safely and confidently,” said mayoral spokesperson Griffin Krueger.

Some parents have suggested the mayor’s office can appoint at least some people who may be citizens or legal residents but can still act as representatives for noncitizens.

Kids First Chicago, an education advocacy group that lobbied for the creation of the noncitizen advisory board, had pushed the mayor’s office last year to name the panel, especially as immigration enforcement kept families from sending their kids to school.

Claiborne Wade, a member of Kids First’s Fair Governance Task Force and parent of CPS students, said he can understand the mayor’s office’s concerns, especially with a federal government that is targeting immigrants and noncitizens.

Not having the panel in place, however, means that the board is potentially not hearing from certain immigrant communities whose kids are in CPS, who “do have a voice, too,” he said.

Diaz, who is currently on the Eric Solorio Academy High School Local School Council, first got involved in parent councils almost 25 years ago, when she learned that one of her daughters, at the time a 6-year-old newcomer from Mexico, was not receiving help in understanding English in school, she said. She recalled seeing her daughter set aside in a corner of her classroom, and Diaz repeatedly pushed the principal for help.

Since then she’s participated in LSCs and bilingual advisory councils, too, and believes it’s important for parents to get involved, she said.

When she learned about Chicago’s first school board elections, she felt a mixture of emotions: happiness that parents would get to choose who made policy decisions for the district but sadness that she and others who aren’t citizens wouldn’t be able to cast votes or run for office.

She feels the advisory panel is an advocacy vehicle for parents who can’t be at board meetings or are fearful of revealing their identities. To Diaz, it’s frustrating to not know what’s happening with the panel.

“They need to start being more transparent,” she said.

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

Chicago school board adopts legislative agenda calling for more funding — after state lawmakers adjourn

2026-06-25T21:30:38+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education unanimously passed a legislative agenda Thursday that calls for more state funding and a millionaire’s tax — even though Illinois state lawmakers passed a state budget last month and have adjourned for the summer.

While some board members were happy with the items in the new agenda, they were also frustrated that it would be adopted after lawmakers had left Springfield.

“This would have been fantastic for us to have in January or even February,” said Anusha Thotakura, an appointed board member who has previously pressed CPS for a legislative plan. “There is absolutely no opportunity for this legislative agenda to result in increased state funds for the upcoming school year — zero.”

Several board members called for the agenda to be a “living document” that CPS could add ideas to. And others wanted more demands of local officials. Elected board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith said he was disappointed the agenda didn’t include anything about pressing the city to send more special taxing district dollars to the district – an amount that can vary year to year.

The agenda is a list of issues that Chicago Public Schools wants to advocate for with lawmakers, typically on the state level. But in recent years the board has not always had an agenda: It last adopted one in early 2024 under former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who then didn’t present one in 2025.

The district CEO is charged with creating a legislative agenda and presenting it to the board for approval in January of each year, but the board waived that requirement in January 2024 and January 2026, though not in 2025, according to board records. Those waivers say that the CEO would still be expected to present something early in the year.

Neither CPS nor the school board office explained why this legislative agenda came later in the year and after the state legislative session ended. CPS CEO Macquline King and board members have visited Springfield over the past year to meet with lawmakers, which state Rep. Ann Williams, who represents North Side neighborhoods, described as “very visible and engaging” during public comment on Thursday.

This is King’s first legislative agenda, which asks for more state funding as the district faces a $732.5 million deficit in its budget for next fiscal year, which the district is aiming to finalize by July 30. It also makes several new asks that weren’t in the 2024 list, such as a millionaire’s tax to raise more revenue for education funding and more charter school regulations.

The Chicago Teachers Union is pushing lawmakers to hold a special session this summer to address funding issues.

During a union press conference Thursday morning, CTU vice president Jackson Potter said schools are slated, for now, to lose lots of staff and claimed district officials are considering cutting up to two weeks of instructional time next school year if it doesn’t get more funding to close its deficit. CTU President Stacy Davis Gates relayed a similar message to the union’s executive board in a letter earlier this week.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Sylvia Barragan disputed that, saying “at no point has the district considered shortening the school year to alleviate financial challenges” and doing so “is not a viable option.” School districts are required to have 176 instructional days, which is the exact number of days for student attendance on CPS’s approved calendar for next school year. Cutting from that now could put the district out of compliance with the state.

The new legislative agenda includes a mix of old asks and new demands. Similar to the 2024 agenda, CPS is asking for more funding through the state’s main education funding formula in order to reach the state’s definition of “adequate funding.” It also wants heftier reimbursements for certain required services it provides, such as transportation for students with disabilities. And, it again calls for the state to help pay for Chicago teacher pensions in the way it does for other Illinois school districts, something one bill aimed, but failed, to do this year. (CPS has a special tax levy to help cover most teacher pension costs, and state money covers about a third of the costs.)

Some of the newer items include language about supporting more regulations around charter schools, in line with a resolution the board passed last year.

It also includes multiple proposals for raising progressive revenue. In its language supporting a millionaire’s tax, the district states that “by capturing a portion of ultra-high incomes, this dedicated revenue source would directly help address structural budget gaps, support classroom investments, and reduce reliance on volatile or one time revenue streams.”

Thotakura said the millionaire’s tax is a “notable” addition and could help the board avoid raising the property tax levy to the legally allowed limit, which it typically does annually.

Ed Bannon, an appointed board member, said it’s possible the agenda “just kind of didn’t get prioritized” early this year as King was still the interim CEO at the time and was navigating a host of issues. Despite the late timing, he said he’s happy a document now exists as the board gets ready to fill a long-vacant position on its intergovernmental team, which helps establish CPS’ advocacy presence in Springfield.

“The state needs to fulfill its obligation to fully fund education, and having an official legislative agenda is a step in the right direction,” Bannon said.

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

Illinois approves numeracy plan to improve math education

2026-06-10T17:17:35+00:00

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The Illinois State Board of Education approved a numeracy plan Wednesday aimed at helping educators improve how they teach math.

The plan offers districts and teachers resources, but does not mandate a curriculum or require schools to follow certain practices.

The 192-page document is being finalized two years after the state approved a literacy plan in 2024. The latter came about after advocates unsuccessfully lobbied Illinois lawmakers to pass a bill to standardize reading instruction across the state.

Illinois students’ math scores dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to lag behind in 2024. Last fall, officials reported 38% of students had met math proficiency benchmarks on the annual state standardized test given to all third through eighth graders in public school. But they also changed the cut scores used to define proficiency, making comparisons to previous years difficult.

“The goal is for students to build those numeracy skills,” said Ronda Dawson, executive director of Teaching & Learning at ISBE.

The first draft of the “Comprehensive Numeracy Plan” was first made public in October and revised in February before several public hearings in the spring.

Kirsten Parr, director of Standards & Instruction, presented changes that were made to the plan as a result of the public feedback during an ISBE meeting Wednesday. She said the state added more “examples and non-examples” of strong math instruction, added best practices and tips for supporting students with dyscalculia, a learning disability that affects how a person learns, understands, and retains math concepts, and included more high school level data.

“This is not just an elementary plan,” she noted. “This is really to increase the numeracy skills of students across all of our ages and stages.”

ISBE Vice Chair Donna Leek applauded the plan for also including resources to build students confidence in math.

“I always have struggled with people who say, ‘Oh, you know, I don’t do math, I’m not a math person.’ Nobody ever says I don’t read, right?” Leek noted. “So, how do we take away that stigma of mathematics being something that is attainable for everyone?”

She said the plan provides a good road map for school leaders and educators to also feel confident in their math teaching practices and urged ISBE to provide support to them as they roll out the plan.

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

Here’s how much education funding is in Illinois’ FY27 state budget

2026-06-04T22:38:35+00:00

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Illinois schools have a slightly larger windfall of new money coming their way compared to last year after lawmakers passed a $56 billion state budget late Sunday. An array of early childhood programs also will get more money, while other education initiatives maintained their funding levels or saw financial reductions from the year prior.

Within that multibillion dollar budget, K-12 schools are in line for $9.2 billion through the evidence-based funding formula, which is a $350 million increase over last year. The Illinois General Assembly’s budget is for the 2027 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027.

The increase is in line with a promise lawmakers made a decade ago to fully fund all districts through the evidence-based formula by adding $350 million each year for 10 years. But local education advocates continue to demand more funds for schools, pointing out that Illinois is not on track to meet its original goal of full funding by 2027.

The formula has led to a roughly $2 billion increase in state funding since 2017. Each year schools are guaranteed to receive at least the same amount of money they received the year before and higher-need districts are prioritized to get a larger share of the annual increase.

Top state officials highlighted the finalized budget allocations as a responsible choice in the face of an uncertain federal funding landscape, especially for public schools.

“The state of Illinois cannot undo every reckless decision being made in Washington, but we can choose what kind of state we’re going to be at this moment,” Senate President Don Harmon said in a Monday news conference.

With the exception of one year of flat funding in the past decade, lawmakers have stayed firm in their commitment to increase education funding annually, said Robin Steans, president of education advocacy group Advance Illinois. That’s not something to take for granted, she said, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to be done. At the current funding pace, it could take another decade to fully fund Illinois schools, Steans said.

The Illinois State Board of Education has not yet calculated how much of an increase each school district will get under the evidence-based formula.

Chicago Public Schools is facing a $732 million deficit and the district has already tightened staffing and further cuts are likely to ensue, which only intensified demands for lawmakers to put more money into CPS in the weeks leading up to the end of the session.

What the state budget means for Chicago schools

For the first time in her 12 years of working as an English teacher at George Westinghouse College Prep in Humboldt Park, Melina Lesus experienced budget cuts at her school. In the past year, Lesus said students lost their choir and French classes.

The strained CPS budget is “slashing” her students’ choices, which is why she joined a large cohort of CTU members and other community advocates last week on a bus trip to Springfield to make their case for more education funding.

Diane Castro the financial secretary of the CTU speaks during the “Wheels Up” event on Wed., May 27, 2026 in Chicago., Illinois.

“Cuts to the arts, to sports, or to critical support staff tell our students, my children, that they are not worth the investment,” CTU financial secretary Diane Castro told reporters at the union’s news conference.

That sentiment didn’t change much after the budget was released. Stacy Davis Gates, president of both the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that there is still “progress to be made” on providing adequate funding.

“Without further action from the General Assembly, our students will be hungrier. Our families will have less access to healthcare. Schools will be saddled with more unfunded mandates in a Blue state,” Gates said. “Leaving Springfield with those results would be as backwards as anything can be.”

Nationally, CPS’ debt stands out. The school system carries more than three times the average debt per capita compared to the other largest school districts in the country, according to a June report from the independent fiscal research group The Civic Federation.

This year’s budget does include money to update school buildings in Chicago. Millions of dollars were reappropriated for more than 160 schools to make improvements such as installing new windows, updating HVAC systems, and upgrading playgrounds.

Lawmakers also included a small increase in funding for the City Colleges of Chicago.

How money for statewide education programs stacked up compared to previous years

When it came to funding education-related programs, some fared better or worse than last year — and some made off just OK.

One new initiative receiving a $200,000 boost is the Illinois State Board of Education’s development of a new criteria for low-income population counts due to narrowed federal eligibility rules for programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Illinois relies on children’s participation in federal social services to identify them in a school’s low-income population — a major factor in EBF funding. The new criteria seeks to avoid under-counting students from low-income families as more become unenrolled from federal programs.

The state budget delivered for the new Department of Early Childhood — which will oversee several programs serving Illinois’ youngest children starting July 1 — by allotting nearly $86 million toward its operations. Early intervention also got a financial bump of $15 million.

Other early childhood programs stayed at the same funding levels as the year before. That includes $212 million for the Smart Start Child Care Workforce Compensation Program, which supplies wages for early childhood educators.

Funding for public higher education institutions — known as the Monetary Award Program — was kept at a flat 1% increase. By not distributing more money to colleges and universities, Steans said costs will trickle down to students, forcing them to go out-of-state or not pursue higher education at all.

“I think historically we’ve treated higher education as discretionary: nice, but not necessary, a luxury,” she said. “Increasingly, it’s just not. We need students to earn those associate’s degrees and those bachelor’s degrees.”

Other notable state budget items passed this year include:

The Illinois Comprehensive Literacy Plan and the Illinois Comprehensive Numeracy Plan, which kept the same funding level of $1.5 million as last fiscal year.
A $15 million reduction in the Teacher Vacancy Grant Pilot Program, which helps school districts create incentives to hire and retain teachers.
The Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Program, which was maintained at about $2 million in funding
A new $1 million allocation to fund ISBE’s implementation of mental health screeners in schools

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the CPS deficit is $732 million.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois education officials vote to overhaul accountability for schools

2026-04-15T17:40:04+00:00

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The Illinois State Board of Education unanimously approved an overhaul to its system for deciding how well schools across the state are performing.

The changes to the federally required school accountability system include some new labels that indicate how well a school is doing. The new system would also calculate the designations differently.

The proposed changes now go to the federal government for final approval; State Superintendent Tony Sanders said he expects a green light. With federal approval, the new accountability system would go into effect by this fall.

Under the current system, schools were labeled as Exemplary, Commendable, Comprehensive, Targeted, and Intensive, with the latter three that deemed a school needed more support.

The new system has the following labels: Exemplary, Approaching Exemplary, Commendable, Developing, and Comprehensive. Using 2025 school data as an example, officials found that this new system would more evenly distribute schools across these designations, with the Commendable label applying to 23% of K-8 schools and 29% of high schools, versus 73% for all schools currently. More schools also would have been considered “exemplary” under the new system — roughly one-fifth of K-8 and high schools, compared with 10% under the current system.

Schools that earn the lowest designations are supposed to get extra state funding to help improve.

Sanders described the changes as one of his biggest goals, and board members described the public feedback process as a thoughtful one that resulted in tweaks to the original proposal.

“Everybody is not going to be happy about it, and that’s OK,” said ISBE board vice chair Donna S. Leak. “What we’re trying to do is find ways to connect to student achievement in a more meaningful way.”

ISBE officials extended the timeline for getting feedback on its proposed changes, which it unveiled last fall. Still, ahead of ISBE’s vote Wednesday, several education advocacy groups remained opposed to some elements of the overhaul, including the removal of a measure for whether ninth graders are on track for graduation and another measure for capturing student attendance that the groups argue isn’t sufficient.

Federal education law has long required states to craft accountability systems for its schools and required them to administer state tests. ISBE created its current system in 2017 after an overhaul of K-12 education law under former President Barack Obama.

The current system, which ranks schools based on a weighted system, was giving many schools “the wrong signal” that they were doing better than they actually are, Sanders said at an ISBE meeting last month.

“I don’t think there’s anybody that I’ve met in public education that would say that our current accountability has worked effectively at moving school improvement for student outcomes over these past few years,” Sanders said.

ISBE spokesperson Lindsay Record said state officials will share resources such as infographics, short videos, and FAQs with the public ahead of this fall to help the families understand the new system.

To earn the new designations, schools will be scored based on what ISBE is calling “core indicators,” or what it considers the most important markers of academic performance; those include student academic growth, proficiency on core subjects, and graduation rates for high schools.

Under the new system, a school’s label is determined by its strongest core indicator. But if any of the indicators score at the lowest “comprehensive” level, then the school’s designation would be knocked down a level. For example, if an elementary school’s student growth ranks at the exemplary — or the highest — level, but its student proficiency is considered comprehensive, or the lowest, then that school would be given the designation of approaching exemplary, or the second highest label.

Schools can earn higher scores if they do well on “elevating indicators,” including how well English learners are growing and if many students are attending school at least 90% of the time — the opposite of the definition for chronic absenteeism.

Some groups have argued that threshold is too low, citing research that has found students do better academically when they’re attending school more often than 90%. In Chicago, the state’s biggest district, the chronic absenteeism rate was around 40% last school year compared with about 25% statewide.

Some education groups have lingering concerns

The department made some changes between the fall and now in response to concerns, such as clarifying the labels for schools and adding an additional indicator for determining whether high schools are successful, according to its amended accountability plan.

But it didn’t reinsert the 9th Grade On-Track measure, arguing that it is important but not “meaningfully” different from a school’s graduation rate. The measure will still be publicly reported on the state report card.

But some education advocacy groups argued that 42 states measure college and career readiness in some way. They said they hope ISBE will explore a process to consider adding these measures back in somehow.

Weighing school performance based on graduation rates without another readiness measure “can obscure whether students are truly prepared for what comes after high school,” said Hal Woods, chief of policy for Kids First Chicago.

In Chicago, a Chalkbeat and WBEZ investigation found that student absenteeism was growing as the graduation rate grew, even as research shows that absenteeism is linked to lower academic performance.

Perla Santoya, senior government relations associate at Advance Illinois, said losing such an indicator sends “an incomplete message about the experiences and skills we want our young people to have.”

Still, some other educator groups said they were pleased by the changes and praised the state for being open to feedback.

“What you have in front of you today, I believe, is fair,” Emily Warnecke, chief of staff at the Illinois Association of School Administrators. “It is reflective of the great work that is happening in our schools across the state, and it still maintains very high expectations for our students.”

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

After debate, Chicago school board denounces Trump-backed push for school choice

2026-04-08T21:32:17+00:00

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As Gov. JB Pritzker weighs opting Illinois into a Trump-backed tax credit scholarship program, the Chicago Board of Education decided after an impassioned debate to push him to avoid it.

The board voted 15-0, with three abstentions, to adopt a resolution Wednesday that denounces the Trump administration’s efforts “to expand and incentivize voucher or publicly funded scholarships for private schools” and criticized private schools as nontransparent institutions.

The resolution comes as more than half of U.S. states — largely led by Republican governors — have opted into the new program. Two Democratic governors have also decided to opt into it. It will provide dollar-for-dollar tax credits to donors who give up to $1,700 to scholarship-granting nonprofits. The funds can go toward certain expenses for students enrolled in private or public schools or home-schooled children whose families make up to 300% of the local median income. For a Chicago family, that means earning less than roughly $233,000 a year.

It’s unclear if districts can directly benefit from the money.

Elected board members Che “Rhymefest” Smith, Ellen Rosenfeld, and Therese Boyle abstained from voting. Smith and Rosenfeld said they felt the matter should be directly discussed with Pritzker and his team, while Boyle is unsure how she feels about the program.

Before the vote, board members debated over whether they should take up the resolution or shelve it and discuss the matter directly with lawmakers. Board president Sean Harden, who is appointed by the mayor, said board members could both vote on a resolution and approach the governor’s office for a discussion.

“[The governor] looks for leaders to make statements around what their values are,” Harden said.

Some left-leaning politicians, including Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, have embraced the program. Pritzker has privately shared with Mendoza his reservations about opting into the program, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Rosenfeld motioned to postpone the vote because she felt the resolution’s public nature was “politically motivated.” She said she’d rather go to Springfield to ask Pritzker to oppose the program.

Springfield lawmakers have been in session since the start of the year, but the school board has not yet voted on a legislative agenda.

“Politics don’t belong in the boardroom,” Rosenfeld said.

Elected board member Jitu Brown said he couldn’t “disagree more” with Rosenfeld, that the nature of the board is political, and part of that is debate.

“Until we’re able to have honest grown-up conversations about why we have the positions we have, then we’ll play this game (of) ‘I don’t want to do politics,’” Brown said. “If you don’t want to do politics, then you shouldn’t be on the school board.”

Appointed board member Debby Pope said indefinitely pushing the resolution back “totally diminishes” its power.

Boyle said she’s still unsure how she feels about the tax credit program.

“Before being asked to make a decision on this I wish I could hear from the governor and his team – like why is it taking him so long to make a decision?” Boyle said.

Several groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Families for Public Schools, have strongly denounced the new program as a tactic to siphon students and funding from public schools and asked Pritzker not to opt in.

Opponents have pointed to school choice programs in other states to argue why a program to expand private school access in Illinois won’t necessarily benefit low-income students. In states with universal education savings accounts or voucher programs, a large share of participating students are from affluent families. Many attended private school before the voucher program was launched.

There have been some local efforts to push Pritzker to opt in. The libertarian-leaning think tank Illinois Policy Institute pushed for a ballot advisory question on the issue during last month’s elections in more than two dozen counties, most of which are suburban or rural and voted for Trump in 2024. Most voters in those places signaled support for the program.

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

Chicago school board to vote on resolution urging Pritzker to reject public funds for private school

2026-04-06T21:19:32+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education plans to vote Wednesday on a resolution urging Gov. JB Pritzker to reject efforts by the Trump administration to support private schools with public funds.

Pritzker, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump who is running for reelection as governor, has not yet made a decision about whether to opt Illinois into a federal tax-credit program.

The resolution doesn’t explicitly name the new federal tax-credit program, but it denounces Trump administration efforts “to expand and incentivize voucher or publicly funded scholarships for private schools.” It also criticizes private schools as bodies without enough guardrails or public transparency.

The federal program would provide dollar-for-dollar tax credits to donors who give up to $1,700 to scholarship-granting nonprofits. In states where the governor opts into the program, those funds can go toward certain expenses for students enrolled in private or public schools (or home-schooled children) whose families make up to 300% of the local median income — or for a Chicago family making roughly $233,000 a year or less.

Federal officials have said public schools can also benefit from the program but haven’t solidified rules for how. For example, it’s unclear whether the money could be used for tutoring provided by public schools or be restricted to outside tutoring groups.

More than half of U.S. states, mostly run by Republican governors, have opted in. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is the only Democratic governor to officially do so, while North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said he plans to in the future. A handful of other Democrats who previously opposed the program said they’re now reconsidering.

The board’s resolution argues that “the diversion of public funds for private education weakens not only public schools but other vital public goods and services such as transportation, healthcare and efforts to preserve the environment.”

Such a resolution isn’t surprising from Chicago’s school board. Many board members have taken a stance against the Trump administration in other areas, including its deportation campaign in Chicago in the fall and its cancellation of millions of dollars in federal grant funding for CPS. A majority of the board is also aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, a major ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson, which is staunchly opposed to the program.

But there have been some splits among Illinois politicians. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who is considering a run for Chicago mayor this year, called for the state to opt in via an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune. While Pritzker hasn’t announced a decision, he has expressed reservations: He texted Mendoza that governors who haven’t yet opted in “are waiting to understand how much of the money can be used for publics and exactly how states can keep the money from supporting schools that teach values that are racist or antisemitic or anti-American,” according to texts obtained by the Chicago Tribune.

For her part, Mendoza wrote in a Tribune op-ed that “rather than funding Trump’s agenda in D.C. or sending more of our dollars to Republican-controlled states already taking advantage of Illinois taxpayers, I would much prefer that an Illinoisan be able to redirect $1,700 to support their own school community.”

Some education advocacy groups have asked Pritzker not to opt in. Additionally, the advocacy arm of Illinois Policy Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank, persuaded more than two dozen Illinois counties and townships to include a non-binding advisory question on their recent primary election ballots about the program. Most of the questions didn’t mention that the program relies on tax credits, and at least one of those counties incorrectly described the program.

Still, a majority of voters in places with the ballot question approved of Pritzker opting in, according to a tally of results from Illinois Policy. Most of those counties are suburban or rural areas that voted for Trump in 2024. (Cook County, the state’s largest, and Chicago ballots did not have the advisory question.)

The federal program comes three years after Illinois lawmakers allowed a different private school scholarship program to sunset. That program, known as the Invest in Kids scholarship, allowed individuals or corporations to donate to scholarship-granting organizations, which then provided tuition aid to low-income, private school students.

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

Pritzker’s budget plan calls for education funding increases but fall short of requests

2026-02-19T22:41:50+00:00

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When Illinois’ main funding formula for K-12 schools was established a decade ago — meant to send more dollars to districts with higher needs — lawmakers at the time set a goal to fully fund it by 2027.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget proposal for next fiscal year wouldn’t do that.

Pritzker’s $56 billion budget proposal, which he released Wednesday, calls for a $305 million increase in the evidence-based funding formula, with a total investment of $9.2 billion. That’s $45 million less than what the Illinois State Board of Education, or ISBE, requested last month.

The proposal is the opening of budget negotiations. State lawmakers are expected to finalize a budget in May.

The governor’s plan angered the state’s biggest teachers unions, which are pushing lawmakers to fully fund the formula by next year, which would require an additional $3 billion. Another education advocacy organization described the budget proposal as responsible in the face of economic pressures and federal funding threats.

Pritzker’s proposed increase excludes property tax relief grants for school districts, which were paused last year, too. Lindsay Record, a spokesperson for ISBE, said a state panel is reviewing the effectiveness of those grants and is expected to release a report by March 1, which “will inform further conversations on the future of this grant program.”

The proposal also calls for a $51 million increase in funding that helps districts cover costs for special education, transportation, and some other expenses — about $100 million less than what ISBE requested.

In all, the governor is proposing about $10.7 billion for K-12 education. Pritzker proposed a social media fee that he estimates would raise about $200 million next fiscal year for education expenses. The fee would be imposed on companies that “collect consumer data and sell to third-party buyers,” according to the budget proposal.

Pritzker praised the state’s education investments, crediting them for eighth grade reading and math scores that surpassed national averages on the test known as the “nation’s report card.” Fourth grade reading and math scores were on par with the national average.

“We prioritize school funding, putting billions more into public education to improve the student teacher ratio and get better outcomes for our children,” Pritzker said during his State of the State speech Wednesday.

Pritzker’s plan — described as a maintenance budget in the face of federal funding threats — comes as some progressive Chicago-area lawmakers have introduced a new, union-backed bill that calls for the state to fully fund the formula by 2027 with more money for reimbursements to districts. If the bill passed as written, it would cost the state an additional $3.9 billion annually, Ralph Martire, the executive director of the think tank Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, previously told Chalkbeat. A 2024 report from the center found that at the current funding level, schools won’t be fully funded under the formula until at least 2034.

The bill’s backers have called for taxes on Illinois’ wealthiest residents and corporations to help cover the costs.

Since 2017, the state has increased funding through the new formula by about $2.5 billion. Today, roughly one-third of districts are considered at least 90% adequately funded.

Chicago Public Schools, the state’s largest district where about 70% of kids are from low-income families, has seen nearly $390 million in overall funding increases from the state over the past five years. Still, the district is $1.6 billion short of what the state considers adequate funding, an issue that district leaders often highlight as they plan their annual budget.

Pankaj Sharma, secretary and treasurer of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, blasted the governor’s proposal in part because it won’t fully fund the formula by next year as state lawmakers had originally promised.

“Each day that our Governor and members of the General Assembly fail to deliver valuable resources to students, educators, and their families, they are shortchanging our young people according to their own funding formula,” Sharma said in a statement. “It is another day where a student’s zip code — not state policy — determines whether they have what they need to succeed.”

But Advance Illinois, another education advocacy organization, described the proposal as responsible in a tough budget year. The group noted, however, that the state is still roughly $3 billion short of fully funding its formula.

“Governor Pritzker has consistently prioritized education, and past investments have served Illinois well,” Advance Illinois President Robin Steans said in a statement. “We hope the General Assembly can find ways to build on the Governor’s proposal to ensure that Illinois students do not lose ground.”

Separately, for the second year in a row, the governor called for banning cellphones from the classroom during his State of the State address Wednesday. Lawmakers failed to pass such legislation last year.

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

Illinois education officials ask for another $350 million increase in funding for school districts

2026-01-14T21:19:52+00:00

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The Illinois State Board of Education will ask state lawmakers to provide the same funding increase as past years for Illinois’ 800-plus school districts.

Board officials unanimously approved a budget recommendation Wednesday that, if ultimately approved by the Illinois state legislature, would boost the main stream of K-12 funding — known as the evidence-based funding formula — by $350 million, or a 4% increase.

Last year’s increase was $307 million, after state leaders paused property tax relief grants, which would return under this request.

The recommended increase to evidence-based funding reflects the minimum ask from members of the public, who submitted hundreds of budget requests to ISBE, state officials said in the fall.

The $350 million increase would be in line with most of the annual increases since 2017, when state lawmakers created the new funding formula that is supposed to send more dollars to schools with more needs. But a 2024 report found that at the current funding level, schools won’t be fully funded under the formula until at least 2034.

Still, in the face of financial pressures, “it’s a responsible budget,” said Robin Steans, president of advocacy organization Advance Illinois, which closely follows state education funding.

Overall, the board is asking the state for $10.9 billion to fund its main K-12 expenses — a roughly 2% drop compared to its current budget. Much of that cut is driven by the removal of early childhood education programming out of ISBE and into a standalone state department that is expected to launch by July 1.

ISBE is recommending other funding increases that fall outside of evidence-based funding, such as for student transportation, but is also recommending some cuts, including for organizations that provide after-school programming.

State education officials crafted their budget request, in part, based on the financial outlook for Illinois, which is expecting a $2.2 billion budget deficit for next fiscal year. ISBE’s request will go to Gov. JB Pritzker, who will reveal his full state budget proposal next month. The General Assembly will then work to approve a budget in late May, with the state’s fiscal year beginning July 1.

State lawmakers have increased evidence-based funding by $350 million annually in the decade since it was created with some exceptions, including no increase during the first year of the pandemic. However, to match the same value a $350 million increase had in 2017, state leaders would need to increase education funding by another roughly $100 million, according to the CPI inflation calculator.

In a statement, Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago and Illinois teachers unions, said the possible funding increase was insufficient as students “in various parts of the state are going without meals, without their special education needs being met, without counselors, extra-curriculars, sports, and even without heat and hazard-free facilities.”

Since 2017, the state has increased funding through the new formula by about $2.5 billion, and now just over one-third of districts are considered at least 90% adequately funded.

Illinois’ largest district, Chicago Public Schools, is considered 73% adequately funded by the state. Still, CPS is projecting a more than half-billion dollar deficit next fiscal year. Many school board members have pushed for more state funding. Others, however, have not expected additional money as the state faces its own financial problems.

Future federal funding threats may also force Illinois’ hand to raise more revenue or find cuts. The Trump administration announced last week that it would freeze $1 billion in child care and social services funding for Illinois and several other Democrat-led states, but a federal judge has temporarily blocked that move.

Some progressive organizations, including the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Revenue Alliance, are pushing the state to collect more revenue by imposing new taxes on corporations and Illinois’ wealthiest residents. Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Democrat, is pushing for a new tax on millionaires, several news outlets reported.

More funding for transportation, cuts for after-school programming

ISBE is also asking the state to beef up funding for expenses it partially reimburses school districts for, including a nearly 15% increase for transportation for students with disabilities and an 11% increase in public and private school tuition for students with disabilities. ISBE officials have said the state’s reimbursements aren’t keeping up with rising costs for school districts, and they received many requests for more transportation funding.

But these increases would keep the state’s support at similar rates to last year, meaning districts may have to divert more evidence-based funding they could otherwise spend on classrooms, said Steans from Advance Illinois.

ISBE is calling for a 10% increase in grant funding to schools for career and technical education funding, another budget request from the public.

ISBE is also recommending cuts outside of direct school funding, including nearly $23 million in grants for a variety of programs, including after-school initiatives and money for individual organizations.

For example, Chicago-based Southwest Organizing Project, which distributes grants to organizations to train parent mentor volunteers, who provide additional support in low-income schools across the state, would get a $6 million cut, or a 30% reduction, to its current level of funding from the state. After School Matters, which provided paid enrichment opportunities to about 17,000 Chicago teenagers last fiscal year, would have a 50% cut to its ISBE funding. The organizations got funding boosts from the state for their current budgets; the recommended cuts would bring their funding levels back in line with past years.

It’s unclear how these cuts would impact these organizations. For example, ISBE funding made up roughly one-fifth of After School Matter’s government funding in fiscal year 2025, according to state records and the organization’s most recent annual report.

Southwest Organizing Project, which acts as the fiscal agent for the parent mentor program statewide, used the funding increase last year to bring parent mentors to 47 more schools, for a total of 292 schools, said Adriana Velazquez, who helps lead the organization’s parent mentor work. They also used the additional money to save programs at 32 existing schools that were losing expiring federal COVID stimulus dollars.

Velazquez said the organization will work with state lawmakers to preserve the funding. The organization focuses on schools with more than 80% low-income students, including many in Chicago neighborhoods that have been impacted by increased immigration enforcement.

“Just working in the most vulnerable communities, especially our communities that have been under attack, we are not going to take another cut,” Velazquez said.

Correction: This story previously misstated the number of schools that Southwest Organizing Project supported with additional state funds due to incorrect information. The organization added parent mentors to 47 new schools but also used the funds to sustain programs at 32 existing schools.

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

Illinois investigating Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy for special education violations

2025-12-18T21:19:32+00:00

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The Illinois State Board of Education has escalated a yearslong investigation into violations of special education law at Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy, a charter school in the Little Village neighborhood, Chicago Public Schools officials announced Thursday.

Instituto, which has been open since 2010, has “repeated and unresolved failure to correct documented special education violations over multiple school years,” according to a letter from Josh Long, the district’s chief of the Office of Students With Disabilities, to the Chicago Board of Education describing the state’s investigation. Long read his letter aloud, as required by the state, to the board at its meeting.

Despite the ongoing state investigation, CPS renewed Instituto’s contract in May for another three years.

State officials estimate Instituto failed to provide more than 100 students with disabilities with services they were legally entitled to last school year, amounting to a loss of between 12,000 to 80,000 minutes of instruction.

The state is now requiring CPS to provide additional oversight to Instituto, including biweekly check-ins, monitoring how the school is providing paraprofessional services, and monthly visits from CPS to Instituto to ensure the school is completing its requirements to compensate kids with services they missed over the previous two school years, the letter said.

As a charter school, Instituto is a privately run, publicly funded school and operates under a contract with CPS. CPS considers various factors when deciding to renew a charter school’s contract, including how well a school serves its students with disabilities.

The charter school enrolled 479 students at the start of this school year, and about 16% of those students have disabilities, on par with schools citywide, according to district demographic data. Schools create plans — either Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, or 504 plans — for many students with disabilities that outline which services students are entitled to and how often they should receive them.

As part of its recommendation to renew Instituto’s contract, CPS said the school must “demonstrate progress” toward implementing unspecified recommendations from the Office for Students with Disabilities.

CPS did not immediately respond to a question about why it recommended renewing Instituto’s contract despite the investigation. But in a separate statement, a spokesperson said it “takes seriously its responsibility to uphold students’ rights and to ensure compliance with all applicable special education requirements.”

The state says Instituto has not yet provided documentation to show that it has fixed five of the 10 violations alleged by the state, including failure to provide speech and language services to students who require them and maintain required class size limits for special education classes. There are still students who are owed services from the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, according to the state letter.

“This delay resulted in students graduating, transferring from the school and district, no longer being eligible or revoking consent for special education services, further impeding their access to required compensatory education minutes,” according to the letter.

Board members did not discuss the matter or ask questions after Long finished reading the letter.

Several educators from the school spoke to board members during the public comment portion of Thursday’s meeting, saying their issues worsened with the mass departure of special education staff shortly before the 2023-24 school year. They said the school has now hired more staff and improved its services for students under the school’s principal, Alberto Mendez, who took over during the 2024-25 school year, after the state investigation began in July 2023.

In a brief interview with reporters, Mendez said more staff has allowed the school to be able to offer compensatory services for students during and after school.

“When I first stepped in, it was almost like I inherited the systemic issues that pertain to the past and it’s been a priority to rebuild the special education department and program,” Mendez said. “We’re progressing in the right direction; unfortunately it takes time.”

Since the state first opened its investigation into Instituto, ISBE found Instituto had failed to follow special education laws. For example, in August 2023, the state said Instituto had not made up services to three students who required special education services, and for three other students, had provided only a fraction of what was required.

Instituto had at one point offered summer school to students, according to the letter. But the state said such an offer “did not dismiss Instituto’s obligation” to provide services to students who have not received them since the 2023-24 school year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaching scholarship now open to all

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Illinois joins other states in changing diversity scholarships

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Proposal to overhaul Illinois school accountability ratings gets mixed reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sanders pushed back against some of the criticism.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suburban Chicago charter appeals to state after local board votes to close its campuses in 2027

2025-11-20T20:31:25+00:00

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Two suburban Chicago charter schools are appealing to Illinois’ state superintendent to stay open after the local board of education voted to close the campuses in 2027 unless contract renewal terms can be reached.

The charter closure decision and subsequent appeal comes as North Chicago District 187 is transitioning away from state oversight. Like Chicago, the school district will have a fully elected school board in 2027 after roughly a decade of state control. It will continue to have a state Financial Oversight Panel until 2031.

North Chicago District 187’s Independent Authority, which is a hybrid school board made up of state appointees and elected officials, voted in late September to wind down the operations of two LEARN charter school campuses, citing the inability to reach a contract agreement. Earlier this year, the same board voted to grant LEARN a seven-year contract renewal.

“We’re in this gray area of operating schools without a contract to do so,” said District 187 Superintendent John Price. LEARN 6 and LEARN 10 campuses have operated without a formal charter contract since 2021 and 2022, according to the resolution and documents obtained by Chalkbeat.

Price told Chalkbeat Wednesday the first preference would be to reach a contract agreement, rendering the wind-down plan moot. “Clearly, the district wants the schools to be open. We’ve offered a seven-year renewal,” he said.

Andrew Broy with the Illinois Network of Charter Schools said it’s “very common” for a charter school to operate without a contract or under the terms of a previous one after the authorizing school board votes.

“Just like if a union contract is pending for years, it rolls over,” Broy said. “The same thing happens in charter school contracts today.”

One key sticking point in the contract talks between District 187 and LEARN has to do with a school building on the Naval Station Great Lakes base that LEARN has directly leased from the federal government since it opened in 2012. District 187 said it has applied to directly lease the building and is proposing to sublease it to LEARN under the same terms. But the two parties have not reached an agreement on the arrangement.

District 187 is also currently building a new facility for district-run Forrestal Elementary with federal funds.

LEARN President and CEO Greg White has said the network cannot agree to a new contract until all the financial terms, including the building lease for LEARN 6, are sorted out. He said closing the campuses would be short-sighted given their success.

“It was actually the work of ISBE and the Navy and families in North Chicago is why we’re there,” White said. “We’ve had a long-term relationship, a very positive relationship, with the Illinois State Board.”

He said Thursday ISBE should grant the appeal because state law says “if a district chooses not to renew a charter, it must be able to place every student in a higher-performing school. There are no higher-performing elementary schools in North Chicago.”

LEARN’s two campuses in North Chicago are rated “commendable” on the most recent state report card and collectively, they serve 800 of the district’s more than 3,500 students. LEARN officials noted no other District 187 elementary schools received a commendable or higher rating. The local high school, however, is also rated “commendable.” ISBE is in the process of revising those labels for school performance.

In Illinois, charter schools can only be authorized by local school districts. If a local school board denies a charter application or terminates it, charters can appeal to the state superintendent. There are currently nine state-authorized charter schools that won appeals in the past.

LEARN’s appeal was submitted on Tuesday, kicking off a process involving a third-party hearing officer who makes a recommendation to ISBE. The timeline would not likely result in a decision before February or March.

Nevertheless, more than two dozen parents of LEARN students from North Chicago showed up at ISBE’s monthly meeting Thursday to urge state officials to keep the two campuses open beyond 2027.

Jennifer Jerez, a parent of three current and former LEARN 6 students, said she enrolled her older children at the school because they were struggling “academically, mentally and even emotionally” at their previous school.

“They were struggling to read and write at 13 and 15,” she said. “I was desperate for help as any other parent, and so I applied to LEARN 6. There, my eldest flourished. He found his voice. He got into the honor roll, and he got accepted to a prestigious high school. He is now 22 in his third year at [Northern Illinois University], and is majoring in psychology.”

Jerez said her 6-year-old is now in first grade at LEARN 6.

“I am begging you to please, please, let him have the same opportunities that my eldest had,” she said.

“LEARN has given my children and so many others the opportunity to reach higher than they ever thought possible,” said Michelle Malcom, a parent of three current and former LEARN 6 students. “I ask you to grant LEARN’s appeal and reverse the district decision to close our schools. Keep these schools open. Keep hope, choice, high expectations alive for North Chicago.”

Tension between charter schools and their authorizing school boards is not new. But in recent years, in Chicago and Illinois, there have been more instances of charters closing.

Some charter closures have been voluntary, such as recent decisions in Chicago by charter operators to not continue operating certain campuses, prompting the city’s school board to intervene and keep some of the charters open as district schools. Others have been prompted by conflicts or financial mismanagement.

The state board has not always granted appeals. Last year, it denied an appeal by a charter school in Peoria after the local school board there voted to end its contract with the school.

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

Illinois releases draft proposal of new school rating system

2025-11-05T22:30:00+00:00

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Illinois is planning to change how it labels schools and switch some of the data it uses to assign those designations.

A draft of the accountability redesign posted by the Illinois State Board of Education indicates there would still be five labels, but their names would change slightly. The proposed changes would eliminate the use of the 9th-grade On-Track metric, which measures the percentage of freshmen likely to graduate based on their attendance and grades.

The draft also suggests swapping out chronic absenteeism, which measures how many students are absent for 10% or more of the school year, and instead measuring how many students are present for 90% or more of the school year.

The new labels schools would get — in descending order of highest performing to lowest — would be Exemplary, Commendable, Approaching, Developing, and Comprehensive. That varies from the current groupings of Exemplary, Commendable, Comprehensive, Targeted, and Intensive.

Illinois proposed school accountability ratings.

If approved by state and federal officials, the new rating system would be rolled out next fall. It comes after officials this year changed the cut scores used on annual standardized tests to determine whether students are considered proficient. In accordance with federal law, all third through eighth and 11th grade students enrolled in public schools are tested each spring

States are required to have an accountability system under federal education law. This has been the case since at least 2002 when Congress mandated all students in third through eighth grade and 11th grade be tested in math and reading every year.

The labels in Illinois are determined using a complex calculation that gives weight to certain metrics, such as attendance, graduation rates, and math, reading, and science scores. The calculation also takes into account how well a school does serving specific groups of students, such as those with disabilities or those learning English.

“The current system has been mislabeling schools in much the same way our assessments once misidentified students,” State Superintendent Tony Sanders wrote in his weekly message on Oct. 28.

Currently, the top 10% of schools are automatically labeled Exemplary and then the next roughly 70% have been deemed Commendable. Sanders likened this to grading on a curve with no fixed criteria to earn a certain rating.

The proposed draft designations would change the underlying formula used in a way that would lead to a broader distribution of the labels across schools, according to ISBE.

Under Illinois' new draft proposal for school accountability ratings, more than just the top 10% of schools would be considered Exemplary.

State officials are holding three public meetings to gather feedback on the proposed accountability redesign starting Thursday.

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

Illinois juniors score lower on ACT than their peers a decade ago, but graduation rates hit record high

2025-10-30T14:00:00+00:00

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Illinois high school juniors last school year scored lower on the ACT college entrance exam than their peers did a decade ago — mirroring national downward trends in high school achievement.

The average ACT composite score unveiled Thursday for juniors who took the test in the spring was a 18.8 out of a possible 36. Chicago Public Schools reported a 17.1 average composite score, but composite scores for other districts were not released. A decade ago, Illinois juniors posted a 20.5 average composite score and CPS juniors then had an average composite score of 18.2.

Illinois tests juniors on a school day each spring using a college entrance exam, such as the ACT or SAT, to fulfill an accountability mandate outlined in federal law starting in 2002. From 2002 to 2016, Illinois used the ACT, then switched to the SAT, which it used from 2017 to 2024. This past school year, the state returned to using the ACT.

The average composite score on the SAT declined between 2017 and 2024, when it was 950. A comparison chart on ACT’s website says an SAT score of 950 equates to a 17 on the ACT.

There’s also been little progress in reducing the rates at which Illinois high school students are missing school. In Chicago, the rates of absenteeism actually went up last school year.

At the same time, Illinois’ four-year high school graduation rate has reached a record high 89%, with Chicago posting an 82.5% rate.

Last fall, State Superintendent Tony Sanders flagged the disconnect between steady standardized test declines at high school level and the rise in graduation rates as a concern. But this week, he said he’s not worried.

“Our data suggests that our students are faring really well,” Sanders said. “They’re graduating because they’re ready to graduate.”

State and Chicago officials both highlighted growing numbers of students taking Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and dual credit courses — all of which can translate to college credit if students successfully pass those courses. However, pass rates for those courses are not included in the data.

CPS Chief of Teaching and Learning Nicole Milberg called rising graduation rates a “bright spot” for CPS and noted that the rate has more than doubled since 2001. She attributed that to the district making preparation for postsecondary education a major focus.

Chicago officials also said more than 56% of district graduates earned early college or career credentials and district data indicates more graduates are making it to and through college.

“We are seeing really strong data in terms of college persistence, which is showing us something about our students being prepared and ready for college,” Milberg said.

Still, Milberg said the latest ACT scores are concerning and something district officials are trying to better understand.

The last time Illinois high school juniors were required to take the ACT in 2016, they posted average scores between 20 and 21 out of a possible 36. For a decade prior, average scores hovered around 20 as well. Chicago’s average ACT scores climbed from 16.3 to 18.4 between 2002 and 2016. New data does not include average composite scores for districts and a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said they will no longer calculate or publish them because federal law does not require it. Data does include a breakdown of average scores by subject.

Rae Clementz, the state’s executive director of data, accountability & assessment, said not to compare the ACT scores of a decade ago to now because it’s “just a very different assessment.”

But officials with ACT said although some changes have been made to the test that rolled out in 2025, including fewer questions, the scores can still be compared over time. Generally, they said, an 18 in 2025 means what it did in 2015.

Scores on both college entrance exams have declined in other states where all students are taking the SAT or the ACT during the school day for accountability purposes under federal law.

Many researchers and observers point to the pandemic as a core reason for the decline. The high school juniors who took the ACT last spring were in middle school when the pandemic shuttered schools and sent learning online.

Some point to lingering challenges with attendance as a core factor for the declines.

Recent research on Illinois and Chicago students found a strong link between how often students miss school and their test scores. A report released earlier this month by the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative, or iWERC, found test scores decline each additional day a student misses school.

Earlier this year, Chalkbeat and WBEZ reported a quarter of all CPS high schoolers — nearly 25,000 students — missed at least 35 days of school during the 2023-24 school year. That’s twice the number of days the state deems troublesome enough to flag a student as chronically absent. Data shared by IWERC at that time showed the more days a high school student missed, the lower their SAT scores.

New data from the state for the 2024-25 school year indicates that chronic absenteeism — defined as missing 10% of school days or around 18 in a given year — increased in the high school grades in CPS and remained relatively flat across the state. The rates declined for elementary school students both at CPS and across the state, indicating improvement in attendance among younger children.

Sanders said many schools are working hard to address absenteeism, but it remains higher than pre-pandemic levels, in line with national trends. He said the state will soon be launching a “chronic absence task force” made up of teachers, school leaders, social workers, and advocates.

“This is still going to have to be a focus for Illinois schools,” he said.

Jessica Handy, executive director of the advocacy and policy organization Stand for Children, said high schools need to focus on improving attendance, but also should work on keeping students engaged once they do show up.

“Cell phones are another thing that has changed a lot,” Handy said. “The largest barrier to kids learning is that they’re distracted by those phones all day long.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pushed for banning cell phones during instructional time earlier this year, but the proposed bill did not pass. A new study supported by the National Bureau of Economic research found cell phone bans in schools had a positive impact on student learning.

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

Teachers union pushes Illinois lawmakers for more school funding

2025-10-29T20:00:03+00:00

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Waves of teachers in blue shirts filled the Illinois capitol Wednesday to lobby state lawmakers for more education funding and push them to tax the rich.

Members of the Illinois Federation of Teachers spoke about the impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to the Department of Education and other public goods, such as the looming end of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, also known as SNAP, and how that impacts classrooms.

Those who spoke at a press conference on the steps of the capitol building demanded lawmakers find revenue to better fund state universities and K-12 schools.

The lobbying effort was the first led by IFT’s new leadership, which now includes Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates at the helm. Davis Gates won election to the CTU’s parent union earlier this month and took over for Dan Montgomery, who served as IFT president for 15 years.

“I’m not looking for a fight,” said Davis Gates. “I think Democrats in a blue state that understand the tyranny of Trump need to show up for our children in Illinois.”

Davis Gates said lawmakers and Gov. JB Pritzker should do more than hold press conferences denouncing President Donald Trump’s policies and she repeated the union’s push to “tax the rich.”

“We’re going to spend a lot of time in Springfield creating the lesson plans, the pathways for elected officials to honor the working people, the public servants, and the educators of the state of Illinois,” Davis Gates told a crowd of union members outside the capitol building.

Illinois House Democrats are currently eyeing a proposal to tax billionaire investments and entertainment in order to fund public transportation. But it could face hurdles getting through the Senate, which passed its own plan in the spring to tax rideshare, deliveries, and real estate transfers to better fund public transit. The state’s veto session ends Thursday.

The teachers union is supportive of taxing the rich to fund public services, including transit. But much of their focus Wednesday was to push lawmakers to fully fund public school districts and universities.

In 2017, Illinois lawmakers changed the way it distributed state funding to 850-plus school districts. They also committed to increasing funding by $350 million every year with a goal of getting every district to its unique “adequacy target” under a new evidence-based formula by 2027.

Chicago is one of hundreds of districts considered less than 90% funded. Although CPS has seen boosts in state funding, it still needs $1.6 billion to get from its current 73% funded level to 100% under the state’s formula.

“Too many districts are still so far from their adequacy targets,” said Mari Maldonado, a fourth grade special education teacher from Lincolnwood, a suburb north of Chicago. “We are demanding that the lawmakers close the loopholes, tax the ultra-wealthy, and deliver every penny our students were promised.”

Other IFT members who work at colleges and universities spoke about the need to overhaul funding for higher education in Illinois. There’s currently a proposal in the Senate that would implement an evidence-based formula similar to the one used for K-12 schools, distributing money based on need. It stalled in the spring after losing support from the University of Illinois over concerns it could harm the state’s flagship campus in Urbana Champaign.

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

Illinois launches its own Blue Ribbon Schools program after feds cut long-standing initiative

2025-10-15T18:05:22+00:00

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Illinois is awarding blue ribbons to 28 public and private schools despite a decision by the Trump administration to cancel the long-standing program recognizing high-performing schools.

The newly-launched Governor’s Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognized schools that went through the application process for the U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon Schools Program before it was abruptly canceled in late August.

Prescott Elementary in Roscoe Village is the only public school in Chicago to earn recognition. It was named a National Blue Ribbon school in 2019. Three private elementary schools — Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy, St. Matthias School, and St. Therese Chinese Catholic School — also received the honors.

Illinois follows several other states, including Connecticut, Maryland, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wyoming, launching local versions of the national Blue Ribbon program, which was created in 1982 under then-President Ronald Reagan’s administration.

Erin Roche, the principal of Prescott, said the school was preparing to do a celebration with the students when he heard the National Blue Ribbon program was cut in late August.

He said although it’s unfortunate the national program ended, it’s “very, very impressive” Illinois is continuing to honor high-performing schools. At Prescott, Roche said the school prioritizes “old-fashioned good teaching and learning” and puts students at the center of its work.

“We want them to be strong readers and curious about math and science,” Roche said. “We also want them to be good friends and know right from wrong, and know how to solve social problems and be introspective as well as contribute to community.”

William H. Prescott Elementary School won a National Blue Ribbon in 2019 and was set to be honored again this year before the Trump administration canceled the program. Now, Illinois is launching a Governor's Blue Ribbon Schools Program.

Under the National Blue Ribbon program, schools could be recognized for overall high academic achievement or for success closing performance gaps between different groups of students. Winning a blue ribbon from the federal government did not come with any financial rewards, but did bring positive attention to schools, helping them attract families, recruit teachers, and sometimes boost private fundraising.

In eliminating the program, federal officials said states should continue the program and would have flexibility to determine criteria for selection.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said in a press release that the 2025 recipients had already been selected by the U.S. Department of Education before the program ended.

Going forward, the Illinois State Board of Education, which in the past nominated schools for the national program, will manage the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Schools application process.

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

Illinois now ranks 18th in nation for state education spending per student, report says

2025-10-01T16:45:00+00:00

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Illinois is no longer one of the worst states in America when it comes to funding K-12 schools, an improvement that may have helped it weather some of the COVID pandemic’s disruption to student learning, according to a new report released Wednesday.

In its annual "The State We’re In" report, the independent advocacy organization Advance Illinois said Illinois moved from 47th in 2008 for state spending per student to 18th.

“This is unprecedented,” said Advance Illinois President Robin Steans. “It’s stunning. It was badly, badly necessary.”

Illinois changed the formula it uses to distribute money to school districts in 2017 and in doing so, also committed to adding $350 million every year to its evidence-based funding formula. Lawmakers have allocated those increases every year since 2018, with the exception of 2020 when the state budget was largely held flat in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and this year when it paused a roughly $50 million property-tax relief program connected to the formula.

“We get calls on a regular basis from other states that are trying to steal our playbook in terms of a more equitable funding formula and doing a better job sort of identifying what they should be spending,” Steans said.

When Illinois passed its evidence-based funding formula, the goal was to get all districts adequately funded by 2027. Advance Illinois’ report says that’s now not expected to happen until 2038. Under the formula, 50 school districts in Illinois are still considered less than 70% adequately funded. But that number is down from more than 600 districts in 2018 when the formula went into effect.

Steans said Illinois’ leap in state funding for public education helped schools weather the setbacks of the COVID pandemic, noting that eighth grade students in 2024 ranked eighth and ninth in the nation in reading and math proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. However, fourth grade Illinois students, who took the test in 2024 and started kindergarten in 2020, ranked 29th and 30th on the NAEP, often considered the nation’s report card.

Most of the collective $2.8 billion added by state lawmakers in the past eight years has been distributed based on need. But because Illinois’ 866 school districts still rely heavily on property taxes, inequities remain between schools in the wealthiest and poorest communities. Most districts rely on state funding for only a portion of their overall budgets. For example, state money makes up about a quarter of Chicago Public Schools’ budget.

What’s more, Steans said, Illinois lawmakers have sometimes shortchanged or prorated areas of the education budget that are separate from the formula and earmarked for things such as transportation and special education, known as mandated categoricals.

“The state has got to do a better job of keeping pace with those mandated categorical costs or what we’re really doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Steans said.

Nevertheless, the boost in state funding has led to an increase in the number of teachers and a reduction in the average student-to-teacher ratio, which went from 15 students per teacher to 13 students per teacher, the report found.

The report, however, highlighted high ratios of students to support staff, such as counselors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses. All of those averages exceed 400 students to 1 for all types of support staff.

This comes even as student mental health remains a significant concern.

“Increasing chronic absenteeism rates and concerning trends in student mental health and wellness raise important questions about what we can and should be doing as a state to systemically support students so that they are ready and able to learn,” the report said.

In all, Advance Illinois analyzed 80 different metrics that are tracked by the state and federal government and looked at both longitudinal trends and how the state compares to others across the nation. The full report can be viewed here.

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

Illinois education budget process for 2026-27 school year begins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Becky Vevea contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Illinois lowers state test proficiency cut scores in math, English language arts

2025-08-13T18:11:16+00:00

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The Illinois State Board of Education approved changes to the cut scores used to determine proficiency on state standardized tests Wednesday.

The scores needed to be considered proficient in math and English language arts on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness will decrease, while the cut scores will increase for the Illinois Science Assessment. High school juniors will need to score an 18 in English language arts, a 19 in math, a 19 in science on the ACT college entrance exam to be considered proficient. The ACT scores range from 1-36.

The new cut scores will be applied to assessments taken by students during the spring and reported publicly in October. Data shared in a presentation Tuesday indicates that more students will be labeled as proficient than were last year.

Comparisons to achievement in past years, including to pre-pandemic performance, now will be difficult due to the shifting benchmarks.

Under the new cut scores, 53% of students would be considered proficient in English language arts, up from 41% last year; 38% would be proficient in math, up from 28% last year; and 45% would be in science, down from last year.

Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders said the move is not a lowering of standards, but rather adjusting to better match the reality of students’ abilities.

Sanders said data showed that many students in Illinois who scored at the old cut score could have entered college without remediation and earned a C or higher in credit-bearing courses.

The measure passed unanimously and board of education members spoke briefly to praise Sanders and the agency’s staff for running a thoughtful process that engaged teachers and other school staff over the past 18 months.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Illinois educators helped adjust cut scores

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

State formula works, but needs more funding, advocates say

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reema Amin contributed to this report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Becky Vevea contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supporters believe paperwork will ensure students are educated

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Both sides say they are not giving up yet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reema Amin contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the highlights from the fiscal year 2026 budget:

Funding for early childhood education remains largely flat

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

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

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

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

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

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

K-12 schools receive smallest increase since 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Modest increases for higher education scholarships

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

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

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

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

Illinois lawmakers pass bill aimed at expanding dual language programs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guide for schools to expand dual language programs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Support for English learners dries up at federal level

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The legislative session is scheduled to end on May 31.

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

Bills moving quickly through the legislature

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

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

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

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

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

The future is uncertain for these bills

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

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

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

What we’re watching for in the 2026 budget

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

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

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

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

Chicago Public Schools floats hundreds of layoffs as one option to close $529 million budget gap

2025-04-25T22:19:36+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is considering laying off hundreds of school-based staffers next school year — one of multiple scenarios being considered to close a $529 million budget gap, Chalkbeat has learned.

Between 1,600 and 1,700 positions based inside schools could be cut, according to a presentation used to brief board members obtained by Chalkbeat. However, it’s not clear if the number represents a net reduction in the overall number of CPS employees. The district currently employs more than 41,000 people.

While some of the belt-tightening could include cutting vacant positions, it would “overwhelmingly” involve layoffs, according to a CPS source who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press.

The potential cuts are not yet final. The presentation suggests there are ways to lessen the blow, specifically by getting more state funding or more city money than it is already expecting from special taxing districts meant to spur development, known as TIFs. Mayor Brandon Johnson has the power to declare a surplus of those funds, and CPS is assuming it will again receive roughly $300 million in those funds next year, according to the presentation.

The CPS budget for next school year, which would begin July 1, must still go through a public hearing process and be formally adopted by the board. School budgets are typically shared with principals and Local School Councils in the spring. By state law, the district’s budget must be balanced.

The challenge ahead marks the first time in recent years that CPS has had to consider deep school-based cuts. That’s largely because the district benefitted from a windfall of nearly $3 billion in federal COVID relief money over the past four school years, which supported 7% of school budgets, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus said the district is considering multiple scenarios, including what happens if state or local revenue doesn’t change. The different scenarios don’t “necessarily reflect the district’s recommendation.” She added that CPS leaders, students, parents, and advocates will travel to Springfield next week to push for more state funding.

“CPS will continue to seek every opportunity to boost revenue and minimize cuts, particularly those that could disrupt the learning experience or impact our dedicated staff,” she said. “Our primary focus will remain on safeguarding the quality of education for our students and minimizing any disruptions to their daily learning.”

The school board’s office did not return a request for comment. Service Employees International Union local that covers school support staff also did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates said the potential cuts are “evidence of a fired CEO’s failure to lead.”

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez was fired without cause in December and will leave in June. He will likely take a job as the new education commissioner of Massachusetts.

“It’s time for this board to define for Chicagoans how it will lead and show there’s no place for going backwards on the district’s commitment to quality public education,” Davis Gates said.

Closing budget gap could mean at least $200M cuts to schools

The expected $529 million gap between revenues and expenses is calculated after accounting for several new expenses, including the new teachers contract, potential raises for principals as part of their union’s negotiations, and increased costs related to SEIU and other unions, according to the internal presentation. CPS is also expecting increases in charter school funding and teacher pensions, to comply with state laws. The projection does not, however, include a much-debated pension reimbursement to the city of Chicago, which the district declined to pay this year. That suggests the district will, for now, refuse to reimburse the city for the pension payment next school year.

The projected budget gap does not include new risks to federal funding under President Donald Trump, such as Title I, which provides additional funds to about 400 Chicago schools with high shares of students from low-income families.

If the board chooses to balance the budget through this plan, it would reduce the deficit by a total $200 million to $260 million, about 6% to 7% of the $3.5 billion in funding that goes directly to schools, according to the presentation. The district also floated cutting central office expenses by $20 million to $40 million — 7% to 13% — and trimming another nearly 20%, or between $250 million and $280 million, from centralized support services and staff that work more directly with schools.

The plan could mean cuts to discretionary funding for high-needs schools, staff that provide additional support to struggling students, such as tutors, and social-emotional support, according to the presentation. However, it also said those potential cuts would keep class sizes at contractual limits in the new Chicago Teachers Union contract.

The contract lowers kindergarten class sizes to 25 students and adds a teaching assistant for any class with more than 23 students, the union previously told Chalkbeat. In first through third grade, class sizes would be 28, and in fourth through eighth grade, the cap is 30 students.

Cuts could also impact support staff, such as custodians, security guards, building engineers, lunchroom staff, and crossing guards paid for under the Safe Passage program. The internal presentation also mentioned trimming transportation costs that are not legally mandated. That could impact recent increased efforts to restore transportation to general education students who largely attend magnet or selective enrollment schools.

However, in its presentation, the district foreshadowed that there could be cuts even if new revenue comes through. For example, if the district received $300 million in additional funding through either state or city funding, it could mean a $70 million to $110 million cut to direct school funding.

Despite the potential cuts, the presentation said CPS is “committed” to maintaining teaching staff that prioritizes “reasonable class sizes” and “differentiated support for high-needs schools,” as well as support for kids with greater needs, such as students with disabilities and English learners.

According to the CPS source, the district does not prefer instituting a hiring freeze to address cuts because high-needs schools are typically where vacant positions exist. That means a hiring freeze would impose greater burdens on the schools that likely need the most staffing. Cuts would more likely impact larger schools.

School board members look to city, state for help

School board member Jitu Brown said while the presentation was “thorough,” it wasn’t a surprise. District officials have publicly shared for months that CPS expected at least a half-billion-dollar deficit.

He argued that there hasn’t been a solid legislative strategy from CPS to convince state lawmakers to send funding help. He also thinks CPS’s resistance to taking out a loan in order to reimburse the city for some pension costs was a misstep.

District officials worried that taking out such a loan would result in high-interest rates that would become difficult to pay back down the road.

While CPS is not legally required to pay the city back for those pension costs, it had done so under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Brown worried that by not paying the city back, City Council has lost interest in sending more TIF surplus to the schools. Aldermen and city officials warned the school board in March that they could hold back on funding help for CPS if the district did not reimburse the city for the pension payment.

Brown said he and other board members plan to press state lawmakers for more funding and more relief on certain costs, such as teacher pensions that other districts don’t pay. Those are issues that district staffers have also previously highlighted.

“To me this whole piece has been due to a lack of leadership,” Brown said. “I’m not in favor of any budget cuts.”

Board member Carlos Rivas said he supports pushing the city for more TIF surplus funding to help make an “absolutely terrible” cut “much more manageable.” He placed more blame on city officials for not developing a strong state advocacy campaign and doesn’t believe the state is going to bail out CPS. But he believes there’s political will on the City Council to support the public school system, despite the tension around the pension payment.

“I believe we all want great schools so I don’t believe the City Council will hold that against us,” Rivas said.

Financial issues can be tied to the end of the COVID relief money

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, CPS spent nearly $3 billion in federal COVID relief funding on many school-based investments, primarily staff, including a cadre of new academic interventionists. The district touts those investments as helping students perform better than some of their peers nationwidef after the pandemic.

However, those were not one-time costs, and the money dried up last year. The district had to close a roughly half-billion-dollar deficit this year, too, as it tried to hold on to many of those new investments.

The district’s internal presentation outlined possible cuts that include many of those post-COVID investments: cuts to professional development, after-school programming, curriculum support, and academic interventionists — a position that has already been pared down since last school year.

Martinez appears to be leaning toward pushing for more TIF funding. At Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, he said after conversations with state legislators, he isn’t confident more state funding is in the cards. Illinois is working to close a $3.2 billion deficit for the coming fiscal year.

The internal presentation also outlined scenarios where the CPS deficit could grow — and require even deeper cuts. For example, the pension reimbursement would increase the district’s projected deficit, as would about $30 million in costs to begin the planning and transitioning of five Acero charter schools into district-run schools by the fall of 2026. Those are separate from the costs related to eventually taking over the schools.

The board voted in February to take over the five Acero campuses previously slated for closure. Asked why the Acero transition costs weren’t included in the district’s deficit projection, a CPS source said “doing that would require significant cuts” and district staff wanted to ensure the board knows “what the consequences are.”

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

Democratic lawmakers want to restore federal office that serves English learners

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Illinois advocates call on state to release $50 million for after-school programs

2025-03-19T23:52:05+00:00

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Illinois advocates gathered in Springfield on Wednesday to push the state to release $50 million budgeted for after-school programs this year, saying the delay has cost some workers their jobs and caused parents to lose child care.

The Afterschool for Children and Teens Now coalition, known as ACT Now, is asking for the Illinois State Board of Education and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to distribute the money to after-school providers as soon as possible and continue funding programs in the state’s next budget.

The coalition is also advocating for two bills — House Bill 3081 and Senate Bill 2036 — that would create an Out-of-School Time advisory council to consider how federal and state policies and funding affect after-school programs.

Since funding has been delayed to after-school programs throughout the state this year, over 27,000 students have missed programming and more than 2,000 staff members have lost their jobs, according to the coalition.

Susan Stanton, executive director for ACT Now, told Chalkbeat that the coalition is seeing a “ripple effect” from after-school programs shutting down, with parents losing child care.

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said the agency is waiting on “further guidance” from the General Assembly regarding how to distribute the $50 million appropriation since it was “not tied to an existing statutory program.” The funding was not part of the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning grants, the spokesperson said.

This is not the first time that after-school programs have struggled to receive funding from the state. In 2023, the ACT Now coalition called on Pritzker and state lawmakers to help fund after-school programs after the state board noticed a projected $12.4 million shortfall for 2024 caused by an accounting error. The error impacted 68 locations. Advocates said at the time affected programs largely served Black and Latino students and students from low-income families.

At a press conference at the Capitol Wednesday, after-school program managers, advocates, lawmakers, and families talked about how the delay in funding has harmed their programs and why after-school programs matter to families.

Syerra Meadows-Haynes, a network manager at the East St. Louis Youth Development Alliance, said her community is “facing a crisis” because of the delay.

“Some program sites have been forced to close their doors, leaving youth without safe, reliable spaces to learn and grow,” said Meadows-Haynes. “We need the government to act now and release the necessary funds.”

Marcela Marquez, a seventh grader from Unity Junior High in Cicero, Illinois, said the after-school program at her school has helped her in many ways, not just academically.

“I have been able to improve my grades, make new friends, and feel like I’m part of something important. They teach us skills that we can use in the future, such as teamwork, responsibility, and caring for others,” Marcela said through an interpreter.

State Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Democrat representing neighborhoods on the southwest side of Chicago, said she sponsored Senate Bill 2036 because she is worried about future funding for organizations in her district that provide programs that largely serve Black and Latino students.

“Without state support, their ability to provide these critical services are at a risk,” said Villanueva at the press conference “With uncertainty at the federal level, Illinois must take the lead in protecting and strengthening after-school programs by investing in high quality out of school time opportunities.”

The budget for fiscal year 2026 begins on July 1 and ends on June 30, 2026. The state general assembly will have to pass a budget by the end of the spring legislative session. The session is scheduled to end on May 31.

Correction 3/20/2025: This story has been updated to show that afterschool advocates went to the state capitol on Wednesday. A previous version of this story said they went on Tuesday.

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.

Conservative groups file complaint against Illinois and Chicago over policies protecting LGBTQ students

2025-03-18T23:26:13+00:00

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Two conservative groups filed a federal civil rights complaint on Tuesday against the Illinois State Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools for extending Title IX protections to include gender identity, which they say clashes with Trump administration policy.

In their complaint, filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies and the Liberty Justice Center allege that the state board and CPS are violating Title IX by “forcing students to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations with members of the opposite sex, based solely on self-declared ‘gender identity,’” according to a press release.

The complaint names the Illinois State Board of Education’s guidance from 2020 and Chicago Public Schools’ interim guidance from 2024 and alleges that both documents misinterpret Title IX by arguing that the clause protects against discrimination and harassment on the basis of gender identity.

The complaint also claims that the state board prevents schools from notifying parents about a student’s gender identity and does not factor in other students’ rights to privacy. In the complaint, the groups say that the Illinois state board policy creates a “regime of secrecy” that “prioritizes gender ideology over privacy and safety interests and, as discussed below, violates Title IX and the right of parents to raise and educate their children.”

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said the agency “cannot comment on matters pending before Office of Civil Rights.”

Chicago Public Schools declined to comment on the complaint.

Title IX is a federal law that protects students against sex-based discrimination. Under the Biden administration, new rules were created to include gender identity. Under those rules, if schools prevented students from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity or if teachers did not use a student’s chosen name and pronouns, they would be violating a students’ rights. However, Republican-controlled states sued the Biden administration for changing the rules.

After a federal judge overturned Biden’s Title IX rules in January, schools reverted back to rules under the first Trump administration, which do not include protections for LGBTQ students.

In addition to Trump’s Title IX rules, the complaint by the conservative groups cites executive orders limiting the rights of LGBT people. An executive order issued by Trump in January stated that the United States only recognizes two sexes, male and female, and the Executive branch will “enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality.” Another Trump executive order aims to prevent transgender women and girls from participating in sport teams that align with their gender identity.

In January, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into Denver Public Schools for converting an all-girls restroom at a local high school into a gender-neutral bathroom.

Illinois Republican lawmakers have filed several bills in the legislature to align with Trump’s policy agenda. One bill, HB 1204, would prevent transgender girls from participating in sports teams at school that align with their gender identity. However, that bill has yet to make it out of the House’s rules committee.

Illinois lawmakers weigh new proposal to set guardrails around AI

2025-03-17T14:56:20+00:00

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Illinois educators are asking state lawmakers to create guidelines around the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms, as AI-powered tools are becoming a part of our daily lives.

State lawmakers have proposed two bills in the House and Senate that would create an advisory committee to create and distribute guidance on using artificial intelligence. Both bills — HB2503 and SB1556 — would require school districts to include how students, teachers, and districts are using artificial intelligence to the Illinois State Board of Education in their annual report on the use and policies of education technology.

A mandated unit of study for schools already includes teaching students internet safety. The current proposal in the General Assembly would ask schools to add information on how artificial intelligence is used to create and spread false information and images.

Rep. Laura Faver Dias, vice chair of the House’s Education Policy Committee and chief sponsor of the House proposal, said this legislation is important now because of how rapidly AI-powered tools are changing and emerging in classrooms.

“Our teachers are on the front lines and spend hours with our students every day,” said Faver Dias. “We need to equip them to be able to have those conversations and teach students how to use it responsibly and ethically and the same for administrators and teachers.”

Educators and advocates believe it is time for Illinois to put in guardrails around artificial intelligence as it becomes more a part of the classroom. Educators and students are already using AI-powered tools, but advocates want to ensure that those tools will protect students’ data and are ethical.

Twenty-five states have issued guidance on the use of artificial intelligence to local schools, according to AI for Education — an organization that provides AI literacy training to education. Some of those states include Indiana, New Jersey, and Colorado.

Chicago Public Schools has created a guidebook for educators to use to help navigate generative AI.

Bill Curtin, policy director at Teach Plus Illinois, who helped authored the bill, said there has been a lot of attention on students using AI tools to cheat, but the bills are more focused on how to support educators.

“We’re really focused on empowering teachers with the guardrails to know that experimenting is safe,” said Curtin. “Teachers will be able to innovate new ways of learning for students, and that’s where the focus of this bill is, and our intent is to unlock that potential for teachers.”

Joe Brewer, an educator and a fellow with Teacher Plus, testified during the House’s education policy committee last week about his experiences with AI in the classroom. Brewer said while teaching his students about a local poet named Edgar Lee Masters, he used an AI tool to help students to connect with the poet’s words.

“We used AI tools to reimagine the poems in modern teen slang, and suddenly the language clicked,” said Brewer. “Students began exploring deeper things, simulating interviews with the poet and making meaningful connections in their own lives.”

The proposal in the House passed the chamber’s education policy committee on Wednesday with a 9-4 vote. Faver Dias says she is still negotiating the details of the bills with the Illinois State board of Education and plans to bring an amendment back to committee before bringing the bill to the House floor.

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Correction 3/18/2025: Bill Curtin is the policy director for Teach Plus Illinois. An earlier version of the story referred to the program as Teacher Plus.

USDA cuts $26.3 million grant for Illinois schools, child care centers to purchase food from local farmers

2025-03-13T19:43:36+00:00

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This story has been updated with a statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has canceled a $26.3 million federal grant that would have helped Illinois K-12 schools and child care centers purchase food from local farmers for school meals and snacks, the Illinois State Board of Education said Wednesday.

The federal government canceled funding for the Local Food for Schools and Child Care Cooperative Agreement on March 7, the state board said in a press release. A termination letter from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago said the department “determined this agreement no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate.”

The state board said in the press release that it signed an agreement with USDA for the grant on Jan. 30. The board said the grant would have gone to over 4,000 schools and 1,200 child care centers, with $17.8 million going to schools and $8.5 million to child care institutions over the next three years.

A USDA spokesperson said in a statement that the end of the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program “isn’t an abrupt shift” and that last week, the department released over a half a billion dollars for local fund purchasing programs.

“With 16 robust nutrition programs in place, USDA remains focused on its core mission: strengthening food security, supporting agricultural markets, and ensuring access to nutritious food,” said the statement.

The cancellation of funding for the Illinois food program is part of nationwide cuts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Politico reported that the USDA halted about $660 million of funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement, which helped local schools around the country purchase fresh food from local farmers.

The Trump administration has terminated federal contracts and slashed staffing at federal offices since taking office in January. In February, billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — which is not a federal agency — terminated dozens of U.S. Department of Education contracts meant to support education research. Just a few days ago, the Trump administration announced that it is cutting the U.S. Department of Education workforce by almost half.

In Wednesday’s press release, State Superintendent Tony Sanders called the decision to cut the USDA grants “deeply disappointing.”

“These grants were designed to ensure that students in our schools and child care centers have access to fresh, locally-sourced food while also supporting our state’s agricultural economy,” Sanders said. “This funding was essential to provide Illinois schools and child care sites with nutritious meals that fuel learning and growth.”

However, in the press release, the state board said its “Local Food for Schools” grant for $7.4 million is still available to schools through Jan. 31, 2026. According to the state board, the grant has helped over 2,000 schools to purchase food from 138 local farms and ranches.

New report finds Illinois teacher shortage is easing, but school leaders are still concerned

2025-03-11T23:13:29+00:00

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Illinois schools are seeing more teachers enter the classroom, but school leaders still believe the teacher shortage is an issue, according to a report released Monday.

The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools and the State Board of Education, along with the Illinois Workforce of Research Collaborative and Goshen Consulting, collaborated to collect data on staffing shortages across the state for the two surveys contained in the report.

In its survey of unfilled positions, the state board found that Illinois had 1,877 more classroom teachers in the 2023-24 school year than in the previous school year — for a total of 136,092 educators. As of Oct. 1, 2024, the state board found 3,864 unfilled positions for the current school year, a 5.6% decrease from the previous year. The state’s vacancy rate for the current school year is 2.8%, down from 3% in 2023-24.

But, despite the increase in teachers, 87% of the 734 school leaders surveyed by the regional superintendents association in the fall of 2024 believe there is a problem with teacher shortages. Forty percent of the leaders who responded, 281 out of 698, said their need for educators has increased from last school year, and 64% of those who answered a question about the needs for the next school year believe their need for more educators will grow.

About 92% of school leaders — or 1,029 out of 1,120 school entities — responded to the state board’s unfilled positions survey and 71% — or 790 out of 1,120 — responded to the superintendents association’s Educator Shortage Survey.

The state’s unfilled positions data also found that special education teacher and bilingual education teacher positions were often unfilled. The unfilled positions data found that English language arts, math, and science were among the top three subjects where classroom teachers were needed.

School leaders reported using “alternative measures” to bridge the gap in services. Some of these measures included hiring retired teachers and substitutes, changing classes offered to students, or shifting teacher responsibilities. About 26% of those who responded to a question about solutions used to make up for the unfilled special education teacher slots reported increasing the caseload of existing employees.

There is a need for more substitutes, according to the association of regional superintendent’s survey. About 91% of school leaders who responded to this question reported having a severe substitute teacher shortage.

Some barriers to increasing the number of teachers include not having qualified applicants or having few people apply for open positions according to the survey. Around 43% of school leaders who answered said no or few qualified applicants applied for open positions, while 71% of respondents say they had few to no applicants for classroom teacher positions. The survey reports school leaders citing salary and pension benefits, poor working conditions, location, and difficulty with recruitment or retention as other causes for the teacher shortage.

The regional superintendents association’s survey also looked at what school districts did with federal COVID-19 relief funding. The state received more than $7 billion in emergency funding that was largely distributed to school districts to help students recover from the pandemic. Those funds dried up in the fall of 2024.

About 362 of 722 education leaders said they did not use funds to create or support staffing positions. However, some schools used the funds to create full-time positions, additional pay for current staff, and part-time positions. A small number of positions and benefits will be cut next school year, according to school leaders who responded.

Gary Tipsord, executive director of the regional superintendents association, said in an interview on Tuesday that despite the progress highlighted in the report, school leaders still have some concern when it comes to teacher shortages.

“We still have an overwhelming majority of educational leaders in the state that feel like the problem is persistent,” said Tipsord. “Even when we’re able to fill the jobs, there’s this sense that that problem is still lurking around the corner.”

The state board, local school districts, state lawmakers, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker have increased funding, changed policy, or created programs to increase the number of educators in classrooms in previous years.

The state created a $45 million grant, known as the Teacher Vacancy Grant, to support 170 school districts that struggled to fill in teacher positions. Recent reports from the state and the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative found that the grant has been successful in hiring about 5,400 new educators and retained around 11,000 additional teachers. Pritzker’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 also includes $45 million for the program.

In previous years, Chicago Public Schools funded efforts to recruit and support aspiring educators and especially teachers of color, including Teach Chicago Tomorrow, which recruits CPS students into the teacher pipeline.

Pritzker has also increased funding for the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, which awards grants to students of color in college and universities who aspire to be teachers. Recipients have to teach at an Illinois school with at least 30% of students of color for one year after graduating from college. However, the scholarship program is currently being challenged in court.

Illinois students lobby for state law about high school start time

2025-03-05T21:31:47+00:00

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Early morning swim practice, a full day of school, evening swim meets, and homework after school is a lot to manage for Maya Anderson. It’s even harder when she doesn’t get enough sleep.

Anderson, a student at Libertyville High School in a suburb north of Chicago, said not getting enough sleep can impact her focus, mood, and performance after a long day. She often struggles to stay awake in class and craves a few more minutes of rest.

It’s why Anderson and two other Libertyville High students — Benjamin Ratner and Addie Krupinski — are advocating for a bill in Springfield that would require public high schools to start no earlier than 8:45 a.m.

Libertyville High School starts at 8:45 a.m., and Anderson acknowledged that she still struggles to balance sleep and her daily activities. But she told state lawmakers at the House Education Policy Committee on Wednesday that her school has seen an overall increase in academic performance and students’ well-being since pushing the start time back in the fall of 2018, although she didn’t highlight particular academic data.

“Later start times are not a panacea. They don’t solve all health problems, nor all sleep problems. As you are well aware, social media, homework and extracurricular activities all impact the quantity and quality of sleep for high schoolers as well,” said Krupinski, who also acknowledged logistical challenges for districts. Nevertheless, she said, “the challenge is well worth the extra sleep it affords Illinois public high school students.”

For over a decade, researchers have been calling attention to sleep loss in teens and advocated for later school start times. Teens like Anderson are supposed to sleep between 8.5 to 9.5 hours, according to a paper from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2014. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey from 2024 found that in 2021 that 77% of students were not sleeping enough.

Without enough sleep, students are more likely to miss class time and be unable to focus on complex tasks, and are at greater risk of depression.

In its paper, the American Academy of Pediatrics called on schools to start class after 8:30 a.m. There is no Illinois law governing school start times. States and school districts across the nation have recently enacted later start times for high school students.

Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a Democrat whose district includes Libertyville High School, introduced the bill after being persuaded by the Libertyville High School students, she said.

The students were able to find interesting research on how later start times could affect students’ academic outcomes, safety, and mental health, according to Faver Dias.

Faver Dias pointed to the results from a high school in Jackson Hole, Wyoming that changed its start time from 7:35 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. in 2012. Students reported sleeping more, the high school saw students showing up to class on time, and the later start time might have helped reduce car accidents.

California passed similar legislation in 2019 that took effect in 2022. Florida passed a law in 2023 that required later school start times for high school and middle school students by 2026, but now lawmakers are trying to reverse course.

Lawmakers on the House committee expressed a lot of support for the presentation from Libertyville High School students Wednesday. However, some shared opposition to the idea.

Alison Maley, government and public relations director for the Illinois Association of Principals, said she “reluctantly” opposed the proposal because of school busing schedules and high school graduation requirements.

“I think busing, extracurriculars, and then trying to make it all work when it comes to the high school curriculum, are things that we would want to continue to look at,” said Maley during the Wednesday committee meeting. “In general our position is that sometimes a one-size-fits-all answer may not work for every single district in the state.”

Rep. Dan Swanson, a Republican on the committee, said that a local board of education in his district switched to a later start time but then reversed that decision. Parents complained to the board that the later time didn’t align with their work schedules.

“It was about students and parents' schedules aligning so students could get on the bus while parents were heading off to work,” said Swanson.

Rep. Joyce Mason, a Democrat also on the committee, noted Woodland School District 50 changed its start times for middle schoolers, but there were issues related to busing as well as parent work schedules, and teacher concerns.

Mason said the teachers acknowledged that “‘yes, we know this is a good idea for the kids, but we have our own work schedules that we signed up for and established, and we have our own families to take care of.’”

The school district was able to figure out how to make it work: They changed their busing schedule to allow for young students to start earlier and for older students to start later, Mason said. She encouraged the Libertyville High School students to keep advocating for later start times.

It’s not clear what will happen to the bill next. Faver Dias said the goal of Wednesday’s committee hearing was to show lawmakers that the issue is important to high school students’ well-being.

Faver Dias said there are logistical hurdles for districts. But she said she wanted “to start the conversation around educating legislators and district leaders that it really matters and it can actually show benefit across the board.”

Illinois schools chief tells districts to follow state law, not Trump threats

2025-02-21T21:17:14+00:00

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Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders told school districts to continue teaching Black, Asian American, and LGBT history, and to provide education to students regardless of their citizenship status as required by state law.

In his weekly message sent Wednesday, Sanders said Illinois law prohibits discrimination against marginalized groups. “Black history is American history,” wrote Sanders, who noted that these and other topics are required by Illinois mandates for classroom instruction. “The study of events related to the forceful removal and illegal deportation of Mexican-American U.S. citizens during the Great Depression is American history. The study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people is American history.”

Sanders' message to school leaders was a response to a “Dear Colleague” letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s top acting civil rights official warning K-12 schools and universities that they risk losing federal funding if they continue with diversity initiatives, even those that do not use race as a criterion for consideration.

Under the terms of the letter, Illinois and Chicago both have programs that could be targeted by federal officials, including efforts to diversify the teacher pipeline and improve academic outcomes among students of color.

In the first month of his second term, the president has taken several steps to impose his vision on K-12 schools. The “Dear Colleague” letter follows a Trump executive order from January that seeks to root out “radical indoctrination” in schools. He’s also given the green light for immigration arrests at schools amid a wider crackdown on migrants.

The Feb. 14 letter from Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department, threatens schools with the “potential loss of federal funding” if they do not comply. But the letter notes that the new “guidance does not have the force and effect of law.” and does not bind the public or create new legal standards.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker also spoke out against the Trump administration on Wednesday during his budget and State of the State address by alluding to the “fashion at the federal level right now to just indiscriminately slash school funding” among other things.

The “Dear Colleague” letter notes federal officials could “take appropriate measures to assess compliance” within 14 days of the letter’s release. But in his message, Sanders downplayed the letter’s practical impact.

“In Illinois, we strive to affirm, uplift, and support all our students and their families,” Sanders wrote. “Nothing in any executive order or ‘Dear Colleague’ letter should change that.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2026 budget proposal includes increases for K-12 schools and early childhood education

2025-02-20T15:57:11+00:00

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget proposal for next fiscal year includes increases to early childhood education and additional funding for K-12 schools even as federal COVID-19 relief funds have dried up and schools worry about federal funding under the Trump administration.

Pritzker presented a $53.9 billion spending plan for the state to the General Assembly on Wednesday. The plan would increase funding for the state’s K-12 schools by $350 million, early childhood education programs for low-income families by $85 million, and the state’s scholarship program for college bound students by $10 million.

However, there were some parts of the proposal that kept funding flat for certain programs, such as the state’s Early Childhood Block Grant, which has helped expand public preschool.

In his seventh budget address since becoming governor, Pritzker touted the success of Illinois students. He cited the gains the state’s eighth graders made in reading and math on the nation’s report card in 2024 and high school graduation rates reaching an all time high as represented on the state’s report card.

“I believe in building on what works,” Pritzker said. “So, despite the challenge we are facing this year, my budget proposal increases our commitment to evidence-based funding for public education so that we put new resources in underfunded schools first.”

State legislators must negotiate the final details of the fiscal year 2026 budget – which begins on July 1. The general assembly is scheduled to end on the last day of May, according to the general assembly’s calendar.

The state’s budget process could take on heightened importance with President Donald Trump’s administration cutting or scaling back federal funding. When it comes to education. Trump has vowed to dismantle the federal Department of Education, which administers federal funds to K-12 schools, collects data, and ensures schools are following federal laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Education gave Illinois $1.2 billion for Title I funds, money allocated to schools serving a majority of children from low-income families, and almost $1 billion for educating students with disabilities.

Since taking office in January, Trump has filed executive orders that resulted in the department placing employees on paid leave, cancelling contracts, and removing documents and data from its website. Linda McMahon, the president’s pick to head the Department of Education, said in her confirmation hearing last week that she would not cut billions of dollars in funding to schools, but did not say whether schools would lose federal funding if they teach African American history.

Lt. Gov. Julia Statton told Chalkbeat earlier this week that Illinois officials are watching developments at the federal level closely.

“No matter what happens at the federal level,” Statton said. “We’re certainly going to try to do everything that we can to make sure that Illinoisans and students in Illinois get access to the education that they deserve.”

Here’s what you should know about Pritzker’s fiscal year 2026 budget:

Early childhood education continues to see increases

Under Pritzker’s proposal, the Illinois State Board of Education’s Early Childhood Block Grant will stay flat for a total of $748 million. The state board was hoping to receive an additional $75 million to bump the program from $748 million to $823 million.

For the state Department of Human Services, the governor asked for an additional $10 million for Early Intervention, a program for children with disabilities ages 0 to 3, and an increase of $85 million for the Child Care Assistance Program, a program to help low-income families access child care. The state’s home visiting program funding will remain flat.

While some early childhood education advocates thanked Pritzker for his continued investment in programs for families with young children, they are disappointed that many programs won’t see increases.

“When we fail to provide sufficient state funding for programs like Early Intervention and home visiting, we fail children during their most crucial developmental periods, and we leave families unsupported in caring for their little ones,” Celena Sarillo, Executive Director of Start Early, an advocacy organization based in Chicago.

During the last General Assembly session, lawmakers approved the creation of the state’s Department of Early Childhood and allocated $16 million in funding to set up the new agency. This year, Pritzker is proposing $21.7 million for the new department.

This is the third year of Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois initiative, which aims to expand public preschool to serve 20,000 more 3- and 4- year olds throughout the state. Pritzker announced the initiative after being reelected in 2022 with a promise to get universal preschool back on track after the coronavirus pandemic hindered some of his initial plans.

In the first year of the program, Pritzker and State Superintendent Tony Sanders announced that the state was able to add 5,800 public school seats for young children.

K-12 could remain steady for the next year.

Pritzker asked the General Assembly to increase the budget for K-12 schools from $10.8 billion to $11.2 billion. That’s similar to what State Superintendent Tony Sanders recommended in January.

Included in his request was a $350 million budget increase for the state’s K-12 schools to be distributed through the state’s evidence-based funding formula, which provides funds to local districts based need, drawing on metrics such as the number of students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and English learners and also factors what schools can raise through local property taxes. In 2017, state lawmakers made a bipartisan promise to increase funding by at least $350 million annually until all districts reached “adequate funding.”

Local education advocates have been calling on the state to increase funding by at least $550 million to help get schools to “adequate funding” more quickly. A report last year found that the state will not hit its funding goal by 2027, but by 2034 if the state continues to add $350 million each year.

Despite the continued increases, many school districts across the state will grapple with smaller budgets regardless of what the state kicks in. That’s because $7 billion in federal emergency COVID-19 relief funding is now gone.

Scholarships for students to access college

Pritzker proposed increasing a scholarship program for college bound students by $10 million.

The proposal to boost the Monetary Award Program will support students from low-income families who are planning to attend or already in school. The increase would bring the program up to a total of $721.6 million. The maximum amount of aid a student could get annually would be $8,604, up from $4,869 in fiscal year 2019.

Correction 2.20.2025: This story has been updated to show that the maximum MAP award would grow from $4,869 in fiscal year 2019 to $8,604 under the governor’s proposal.

Illinois governor pushes cellphone ban in public school classrooms

2025-02-19T22:35:44+00:00

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Gov. J.B Pritzker wants to limit the use of cellphones in public school classrooms, potentially making Illinois one of several states around the country that have implemented cellphone bans.

“In conversations with educators and parents around the state – there is one thing they commonly cite as an impediment to learning in the classroom: cell phones,” said Pritzker during his State of the State address Wednesday.

“Cyberbullying has expanded at alarming rates, and it’s time for Illinois to take measures to protect our kids,” he added.

Both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states across the country have either outlawed the use of cellphones in classrooms or proposed to do so. So far, California, Minnesota, Louisiana, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and South Carolina are among some of the states that successfully passed cellphone bans, according to a report by the Associated Press.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed banning cellphones in classrooms last month during her budget proposal. Her recommendation included $13.2 million to help schools implement the ban. However, Pritzker’s proposal doesn’t come with a price tag.

Prior to the governor’s address, Illinois lawmakers filed several bills in the Senate and House to restrict the use of cellphones in schools.

State Sens. Cristina Castro, who chairs the Senate’s executive committee, and Meg Loughran Cappel, who chairs the Senate education committee – both Democrats – have filed Senate Bill 2427, which would require schools to create a policy prohibiting the use of cellphones during instructional time and create guidelines on how to store cellphones when in a school building by the 2026-27 school year. It also allows for some exceptions for when students can use cellphones.

House Bill 2975, filed by state Rep. Curtis Tarver, a Democrat who chairs several committees in the House, is slightly different in that it calls for the school board to prohibit the use of cellphones in school and on school property except during “lunch, recess, passing periods, or emergency situations.”

Schools districts around the state already have limitations on how cellphones can be used in schools. For example, Chicago Public Schools’ student code of conduct leaves it up to the principal to decide if cellphones are allowed or prohibited from schools.

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

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

Illinois’ spring legislative session is underway. Here’s what to watch.

2025-02-11T23:02:04+00:00

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Education funding, protections for immigrant students, and expanded special education are some of the top issues to watch during Illinois’ 2025 legislative session, which began in January.

State lawmakers returned to the Capitol in Springfield last month to start filing hundreds of bills, begin committee hearings, and negotiate over the state’s fiscal year 2026 budget. Legislators have until the end of May to agree to a budget and send bills to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk to be signed into law.

The wild cards during this legislative session are the policy changes that President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress are making or discussing. Education advocates are concerned about what those changes will mean for federal education funding for K-12 schools and higher education, oversight of schools, and protections for immigrant and transgender students.

Meanwhile, Republican state lawmakers are pushing bills that align with the Trump administration policies, including restricting participation by transgender students in athletics, and promoting private-school vouchers.

Chalkbeat Chicago will be watching how federal education policy affects Illinois and local school districts. We will be looking out for bills that affect students who are immigrants, students with disabilities, and curriculum.

Here are five issues that we’re watching this spring:

Education budget is a major concern

Illinois school districts could have less money to spend next school year. The $7 billion in COVID emergency relief funding that the state distributed to schools in recent years expired in the fall. And the state’s overall fiscal picture looks pretty bleak: Some state budget officials project the state will have a $3.2 billion budget deficit in fiscal year 2026.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders recommended that the state increase K-12 funding by $350 million, far from the $550 million that education advocates have been calling for over the past few years.

Early childhood education programs could see a boost in funding, since Pritzker has been determined to fund more programs to support the state’s youngest residents under his Smart Start Illinois initiative. For instance, the Illinois State Board of Education’s early childhood block grant program received an increase of $75 million in 2023 and 2024. Sanders requested another increase of $75 million for the grant this year.

Protections for immigrant students

Since Trump’s election, immigrant communities across the city and local advocates have been concerned about his threat of mass deportations of people who are in the country illegally. Just a few days after his inauguration, Trump rescinded the “sensitive locations” policy that kept Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from making arrests at churches, schools, child care centers, and hospitals.

This change in federal policy has sparked fear in Chicago’s immigrant community. Chicago Public Schools has trained school staff on what to do if ICE officers arrive at a school, and local community organizations have led ongoing “Know Your Rights” training for residents.

Now, state lawmakers are filing bills to protect immigrant students. Bills like HB 3247 and SB 2065 would affirm existing federal guarantees that students receive a free public school education regardless of citizenship or immigration status, and would prevent schools from disclosing information about a child’s immigration status or working with ICE agents.

Senate Bill 2033, the Immigration Safe Zones Act, would create a sensitive location policy in Illinois that keeps ICE agents from accessing schools, daycare centers, medical centers, public libraries, courts, and facilities operated by the Secretary of State — such as local motor-vehicle offices.

State Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, has a pair of bills this session, HB 3102 and HB 3104, that would require the State Board of Education to create a New Arrivals Grant program for schools that have seen a high enrollment of students who have immigrated to the United States over the past couple of years. Crespo and education advocates pushed hard for the grant program last session, but it did not make it into the budget.

Supporting students with disabilities

A bill would add Illinois to a push across the country for legislation, known as LEAD-K, that would ensure that students who have hearing disabilities are able to learn and understand language by the time they enter kindergarten. State Rep. Michelle Mussman, a Democrat representing the area around Schaumburg and chair of the House Education Policy Committee, has filed House Bill 1783 — or the Language Equality Acquisition for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf-Blind Children Act — with the goal of helping young children who are deaf learn and understand language by age 6.

The current version of HB 1783 would require the State Board of Education along with other state departments to create an assessment to track literacy and language development skills. The state board would have to create an advisory committee on language assessment programs and publish an action plan by July 1, 2026, and have the assessment ready for children below age 6 to take beginning at that time.

Another notable special education bill is House Bill 2337, which would prevent parents of students from waiving their child’s right under federal law to a free and appropriate public education as a result of a mediation agreement, resolution agreement, or settlement agreement. If this bill is signed, future waivers would not be enforceable in an administrative proceeding or in state or federal courts.

Diversifying history curriculum

Democratic state lawmakers are pushing bills to make history education more inclusive, counteracting a concerted effort by conservative organizations and lawmakers to ban certain types of books from schools and restrict curriculum that teaches students about the enduring legacy of racism in America.

Trump recently signed an executive order to withhold funding from schools that teach what he called “discriminatory equity ideology,” an allusion to diversity, equity and inclusion programs collectively known as DEI.

House Bill 2927 would create an Inclusive History Commission to help develop recommendations for curriculum standards.

A couple of pending bills have similar language to the 2021 Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act. House Bill 2997 would require elementary and high schools to include a unit of Arab American history, including in Illinois and the Midwest, by 2026-27. Senate Bill 2270 would require schools to teach a unit of Latino history starting in 2026-27.

House Bill 3198 would allow for educators to teach about disability history and culture beginning during the 2027-28 school year.

Republican lawmakers are making some political moves

Republican lawmakers, outnumbered in the General Assembly, are nonetheless expressing their alignment with the Trump administration by proposing bills that affect immigrant and transgender students and advancing conservatives’ school-choice agenda.

Several Republican-sponsored bills in the House and Senate, including HB 1217 and SB 1202, would repeal the TRUST Act, state law that currently prevents local enforcement from working with ICE agents.

One bill in the General Assembly would prevent transgender girls from participating in school athletic teams and sports. HB 1204 says “athletic teams or sports designated as being female are available only to participants who are female, based on their biological sex.” The bill also would require a written statement by a student’s parent or guardian confirming the student’s age, biological sex, and that they haven’t taken performance enhancement drugs. Government agencies or sports associations wouldn’t be allowed to file a complaint, open an investigation, or take any other legal actions against sports teams that follow language in the bill.

Another bill, HB 2611, would create Education Savings Accounts for families to use public funds to attend private schools.

Illinois lawmakers advance measure to untangle student test scores from teacher evaluations

2025-02-05T00:36:31+00:00

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llinois lawmakers are proposing a change to state law that would no longer require school districts to use students’ test scores in teacher evaluations.

Senate Bill 28, if approved, would roll back changes made 15 years ago that were aimed at improving teacher evaluation systems amid a push by the federal government under the Obama administration to link teacher quality to students’ success in the classroom.

Democratic state Sens. Kimberly Lightford, the Senate majority leader who represents neighborhoods on Chicago’s west side and western suburbs, and Meg Loughran Cappel, who represents Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, are co-sponsoring the measure, which would leave it up to districts to decide whether to link evaluations to student growth.

The bill passed out of committee with no discussion Tuesday afternoon. According to the Illinois General Assembly’s website, nearly 400 proponents, including the Illinois Educators Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Principal Association, and Illinois Stand for Children have signed witness slips in support of the change. There were only 11 opponents and two with no position, notably one from the Chicago Public Schools.

If the bill is passed into law, changes would take effect July 1, 2025.

Lightford was a part of the legislative push to require schools to tie teacher evaluations to student performance in 2010.

At that time, the Obama administration encouraged states to make changes to their teacher evaluations by throwing federal funding into the mix. Illinois requires up to 30% of an educator’s evaluation be based on student growth in most cases, as outlined by the Illinois State Board of Education.

In recent years, several states have stopped tying teacher evaluations to student performance, signaling a change in attitude towards the policy.

In 2024, the Illinois State Board of Education commissioned a report from the American Institutes for Research, or AIR, a nonpartisan research organization, on the state’s teacher evaluation policy. The report noted that other factors can affect a student’s learning “outside of teacher’s control such as family issues, health, or access to resources.” The report recommended that the state either eliminate the use of student test scores or reduce the percentage of student test scores on an educators’ overall evaluation.

Alison Maley, government and public relations director for Illinois Principals Association, one of the organizations supporting the proposal, noted that over the years, she has heard many educators say the student test scores component of the evaluation system is burdensome for both teachers and principals and has not been an effective metric to use.

“Teachers have to come up with all of these artifacts that demonstrate student growth in addition to what they are already doing, aligned with the frameworks that are in place in many districts to manage these teacher evaluations,” said Maley.

Teacher evaluations are sticking point in CTU contract talks

Paul Zavitkovsky, an assessment specialist at the Center for Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois Chicago, agrees that student test scores are problematic to use when it comes to teacher evaluations because large scale assessments are not precise enough.

“In almost all cases, large scale standardized tests are designed to measure generic curriculum — the stuff that gets taught in most places across the country at a particular grade level,” said Zavitkovsky. “They can’t really be very precise and measure the specific kinds of growth that an individual district’s curriculum calls for.”

Chicago uses Recognizing Educators Advancing Chicago’s Students, or REACH, a district-developed test for its teacher evaluations that gives teachers an overall rating based 70% on classroom observations by administrators and 30% on student growth as measured by a test given at the beginning and end of the school year.

That system — and the tests that teachers must give to measure student growth — have become a sticking point in contract negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union.

Kurt Hilgendorf, legislative coordinator for CTU, said the union’s position on REACH is that the exam and the state law that created it need revisions.

“We are trying to ensure that [teacher evaluations] are fair, that they provide useful feedback to the practitioners, that they are free of racial bias, and that they actually aren’t burdensome,” said Hilgendorf, “so that the best parts of improving educators’ practice — the feedback and the opportunity to reflect— that those things are part of the evaluation system.”

Racial bias has been the main criticism from the union over the years and research has backed their claims. A study from 2020 found that Black educators who taught in high-poverty schools were more likely to receive lower teacher evaluation scores than their white colleagues.

According to CTU, Chicago Public Schools has agreed to address racial disparities in teacher evaluations. In CTU’s roadmap to a contract settlement, the union is still pushing for a three-year evaluation cycle for tenured proficient educators and “joint legislative advocacy to abolish REACH.”

More states are turning away from requirement

Across the nation, states have moved away from including test scores into their teacher evaluations. As of 2022, only 30 states continue to require test scores to be included in teacher evaluation, down from 43 in 2015, according to a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality.

In 2022, Colorado revised its teacher evaluation laws to reduce the student growth requirement from 50% to 30% of an educator’s overall rating. In 2023, Michigan removed a requirement that student test scores make up 40% of an educator’s overall score. New Jersey put together a task force in 2024 to look into its evaluation system after educators urged lawmakers to make a change to their system.

“Research has found that the best evaluation systems are ones that use multiple different measures of teacher qualities, so incorporating things like observations of teachers, student surveys, and then also objective data on student growth is really important,” said Hannah Putman, managing director of research at the National Council on Teacher Quality. “Those are the systems that are going to give you the most consistent and reliable ratings and ones that really get at the heart of which teachers are doing well by their students.”

Effective teachers play a role in student success

Lauren Sartain, a professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an affiliated researcher with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, has studied teacher evaluation systems in Chicago since 2008. She said if Illinois makes student growth metrics optional, it won’t be “a huge loss, necessarily,” and it could “give teachers and students time back” for instruction, not testing.

“Teaching is a really complex task, and there are lots of things that happen in the classroom that aren’t necessarily reflected by test score growth,” Sartain said.

Past research by Sartain and others has found a slight positive correlation between test scores and teacher quality. In Chicago, test scores went up after the new evaluation system was fully implemented in 2012-13 and Sartain said “it also had the effect of removing really, really low-performing teachers from the classroom.”

But the majority of teachers still get high marks, and Sartain said there’s work to be done to improve the classroom observation process.

“The power is in these conversations between principals and teachers about what good instructional practice looks like,” Sartain said. “The more it’s taken out of this hyper-evaluative framework, it’s easier to have those honest conversations with your principal, who is your supervisor.”

Whatever changes Illinois lawmakers decide to make, Sartain said it’s important to remember that teachers play a key role in student success.

“Having a great teacher can make a really, really big difference for [students] that translates into their outcomes into adulthood,” she said. “Supporting teachers and helping them improve can be like a great equalizer.”

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

NAEP scores: How did Illinois students do on the ‘nation’s report card’ in 2024?

2025-02-03T15:15:40+00:00

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This story has been updated to include reactions to NAEP scores. It also clarifies what increases and decreases are considered statistically significant.

Illinois fourth grade students’ math and reading scores from spring 2024 stayed mostly stagnant on a test known as the “nation’s report card” compared to students who took the exam in previous years.

Now in fifth grade, these students would have been kindergarten age when the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools and sent classrooms online. For many, first grade was also online or a mix of in-person and virtual.

During the pandemic, some parents opted to pull their children from school worrying that there wasn’t a benefit to virtual learning at a young age.

The latest round of test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as NAEP, released on Wednesday shows that Illinois students who missed school or went through the interruptions and struggles of remote learning, may still have gaps in their education from that time. However, Illinois eighth grade students — who would have been in fourth grade when the pandemic started — either held steady or outperformed their peers in 2022 in reading and math, but their scores lagged behind their peers who took the exam in 2019.

According to the new NAEP data, 38% of Illinois’ fourth graders were proficient in math and 30% were in reading, while 32% of the state’s eighth graders were proficient in math and 33% were in reading. Researchers said that the drops in proficiency for fourth graders in reading and math between 2024 and 2022 were not statistically significant.

When compared to other states, Illinois’ fourth grade proficiency rates were comparable to the national average in reading and math, but the state’s eighth graders surpassed the average in both subjects.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders said in a statement that NAEP’s latest results give families, students, and educators a “cause to celebrate.”

“This data is another example, like our state report card and national studies, that Illinois’ students are growing academically,” Sanders said in the statement.

NAEP scores for Chicago Public Schools, Illinois’ largest public school district, show that the district’s eighth graders had significantly higher scores in math and reading scores in 2024 when compared to their peers in 2022. Chicago’s fourth graders had slightly higher math scores than previous groups of students and slightly lower reading scores, but neither were statistically significant

In 2024, 21% of Chicago’s fourth grade students were proficient in math and 23% were in reading, but this was not a statistically significant difference from their 2022 proficiency rate. For the district’s eighth graders, 21% were proficient in math and 27% were proficient in reading, an increase from 2022.

According to a joint study from Stanford and Harvard universities, Chicago students’ reading scores on state exams rebounded faster than other districts across the country.

But in a statement, CPS officials focused on the strong performance of eighth grade students.

“This data is consistent with what we have previously seen - that students who remain in our system continue to make learning gains over time,” according to a statement from Chicago Public Schools. “The 8th grade reading score of CPS exceeded the average of large cities and narrowed the gap with the national public average to only 2 points. This marks the closest CPS has ever been to the national public average in 8th grade reading performance.”

The district statement also acknowledged that fourth graders were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic when compared to their older peers. The district said that they have added interventionist positions to support students, instructional coaches to assist educators, and organized tutoring programs.

CPS scores also show disparities between Black and Latino students when compared to their white and Asian American peers in reading and math in both grade levels. This has been a trend in NAEP scores over the past decade, predating the pandemic. However, Black and Latino students in eighth grade in 2024 reading and math were comparable to students who took the exam in eighth grade in 2022.

“COVID is exposing the historical and generational disparities that black children in this city have experienced for a very long time,” said Stacy Davis Gates, Chicago Teachers Union president when asked about the pandemic’s impact on students. “But I think COVID exposed all of the opportunity gaps, and we see them even in the recovery.”

The state’s Illinois Assessment of Readiness from spring 2024 paints a very different picture than NAEP’s 2024 scores. In fact, the IAR — which tests students between third and eighth grade in the spring — found that students’ reading scores were above 2019 scores.

But even on state standardized tests, Illinois and Chicago students’ performance on math tests lagged behind their counterparts’ math scores in pre-pandemic years.

In October, Sanders attributed the growth in IAR reading scores to the changes in how literacy is taught in Illinois schools. Since math scores have yet to grow in the same way as reading scores, Sanders said at the time the state’s report card was released that the board of education was looking into a statewide math and numeracy plan to increase proficiency.

Correction 2/3/2025: This story has been corrected to say that fourth graders who took the exam in spring 2024 are now in fifth grade during the 2024-25 school year.

Correction 1/29/2025: This story and its headlines have been corrected to clarify that the small declines in the NAEP scores of Illinois fourth graders in 2024 compared to those in 2022 and 2019 were not statistically significant and within the margin of error.

Five things to know about immigration policy and Illinois schools

2025-01-22T23:15:44+00:00

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Immigrant students and families are bracing for the unknown under President Donald Trump, who has promised the nation’s largest deportation operation — with Chicago as a target.

But in Chicago — a so-called sanctuary city — both city and schools officials have stressed that they will protect families of varying immigration statuses and will only cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, or ICE agents, if they have a judicial warrant.

Chicago Public Schools does not ask for or track students’ immigration status, and the previous school board approved a resolution reaffirming the district’s intention to protect immigrant students.

Still, families who are not legal residents are fearful of what the new presidential administration means for their future in Chicago — and the United States. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez told Chalkbeat Chicago that he believes schools “are the safest spaces” for children.

“I want families to not be afraid to send their children to school,” Martinez said. “We do not share information with ICE or the immigration department.”

Trump has already signed a series of executive orders in an attempt to tighten up immigration policies, including changing the definition of birthright citizenship to exclude the children of undocumented parents and legal immigrants in the country on temporary and getting rid of the “sensitive location” policy, which required U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, known as ICE agents, to get approval to conduct arrests at or near schools and churches.

In a statement Tuesday night, CPS reiterated its stands not to share student information with ICE, “except in the rare case where there is a court order or consent from a parent or guardian.”

On Wednesday, the U.S Department of Justice ordered federal prosecutors to investigate state and local officials who do not follow Trump’s executive orders on immigration. Trump’s executive orders and proposed immigration policies are expected to face legal challenges.

“I know there’s just a lot of anxiety, and trust me, I feel it as well when I start hearing about, you know, all these things that [Trump] wants to change and the executive order signings,” Martinez said. “But ... it just takes years for these things to happen, and then some of these executive orders can’t even happen.”

So far, over 20 states, including Illinois, have sued the Trump administration in an attempt to block the changes to birthright citizenship.

Here’s what to know about schools and immigration policy.

Do I have to share my or my child’s immigration status with my child’s school?

No.

Chicago Public Schools does not ask families for immigration status and does not share student records with ICE officials unless agents have a court order or consent from the child’s parent or guardian, according to CPS.

The Illinois State Board of Education has advised school districts to change or modify enrollment policies that could reveal a child’s immigration status. For instance, school documents used to prove a child’s residency should not include information such as the child’s Social Security number. Schools also cannot prevent students from receiving benefits like pre-kindergarten or free or reduced price lunch if their application does not include a Social Security number.

“Here we have the protection of the state, and I want families to really understand that,” Martinez said. “That creates a much, much more protective layer for us … I don’t see our state, you know, giving up these protections.”

Can ICE agents enter school buildings?

Yes, but the bar to entry is high.

ICE agents have to provide their credentials, a reason for entry, and a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge, in accordance with Chicago’s welcoming city ordinance and school board policy. Chicago Public Schools says ICE agents cannot enter a school with “an administrative warrant, ICE detainer, or a document from another agency enforcing civil immigration law. ”

A spokesperson for CPS said Trump’s executive orders do not change the district’s current policy or practice.

Martinez said the district has freed up three of its lawyers and also has a 24-hour hotline to assist school leaders with questions or concerns. If ICE agents show up to schools. CPS lawyers “can intervene or can assess, because they will review every judicial order to make sure it’s valid,” Martinez said.

If a parent is taken into custody by ICE agents, what can schools do to support students?

Martinez said the district is working with nonprofit organizations that work with schools to create “family plans” with families who might be worried about what to do if they are detained during the school day. The district can’t ask families for immigration information, so the district is leaning on help from community organizations that already work with and have built trust with school communities to create an extended list of relatives or guardians who can help if a parent is detained by ICE.

Martinez said that while parents have been detained during the school day, it is a relatively rare occurrence.

“That’s why we call it a family plan,” Martinez said. “It just gives us that extra assurance that there’s going to be somebody that we can contact in case. Hopefully, you know, it doesn’t happen.”

In the event that a family does not have an extended list of contacts, Martinez said schools already have emergency contacts for students for when a parent is late or doesn’t show up to pick their kids up.

What protections are there for teachers and school staff who are immigrants?

CPS employees are legally eligible to work in the United States, said Ben Felton, chief talent officer for Chicago Public Schools. That being said, Felton stressed that the district would not disclose any “sensitive personnel information” without a “valid legal request,” such as a subpoena, he said.

“We’re fiercely protective of our employees’ rights,” Felton said.

He also reiterated that staff has been trained on what to do if ICE agents show up to a school — including not allowing them inside without a judicial warrant.

The current Chicago Teachers Union contract says the district and school board cannot “inquire about or demand proof of immigration or citizenship status” of union members beyond what’s required by law. The contract also says that union members who are no longer allowed to work at CPS because of immigration status should be placed on unpaid leave if they are able to obtain proper work authorization within one year for non-tenured teachers and two years for tenured staff. That leave would then allow the employee to return to work without loss of seniority.

Are there resources at schools to help inform parents about their rights?

Chicago Public Schools have listed “Know Your Rights” forums hosted by local community and advocacy organizations on its website and information about the district’s policies.

The district has also trained teachers and staff on how they should interact with ICE agents, how to deal with ICE agents, and what to do if a child’s parent or legal guardian is arrested by ICE agents while a child is at school, as well as on students’ and parents’ rights. Martinez added that the district is making sure teachers and counselors know to create space for children “who just need to talk about it.”

Borderless Magazine, a local news organization that focuses on reporting about immigration, has put together a Know Your Rights guide to help Chicagoans navigate interactions with ICE agents.

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

Illinois scholarship program aimed at getting more teachers of color faces court challenge

2024-12-19T18:53:23+00:00

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Over the past 32 years, the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship program has awarded more than 13,000 scholarships to thousands of college students of color as part of an effort to increase diversity in the state’s teaching ranks.

Now, even as advocates say more needs to be done to increase the number of teachers of color in classrooms, the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship program has become the target of a lawsuit claiming it discriminates against white students by limiting awards to Black, Latino, Asian American, and Native American students.

Despite the lawsuit claims, numbers show that the majority of the teacher workforce in the state remains white and initiatives such as the scholarship program have made only a small dent in diversifying the ranks. In 2024, 80% of Illinois teachers were white, compared to 85% in 2010. Currently, about 6.4% of the teacher workforce is Black, 8.9% is Latino, and 2.2% is Asian American, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2024 report card data.

The state’s K-12 population, by contrast, is 45% white, 16.5% Black, 28.1% Latino, and 5.6% Asian American, according to the state board.

This lawsuit comes as conservatives and right-wing groups are challenging diversity efforts in education across the nation. They have been emboldened in part by a 2023 Supreme Court decision that rejected race-based admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

Erin Wilcox, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which filed the lawsuit against the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship on behalf of the American Alliance for Equal Rights, said the Supreme Court reasoned that “just general societal discrimination is not enough anymore. That’s the standard that we’re holding Illinois to.”

In response to the Supreme Court decision and in anticipation of a push by the incoming Trump administration to slash diversity initiatives, some state and college officials are preemptively removing race-based criteria in scholarship programs requirements and opening them up to all students.

In Illinois, a spokesperson for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which administers the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, said it will continue to provide scholarships to students.

Spokespeople for the commission and Gov. J.B. Pritzker said they cannot comment on the ongoing lawsuit.

Pritzker and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission have until Friday, Dec. 20 to respond to the lawsuit.

House Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a former educator who represents several towns North of Chicago, is the lead sponsor on a House resolution supporting the scholarship.. She has worked on bills in the past to address barriers that prevent people of color from entering the teacher workforce.

Faver Dias hopes the resolution will be passed in Springfield during the lame-duck session in January.

“I essentially filed the resolution to show, when we pass it, that the General Assembly stands behind this program and stands behind breaking down systemic barriers to people getting their teacher degree,” Faver Dias told Chalkbeat.

State scholarship program aims to diversify teacher workforce

The Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program was created in 1992 to encourage students of color to pursue careers in teaching and aims to “provide minority children with access to a greater number of positive minority role models.”

Research has shown that having a teacher of color improves academic performance for all students. A working paper by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found that students of color who had a teacher of color in fourth or fifth grade saw significant gains in reading and math test scores and were least likely to be chronically absent when in high school. White students also saw growth in reading and math test scores when paired with a teacher of color instead of a white teacher, with those effects lasting until high school.

The Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship seeks to put more teachers of color in the classroom by requiring recipients to work full-time at an Illinois nonprofit Illinois public, private, or parochial preschool, elementary, or secondary school with at least 30% students of color after graduation. Recipients are expected to teach one year for each academic year they received the scholarship. If students don’t fulfill the requirements, the scholarship will revert back to a loan that students have to pay off.

From 1992 to 2024, the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program gave out 13,752 awards totaling about $67.4 million, according to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission data provided to Chalkbeat. This number could include students who received the scholarship more than once throughout their time in college. A spokesperson from the commission said available data shows that at least 50% of scholarship recipients went on to teach at schools with 30% minority students.

The program has grown in recent years: Under Pritzker’s administration, the state has appropriated $1.9 million in between fiscal years 2020 and 2022, $4.2 million in fiscal year 2023, and $8 million in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 to the program. The number of scholarships awarded jumped from 363 in 2019 to 566 in 2023.

Still, because the Illinois Student Assistance Commission does not track how many scholarship recipients have stayed in the teaching profession after fulfilling their scholarship requirements, it’s unclear what the long-term impact the scholarship has had on the state’s teacher workforce.

Faver Dias said the state needs to do a better job at enforcing the scholarship terms and tracking what students do need to ensure “that our taxpayer dollars are invested here for the long term.”

The state’s General Assembly or the commission could make changes to ensure that the outcomes of the program for students are tracked in the future, according to Faver Dias.

Who becomes and stays a teacher in Illinois?

In Illinois, the teacher population has grown since 2010 and the number of Latino and Asian American teachers has increased, but the number of teachers of color overall remains relatively small.

This issue isn’t exclusive to Illinois. Nationwide, in 2020-21, white teachers made up 80% of educators, while 6% were Black, 9% were Latino, 2% were Asian American, and less than 1% were Native American, according to data from the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Advocates who want to diversify the Illinois teacher workforce see the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship as one way to get educators of color into classrooms.

Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, a statewide education policy advocacy organization, said the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship is about more than just the race and ethnicity of teachers entering the classroom.

“The target of the program is less the candidates themselves than it is about the students they are ultimately going to teach,” Steans said.

Steans said the requirement that scholarship recipients must teach in a school with 30% or more students of color is critical.

Over the past several years, the state has rolled out a number of teacher diversity initiatives. In 2021, the state board announced a program to work with colleges and universities around the state to help get more teachers of color into the workforce.

Some state advocates have said programs through nonprofit organizations like Teach For America, Golden Apple, and local Grow Your Own Programs – these programs receive funding from that state — have also been useful to help diversify Illinois teachers, but these programs are not exclusive to students of color.

Other state-funded awarded financial aid includes the Golden Apple Scholarship of Illinois, which has provided over 700 awards to students that amount to $2.9 million in 2023. The state also provides the Monetary Award Program grants for all students who can demonstrate financial need; in 2023, the state awarded 150,000 grants.

A recent report by the National Council of Teacher Quality found that colleges and universities have to do more to produce teachers of color. For instance, institutions of higher education would need to provide support to college students and find apprenticeship programs and grow their own programs to help college graduates get into the classroom.

Still, getting teachers of color into classrooms is not enough. Keeping them in education is also key. In Illinois, teachers of color in Illinois also leave the profession at higher rates. In 2024, the three-year average teacher retention rate overall in the state was 89.6%, while the rate for Black educators was 84.6%, according to the state board’s 2024 report card.

Conservatives step up fight against diversity efforts

Teacher diversity programs in Illinois and the country could now be in danger as conservative groups challenge initiatives through policy change and lawsuits such as the one against the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship.

It’s not a surprise to Monique Redeaux-Smith, director of union professional issues at the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

“At every turn in our nation’s history, whenever there’s any kind of semblance of racial progress, there is a white backlash,” said Redeaux-Smith. “We’re living through one right now.”

Among those leading the charge against affirmative action and race-based diversity initiatives is Edward Blum. The conservative activist founded Students for Fair Admission, whose challenge of race-based admissions policies at Harvard led to the 2023 Supreme Court decision, and the American Alliance for Equal Rights, the group challenging the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship. Blum told the New York Times in 2023 that his work won’t stop at colleges and universities’ admission policies but he plans to turn his attention to employer diversity initiatives and college internships, scholarships, and research grants.

In the case against the Minority Teacher of Illinois Scholarship and in the cases against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the conservative groups have argued that affirmative action or race-based scholarship programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment, which requires states to provide equal protections to all citizens

“Legally speaking,” said Paul Gowder, a professor of Law at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, “from the standpoint of the Supreme Court doing constitutional law, there’s no difference between minority scholarship program and school segregation.”

The Supreme Court’s decision in the Harvard admissions case has opened the floodgates for more cases to be filed that will challenge race-conscious policies in higher education and K-12 schools, Gowder said.

Erin Wilcox, the attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, said the case against the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship is challenging the state on differential treatment based on race and ethnicity. She said the only way for the state to prove that the scholarship program is needed is if there was a previous “instance of a statutory or constitutional violation, so, somewhere in the past, the state has violated a law or the Constitution, and the only way to remedy that is to treat people differently based on their skin color.”

Illinois could have two ways to preserve the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, Gowder said. First, state officials could prove that the scholarship program is for a “compelling state interest” by using research showing that a diverse teacher workforce will increase academic performance of all students. They could also change the eligibility requirements for the program to include socioeconomic status, multilingual skills, or other metrics to engage disadvantaged students.

Redeaux-Smith said the Illinois Federation of Teachers and its allies around the state will be looking at potential protections for diversity initiatives, working to get rid of barriers that prevent students of color from entering the teaching profession, and figuring out funding for diversity programs.

“We have to get together and really think about and figure out what our strategy is. Again, it is not just to maintain what we have, but to move forward and advance what we need to be doing,” said Redeaux-Smith. “These initiatives, while good, are not nearly enough for what we actually need.”

Illinois education officials want lawmakers to close loopholes on student discipline, ticketing

2024-12-18T23:25:48+00:00

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Easing Illinois’ educator licensure requirements to add more teachers to the state’s teacher workforce, preventing students from being ticketed by local law enforcement, and changing policy around student discipline are a few of the issues members of the Illinois State Board of Education want lawmakers to address during the spring 2025 legislative session.

During their monthly meeting on Wednesday, the board members approved a list of agenda items that they will push in Springfield once lawmakers are back at the Capitol for the spring session, which is expected to start in late January. Board officials will still need to draft language for bills and find a lawmaker to carry their bills during the session.

While board members approved most of the agenda without much discussion, there was spirited debate around ticketing kids at school and student discipline. For student ticketing, the state board says it will work on a measure to close loopholes in state law to prevent schools from issuing fines or referring students to local police for disciplinary issues.

The board was responding to a 2022 investigation by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune that found that schools in Illinois were referring students for disciplinary issues to local police departments, instead of handling discipline at school. The report found instances where school administrators violated state laws around ticketing and notifying law enforcement.

Students were often ticketed for issues like truancy — or when a student missed about 1% to 5% of the school year without a valid excuse. Black students and students with disabilities were more often to be ticketed and fined by police.

For student discipline, the state wants to outlaw expulsions for students in kindergarten through second grade and require superintendents to only issue suspensions for those students, while making changes to disciplinary practices for students in third through fifth grades.

Roger Eddy, a board member and a former superintendent of Hutsonville CUSD 1, said that he did not support changing how local school districts discipline students, since schools are responsible for ensuring a safe environment for all students.

He also did not support making changes to the state’s ticketing law, saying, “I do not support the notion that in any way, shape, or manner that public schools should minimize the importance of following the law or provide our students with a sanctuary where they can feel safe violating law for whatever reason.”

State Superintendent Tony Sanders responded to Eddy’s concerns by saying that the proposed change is a matter of equity. Sanders mentioned research around the school-to-prison pipeline and the fact that students of color are often more likely to be disciplined at school due to certain policies.

“I don’t know how you tell a family that your child in kindergarten, first, or second grade is kicked out and can’t come back for up to two years regardless of reason. I think this is an equity issue” said Sanders. “Sometimes we have to stand for something. I think this is the time that we stand for something kind. That’s why I’m really pushing on this.”

James Anderson, another member of the state board and a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, agreed with Sanders. He said, “We have enough research to know that implicit bias plays a major role in who’s ticketed.”

A spokesperson for the state board said that the proposed measure would not ban or stop law enforcement from stepping in if a student breaks the law.

“All we’re trying to do is close a loophole,” the spokesperson said. “The law already prohibits school personnel from issuing fines. We just want to make sure that school personnel are not able to refer the students to any other public entity to deal specifically with disciplinary consequences.”

Eddy was the only board member who voted no on approving the legislative agenda.

Pritzker announces first secretary for the Illinois Department of Early Childhood

2024-12-02T23:25:00+00:00

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Teresa Ramos, who currently serves as Illinois’ first assistant deputy governor of education, will be the first secretary of the newly created Illinois Department of Early Childhood, pending state Senate confirmation, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced in a press release on Monday.

Ramos’ “expertise across education, child care, community engagement, and early childhood development make her a leader in her field that I know will lead the new Department to success,” said Pritzker in the press release.

Since being reelected in 2022, Pritzker has put more funding and resources towards the state’s early childhood education and child care programs for families. He boosted funding for early childhood education with his Smart Start Initiative and proposed the early childhood department in October 2023.

Illinois lawmakers passed legislation this spring to create the Department of Early Childhood. The state allocated $14 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget to help streamline early childhood education and child care programs. The department is expected to begin managing programs such as early intervention for young children with disabilities and the Child Care Assistance Program to support low-income families by July 1.

“I’m eager to get started working with an incredible team of state employees, parents and families, advocates, and early childhood providers to create something exceptional that will give every infant, toddler, and young child an opportunity for a strong and healthy start,” said Ramos in the press release.

Ramos has served as first assistant deputy governor of education under Pritzker since 2022, according to the press release. Prior to working in the governor’s office, Ramos had a long career in early childhood education and children. She was the vice president of public policy, research, and advocacy at Illinois Action for Children, a nonprofit that focuses on child care and early childhood education and the largest administrator for the Child Care Assistance Program in Cook County — a program that provides financial aid for child care to low-income families.

She was the director of Community Engagement for Advance Illinois, a nonprofit education advocacy organization, and helped with the governor’s education transition team in 2018.

Ramos is expected to begin serving as secretary of the department in January if she is confirmed.

Currently, Illinois operates and funds child care and early childhood education programs through the state’s Department of Human Services, Illinois State Board of Education, and the Department of Children and Family Services.

Illinois State Board of Education closes investigation on Chicago’s restraint and timeout practices after almost two years

2024-11-20T00:41:03+00:00

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The Illinois State Board of Education has closed its investigation into Chicago Public Schools’ use of physical restraint and timeout practices, citing “significant strides” the district has made to ensure staff is trained in using restraints in schools.

The state board started an investigation into Chicago Public Schools in the fall of 2022, citing staff using restraints when there wasn’t a danger to a student or staff, reports of untrained staff using restraints on students, not having a designated official to be notified of incidents and maintain documentation, and parents not being alerted when their child was involved in a restraint or timeout incident. The state said Chicago was putting students at risk by not training staff on the proper use of restraint and timeout.

The state told the district that it needed to train at least two staff members in each school building in the proper use of physical restraint and timeout, designate a district official to maintain records regarding incidents where restraint or time out is used, and create and sustain a list on the CPS website of staff members that have been trained.

The state board informed CPS officials that it had closed its systemic complaint investigation into the district’s restraint and timeout practices in a letter dated Sept. 18.

The state defines physical restraint as holding a student or other methods to restrict a student’s movement. Prone restraint — when a student is placed face down and pressure is applied to their body to prevent them from moving — has been outlawed in the state with a bill signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2021.

Students can be restrained if there is “imminent danger” to themselves or others around them, but staff must be trained in how to properly use restraints.

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education told Chalkbeat that the state board decided to close the investigation for several reasons: Chicago Public Schools has trained all staff on timeout and isolated timeout, hired and trained an administrator specifically tasked with reviewing all physical restraint and timeout incidents across the district, and now has a public list of staff who went through training on its website that’s searchable by school and staff member name.

Four individual complaints are still ongoing, the state board noted in the letter, saying it will continue to monitor the district “to ensure CPS’ ongoing compliance and improvement of practices” related to restraint and timeout.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools told Chalkbeat Chicago that it continues to refine the district’s actions related to restraint and timeout. In a statement, the district said it “is fully focused on identifying proactive behavioral interventions to reduce the use of RTO, especially for students of color.”

The district’s office for special education has created a Physical Restraint Time Out Team, which is responsible for documenting incidents, school staff has been fully trained in de-escalation and physical management techniques, and the district is working closely with schools if additional training is needed, according to the district spokesperson.

Chicago Public Schools reports that 5,140 staff members across schools are fully trained in both de-escalation and physical management techniques as of this month.

Between 2022 and 2023, the state board sent multiple letters of noncompliance to Chicago school officials that identified how the district’s current restraint and timeout policies were not aligned with the state’s current guidance. The state board found that untrained staff were using restraints.

In a few cases, staff were either restraining students for more than 15 minutes and placing students in isolated time outs for more than 30 minutes. Under state law, staff must evaluate if students should be taken out of timeout or restrains every 15 to 30 minutes.

In other cases, restraints that were banned by state law, such as prone restraint, were used on students. School officials did not tell parents that their child had been restrained or placed in timeout within the time frame set by the state. According to the state board, parents must be notified as soon as possible but no longer than two days after the incident.

Changes in state law occurred in response to a 2019 Chicago Tribune and ProPublica investigation that revealed how restraint, timeout, and seclusion were used around the state. Students with disabilities were most likely to be restrained or put in timeout.

As the state board’s investigation ramped up during 2023, there were changes in leadership at Chicago Public Schools and the district had to act quickly to be in compliance with state law or be placed on probation by the state.

Stephanie Jones, the former head of Chicago Public Schools’ special education office, left the district in June 2023 amid criticism for her role in the district’s failure to fix violations related to restraint and timeout.

As the designated official responsible for restraint and timeout policies and incidents. Jones was responsible for maintaining copies of records, receiving notifications of incidents each school day, and receiving documentation and evaluation of any incident of restraints that lasted for over 15 minutes and timeouts over 30 minutes.

However, Jones told the state board that she had passed on those responsibilities to another member of her staff who left earlier in the year and no one continued to monitor incidents in schools.

Jones was later replaced by Joshua Long, a former principal, as head of the district’s special education office in December 2023.

Chicago Public Schools was required to train at least two staff members across the district’s 600 schools in August 2023 or risk being placed on probation by the state. Chicago worked with contractor QBS LLC to train staff on the use of restraint and timeout.

In August of last year, district officials said CPS had met the state’s deadline to train at least two staff members in over 500 school buildings with a majority of staff being completely trained or in progress in de-escalation and physical restraint.

Illinois’ 2024 report card is out: SAT scores are down, but high school grad rates are up

2024-10-30T14:01:00+00:00

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New data released today show Illinois students continue to rebound from pandemic-era academic setbacks in most metrics, but SAT scores continue to drop.

Declining SAT scores mirror a national trend but come as more Illinois students are graduating from public high schools, raising red flags for top state education officials.

The Illinois State Board of Education’s latest report card data show the four-year high school graduation rate at 87.7% at the end of the 2023-24 school year, compared to 87.6% the previous year, and it has been steadily climbing over the past decade. However, graduation rates for Black and Latino students are still low compared with white and Asian American students.

About 31.1% of high school juniors who took the SAT this past spring were considered proficient in reading, while 26.1% met or exceeded state standards in math. That’s a drop from 2018-19 when 36.2% were proficient in reading and 34.4% were proficient in math.

Average SAT composite scores stood at 950.3 this spring, down from 960.9 last year and 994.5 in the 2018-19 school year.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders noted that Illinois’ accountability system put more weight on graduation rates starting last year.

“Schools have really focused on improving graduation rates for all students, and that has yielded some significant results,” he said. “How can we have these amazing gains in the graduation rate with simultaneously declining proficiency rates in high school?

Sanders, along with state education officials, said in a press conference last week that the state is working on an indicator of individual growth for students between ninth to 11th grade. The indicator won’t be a part of the state’s accountability system for school districts and schools, but it will be provided to high schools to help them understand where students are each year.

The report card provides insight into how Illinois’ 850-plus school districts are performing. The massive data set includes information on hundreds of metrics such as test scores, enrollment data, chronic absenteeism, high school graduation rates, student participation in career and technical education programs, enrollment in advanced classes, and teacher retention rates.

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact students’ academic progress across the state, there are signs that show Illinois students have regained ground in some metrics. Third through eighth grade students are making progress on state standardized tests in reading and math, more students are taking advanced classes in high school, participation in career and technical education courses has increased, and the number of educators in the state has increased since the school year 2017-18.

Post-pandemic, Illinois schools spent almost $7 billion dollars on high-impact tutoring and staffing increases. Those funds dried up at the end of September.

Here are some more 2024 report card highlights.

Elementary students see pre-pandemic numbers in reading, but not math

Students in third to eighth grade who took the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, also known as the IAR, in the spring of 2024 saw improvements in reading and math overall. In reading, 41.2% of students met or exceeded the standards. That is 5.8 percentage points higher than in spring 2023 and 3.4 percentage points higher than in 2019.

Sanders attributed the improvement in reading to best practices for instruction, curriculum, and teacher professional development. He also mentioned the state’s comprehensive literacy plan.

Students are struggling to reach pre-pandemic levels in math, however. About 28.4% of students were proficient in math in 2024, about 3.4 percentage points lower than in 2019 and only 1.4 percentage points up from 2023.

Sanders said the state is working on a statewide math and numeracy plan to support students and increase proficiency.

Racial disparities continue to persist. White and Asian American students continue to have higher math and reading proficiency rates on the IAR when compared to other student groups. About 52.2% of white students were proficient in reading and 38.7% in math, while Asian American students were 68.2% proficient in reading and 61.3% in math.

Black and Latino students have seen a slight uptick in scores since the school year 2018-19, but scores on the IAR still lag behind white and Asian American students, and often students are scoring lower than the state’s average. About 28.6% of Latino students and 21.8% of Black students were proficient in reading, while 15.6% of Latino students and 9.1% of Black students were proficient in math.

Earlier this month, Chicago Public Schools reported that about 30.5% of third through eighth graders were proficient in reading on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness 2024 spring exam, and 18.3% met or exceeded the standard in math.

English learners enrollment continues to climb

About 1.8 million students were enrolled in Illinois public schools during the 2023-24 school year, the same as school year 2022-23. In a call with news reporters, Sanders said that overall declines in enrollment started in 2015 and match the country’s declining birth rate.

However, Illinois continues to see an increase in English learners. In school year 2023-24, English learners made up 16.4% of total enrollment, a 1.8 percentage point increase compared to the school year 2022-23, when enrollment was at 14.6%. Sanders attributed the rise in newcomer students to families escaping conflicts around the globe.

Overall student demographics are shifting too, with increasing enrollment among Asian American, Latino, and multiracial students and declines in the number of white and Black students enrolling in public schools

Absenteeism is down but higher among kindergarteners and high school students

When students miss 10% of the school year — about 18-20 school days — with or without an excuse, they are considered chronically absent. The percentage of students who missed this much school spiked during the COVID pandemic.

But the numbers have come back down. About 26.3% of all students were chronically absent during the school year 2023-24, down from the 28.3% from last year. Illinois saw its highest chronic absenteeism rate of 29.9% in 2021-22, when more students were required to go back to school in person.

This year, the Illinois State Board of Education decided to look at the intersection between chronic absenteeism and grade levels and found kindergarten and high school students were the most likely to be chronically absent.

Illinois educators and parents seek $550 million school funding increase for next year

2024-10-11T01:12:04+00:00

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Educators, parents, and advocates lobbied the Illinois State Board of Education to request an additional $550 million for K-12 schools from state lawmakers for the next school year during a Thursday budget hearing.

That increase would be $200 million more than what state lawmakers put into the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 schools for the current budget. When the state created its school funding formula in 2017, legislators reached a bipartisan agreement to increase funding $350 million each year. But K-12 advocates have said for the last few years that schools need more money to deal with a variety of urgent issues, from staffing shortages to newcomer students.

The deadline for spending or earmarking the state’s almost $7 billion in federal COVID relief funds was at the end of last month, although Illinois indicated it would seek an extension for spending the money. But as a result, local schools could see a reduction in staff and programs next school year, if they haven’t already experienced cuts this year.

The Illinois State Board of Education kicked off budget hearings this month to ask parents, teachers, district leaders, and advocates what they think the state board should ask the state’s General Assembly to fund during fiscal year 2026, which covers the 2025-26 school year.

Jason Sitko, a third grade teacher in Chicago Public Schools who’s worked in city schools for over 17 years, told the board that his school needs a librarian, dean of students, special education teachers, teaching assistants, and paraprofessionals.

Sitko says that he currently has a student with a 504 plan that requires the teacher to check in with the student every five to 10 minutes about needing extra help. But that’s difficult for him because he’s in his classroom without any other staff, trying to meet the various needs of 25 students.

“After I teach a math lesson, for example, I ask a few students to come sit at my table so that I can read the directions to them, because they cannot yet read and are still struggling with the concept of multiplication, and they need intensive support,” said Sitko. “I may have a student pouting in the hallway because something didn’t go well for him at recess. I might have another student walking around bothering his classmates because he is emotionally dysregulated.”

Brianna Roman, a parent who is sending her child to Berwyn schools in Chicago’s west suburbs, said that while the evidence-based funding formula improved the district’s finances, she says that it’s not enough due to inflation increasing costs.

“Every parent wants to know that wherever they send their children to school, they have the resources they need to succeed,” said Roman. “This includes the proper learning environment, enough special education and bilingual teachers, speech therapists, counselors, case managers, teachers, assistants, librarians, after school programs, updated books and technology.”

Both Sitko and Roman said they want the board to advocate for $550 million to go to the evidence-based funding formula.

Other advocates also spoke strongly in favor of more funding for additional funding to support students experiencing homelessness.

April Harris, a parent and a grassroots leader of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, requested state board officials seek an additional $5 million to support the growing needs of students who are experiencing homelessness — including some newcomer students who have immigrated from other countries — and help identify them.

“Almost 20,000 new arrivals have been bused to Illinois over the last year. Newly arrived migrant students are living in shelters, police stations, on the street or in other temporary situations, are experiencing homelessness, and therefore are McKinney-Vento eligible,” said Harris, referring to the federal law governing access to public education for students experiencing homelessness. “School districts and [the state school board] will need support to provide students with the services to which they are entitled.”

Speakers also sought to secure funding for after-school programming.

Eboni Prince, senior program director at After School Matters in Chicago, asked the board to keep funding for the organization at $6 million. The group has served thousands of high school students across Chicago, many of whom are students of color who come from low-income households. Prince said during fiscal year 2024, 80% of teens said that they felt really supported by their instructors.

The board’s funding “is crucial as we continue to empower young people to create a brighter future through our programming and partnerships,” said Prince.

After School Matters gets funding from a line item in the state’s education budget that’s separate from the evidence-based formula.

Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools has passed an almost $10 billion budget, but the district has made cuts to central staff and administration. The district is projecting a $500 million deficit next year, and that does not account for its pending contracts with Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Principal and Administrators Association, which are both currently in negotiations with the district.

Other requests at the hearing for more funding dealt with issues like agricultural education and early childhood education.

The state board’s next public budget hearing will be a virtual hearing on Oct. 28 between 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

In previous years, the Illinois State Board of Education announced its proposed budget before the end of January, right before the annual budget address from the governor. Usually, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget and State of the State address takes place in February as the spring legislative session is underway.

Special education advocates file new state complaint on bus service in Chicago Public Schools

2024-09-09T23:53:06+00:00

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This story has been updated to include a response from Chicago Public Schools and additional information about the status of the complaint.

As Chicago Public Schools struggles to provide bus service to students with disabilities for the fourth year in a row, special education advocates are again calling for the Illinois State Board of Education to monitor student transportation services.

The advocates say CPS is violating a federal law that requires districts to provide transportation for students with disabilities if it is in their Individualized Education Programs. They say students need reliable transportation to go to school without disruptions and are urging the state board to monitor the district as it did in 2021 and 2022.

As of Sept. 4, the district reported 2,226 students with disabilities had yet to be routed. A spokesperson said the latest number includes new transportation requests, students who have been permanently approved for a stipend, and students who have been temporarily approved for a stipend but are waiting for a route. The district reported that 9,232 students had bus service as of Sept. 4, up from 8,782 students on Aug. 21.

In a letter to the state board, the Special Education Advocacy Coalition of Chicago, which advocates for special education, said it is worried that students who asked for bus service but were only able to receive a stipend to school either won’t attend school or that providing transportation will be an inconvenience to families.

“One of us has a client whose parent has a visual impairment and cannot benefit from the stipend,” the letter, sent at the end of the first week of school, said. “The young child is not currently attending school because the family has no financial resources to pay for a rideshare … twice a day.”

Two special education advocates, Miriam Bhimani and Terri Smith, also sent a complaint regarding transportation for students with Individualized Education Programs to the state board on Sept. 3, alleging the lack of bus service for these students amounts to a “widespread denial” of a “free appropriate public education,” which is guaranteed to students with disabilities under federal law.

Both Bhimani and Smith have filed similar complaints in previous years, which have led to the state monitoring transportation at the district. In 2021, the state board issued a corrective action plan because some students with disabilities did not have bus service. The following year, the state board issued a corrective action for bus routes that were 90 minutes or longer.

The state board eventually ended monitoring the district for transportation issues. In a letter from the state board in April, it said that Chicago made “sufficient progress” and “substantially corrected this issue on a systemic level.”

Their new complaint alleges that’s not the case. They cite hour-long wait times on the district’s Office of Transportation hotline and say parents are often unable to get useful information from district representatives.

In addition, the complaint says, a month before school started, parents received an email saying that in order to qualify for a transportation stipend, students with Individualized Education Programs had to have a request “on file” and live more than 5 miles away from their school. But in May – when the state ended oversight – the district told state officials that transportation requests were “not necessary for the implementation of services to begin, especially for students with disabilities.”

Bhimani and Smith received a letter from the Illinois State Board of Education late Monday saying it will investigate the concerns raised in their complaint, as required by federal law.

Earlier on Monday, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said in a statement to Chalkbeat that state officials are aware of the bus service challenges Chicago and other school districts are facing around the state. Before making any decisions on next steps, the state said that it will reach out to gather additional information.

In regards to Chicago, the spokesperson said, “We are staying informed of the situation and will determine the most appropriate course of action based on our ongoing review.”

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said in a statement to Chalkbeat that district officials understand the frustration of families who have yet to receive bus service. The district said it will continue to look for ways to deal with the bus driver shortage.

“We understand that the progress we’ve made thus far - more eligible students on buses and more bus drivers than we had a year ago at this time - is not enough,” read the statement. “We remain dedicated to increasing our capacity with a focus on our eligible students with disabilities.”

Matt Cohen, a special education lawyer based in Chicago, said a disruption to education can cause issues down the line for students with disabilities and schools.

“It could be disrupted in terms of just an hour or two a day or it could be disrupted because they’re not getting to school at all,” said Cohen. “Then they don’t make progress, they start to fall apart, and then CPS has to come in and provide even more services to them.”

Last week, State Superintendent Tony Sanders and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona were in Chicago to visit Access Living, an organization that supports people with disabilities across the city.

Sanders said the lack of bus service is an issue for districts across the state due to a bus driver shortage. He said the challenge started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Historically, we recruited people who retired from another job and wanted to take on the role of the bus driver. When COVID hit, a lot of those people decided that they didn’t want to come into the workforce and risk exposure,” said Sanders. He hopes that those drivers will return.

Troubles with student transportation in Chicago Public Schools magnified when students returned to the classroom in the fall of 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic eased and schools reopened classrooms.

As Chicago Public Schools scrambled to find bus drivers over the last few school years, some students with disabilities were unable to receive bus service and those who did sometimes experienced trips over 90 minutes.

At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, district officials said CPS would stop offering bus service for general education students. The district planned to prioritize bus service for students with disabilities and students experiencing homelessness. Both groups are required by federal law to receive transportation.

Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders talks about what’s next for schools after federal COVID-19 relief funds end in the fall

2024-08-12T17:01:24+00:00

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Some Illinois schools will likely experience major shifts this school year as federal COVID relief funds end, district budgets get tighter, and students continue to recover from school disruptions during the height of the pandemic.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders, who transitioned from district superintendent of Elgin’s U-46 to state superintendent in 2023, oversees education policies that will impact almost two million students across the state.

Illinois State Superintendent, Tony Sanders, poses for a portrait.

Chalkbeat Chicago sat down with Sanders to talk about what’s next for the state board after COVID relief funds end in September, support for schools that have seen an increase in newcomer enrollment, the state’s literacy plan, and other education issues.

“It’s nothing better than working in an area where you have a lot of support from our sitting governor and legislators,” Sanders said. “Everybody cares about public education, and so it’s pretty easy to have conversations about what’s best for kids.”

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

School year 2024-25 will be a challenging time for school districts as they grapple with tighter budgets. What are your top concerns for the state’s almost two million students?

A Harvard and Stanford Universities study showed that Illinois is one of three states that has made up ground and has returned to pre-pandemic levels in English Language Arts. I don’t think that would have been possible if Illinois had not passed evidence-based funding before the pandemic. Illinois is one of the few states where the legislature and governor has continued to invest annually in public education, and that’s a result of that negotiated evidence-based funding formula. It does not mean districts won’t have challenges in their budgets. As we move forward, the state’s going to have challenges in its budget.

The state board’s share of federal COVID-19 relief dollars is also expected to end in September. The state board created initiatives like a digital equity grant and a mentorship program for teachers among other initiatives. Will the state board continue some of these programs without federal COVID relief funds or will they disappear?

This year within the state budget, we were able to work with the governor’s office and legislators on sustaining some of these programs. For example, we were able to secure some state dollars to support our Student Care Department — which monitors restraint, time-out, and student isolation — which was created using COVID relief funds. We’ve been able to use the extension on COVID relief funds that the federal government gave us to continue programs such as SEL [Social Emotional Learning] Hubs, teacher mentoring, and principal mentoring. One of the things you didn’t see make it into this year’s budget was high-impact tutoring. It was effective, but it was also very expensive.

Next fiscal year, the State Board of Education will have some deeper conversation to see what programs local school districts or the state will help us support or if there are other grants or opportunities for us to start seeking out.

Illinois has had a teacher shortage for the past several years. School districts have seen vacancies in areas like bilingual education and special education. What are some ways the state is trying to alleviate these pain points for schools?

A few years ago, we set a new [teacher] minimum [salaries] across the state. Across Midwestern states, Illinois is 18% higher than our peers for teacher salaries. Wages is one of the keys to recruiting and retaining quality staff. The other thing that sets Illinois apart is that we truly value the art of teaching and allowing teachers the ability to teach, bring their best selves to their profession, and to be able to teach in culturally responsive ways for our students. We do not ban books in Illinois. Teachers live without fear of losing their jobs or being criminally prosecuted for teaching sensitive subjects. So in Illinois, I think we’re doing a good job trying to uplift the profession and recognize the professionalism that teachers bring to their classrooms every single day.

Financially, the state’s also done a lot to support the teacher pipeline. The General Assembly just invested $45 million into teacher vacancy grants that’s going to the 20% of districts in Illinois that have 80% of the vacancies. Those districts are using those funds for tuition reimbursement and offering professional learning opportunities for bilingual and special education teachers in their districts.

Illinois has approved a comprehensive literacy plan. What is the next step to ensuring that all students are learning how to read?

We’re going to continue the work of ensuring that as we build out our support that is grounded in quality core instruction for all students and every school district is engaged in continuous school improvement processes that improve outcomes for kids and part of that is the literacy plan. We’re making sure that we provide resources and tools to school districts, teachers, and schools to determine if they have a clear and viable curriculum for literacy, that they’re using best practices based on what the research says kids need to know and be able to do related to literacy.

According to recent test scores, Illinois students are regaining ground in reading proficiency but smaller gains have been seen in math. Is the State Board of Education looking at ways to improve how math is taught?

We are, but we don’t have anything official at this point. We’re having conversations about how to improve math instruction.

Some local school districts have seen an uptick in the enrollment of newcomers. School leaders and education advocates have asked lawmakers for more funding to support migrant students. The State Board of Education asked for $35 million in its proposed FY 2025 budget, which the General Assembly did not approve. What is the State Board of Education planning to do next to support schools serving an influx of migrant students?

We approached the federal government last year and have been able to work to get about $10 million in school improvement funds set aside for the districts.

This last year, we were also able to provide about $25 million in a “Stronger Connections” grant, a federal grant, to school districts that had a significant number of newcomer students. On top of those funds, school districts can use Title I and McKinney-Vento Funds to support newcomers.

Illinois schools are continuing to see high rates of chronic absenteeism in schools. What is the state doing to bring students back into the classroom?

We have a lot of work to do around not only encouraging and incentivizing attendance, but also having schools that kids want to be a part of. I know a lot of the work that school districts are doing right now is around school culture and climate to make sure that students feel welcome and that they know that school is a place where they can be safe. But it’s just not moving fast enough. We’re doing our best but it’s going to be one of the longer term post-COVID things that we’re going to have to grapple with.

Amid financial woes, Chicago Public Schools to receive similar state funding increase this year

2024-08-05T23:09:17+00:00

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Amid a bump in students learning English as a new language and a dip in local tax revenue, Chicago Public Schools would now need nearly $1.2 billion to be adequately funded, according to state data released Monday.

The updated figure, which is $93 million more than was projected last year, was provided as part of an annual calculation determining how Illinois will distribute state money to public school districts — and comes as the city’s school district grapples with complex financial problems in the next school year.

Still, Chicago gets about 21% of the funding distributed through the state’s evidence-based formula — which allocates money to districts based on their students’ needs — but serves about 18% of Illinois’ students, said State Superintendent Tony Sanders.

“I think it’s important to note that we still have districts that are below what Chicago was funded,” Sanders said.

Data show 49 Illinois districts are still below 70% adequately funded, compared to 72 districts last year and 430 districts in 2018, right after the state’s funding formula was revamped. Chicago is considered 79% adequately funded.

Districts with greater shares of students with high needs, such as English language learners or low-income students, receive more money under the funding formula. In Chicago’s case, the district’s recent increase in English language learners impacted its adequacy calculation.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus said the district is “committed to working with our local, state and federal partners” to find more money for students and schools. But the district, which has previously asked Illinois leaders to provide more funding, acknowledged that significantly more money is not coming through this year.

“District leadership recognizes that achieving state funding at the 90 to 100 percent adequacy level for CPS and all districts in Illinois will take time and was not intended to be reached by Fiscal Year 2025,” Fergus wrote.

A closer look at state funding for Chicago

The Chicago Board of Education recently passed a $9.9 billion budget that closed a roughly half-billion-dollar deficit driven largely by the loss of federal COVID relief dollars.

CPS is expected to receive an additional $25.8 million from the state’s evidence-based funding formula for the coming 2024-25 school year. The district also gets state money earmarked for other education initiatives, such as $284 million for early childhood education, according to the district’s adopted budget. CPS’s budget includes a total of $2.6 billion in state funding.

Thousands of migrant families have arrived in Chicago over the past two years, fleeing political and economic strife in South and Central American countries. Amid that shift, Chicago Public Schools enrolled roughly 5,700 more students learning English as a new language in September 2023, compared to the same time in 2022, according to official district data. And over the course of last school year, between last September and this May, more than 7,500 English language learners enrolled across district and charter schools, for a total of more than 85,000 such students, according to preliminary CPS data analyzed by Chalkbeat.

A dip in local revenue also had an impact on how much funding the state calculation indicates Chicago needs. Sanders cited a dip in tax revenue imposed on corporate profits, plus “modest growth” in property values.

The data released by the state Monday focuses on the money distributed through the evidence-based funding formula, which directs more money to districts with higher needs that lack enough local wealth to cover costs.

Most school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, rely primarily on local property taxes to fund public schools. In Chicago, more than $5 billion is collected from local taxes, $4 billion of which is directly from property taxes.

Illinois boosts K-12 funding by $2 billion since 2017

Data shows Illinois has increased funding for public schools by $2 billion since overhauling the funding formula in 2017. In a news release, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state will “continue to build on our progress” to ensure every student “gets the quality education they deserve.”

Sanders said that compared to other states, Illinois is investing “more and more” annually into public education that has helped schools get through the pandemic “and sustain their growth” through COVID.

“I think the state deserves credit for continuing that investment year over year, recognizing we’re not there yet,” Sanders said.

State lawmakers decide every spring how much money to send to Illinois’ 852 school districts. In August, the Illinois State Board of Education finalizes the dollar amounts each district will receive.

Illinois divides school districts into four tiers in order to determine how to distribute the money allocated by state lawmakers. Tier 1 districts get the largest increases in state funding because they are considered to be the furthest away from having enough money to sufficiently fund schools; Tier 4 districts are those with the least amount of need and get smaller increases.

One report, penned by a budget watchdog organization whose leader helped craft the state’s funding formula, estimates that districts won’t be adequately funded until 2034 – seven years later than the state had originally committed.

Chicago, the state’s largest district, was a Tier 1 district until 2022, when it moved to Tier 2, as the share of the city’s low-income students dipped and property wealth grew.

Illinois’ second largest school district, U-46, which serves Elgin, Bartlett, Streamwood, and other northwest Chicago suburbs, serves 40,000 students and is considered a Tier 1 district that is 71% adequately funded. That district would need another $173 million to close that gap, according to state data.

The teachers union, as well as CPS and the board, have called on the state to provide more funding to help cover costs, which could still grow this year as officials negotiate new collective bargaining agreements for teachers and school leaders. Officials also don’t yet have a plan for covering $175 million in pension payments for non-teaching staff, which the district wants the city to cover, as it did before Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration.

Pritzker has said more money is not coming this year. Sanders reiterated that on Monday.

“The EBF funding formula is used not just for Chicago, but for funding all 852 school districts across the state,” Sanders said. “It is a fair way of distributing funds across the state, it is going to lead us to better equity in the long run, so no, there are not going to be any short-term changes.”

City Hall also directed CPS to take out a loan to cover additional costs; the district pushed back and has not yet taken out such a loan.

The state also released a report Monday detailing trends of how districts across the state had planned to use state funding.

Tier 1 districts were more likely to make lowering or maintaining class sizes a top strategy for improving student achievement, the report said. Overall, nearly a quarter of all districts said that improving programs, curriculum, and/or “learning tools” was a top strategy, while another 15% were primarily focused on maintaining or improving extra support for students.

Becky Vevea contributed.

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

Illinois revenue from a tax on corporate profits is projected to decline. Here’s what that means for school districts.

2024-07-09T19:04:48+00:00

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Illinois public school districts benefited from an uptick in a local tax on corporate profits in recent years. But the surge in revenue is expected to end, leaving school officials to grapple with tighter budgets.

The shift comes as federal COVID recovery money dries up, and local education advocates fear that the recent addition of $350 million to the state’s education budget isn’t enough to match the needs of schools.

The state’s evidence-based funding uses data from previous years, which means districts that saw unexpected gains from this unique tax on local businesses could receive fewer state dollars in the future. As districts finalize their budget for this upcoming school year, those receiving fewer state dollars will have to figure out how to fill in the gaps.

According to a new research brief by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, revenue from the tax — known as Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax, or CPPRT — more than doubled between 2020 and 2023 from $1.5 billion to more than $3 billion. The spike happened because more people were spending money, inflation was high, and many businesses raised prices, the report said.

The additional money meant more school districts came closer to what the state considers adequately funded. The report said revenue from the tax on corporate profits helped bridge the gap between state funding and local funding for districts by $1.9 billion.

Now, the state is projecting that revenue surge will end. But the state’s funding formula for K-12 schools will continue to report that districts are getting more local dollars than they actually are because CPPRT revenue is two calendar years behind the current fiscal year. For instance, the amount of revenue a district collected for fiscal year 2025 is calculated from calendar year 2023.

Elaine Gaberik, research associate at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and co-author of the report, said this is a major concern for districts. The lag time will throw off the state’s evidence-based funding formula calculation, making it seem as though many school districts are closer to being adequately funded when they may not be, she said.

“While those funds were great, they’re not expected to continue,” she said.

Chicago Public Schools was one of many school districts that got less additional state funding in recent years, in part, due to the boost in revenue from the tax on corporate profits. In 2022, the district was recategorized as having less need by the state’s funding formula and received fewer new state dollars for fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said in a recent statement to Chalkbeat that while the district is dealing with multiple budget challenges such as the end of COVID-19 relief funds and less local and state funding, the district is trying to keep cuts away from classrooms.

“The district has implemented a new school funding formula for school year 2024-25 with a focus on maintaining services and priority investments while identifying additional revenues and spending efficiencies throughout the district’s $9.4 billion budget,” the statement read.

Chicago has yet to release their overall district budget, which is usually announced in June. However, the district released school level budgets that show 150 schools are expected to have fewer staff members.

Rockford School District 205, located in Northern Illinois, also saw a jump in revenue from the tax on corporate profits and was reclassified by the state as needing fewer state dollars to fund schools.

In 2024, Rockford saw a drop in state funding when compared to 2023. The district had about 5% fewer low-income students and saw an increase of 102% in CPPRT revenue. The district received almost $5.9 million more than they expected in fiscal year 2024 when compared to 2023. Rockford got a roughly $8.8 million increase in 2023, but in 2024 state dollars only increased $2.9 million, according to state data.

Greg Brown, the district’s chief financial officer said his department had to really “sharpen their pencil” to figure out a balanced budget. The district will postpone buying new buses and will not be able to backfill school staff positions, he said.

Brown said due to some past planning, the district is in a stable financial position this year, but he worries about the 2025-26 school year.

“The state is already talking about potentially not having the same kind of funding levels going forward,” said Brown. He said Rockford officials will start preparing for what the 2025-26 school year budget might look like in the fall.

Here are Illinois education bills that did not pass in the spring legislative session

2024-06-07T21:35:53+00:00

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The Illinois legislative session ended with much fanfare last week — a week after it was scheduled to end. Lawmakers worked overtime to pass the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget and other outstanding legislation, including a number of education bills.

While many bills gained traction at the capitol, several education bills did not pass.

Despite Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike criticizing the $53.1 billion spending plan, it eventually passed both chambers of the General Assembly.

On Wednesday, Gov. J.B Pritzker signed the budget, which goes into effect July 1. The state’s latest budget includes a statewide child tax credit for low-income families who have children under the age of 12, funding increases for early childhood education and K-12 schools, and $50 million for afterschool and summer programs.

The state also passed a bill that would create the state’s Department of Early Childhood, but here are a few bills that didn’t make it to the governor’s desk this legislative session.

Education bills that stalled during session

Police in some Chicago schools: House Bill 5008 would have allowed local school councils to contract directly with Chicago Police Department for school resource officers. This bill was a direct response to the Chicago Board of Education vote earlier this year to unilaterally remove police on school campuses around the city. The measure did not make it past the House.

Selective enrollment schools: House Bill 303 stirred a lot of controversy during the spring legislative session. The first version of the bill would have prevented the Chicago Board of Education from making any changes to selective enrollment schools until 2027, when the Chicago Board of Education will be fully elected as opposed to the hybrid board with some elected members. An amendment was added to the bill during negotiations that expanded a school closure moratorium on all Chicago schools from 2025 to 2027. The bill was halted after Mayor Brandon Johnson asked Senate President Don Harmon to not call the bill for a vote.

Access to dual credit programs: In the past decade, dual credit programs have expanded at high schools across the state. While students are able to take advantage of college courses while in high school, there are disparities in participation. Students from low-income families, students of color, and English learners have lower participation rates. House Bill 5020 would have required school districts to work with local community colleges to develop programs, create standards for educators teaching dual credit programs, and open access to more students. The bill passed the House with a vote of 105-1, but did not even make it to the Senate floor.

State license for Montessori teachers: There are teacher shortages around the state, school districts in rural areas are hit the hardest, and there are a large number of vacancies in bilingual and special education. This year, state lawmakers proposed Senate Bill 2689, to make it easier for Montessori-trained teachers to teach in public schools. Teachers would be eligible for a state license if they received a bachelor’s degree, have a credential from an institution accredited by the Montessori Council for Teacher Education, the American Montessori Society, or the Association Montessori Internationale, and completed state licensure testing. The bill didn’t make it out of the Senate.

Stipends for student teachers: To keep students in the pipeline to become classroom educators, local education advocacy organizations supported a stipend for student-teachers and their mentors. House Bill 4652 would have provided up to $10,000 stipends to student teachers and up to $2,000 stipend to teachers who are mentoring students for two consecutive sessions. The bill passed the House, 85-23, but did not make it to the Senate’s floor for a vote.

A child tax credit, an Early Childhood Department, and more money for K-12 schools: Illinois lawmakers pass 2025 budget

2024-05-29T17:06:25+00:00

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The Illinois House passed a $53.1 billion budget with increases for early childhood education, K-12 public schools, and the state’s literacy plan early Wednesday morning by a vote of 65-45. The bill heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk for final approval.

“For the sixth consecutive year, I introduced and the legislature passed a balanced budget that invests in our future while putting money back in the hands of hard-working Illinoisans,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The state’s General Assembly also passed a state child tax credit, which would make Illinois one of more than a dozen states to approve such legislation in the wake of the COVID pandemic, when the federal government temporarily expanded the benefit. Low-income Illinois families with children under the age of 12 and those who qualify for the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit would be eligible to receive the credit in 2025.

This version of the state’s child tax credit expands on what Pritzker proposed in February when he pitched a tax credit for families with young children who are 3 or younger.

Starting in July 2021, families across the country received up to $300 for children 17 or younger as part of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan. The program, which lapsed in December 2021, was credited with reducing child poverty and hunger. States including Colorado, California, and New York have since created their own child tax credit.

“The truth is that we all think that education should be better funded,” said Pritzker, when asked about Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who made a trip to Springfield to ask for more education funding for the city’s schools.

But, the governor said, the need expands beyond Chicago.

“The city of Chicago is 20% of the population of the state,” he said at the Wednesday press conference. “So we have a lot of other kids across the state going to school. We need to fund their schools better too.”

Here are more highlights on education funding in the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget.

New state Early Childhood Department gets a boost

The budget includes about $14 million to start a new state Early Childhood Department to help streamline early childhood education and child care programs. Separate legislation to create the department still needs a signature from Pritzker.

The new department, which was approved by lawmakers during the session, will bring early childhood education programs from the Illinois State Board of Education, the state’s Department of Human Services, and Department of Child and Family Services under one roof by July 1, 2026. The governor’s budget proposal had asked for $13 million to launch the department.

The Illinois State Board of Education received an increase of $75 million for its Early Childhood Block Grant, bringing total funding for the program to almost $750 million. Pritzker hopes this will create 5,000 new seats for preschool students this year. Earlier this year, Pritzker and the state board added 5,800 preschool seats during the first year of his Smart Start Initiative — a plan to create 20,000 preschool seats for 3- and 4- years old and provide more funding for early childhood education.

Early childhood programs under the Department of Human Services will see an increase as well. The state’s home visiting program, a program that supports pregnant women and families with children under 5, received an additional $5 million. The department’s Child Care Assistance Programs, which provides financial assistance for low-income families, received an additional $36.5 million in state funding.

The state’s Early intervention program received an additional $6 million to support children 3 and younger with disabilities. Early childhood advocates were upset when this increase was proposed by Pritzker in February because advocates say they have seen an uptick in the number of children waitlisted for services and experiencing service delays. They said they have also seen a lack of incentives for early intervention providers to stay in the programs or recruit more providers.

Advocates went to Springfield in April to ask the state to invest $40 million more, just as the year before. The state said last year’s increase and this year’s increase is enough to ensure that children continue to receive early intervention services.

K-12 education gets $350 million more

Illinois’ public schools districts will receive $8.6 billion in state funding next year – $350 million more than last year. That’s the minimum annual increase lawmakers agreed to in 2017 when the state created a new formula to change how K-12 schools are funded. The initial goal was to get all schools to an adequate funding level by 2027.

Over time, districts have received almost $2 billion more in funding from the state. But education advocates and funding experts say districts won’t reach adequate funding until at least 2030, unless the annual increases jump to $550 million or more. In a recent report, the Center for Budget and Tax Accountability noted a funding gap of about $2.3 billion.

Advance Illinois, a policy and advocacy organization that focuses on education, was one of the groups that supported a $550 million increase for K-12 schools.

“This governor has demonstrated that education is a priority,” said Robin Steans, the organization’s president. “This is a tough year. We appreciate the new and increased investments they’ve made, even as we recognize we’re disappointed that there is some important work left to be done.”

The 2025 budget includes $3 million for the implementation of the state’s new literacy plan, which was finalized earlier this year by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Noticeably missing from the budget is funding to support local school districts that have seen an increase in the number of students who recently migrated to the United States.

In the spring of 2022, Illinois schools started to see a rapid increase in enrollment as families were bused from the southern border in Texas to cities like Chicago. Chicago Public Schools and suburban school districts reported enrolling a large number of students from Venezuela. With more English learners enrolling in schools, the need for bilingual staff and educators increased. The overall needs of schools also grew exponentially as they grappled with limited resources to support newly arrived students.

Some school districts have asked for more funding because the state’s evidence-based funding formula does not capture students who enroll during the school year.

In addition, the State Board of Education and local school districts use different methods of counting the number of newcomer students enrolled in schools. To help support schools and the needs of newcomers, the state board asked the General Assembly for $35 million.

Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago that have seen an influx of migrant families, filed a bill initially asking for $35 million, but with a push from education advocates and local school district leaders, he amended it to $188 million. However, it did not make it to the final budget.

Higher education sees minor increases

The Illinois Monetary Award Program, also known as MAP, a scholarship program for college-bound students from low-income families, received an additional $10 million, increasing the entire fund to $711 million.

Illinois higher education advocates, including The Partnership for College Completion, an advocacy organization focused on higher education, have criticized the governor for not proposing more funding for MAP.

Christian Perry, director of policy and advocacy at The Partnership for College Completion, said in a statement to Chalkbeat, that this year’s budget is not enough to support the needs of college-bound students in the state.

“The increase in MAP does not keep up with inflation and comes at a time when students are facing issues with the new FAFSA, making college-going alarmingly uncertain for low-income students,” said Perry.

In addition, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, which supports students of color and bilingual students who want to become teachers receive a scholarship, did not get a funding increase. The program will continue to get $8 million, the same amount it received in last year’s budget.

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.

Bill to prevent changes at Chicago’s selective enrollment schools appears stalled

2024-05-24T22:06:39+00:00

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A state bill that would prevent changes to Chicago’s selective enrollment schools and block the district from closing schools until 2027 appears to have stalled in the final scheduled hours of the legislative session.

The lack of movement comes after Mayor Brandon Johnson sent a letter to Illinois Senate President Don Harmon asking him not to call the bill for a final vote, arguing it “seeks to solve problems that do not exist.”

The situation is a win so far for Johnson, whose appointed Board of Education is mulling changes to the district’s school choice system and recently rolled out a new budget formula.

State Rep. Margaret Croke, a Democrat representing Chicago’s north side neighborhoods, filed the bill earlier this year that would prevent the board from making changes to admission requirements or cutting funding for selective enrollment schools until a fully elected school board is in place in 2027. She later added an amendment that would extend the moratorium on school closures and prevent any school from shuttering until 2027.

Croke said in a written statement that she is “deeply disappointed” to learn that Harmon may not call her proposal to the floor for final approval. She believes that without the bill magnet schools and charter schools will not be protected and the school board will make changes to admissions for selective schools.

“The CPS school budgeting process has been hidden from both the public and from Springfield legislators, and I fully expect that disproportionate cuts will be made to magnet schools and charters will eventually be closed,” said Croke’s statement.

The bill unanimously passed the House and passed quickly out of a Senate committee. If the full Senate votes, it would go to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk. On Thursday, Harmon declined to bring the bill to the floor for debate.

“The District will not close selective enrollment schools nor will the District make disproportionate budget cuts to selective enrollment schools,” Johnson wrote in the letter.

Johnson also wrote that the board will not eliminate testing or other requirements for enrollment into selective enrollment schools or programs.

Harmon has yet to provide comment on whether he will hold the bill or put it on the floor for debate.

The board’s December resolution called on the district to move away from school choice and support neighborhood schools. The goal of both the mayor and the board is to bolster neighborhood schools, many of which have seen declining enrollment in recent years, and to make selective schools – several of which are segregated by income or race – more diverse.

The board’s resolution called for transitioning “away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools.”

The board said it will rely on public feedback to inform how it will revamp school choice and include those details as part of the district’s five-year strategic plan, expected to be finalized this summer.

The state bill would also prevent funding cuts to Chicago’s selective enrollment schools, some of which have already seen a decrease in funding to staffing. Some Local School Council members have said network leaders have suggested that their schools could fundraise to fill in the gaps, which could exacerbate inequalities.

Johnson and the board have said that if Croke’s bill passes, it would prevent the district from balancing its budget. The district is distributing the same amount of money to schools as it did last year, officials say.

The new budgeting formula aims to distribute resources more equitably and based on need. Some campuses, including those in higher-income areas, are reporting cuts while others in less affluent neighborhoods are seeing some boosts.

Chicago Public Schools have yet to make school-level budgets available to the public, but some Local School Councils have been vocal about cuts to their current budgets.

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

What’s going on with Chicago’s Near South Side High School plan?

2024-05-20T17:35:24+00:00

This story was originally published by Block Club Chicago.

A controversial plan for a new Near South Side high school appears to have stalled.

Families on the Near South Side and Chinatown have been asking for a dedicated community high school for years, as many families say students are forced to travel across the city to attend selective-enrollment schools that offer classes and extracurriculars nearby high schools lack.

In 2018, plans to convert National Teacher’s Academy, 55 W. Cermak Road, into a high school were scrapped after outcry from families and NTA staff. Instead, a $150 million school was proposed for the former Harold Ickes Homes site near 24th and State streets on the Near South Side.

That plan was met with criticism from Bronzeville and Chinatown neighbors who opposed building the school on public housing land. It has also drawn accusations of backroom deals and prompted backlash toward Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Housing Authority, and City Hall leaders.

Now, officials are being quiet about the status of the school, and a website that served as an information hub for the proposed high school has been taken down.

“We’ve been given no update yet, but as far as I know, everything is pretty much still status quo. I’m still committed to making this happen,” Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) told Block Club.

A Board of Education vote to approve a capital budget for the project was originally set for June 2023 but was pulled pending further review, sources said at the time. It’s unclear what the next steps are.

In a statement, a CPS spokesperson said the website was “currently paused,” but more information would eventually be shared.

“The Near South High School proposal is still under review as the District develops long-term strategies and objectives through work on the CPS Educational Facilities Master Plan and Five-Year Strategic Plan,” district officials said in a statement.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office did not respond to requests for comment. During his campaign, Johnson pledged to enforce a moratorium on building anything on public housing land, but it is unclear whether he supports the school proposal.

A month after the stalled school board vote, Johnson replaced all but one board member and named Jianan Shi school board president. Shi, previously with parent advocacy group Raise Your Hand, was part of a coalition of residents calling for the high school to be built elsewhere.

The proposed site for a new CPS high school is a vacant lot at 24th and State Streets, where the former Harold L. Ickes Homes sat.

The story so far

Near South Side neighbors and elected officials have long fought for a community high school in the area, saying the lack of options for the growing population has forced students to travel up to two hours to other neighborhoods.

But many of those proponents have pushed CPS to consider other sites for the school. They suggested The 78 megadevelopment, or a plot between 17th and 18th and Canal and Stewart Avenues. They also suggested repurposing Jones College Prep into a neighborhood school.

The Illinois Answers Project reported last year that CHA, CPS, and city officials had homed in on the Harold Ickes Homes site by July 2021, maintaining to the public there were no other viable locations for the school.

School board members narrowly voted in September 2022 to buy the land at 23rd Street and Wabash Avenue for $10.3 million for the school. They also approved a land swap deal with the CHA: The district would lease land at 24th and State for the high school, and the housing agency would get the deed for the Wabash land to complete the Southbridge residential development, allowing some of the families displaced by the demolition of the Ickes Homes to return.

The school would accommodate 1,200 students from the community, 30% of them Black. It would be a feeder school for nine surrounding elementary schools: Armour, National Teachers Academy, Drake, Healy, Ward J, Holden, Smyth, Haines, and South Loop.

An ad hoc committee consisting of parents, community leaders, and district staff was formed in November 2022 to guide CPS families through the process. The following month, the City Council approved $8 million in tax-increment financing dollars to buy some of the land involved in the swap. The ad hoc committee launched a series of virtual meetings in January 2023 to get community input and was to meet twice a month ahead of the scheduled board vote.

People Matter co-founder Angela Lin talks ahead of a 2022 protest opposing the controversial proposal to build a new $150 million high school on Chicago's Near South Side.

Following the land swap, Rep. Theresa Mah vowed to withdraw the $50 million in state funding she helped secure because of the city’s refusal to compromise with neighbors who wanted to explore alternate sites.

Mah told Block Club earlier this month she hasn’t had a chance to speak with Johnson’s administration on the issue, but she remains firm on finding a compromise that doesn’t involve using public housing land.

“I want to revisit it, and I still believe we should consider another site because it doesn’t make sense to stick with a site so many are opposed to,” Mah said. The funding for the school will be reappropriated in the meantime, she said.

Other opponents were concerned about the siphoning of resources from other nearby high schools, including Wendell Phillips and Dunbar Vocational Academy — two predominantly Black schools that have suffered budget cuts in recent years.

Organizers from the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, Lugenia Burns Hope Center, People Matter, and the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community held a series of City Hall protests and town halls after the land swap agreement, some of them calling on former Mayor Lori Lightfoot to do away with the plan altogether.

“We have not heard any news,” said Grace Chan McKibben, executive director of Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community. “We are in the process of trying to figure out who in CPS we should talk to about this. It is unclear who is leading the planning of the Near South high school, or if anyone is.”

Illinois high school juniors must take the ACT to fulfill graduation requirements starting next spring

2024-05-15T22:51:06+00:00

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Illinois high school juniors will take the ACT instead of the SAT to graduate starting next school year.

The Illinois State Board of Education was updated on the switch during its monthly meeting on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the school board says the ACT was awarded a $53 million contract over the course of six years. The state requires students to take a college entrance exam in order to graduate.

“At the end of the day, it came down to price,” said Stephen Isoye, chairman of the State Board of Education, noting that state law requires assessment vendors to go through a competitive procurement process.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders wrote in a weekly message to school administrators on Tuesday that the ACT “aligns with the Illinois Learning Standards, provides a secure online testing experience for students, reduces administrative burden on districts,” and will give “actionable reporting for educators and families.”

The procurement office evaluated bids from the College Board, which administers the SAT, and ACT Inc. on “technical specifications, commitment to diversity, and price.” Overall, the ACT received more points.

School districts in the state have given high school juniors the SAT for almost a decade. Illinois switched from ACT to the SAT in 2016 and has renewed the contract with the College Board several times.

However, Sanders said the state board will work with ACT to support schools through the transition.

“We will help you prepare teachers for the transition and help you communicate with students and families, so you can continue doing your best work in teaching and learning,” Sanders wrote in his weekly message.

Many colleges and universities stopped requiring entrance exams during the pandemic but are moving back to requiring the tests for admissions.

The state board’s contract with the College Board to administer the SAT for 11th graders and the PSAT for 9th and 10th grades will expire on June 30. Illinois, like all states, is required by federal law to administer accountability assessment to high school students. State law says the exam must be a nationally recognized college entrance exam, leaving the state with two choices: the ACT or SAT.

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

Report: Illinois schools won’t be ‘adequately funded’ by 2027

2024-05-15T17:31:16+00:00

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Illinois will not be able to adequately fund public schools by a 2027 state deadline, according to a new report.

Due to inflation and state lawmakers holding K-12 funding flat in 2020 during the height of the COVID pandemic, districts would not be adequately funded until 2034 if the state continues to only add $350 million to the evidence-based funding formula, according to a report from the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

But lawmakers could adequately fund schools by 2030 if they provide an additional $500 million a year, the report said.

However, state budget officials are predicting a decrease in revenue in the next year. Federal COVID-19 relief money, which boosted school budgets the past few years, is also set to run out.

“I think school districts will have to make some tough financial decisions in the next coming years,” said Elaine Gaberik, one of the co-authors of the report. “This goes back to showing how important the state funding is going to be in these next couple years.”

In February, Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed adding an additional $350 million for public schools and $150 million for early childhood education to the state budget for the next fiscal year, which covers the 2024-25 school year.

Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools educators are going to Springfield on Wednesday to ask for more state funding. They maintain that the district is underfunded by $1.1 billion. That is the amount Chicago would need to reach adequacy under the state formula. Mayor Brandon Johnson was also in the capitol last week to ask state lawmakers to give more money to Chicago schools.

Elizabeth Todd-Breland, vice president of the Chicago Board of Education, said during the Agenda Review Committee on Wednesday her daughter will be an adult before the state can adequately fund schools.

“Generations of public school students will be deprived of their right to a quality, fully-funded public education and we should all see that as being unacceptable,” said Todd-Breland.

Roughly $2.5 billion of Chicago Public Schools’ $9.4 billion budget comes from state funding. Of the $2.5 billion in state money, $1.7 billion comes from the state’s evidence-based funding formula. Seven years ago, before the state changed its funding formula, CPS received about $1.9 billion from the state.

Illinois’ evidence-based funding formula calculates how much money a public school district needs based on the needs of the students the district serves and how much local revenue a school district can raise. A district could receive additional state funding if they have a larger amount of students from low-income families, English learners, or students with disabilities. Districts in areas with less property wealth are also prioritized for more state funding, while richer districts with higher value property get less.

Since the formula was created, state funding for K-12 schools has grown by more than $3 billion, with the majority of the new money going to districts that need it most.

The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, which helped design the evidence-based funding formula in 2017, looked at four possible scenarios state lawmakers could take action on. Each scenario takes into account how much money it would take to fully fund schools, estimates the amount of time, and includes other factors, such as inflation.

The report mentions other possibilities for lawmakers to weigh as they put together the budget. If the state decided that it wanted to reach the 2027 funding goal, the report estimates that it would take at least $1.1 billion a year starting in 2025. Another possibility is to continue to add $300 million to the evidence-based funding, but add more funding based on the rate of inflation. However, inflation rates can drastically change. As noted in the report, inflation rose to 5% in 2022 and 8% in 2023.

Gaberik, one of the co-authors of the report, told Chalkbeat that one of the best things the evidence-based formula did for public schools was to change the ratio of local funding to state funding.

Before the formula was put into use, school districts relied heavily on property taxes, which created inequities in educational opportunities for students across the state, according to Gaberik.

When the state’s General Assembly created the evidence-based funding formula in 2017, the goal was to adequately fund all schools by 2027. During negotiations, there was a bipartisan promise to continue to add at least $350 million a year to public schools every year until every district reached its “adequacy target.”

State lawmakers committed to this promise every year, except in 2020 when they agreed to keep funding flat due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Since then, education advocates have been pushing lawmakers to increase K-12 funding by at least $550 million annually in order to get all school districts to adequacy more quickly. But lawmakers have continued to add $350 million annually in the years since.

Andy Manar, deputy governor for budget and economy, said in a letter dated May 8 to various Illinois agency directors that the state’s revenues are down by $800 million. Plus, the state’s share of COVID relief funds will end this year. Manar said that it is unclear how many programs this will impact, but budget officials will continue to work with the state’s General Assembly to create a balanced budget.

The legislature must pass a budget by June 30, but is expected to do so before the end of its spring session, currently scheduled to finish on May 24.

Reema Amin contributed reporting.

Illinois is one step closer to creating a department for early childhood education

2024-05-09T21:31:44+00:00

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Illinois is one step closer to creating a new department that will house all child care and early childhood education programs after the state House passed a proposal to create the Department of Early Childhood Thursday afternoon.

The bill, which passed with a 93 to 18 vote, will head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk for final approval. Pritzker, who has championed creating an agency focused on early childhood programs, is likely to sign the bill.

Once signed into law, the bill would allow the Department of Early Childhood to begin work on July 1. The bill asks the state’s General Assembly to allocate a total of $13.1 million for support staffing and operations. By July 1, 2026, the department would manage programs such as early intervention for students with disabilities and the Child Care Assistance Program to support low-income families, as well as administer licenses for day care programs.

The state currently operates and funds child care and early childhood education programs under three departments: the state’s Department of Human Services, Illinois State Board of Education, and the Department of Children and Family Services.

State Rep. Mary Beth Canty, a Democrat representing Arlington Heights, was a sponsor of the House version of the bill and presented the Senate’s proposal to the House on Thursday afternoon. She told fellow lawmakers that creating a department focused only on early childhood education would make it more efficient for parents and providers.

“We see duplication of efforts, duplication of forms, and that means that we are not getting as many dollars into the programs that we need,” said Canty. “By creating this new agency housing all of these programs in one place, we can create more efficiency, transparency and ease of access for families and providers.”

Illinois’ legislative session is winding down. Here are seven education issues to watch in Springfield.

2024-05-06T11:00:00+00:00

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A moratorium on closing any Chicago public schools until 2027, extra funding for schools supporting migrant students, and the creation of a new early childhood department. These are some of the top issues Illinois lawmakers in Springfield are focused on as the end of the legislative session looms.

The Illinois General Assembly is scheduled to end its spring session on May 24, leaving a few weeks to pass bills and send them to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk for final approval.

At the beginning of session, one of the most pressing issues for lawmakers was to approve an electoral map and ethics provisions for Chicago’s first school board elections, which they punted last year. With an April 1 deadline fast approaching, lawmakers settled the issue early in March. But that wasn’t the only issue before lawmakers that could impact the future of Chicago Public Schools.

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

Bills moving quickly through the legislature

Moratorium on Chicago school closures until 2027: House Bill 303 was initially filed to prevent the Chicago Board of Education from making any changes to selective enrollment schools until 2027 when the board will be fully elected. The bill is a direct response to a resolution passed by the current school board, which is appointed by the mayor, that calls for a new strategic plan that would invest in neighborhood schools and move away from school choice. The latest change to the bill included a closure moratorium on all Chicago schools until 2027. The bill is currently in the Senate’s executive committee.

Early Childhood Department: Illinois is currently in the process of merging early childhood education programs currently housed under the state’s Department of Human Services, Illinois State Board of Education, and the state’s Department of Children and Family Services. Pritzker unveiled the plan last October. He said the current system is an “impossible bureaucracy” for parents and providers to navigate and hopes that one department will make it easier. Senate Bill 1, which would create the new department, has passed the Senate and is currently in the House.

Bills with an uncertain future

State license for Montessori teachers: Illinois lawmakers are trying to figure out ways to deal with the current teacher shortage. One proposal, Senate Bill 2689, would make it easier for Montessori-trained educators to teach in public schools by creating the Montessori Educator Licensure. Teachers are eligible if they have graduated from a college or university with a bachelor’s degree, received a credential from an institution accredited by the Montessori Council for Teacher Education, the American Montessori Society, or the Association Montessori International, and completed state licensure testing. The Senate’s proposal, which passed, is currently in the House’s Rules Committee.

Police in Chicago Public Schools: The Chicago Board of Education voted in February on a measure to remove Chicago Police Department officers from schools. Currently, 57 officers are spread across 39 high schools. Some community leaders rallied against the board’s decision and said they wanted to keep their schools’ police officers, often referred to as school resource officers, or SROs. House Bill 5008, would allow Local School Councils to contract directly with the Chicago Police Department for school resource officers. The bill is currently in the House’s Rules Committee.

What we’re watching for in a final budget

Several bills could provide additional money to early childhood education, K-12 schools, and higher education institutions. The General Assembly must approve a budget before the end of the session. Here’s what’s on the table for school funding:

More funding for K-12 schools: Illinois education advocates are currently pushing the General Assembly to put $550 million more into the evidence-based funding formula that provides funding to K-12 schools. The formula distributes money to school districts based on the enrollment numbers of students from low-income students, English learners, and students with disabilities.

Since the evidence-based funding formula was established in 2017, the legislature has been adding $350 million more a year. But advocates say that it will take larger annual increases to fully fund schools by 2027.

Grants for schools enrolling migrant students: Since the spring of 2022, CPS and suburban school districts have enrolled students who have migrated from countries around the globe facing war and economic insecurity, such as Ukraine, Russia, and Venezuela. Many schools lack bilingual resources and staff to support these students.

Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, proposed a pair of bills that would create a New Arrivals Grant to be distributed through the Illinois State Board of Education. An earlier version of the bill proposed allocating $35 million, but lawmakers have increased that number to $188 million.

Illinois child tax credit: During the pandemic, Congress expanded the child tax credit, providing families with monthly payments of between $250 and $300 per child, depending on their age. The program reduced child poverty rates temporarily, but it ended in 2021. Now, Illinois lawmakers — along with other state legislatures, such as Colorado — are proposing a state child tax credit.

In Illinois, families could receive up to $300 per child for children under the age of 17. Married couples who make less than $75,000 and single people who make less than $50,000 would be eligible.

Illinois high school students must fill out FAFSA to graduate — maybe not this year, state says

2024-05-01T19:40:34+00:00

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Illinois high school seniors would not be required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, in order to graduate, under a new bill moving through the state legislature.

State law has required students to complete the FAFSA in order to graduate from high school since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. Students not planning to go to college could fill out a waiver. But now, a proposal in the Senate would waive the requirement entirely for the current school year.

The proposal by state Sen. Dan McConchie, a Republican lawmaker representing northwest suburbs, comes months after the rocky rollout of the federal government’s “Better FAFSA”, which faced multiple challenges including a later opening date and technical issues that caused delays and uncertainty for college-bound students.

The FAFSA allows high school students to determine how much money — grants, federal student loans, or work-study funds — they might receive from the federal government. States, colleges, and universities also use the FAFSA to offer scholarships or grants to students. In Illinois, it also serves as the application for the state’s Monetary Assistance Program, or MAP grant, for students from low-income households.

The federal government rolled out a simplified version of the FAFSA, known as the Better FAFSA, in late December after months of delay. The form is usually released in October. The new application is shorter, going from 100 questions to 20.

Students who have undocumented parents were among the groups impacted by the glitches, as the application initially required students to use their parents’ Social Security numbers. The issue was later resolved in March, but left many students scrambling to complete the application.

The Illinois State Board of Education, along with the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, announced in April that high schools and districts could implement “administrative waivers” for students this year. In a weekly message on Tuesday, State Superintendent Tony Sanders asked schools to encourage students to fill out the application if possible.

“So many students do not go to college or trade school because they think they cannot afford it, without actually knowing how much aid they could qualify to receive,” said Sanders.

During the Senate education hearing Tuesday, McConchie said even though the state board said schools could provide waivers, his bill would “alleviate the administrative burden” placed on schools.

Some lawmakers raised concerns about McConchie’s proposal. Sen. Doris Turner, a Democrat representing Springfield, Decatur, and other towns in southern Illinois, was concerned that the bill would create confusion and cause guidance counselors or administrators to tell students that they do not have to fill out the application.

McConchie said the bill would only waive the graduation requirement for a year as the federal government continues to work out issues with the system.

McConchie’s proposal passed the Senate Education committee by a 10-0 vote.

Some colleges and universities have pushed back their enrollment deadlines for fall 2024 because they were not able to send out financial aid letters to students earlier in the year, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. College decision day is traditionally May 1.

Illinois lawmakers propose extending Chicago’s moratorium on school closures to 2027

2024-04-17T16:22:44+00:00

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Illinois lawmakers want to extend a moratorium on school closures in Chicago and prevent changes at selective enrollment and magnet schools until 2027, when a fully elected school board is sworn in.

The proposal moving through the legislature first emerged in response to a resolution passed by the Chicago school board in December to develop a new strategic plan that would move away from school choice and invest more in neighborhood schools. That sparked concerns Chicago Public Schools could close or change admissions at dozens of sought-after selective and magnet schools, though board members continue to reiterate they do not intend to close those schools.

The initial bill sought to prevent the district from closing or changing admissions policies at any selective or magnet schools. Now, lawmakers are now also proposing to extend an existing moratorium on any school closures to Feb. 1, 2027. Currently, state law prevents Chicago from closing schools until January 15, 2025, when a partially elected school board is set to be sworn in.

State Rep. Margaret Croke, a Democrat serving neighborhoods on the city’s northern lakefront and sponsor of the bill, said in a committee hearing Tuesday the legislation is meant to delay any big changes until an elected school board is in place.

“These huge decisions, I believe, should be made by an elected school board because we, as a general assembly, voted for an elected school board,” Croke said.

However, Croke said district officials approached her about not extending the moratorium.

“They do have concerns about what their budget is going to look like and whether or not they’re going to start having conversations about some of the schools that they need to have consolidated,” Croke said.

CPS last closed schools in 2018, when it consolidated four high schools in Englewood and built a new state-of-the-art neighborhood high school. Prior to that, the district closed 50 schools all at once in 2013, sparking months of protests and propelled political organizing within the Chicago Teachers Union that eventually helped elect current Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

The school district has lost roughly 80,000 students in the past decade, and many schools once again struggle with low enrollment. For example, one high school on the West Side has just 33 students enrolled. Still, enrollment stabilized this school year and is climbing as new immigrant students enroll.

During a committee hearing Tuesday, State Rep. Marcus Evans Jr., who represents neighborhoods on Chicago’s south side, said the district does need to provide more support to neighborhood schools to make them more attractive to families.

“Parents are crying because they can’t get their kid into a selective enrollment school,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of schools where people don’t want to send their kids. That means we got to fix those schools. The focus has to be on neighborhood schools.”

Evans added that CPS has “serious issues” with race and class that need to be addressed, noting that he hears from well-resourced Black and white constituents who won’t send their children to neighborhood public high schools in his ward.

Many of Chicago’s most sought-after selective schools are more diverse than the rest of the school district, but also are disproportionately less low-income and more white and Asian American than the rest of CPS.

“I think the new leadership – under the mayor, the new board – they want to do something different and I think it’s making people uncomfortable,” Evans said.

Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi said there is no plan or intent to close or change selective schools, but rather an attempt to fix inequities across the district.

“I am committed to working with everyone here on whether it’s budget, whether it’s selective enrollment and all the ways we can strengthen our school types,” Shi said.

Selective enrollment and magnet schools used to admit students based on race when Chicago was under a federal desegregation consent decree. That changed after a 2006 Supreme Court ruling curtailed the use of race as a factor in high school admissions. Now students are admitted based on the socioeconomic status of their home neighborhood.

Shi noted that since then, some of the district’s top high schools, such as Walter Payton, have become less Black and Latino and less low-income.

“Our Latine student population in CPS is 47%. That is no nowhere close to where our selective enrollments are and it’s even worse for our low-income students,” Shi said.

In 2022, there were discussions about changing selective enrollment admissions, but those mostly did not materialize. CPS did shorten the length of the High School Admissions Test from more than three hours to one hour and now tests all eighth graders during the school day in order to make it accessible to all students.

Croke did adjust some language in the bill since she introduced it, including that selective schools can’t see their budgets “disproportionately” decreased compared to other schools.

CPS schools got their preliminary budgets last week. District officials said the total amount of funding dedicated to all schools won’t be cut, but individual campuses could see fluctuations up or down.

Next school year, the district is doing away with student-based budgeting and switching to a formula that allocates set staffing levels and provides additional money based on need.

CPS has not publicly shared all schools’ preliminary budgets and a spokesperson did not provide information about how many selective schools are seeing changes to their budgets next year.

Shi said during a committee hearing in Springfield that 22 of 36 selective schools will maintain funding or see an increase next school year.

Stephen Mitchell, the Local School Council chair at Bronzeville Classical Elementary School, said their budget appears to be reduced, even though it’s difficult to compare year to year numbers.

“You hear CPS say‚ ’Oh, nothing’s gonna change,”' Mitchell said. “But then when we look, we see something different. So it’s definitely making us you know, raise an eyebrow and say, hey, you know what’s going on here? You’re telling us one thing, but it looks like you’re doing something else.”

Chicago school board vice president Elizabeth Todd-Breland said Wednesday morning that the bill looks to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

“The small number of selective enrollment schools in the district are well enrolled. They are well resourced and Chicago Public Schools and this board of education will continue to support these schools,” she said.

Todd-Breland said the district is facing a “serious structural deficit” and the board is required to pass a balanced budget annually.

“We are worried about the very real possibility that as an unintended consequence of this bill, we in the out years will be forced to balance our budget on the backs of neighborhood schools that disproportionately serve students with disabilities, black students, Latinx students, students in temporary living situations, and low income students,” she said.

Samantha Smylie contributed reporting.

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

Bill creating new state Department of Early Childhood clears key Illinois House committee

2024-03-22T20:59:18+00:00

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A bill creating a new state Department of Early Childhood cleared a key Illinois House committee Friday morning by a 14-0 vote – advancing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s goal of streamlining early childhood and child care programs.

The bill now heads to the House floor.

If House Bill 5451 clears the general assembly this session, the state’s Department of Early Childhood would start operations on July 1 and would oversee programs such as early intervention for young children with disabilities, home visiting, and child care assistance programs to help low-income families access child care.

While the department is in a transition phase, the Illinois State Board of Education, state Department of Human Services, and the Department of Children and Families Services would continue to run child care programs and early childhood education programs.

The Department of Early Childhood would be the lead state agency to administer and provide early childhood education and child care programs and services to children and families by July 1, 2026.

In opening remarks to the House’s Child Care Accessibility & Early Childhood Education Committee on Friday, State Rep. Mary Beth Canty, a Democrat representing Arlington Heights, said placing childhood services under one department would be easier on families with young children and child care providers.

“This bill will make early childhood simpler, better, and fairer,” said Canty. “It will make it easier for families to access services, it will allow the state to more equitably serve high-need families, and will also reduce the administrative burden on providers.”

HB 5451 does not change any child care programs during the transition, according to Canty. Any changes to child care or early childhood education programs would have to come before the general assembly either next year or during 2026.

State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, Senate Majority leader and a Democrat representing Chicago’s west side and nearby suburbs, proposed a Senate version of HB 5451, known as Senate Bill 1, which is already on the Senate’s floor.

During Friday’s committee meeting, other House representatives raised concerns about the costs of operating the Department of Early Childhood and whether state employees who work under the three state departments that currently operate early childhood education programs will be able to maintain their jobs.

Ann Whalen, Early Childhood Transition director, testified during the hearing that the original cost analysis estimated $13 million to launch the department, but the future budget would be determined later.

When asked if current state employees would be able to retain their jobs during the creation of the new department, Whalen said personnel may be pulled from one department to the other. “No one will lose their jobs. Period,” she said at the committee hearing.

Earlier in the hearing, Canty noted that AFSCME Local 31 and the Illinois Federation of Teachers represent early childhood education and child care workers across the state. Both unions currently have ongoing negotiations with the state about the development of the new department.

Canty said current workers are protected under state law and would be “unaffected” by her proposal.

Pritzker also plans to boost funding for early childhood education in the state’s 2025 budget during the second year of his Smart Start Illinois Initiative — which has the goal of creating 20,000 new preschool seats for 3- and 4-year olds. Last year, he added $250 million to the plan. According to the governor’s office and the state board, the plan has already created an additional 5,800 preschool seats.

In February, Pritzker proposed a $150 million increase for early childhood education. The increase includes $75 million for the Illinois State Board of Education’s early childhood education block grant to add 5,000 more public school seats for preschool students. Pritzker also recommended an additional $5 million for home visiting programs and $36.5 million for the child care assistance programs for the state Department of Human Services.

The state legislature is expected to approve a final budget for fiscal year 2025 at the end of session in late May.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget plan leaves out extra money for schools to help migrant students

2024-03-18T19:28:29+00:00

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Illinois lawmakers and education advocates say Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget does not recommend enough money for schools to help newly arrived migrant students.

Pritzker’s budget proposal in February did not include an additional $35 million to support migrant students that the Illinois State Board of Education had requested in the budget proposal it submitted in January.

State Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, has filed a pair of bills — House Bill 2822 and House Bill 3991— that would allow the Illinois State Board of Education to create a $35 million New Arrival Grant program that would distribute funding to school districts to support migrant students.

Crespo said he plans to amend the legislation to request $150 million for the grant program.

Both bills are currently in committees in the House.

A spokesperson for Pritzker said in a statement to Chalkbeat that the governor’s priority is to ensure newly arrived migrant families have shelter, food, and a path to independence. The governor and Cook County officials pledged $250 million for shelter, health care, and wraparound services in February

“Schools are also able to access federal funding for many new arrived students under the federal McKinney Vento law to support homeless services,” said the governor’s office. “The Governor also proposed a $350 million increase in K-12 funding and new students will be incorporated into funding formulas at their districts moving forward.”

Since 2017, Illinois has distributed funding to K-12 public schools through a formula that takes into account need, such as how many low-income students, English language learners, or students with disabilities are enrolled.

Erika Méndez, director of P-12 education policy and advocacy at the Latino Policy Forum, said the state’s evidence-based funding formula to fund K-12 public schools is not enough to keep up with the number of migrant students entering and leaving school districts.

“When you’re thinking about funding distribution, they use enrollment data which doesn’t capture all of the transiency that happens in a school year when you’re receiving newcomers or they’re leaving your school districts,” said Méndez.

Méndez said migrant families are resettling in communities around the state and schools need money to reduce class sizes, address staffing shortages, and fix infrastructure of schools.

Chicago Public Schools has said it does not collect information on the immigration status of students. But overall enrollment in the district has climbed since the start of the school year and nearly 7,000 more students have been identified as English language learners, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of mid-year enrollment data from the district. English language learners are not all new arrivals.

School districts across the state have also seen an increase in English language learner enrollment over the last five years, moving from 12.1% of the state’s total enrollment in 2019 to 14.6% in 2023, according to the state report card. In October, state officials said they could not say how many students are migrants from Latin America or refugee students from Ukraine or Afghanistan.

Teachers have said schools need more support to help students who are in need of housing, clothing, and food, as well as more staff who can speak Spanish.

The City of Chicago has reported over 37,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in the city as of March 14, 2024. The city’s dashboard doesn’t specify how many of those new arrivals are of school age.

Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and one of the architects of the state’s evidence-based funding formula, said the funding formula will adjust for the needs of the school based on the schools overall enrollment and the enrollment of students from low-income households, English learners, and students with disabilities. But it depends on the tier of the school.

Tiers determine the level of need for state funding. School districts that fall in Tier 1 or 2 are higher on the priority list for state funding and receive more funding, while Tiers 3 and 4 receive a smaller amount of state dollars.

“CPS schools are in Tier 2,” said Martire. “They are not going to get the full benefit of the support of the enhanced investment that a Tier 1 district would get.”

Chicago Public Schools moved down from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in 2022 after the district saw a loss of low-income students but an increase in property tax base. In 2022 and 2023, the district saw slightly less new money from the state. Since the change in tiers, CPS officials have raised concerns about the decrease in state funding and what it means for the district.

District officials recently said in a statement to Chalkbeat that they appreciate the governor’s continued commitment to put new money into the state’s evidence-based funding formula, but the model has fallen short, leaving CPS about $1.1 billion short of its “adequacy target.”

A report from the Center of Tax and Budget accountability found last year that the evidence-based funding formula is working to reduce funding gaps between wealthier and underfunded districts and increase funding for districts serving more students of color and those from low-income families.

The state’s final budget won’t be finalized until the end of the spring legislative session in late May.

Illinois could switch from the SAT to the ACT next school year

2024-03-14T17:04:03+00:00

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Next year, Illinois high school juniors could take the ACT instead of the SAT as the federally-mandated state test. The Illinois State Board of Education has started the process of awarding a three-year, $53 million contract to ACT Inc.

The College Board’s contract to administer the SAT for 11th graders and PSAT for ninth and 10th graders is set to expire June 30. The state board is required by federal law to administer accountability assessments to high school students. State law says that exam must be a nationally recognized college entrance exam like the SAT or ACT and must be awarded through a competitive procurement process. All Illinois public high school students must take a college entrance exam in order to receive their high school diploma.

The ACT would be administered in school buildings starting with the school year 2024-25, but students will still be able to take the SAT if they want to pay for it.

Illinois’ plan to switch tests comes at a time when the SAT is going fully digital and will take two hours instead of three. (The ACT is three hours). The new SAT will also be adaptive, with test questions that adjust in difficulty based on how students respond to previous questions.

While around 2,000 schools nationwide have become test optional or test free, elite universities like Yale, Brown, and M.I.T have backtracked and reinstated standardized tests as an admission requirement.

Illinois used the ACT for 15 years before the state board switched to the SAT in 2016. Since then, the state board has renewed the College Board’s contract several times. In 2016 and 2018, ACT Inc. protested the state’s College Board contract without success.

The new contract says that ACT Inc. will provide an assessment to ninth, 10th and 11th graders that aligns with the Illinois Learning Standards in English and math. The next step in the process is for certain parties to protest the bid. In the past, when the College Board was awarded a contract, ACT Inc. protested it. The board has not said when it will formally approve the contract.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said in an email to Chalkbeat that “CPS urges that if ISBE makes a change in the high school accountability assessment selection, they allow at least a year transition period before any new assessment becomes mandatory to ensure a smooth transition for our students.”

The Chicago Board of Education renewed a three-year contract with College Board in April 2023 and a spokesperson for the district said it plans to continue administering the PSAT and SAT until at least 2026.

Matthew Raimondi, who works at district U-46 in Elgin, asked the board on Wednesday morning at their monthly meeting not to move forward with contracting with ACT Inc. because he says the exam has not changed for years and does not align with the state’s learning standards.

“That high school assessment is ultimately going to guide how teachers teach. Teachers are going to teach to the test that you select,” said Raimondi. “I urge you as board members to make sure you make the best decision to move Illinois forward and not back to a test from the last century.”

State Superintendent Tony Sanders wrote in a weekly message Tuesday that the state board will ensure that assessments are in line with the board’s learning standards and that ISBE will provide schools with “ample support.”

Cassie Creswell, executive director of Illinois Families for Public Schools, says that no matter what tests the state switches to, she wants to protect Illinois’ students from having their data sold to other institutions.

Creswell urged board members on Wednesday to stop allowing testing agencies to sell student data that they collected through their exams. Creswell’s group recently sent a letter to state Attorney General Kwame Raoul asking his office to enforce the state’s student data privacy law, the Illinois Student Online Privacy Protection Act.

“Any new contract signed with the College Board or ACT Inc. should be clear that data sales are illegal and will no longer be tolerated,” Creswell said. “There is no exception in the student data privacy law for asking students or parents permission for sales. Licensing is actually the same as selling or renting data.” Creswell said.

In February 2024, the New York attorney general announced that the College Board is set to pay $750,000 in a settlement for sharing and selling student data it collected through the SAT, PSAT, and Advanced Placement tests.

Correction: March 19, 2024: An earlier version of this story said Cassie Creswell is the executive director of Illinois for Public Families. The organization’s correct name is Illinois Families for Public Schools.

Illinois House passes plan for Chicago’s elected school board

2024-03-07T21:58:38+00:00

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The Illinois House has approved a Senate proposal that would allow Chicagoans to vote for 10 out of 21 school board members during the Nov. 5 election. The bill now heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s officer for final approval.

Senate Bill 15, which passed 75-31 on Thursday, includes boundaries for the districts that school board members will represent, ethics guidelines, and term limits.

November marks the first time Chicago voters will be able to elect school board members. Voters will elect 10 board members while Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint 11, effectively keeping control until the end of his first term. In 2026, all 21 seats will be up for election, with 20 members elected from districts and the board president voted on by the entire city.

The House vote Thursday comes just two weeks before March 26, when school board candidates can start to gather signatures to get on the Nov. 5 ballot. According to the bill, candidates will need to collect at least 1,000 signatures by June 24 to get on the ballot.

Rep. Ann Williams, a Democrat representing neighborhoods on Chicago’s north side, said Thursday afternoon that if this debate had taken place a year ago, she would have pushed for a fully elected school board. However, with November only a few months away, she feels the plan to elect 10 instead of all 21 is the best way to move forward.

“CPS is a $9 billion dollar agency which serves over 325,000 students,” said Williams. “It feels irresponsible to completely turn over the governance of Chicago Public Schools in a matter of months without adequate time to plan.”

While House members praised the work Williams and other lawmakers have done to establish an elected school board, others expressed concerns the shift in governance could impact the district’s finances.

Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat representing suburbs northwest of Chicago, said he is still worried about the financial impacts of Chicago’s elected board on the state and city.

A 2022 report required by state law detailed costs the Chicago Board of Education might take on as the board transitions to an elected board. For example, the report said, the City of Chicago could begin to charge the school district for things such as water and rent in non-district public facilities.

Chicago’s school board has been appointed by the mayor since 1995. For years, community organizations and the Chicago Teachers Union lobbied state lawmakers and rallied local support to get a fully elected school board. The effort gained momentum after school closures in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides.

In 2021, the general assembly passed a compromise bill that created a hybrid board in 2024, which drew protests from local advocates.

Illinois Senate approves plan for how Chicago would elect 10 of 21 school board members in 2024

2024-03-06T00:12:50+00:00

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Chicago voters would elect – for the first time – 10 school board members this November and all 21 members in 2026, according to a plan approved by Illinois senators Tuesday.

The vote on Senate Bill 15 firms up the districts that elected school board members would represent ahead of a looming April 1 deadline to draw a map lawmakers pushed back last spring. It also comes ahead of March 26, when candidates can begin circulating petitions to get on the Nov. 5 ballot. They would need to collect at least 1,000 but not more than 3,000 signatures by June 24 in order to run.

The bill now goes to the House, which must approve the measure before it can head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.

The Senate vote appears to resolve a disagreement between lawmakers that emerged last year over whether Chicago should go straight to electing all 21 school board members and skip having a hybrid school board. The original law passed in 2021 laid out a process to have 10 elected members and 11 appointed by the mayor.

Senate President Don Harmon said during the hearing that he filed an amendment to the bill that passed Tuesday because Mayor Brandon Johnson wrote a letter to him at the end of January requesting to stick with a hybrid school board.

“There has been much passion and frustration surrounding this effort, not for days or weeks or months, but for years and decades,” said Harmon during the Senate’s floor debate on Tuesday afternoon. “What we’re about to do today is one of the most consequential things we will do in our legislative careers. We are making a new democratic form of government from whole cloth and getting it across the finish line.”

Chicago’s Board of Education has been appointed by the mayor since 1995, when the state legislature gave control of Chicago Public Schools to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. In 2021, the state legislature passed a law paving the way for a 21-member elected school board. The school board votes on the district’s annual multi-billion dollar budget, determines how schools are measured, authorizes contracts with vendors to bus students to and from school, clean classrooms and hallways, and even operate entire schools under charter agreements.

Senate majority leader Kimberly Lightford, who represents parts of Chicago’s West Side and western suburbs, said it is time to stop “playing politics” and represent the children who are attending Chicago Public Schools.

“We are here now, punting the ball back and forth from chamber to chamber – if the mayor wants it, if [Chicago Teachers Union] wants it — who cares?” Lightford said. “When are we willing to put politics aside and educate our children? I would love to see that happen before I retire.”

The district map approved by the Senate on Tuesday mirrors a third draft released during the veto session in November, but groups the 20 districts into pairs to create 10 districts for this year’s elections. That aligns with what the House passed last fall which was put forward by Rep. Ann Williams, who represents parts of the city’s North Side and chairs a special task force of House Democrats who worked on drawing school board districts.

There are three majority Black districts, three majority Latino districts, two majority white districts, and two districts with no majority, but a white plurality.

By creating 10 districts for 2024 and dividing them into 20 subdistricts in 2026, Senate Bill 15 would allow everyone in the city to vote for a school board member this November.

During the 2024 elections, if the winning candidate in District 1 lives in subdistrict 1a, the mayor would appoint someone who lives in 1b. In 2026, all 20 school board members would be elected from subdistricts to either a two-year or four-year term and the school board president would be elected citywide to a four-year term beginning Jan. 15, 2027.

Chicagoans who testified at multiple hearings last year raised concerns about the school board representing the students it will eventually serve. The district is 46% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American. However, electoral districts must represent all voters. Chicago’s overall population is 33% white, 29% Latino, and 29% Black.

A Chalkbeat analysis of the demographics of the schools within the boundaries of each of the 10 districts indicates that in four districts, the racial majority of the population does not match the student demographics of the schools in that district.

There is also an imbalance of the number of CPS schools within each district. One district, which stretches from West Town to Austin, has 101 public schools in it, while the north lakefront district that includes Lakeview, Lincoln Park, and Uptown, has 34 CPS schools.

Kids First Chicago, a parent advocacy group, said in a statement it hopes Mayor Johnson will “leverage his appointments to ensure the elected school board reflects our student body’s diversity in 2025.”

Under the bill now headed to the House, the 10 districts would be divided for the 2026 elections, creating 20 districts, seven majority Black, six majority Latino, and five where the population is 50% or more white. Two districts are plurality white, with Latinos making up the second-largest population.

During the Senate’s executive committee hearing earlier on Tuesday, a large number of people were critical of Senate Bill 15. Some want to see a fully elected school board now, while others found the language in the bill confusing.

“Back in November, everybody could vote for the candidate of their choice. Anybody who wanted to run could run and it didn’t matter where they lived or who their neighbor was,” said Valerie Leonard, with Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, which also pushed for a committee that focuses on Black student achievement at Chicago Public Schools.

Leonard said the move to an elected school board under this plan is confusing. “If you ask 30 people what this bill is today, I guarantee you’re gonna get 30 different answers,” Leonard said. “That’s not good public policy.”

Sen. Robert Martwick, who sponsored the elected school board law that passed in 2021, said on the Senate floor Wednesday that bill also required compromise.

“That’s what the Senate passed. That’s what the House passed. That’s what the governor signed,” said Martwick. “Is it perfect? No. But when you figure out what the perfect form of democracy is, would you let me know?”

Martwick worked with some grassroots organizers and the CTU for several years to make an elected school board a reality in Chicago.

“People volunteered and worked for years and years before I got there,” he said. “We get the privilege of making their dreams of democracy become a reality.”

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

Illinois advocates of career and technical education want more funding as demand for programs increase

2024-03-04T23:35:01+00:00

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A decade ago, Latisa Kindred fought to bring back the electricity program at Simeon Career Academy, which had been shut down by the school’s principal due to low enrollment. The effort by Kindred, students, alumni, and elected officials paid off – and the program was reinstated.

Now, Simeon’s career and technical education program, where Kindred continues to teach electricity to high school students, is being held up as a model. Last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson toured the high school, visiting carpentry, electricity, and culinary arts classrooms – and even sampling a large breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs, potatoes, and toast prepared by the high school’s chefs.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson tours Simeon Career Academy on Mon., Feb. 26, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

“CTE can provide introductions to industries that [students] never knew existed and exposure to opportunities that they never dreamed of,” said Kindred, who has been teaching for about 17 years.

Advocates for CTE programs such as the one at Simeon have praised such programs across the state for introducing students to the trades and helping them land jobs after high school graduation.

In February, Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed a $10.3 million increase in funding for CTE programs. If the legislature approves his budget proposal at the end of session, the total amount of state funding for CTE programs would be $58 million in fiscal year 2025. Last year, CTE programs received around $48 million in state funding.

This school year, at monthly meetings and during fall budget hearings, CTE advocates asked for a funding increase of at least $10 million from the Illinois State Board of Education. They believe CTE programs can help students get into high-salary jobs right out of high school, grow the state’s workforce and economy, and allow students to start their lives without a large amount of student loan debt. However, data on student outcomes is still unclear, even as school districts like Chicago and across the country continue to invest in CTE programs.

Some school district leaders, educators, and economic developers say they are glad to see a major increase, but think even that might not be enough after years without additional state dollars – between fiscal years 2009 and 2023, state funding stayed mostly flat. They say more is needed due to a rise in demand from students who want to be in CTE programs and the need to expand current facilities and update equipment for classes.

A spokesperson from Pritzker’s office said the governor’s proposal “included a significant increase in CTE funding distributed from general state funds, as opposed to many other states who did not commit to CTE funding beyond the required amount given through Perkins federal dollars.”

Across the state, enrollment for career and technical education programs has gone from around 285,000 students during the 2019-20 school year to about 300,000 students last school year, a 5% increase. Some high school programs have had to turn away students due to lack of space, say school district leaders.

At the state board’s meeting in February, Brad Skertich, superintendent of Collinsville Community Unit School District 10, asked for more funding for CTE programs. In his district, high school juniors and seniors can take classes in fields such as cosmetology, dental assistance, and automotive repair at the Collinsville Area Vocational Center. The vocational center serves students from Collinsville and eight other high schools from districts in the surrounding area.

Skertich said companies are reaching out to his school district to see which students can work in the field after completing the two-year program.

“We have not seen those public-private partnerships before and they’re exploding each year. The demand is more and they’re looking to hire our students,” he said. “So we find ourselves in a unique time.”

The nine high schools connected to the Collinsville Area Vocational Center received about 700 requests from students to enroll in CTE programs during the 2024-25 school year. However, because the center’s maximum capacity is 500 students, it does not have the space to absorb so many students at once, according to Skertich. He said this has happened every year for the past three years and demand for classes continues to grow.

Adam Seaney has seen a similar trend at the Galesburg Vocational Center in Western Illinois. As vocational director of the center, Seaney has seen an increase in demand for programs such as automotive, construction, and nursing.

Seaney said the coalition will continue to “beat the drum” to ask the state for more funding to get more students into programs and to afford equipment.

“When you look at inflationary increases on the equipment that we use in our center and centers across the state. It’s expensive,” said Seaney. “They’re great programs to have and we’re excited to be able to have those programs but it’s expensive.”

Some advocates of career and technical education programs say the programs help increase the number of workers in fields that have shortages, such as nursing, and attract more business to Illinois to help the state’s economy.

For over a decade, said Ken Springer, president of the Knox County Area Partnership for Economic Development, he has heard companies say there were not enough workers in Western Illinois to meet their demands. Now, Springer and his organization work closely with CTE programs at high schools and community colleges to help students find jobs after graduation.

“The story of economic development in the 21st century is about talent. It’s about workforce skills. Every state is competing against each other,” said Springer. “If Illinois wants to continue to be at the head of the pack in terms of being able to attract companies across the state, CTE is one pathway to do that.”

Report: Tax-credit scholarship recipients didn’t outscore public school students

2024-02-29T01:27:09+00:00

Illinois public school students outperformed students who received tax credit scholarships on state standardized tests in 2022 and 2023, according to a new report submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education.

But researchers say the lack of demographic data for tax credit scholarship recipients limits the conclusions that researchers can make on the effectiveness of the program. While advocates who opposed the tax scholarship program say it raises questions about oversight into private schools who are receiving public dollars.

Illinois’ controversial tax credit scholarship, known as Invest in Kids, was created in 2017 amid a budget impasse between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and a majority Democrat general assembly. The program allowed people and corporations to donate money to organizations tasked with granting scholarships to low-income students to attend private schools. Donors would get a tax credit worth 75 cents for every dollar. Now the program is sunsetting after failing to get renewed during the veto session in the fall.

Supporters of Invest in Kids promised that the tax-credit scholarships would allow students from low-income families to get a better education than in public schools. However, a report commissioned by the state board and written by WestEd, a San Francisco-based nonpartisan research agency, found data to the contrary.

WestEd looked at test score data from the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, an exam that students from third to eighth grade take in the spring, scores on SATs, a college entrance exam for 11th graders, and surveyed how students, families, and teachers were doing at schools granted scholarship funding.

Among the report’s key findings:

In 2022, 30% of students in public schools were proficient in reading on the IAR compared to 20.8% of those who went to private schools on a tax-credit scholarship. In 2023, the percentage was 35.4% in comparison to 22.5%.
The gap in proficiency rates in math on the IAR was similar. In 2022, 25% of public school students were proficient in math while 17.8% of students who received the Invest in Kids scholarship were proficient; in 2023, the numbers were 27.1% versus 16.3%, respectively.
On the SAT in 2023, public school students scored lower than students with a tax credit scholarship on English language arts; 31.6% of public school students were proficient in reading compared to 34.3% among scholarship recipients.
On the math portion of the SAT, a higher percentage of public school students were proficient in the subject compared to scholarship recipients — 26.7% compared to 23.9%.
Surveys of students and site visits also found that 95% of students said they feel safe at school and 81% said they like learning at school.

The report notes that data was missing for 34 schools that received Invest in Kids funding. In addition, WestEd said it could not analyze SAT scores for 2022 because some private schools included both scholarship recipients and students enrolled at the private school who did not receive a tax credit scholarship.

For the IAR test, WestEd could not find student-level demographic information and opted to compare scholarship recipient scores to the average statewide numbers. No data was available for students with disabilities and English language learners, the report said.

School voucher experts say while it appears that public school students are outperforming private school peers with tax-credit scholarships, it’s hard to make “apples-to-apples” comparisons without demographic data.

“It didn’t tell us anywhere near the amount of information about the schools serving these children as public schools have to report,” said Josh Cowen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University who has written similar reports. “Based on the little information we do have from the report, Illinois public schools are still looking pretty good relative to the private schools participating in Invest in Kids.”

Joe Waddington, a researcher at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana who has done research on Indiana’s voucher program, said the state board’s report didn’t say anything new about how voucher, tax credit scholarships, or education saving programs work.

“There’s nothing that sticks out here, particularly with test score results, that are any different from recent trends, which suggests kids’ achievement outcomes on especially state tests tend to be null or negative,” Waddington said.

Multiple studies reviewed by Chalkbeat on voucher programs in Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, and Washington D.C. found that low-income students who attended private schools using a voucher did not see an improvement on test scores from attending private schools and proficiency rates in math were low.

Opponents finally see data after arguing for transparency

Opponents of the Invest in Kids scholarship have long raised concerns about the lack of transparency into the private schools serving tax-credit scholarship students. State law required the Illinois State Board of Education to provide annual reports on the academic progress of students attending private school using tax-credit scholarships.

The first annual report was supposed to be submitted in the 2019-20 school year. But a spokesperson for the state board said the coronavirus pandemic threw off those plans. Gov. J.B. Pritzker shuttered schools in 2020 and spring assessments such as the IAR and SAT were suspended for the year. While assessments resumed in 2021, student participation was low.

Cassie Creswell, director of Illinois Families for Public Schools, which advocated for ending the tax-credit scholarship program, said the findings in the report bring up the lack of oversight into schools that students with Invest In Kids scholarships attended. She said private schools should have provided more information.

“This does not happen with public school students. We have a lot of data besides the one pandemic year,” said Creswell. “That’s not the case for this program. It’s not okay to be diverting public funds from public schools that don’t have the same oversight, accountability, and transparency.”

Empower Illinois, which advocated for the creation of Invest In Kids and became one of the largest organizations to administer scholarships, released a statement on Tuesday saying the report failed to compare low-income students with Invest in Kids scholarships to low-income students in public schools.

“The Illinois State Board of Education makes testing data readily available to sort by income levels, but researchers instead compared low-income scholarship recipients to all Illinois public school students, rendering the results meaningless because they lack proper context,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said in a statement that”the absence of demographic data for the scholarship recipients and the lack of apples-to-apples comparisons between scholarship recipients and like-students in public schools” limits what can be gleaned from the report and noted that “ISBE did not have a role in creating or administering the program.”

The spokesperson said the report has been submitted to lawmakers.One of those lawmakers should be Pritzker, according to state law.

The governor said during the veto session that he would sign a bill to extend Invest in Kids if one made it to his desk. But that never happened.

“Advocates who supported the voucher program could not get the necessary votes to pass a bill during the veto session,” a spokesperson for the governor’s office said in response to a request for comment from Chalkbeat. “If their efforts are successful in the future the Governor will review the legislation, just like he does for all the bills that come to his desk.”

Cowen, Michigan State University professor, said the report is still important even months after the program has ended.

“It’s never too late to tell the truth,” said Cowen. “It’s never too late to shine a light on a program.”

Child tax credit, funding for school meals: Five education bills to watch this legislative session

2024-02-21T21:46:01+00:00

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A child tax credit for Illinois families, funding for free school meals, and support for districts enrolling migrant students are some of the key issues to watch during this year’s spring legislative session.

State lawmakers headed back to Springfield for the start of the session on Jan. 16 to file hundreds of bills, start committee hearings, and negotiate over the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget. Legislators plan to wrap up the session at the end of May, with the new budget set to go into effect July 1, 2024.

Chalkbeat Chicago is keeping an eye on the debate over the Chicago elected school board maps, since the legislature has until April 1 to finalize the voting districts. November will be the first time that Chicago residents can vote for school board members, after years of the board under mayoral control.

In addition to the elected school board maps bill, here are five other education issues we will be watching:

Funding for migrant students

Chicago Public Schools and suburban school districts have been scrambling to support migrant students. Chicago announced earlier this month that 5,700 newly arrived students have enrolled in the school district since the beginning of the year.

Last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced they were partnering to provide $250 million to help migrants receive shelter, wraparound services, and health care.

“With thousands of asylum seekers continuing to come to Chicago in desperate need of support and with Congress continuing to refuse to act — it is clear the state, county, and the city will have to do more to keep people safe,” Pritzker said in a press release.

A spokesperson for the governor said the funding is not for schools.

State lawmakers have not yet filed a bill this session to help schools support migrant students with additional funding. Rep. Fred Crespo — who represents Chicago’s northwest suburbs — filed the “New Arrivals Grant” bill last year that would have allocated $35 million to schools, but it did not move past committee.

A child tax credit for Illinois families

Illinois lawmakers have proposed a bill to create a statewide tax credit for families. Senate Bill 3329 and House Bill 4917 would allow families to receive up to $300 per child for children under 17. Married couples who make less than $75,000 and single people who make less than $50,000 would receive the additional financial support.

This comes a couple of years after the federal government’s expanded child tax credit ended. In 2021, families received monthly payments of up to $300 per child for children under 6 and $250 for children between the ages of 6 to 17 as part of the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan.

Some families reported using the funding for groceries and educational expenses. At the time, initial research found the money helped to reduce child poverty and help families feed their children.

Now states around the country have either created a child tax credit or expanded benefits for families. If the general assembly passes a child tax credit, Illinois will be the 15th state to create a statewide child tax credit.

State license pathway for Montessori teachers

Illinois lawmakers, parents, and educators hope new legislation will require the state to recognize Montessori teaching credentials as another pathway to state licensure.

Under House Bill 4572 and Senate Bill 2689, the state would create the Montessori Educator Licensure, which would grant a state teaching license to educators who have graduated from a college or university with a bachelor’s degree, received a credential from an institution accredited by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education, the American Montessori Society, or the Association Montessori Internationale, and completed state licensure testing.

Reena Vohra Morgan, board president for the Association of Illinois Montessori Schools, spoke in support of the legislation during the State Board of Education meeting last Thursday.

“With the teacher shortage as it is, I believe we’re doing a huge disservice to our communities to not have a more streamlined pathway for Montessori credentialed teachers to enter into the public sector with a teacher licensure or pathway to recognize Montessori teaching licensure as a state recognized licensure,” said Vohra Morgan.

Chicago Public Schools has five schools with Montessori programs: Drummond, Suder, Oscar Mayer Clissold, and The Montessori school of Englewood. A total of eight more public Montessori schools are located throughout the state, according to the Association of Illinois Montessori Schools.

New department for early childhood education

In October, Pritzker announced plans to create a new department to house early childhood education.

To make this department a reality, state lawmakers have filed House Bill 5451 and Senate Bill 3777, which would start operations of the department on July 1, 2024. By July 1, 2026, the department would be the lead agency in charge of funding for preschools, licensing for child care programs, home-visiting services, early intervention services for students with disabilities, and other early childhood education and care programs.

For years, early childhood education services were administered by the state’s department of human services, the State Board of Education, and the state’s department of child and family services.

However, it is unclear how large the new department will be and how much funding would be allocated to it.

Funding for free school meals

In August, Pritzker signed a law creating the “Healthy School Meals for All program” to help school districts across the state pay for the cost of school meals for all students. However, the bill did not allocate additional funding to schools to help pay for the program.

Illinois advocates are pushing the state to allocate $209 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget to help school districts provide breakfast and lunch for students. Illinois lawmakers Rep. Maurice West, a Democrat representing Rockford, and Sen. Laura Ellman, a Democrat representing Chicago suburb Naperville, have filed appropriation bills. West sponsored the “Health School Meals For All program” law last session.

During pandemic-related school closures, the federal government gave school districts waivers to provide free meals to all students, provided flexibility on what is served to students, and allowed students to pick up meals and take them home. But the waivers lapsed at the end of June 2022, and Illinois school districts again required families to explain why they needed subsidized school meals.

Correction: Feb. 21, 2024: This article has been updated to reflect that individuals who want a Montessori Education License can go to an institution accredited by Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education, the American Montessori Society, or the Association Montessori Internationale, not necessarily an institution of higher education.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2025 budget plan continues to boost early childhood education in Illinois

2024-02-21T20:19:32+00:00

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pushing for another boost in early childhood funding that would keep the state on track to have universal preschool for 3- and 4- year-olds by 2027.

In his sixth budget address to state lawmakers, Pritzker laid out his $52.7 billion spending plan, which includes increasing funding for early childhood education by $150 million. The move would fuel the second year of his Smart Start Illinois initiative, which seeks to expand preschool across Illinois.

The investment in public preschool programs has already helped families like Heather Andrade, a Rochester parent whose child, Natalia, had speech delays, the governor said Wednesday. Pritzker noted that Natalia was able to get into a full-day preschool program with early intervention services, including speech therapy. Smart Start funding, he said, helped the program expand to full-day.

“Since Natalia’s first day in the program, her progress has been nothing short of remarkable. She can spell and write her name,” said Pritzker. “Natalia is on track to thrive when she enters kindergarten and her path ahead couldn’t be brighter.”

Pritzker’s proposals include $75 million for the state board’s early childhood education block grant to add 5,000 more seats for preschool students. Under the state Department of Human Services, Pritzker recommended an additional $5 million to home visiting programs and $36.5 million more for the child care assistance program that helps low-income families access child care services.

Pritzker has been a proponent of early childhood education before becoming governor. When he entered office in 2019, he promised to create universal preschool within four years. However, his plans were thrown off track by the coronavirus pandemic. After he was re-elected in 2022 for a second term in office, Pritzker moved to get universal preschool back on track with his Smart Start Illinois Initiative.

Smart Start Illinois, which is currently entering its second year, seeks to provide public preschool to 20,000 more 3- and 4-year olds throughout the state. The state allocated $250 million for early childhood education for the first year of the program and added 5,800 more preschool seats for Illinois children.

Pritzker announced in October that he wants to house early childhood education and child care programs under one department. He asked the state’s general assembly on Wednesday to provide $13 million for the creation of the department, which would bring together programs from the state Department of Human Services, the state Department of Child and Family services, and the State Board of Education.

K-12 education sees smaller increase this year

Pritzker also asked the general assembly to increase the state’s K-12 education budget by $450 million to a total of $10.8 billion for the Illinois State Board of Education.

Pritzker plans to increase funding for K-12 schools by $350 million, which will be distributed through the evidence-based funding formula — continuing the state’s bipartisan promise to increase funding by at least that much annually.

Illinois education advocates have been pushing for a $550 million increase to the evidence-based funding formula. Advocates argue a larger increase is needed in order to “adequately fund” schools by 2027, a date set by the state’s general assembly in 2017 when the funding formula passed.

Pritzker’s proposal also included an additional $45 million for the second year of the Teacher Vacancy Grant Pilot Programs.

The K-12 education budget proposal is less than the State Board of Education requested earlier this year. At its monthly meeting in January, the state board proposed a $653 million increase, for an overall budget of $11 billion, to the state’s education budget for fiscal year 2025. The request from State Superintendent Tony Sanders included a $350 million increase to public schools through the state’s evidence-based funding formula.

Across the state, school districts will likely be hit hard by a funding cliff as federal COVID relief funding dries up at the end of September. The state received over $7 billion in funding to help schools deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Many schools spent money on facilities, salary, and benefits for school employees.

More scholarship funds to help students go to college

Pritzker’s proposal also includes more funding for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Monetary Award Grant — a program to help support students from low-income families to attend college — by $10 million for a total of $711 million.

Pritzker also asked for an additional $8 million for the commission’s Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, which provides scholarships to students of color and bilingual students who want to pursue a career in education.

State lawmakers will negotiate the budget until May, when the session is expected to end. Once approved, the new budget goes into effect on July 1.

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.

The Illinois State Board of Education finalized a literacy plan. What’s next?

2024-02-07T23:16:33+00:00

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Two years after Illinois literacy advocates started pushing the state to adopt research-backed reading curriculum, the Illinois State Board of Education finalized a comprehensive literacy plan last month. Now, advocates are pushing for more funding to schools and support for educators to implement the plan.

The literacy plan grew out of an effort by Illinois advocates, who pushed lawmakers in 2022 to pass The Right to Read Act. The bill would have required schools to use evidence-based reading strategies, such as phonics, rather than the now-debunked “balanced literacy” approach, which is based on the idea that reading is a natural process. But that bill hit a wall during negotiations as advocates worked to address concerns about the needs of English language learners.

In the 2023 legislative session, advocates presented a new set of bills called the “Literacy and Justice for All Act.” After months of negotiations between advocates and lawmakers, Senate Bill 2243 passed. The law required the state board to create a literacy plan by the end of January 2024, a curriculum rubric for schools, and professional development opportunities for teachers.

Here is what is included in the state’s comprehensive literacy plan and what literacy advocates say is still needed:

What does the literacy plan mean for schools?

The almost 200-page plan is a hybrid between guidance and a workbook, designed to help pre-K-12 educators teach reading using evidence-based and developmentally appropriate practices. The plan’s three main goals are to provide research-backed literacy instruction, professional development and other support for current teachers in the classroom, and guidance to help school leaders create supportive learning environments.

“At its core, this plan is a resource that we hope will serve as a springboard to bring about local school, district, region, and statewide movement to elevate literacy instruction and ensure every learner, no matter where they reside, is provided with equitable opportunities to gain the literacy skills necessary for lifetime success,” said Erica Thieman, director of standards and instruction at the state board.

The plan is not a mandate for schools to follow and doesn’t require schools to buy new curriculum or instruction materials for educators. Since Illinois is a local control state, the plan only urges districts to use guidance in the plan.

Will this plan change how reading is taught to students with dyslexia?

Parents of children with dyslexia have struggled to get support from their child’s schools. Often waiting a long time — even years — before their child was able to get screened and receive an Individualized Education Program, or IEP.

The literacy plan stresses the need to identify students with dyslexia early, noting that universal screening can be used in schools “to identify students who are thriving, those at risk, or those in need of accelerated support. It also serves as a vital signal for potential systematic instructional improvements.”

The state board updated its dyslexia guide in early January. The guide provides more information about how to use screeners and assessments to identify and provide evidence-based interventions for students.

“I’m proud that we have it and I’m proud that we took steps, but I don’t think it’ll really make a difference until it gets implemented,” said Meredith Paige, co-founder of the CPS Family Dyslexia Collaborative. She is also still concerned about the lack of training for teachers to detect dyslexia.

Does the literacy plan include English language learners?

For Chicago and surrounding suburbs, supporting English learners will be a major area of focus since schools are enrolling a large number of migrant students.

Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro and Erika Méndez of the Latino Policy Forum, who advocated for the needs of English learners during negotiations for the literacy bill, had been concerned that reading advocates looked at English learners as a monolith, instead of a group of students with complex needs. They are happy to see that the state board has included different types of English learners and highlighted support for students.

For instance, one section addresses dual language programming in schools. “These programs, which integrate instruction in both English and the students’ native languages, not only enhance language proficiency in both languages but also foster academic excellence,” the plan says.

“The report looks at the different emergent bilinguals, like newcomers,” said Mendez. “There are different versions of English learners that have different needs. The report sets up how each of those different student populations, even within English learners, are going to get supported in different ways.”

What is next for schools, teachers?

The Illinois State Board of Education has to create a rubric for school districts to evaluate literacy curriculum by July 1. Next year, the state board is required to create training opportunities for current educators that align with the comprehensive literacy plan by Jan. 1, 2025.

Beginning July 1, 2026, student teachers who plan to teach first through sixth grade will be tested on their knowledge of literacy on a content-area exam before they can receive a license and start teaching.

What do literacy advocates still want to see?

Advocates are pushing lawmakers to increase the state’s education budget and an increase of $550 million for the state’s evidence-based funding formula that supports public schools. Literacy advocates hope that the state board will set aside money to implement the literacy plan.

The state board has recommended $3 million for fiscal year 2025 to implement the literacy plan, but advocates hope for $45 million.

Jessica Handy, executive director of Stand for Children Illinois, said she will be working on a new bill to strengthen the literacy plan.

“There is a lot more work to be done on literacy instruction in Illinois,” Mea Anderson, a spokesperson for Stand for Children Illinois said. “The plan is a great starting point, and we find it promising that ISBE leadership seems highly motivated to continue that work.”

Chicago’s pre-K expansion fueled by federal COVID recovery money

2024-01-29T23:23:50+00:00

Public preschool has been a lifeline for Kristen Larson.

Larson and her husband couldn’t afford private day care for both their daughters, who are 4 and 1. So last fall, when Larson was able to get a preschool seat just four blocks from their Bridgeport home for her 4-year-old, she was relieved.

Without that, she said, “I probably would have had to quit my job.”

Thousands of Chicago parents like Larson depend on the district’s free public preschool program, which has been expanding over the past five years. This year, the district has 16,062 full-day seats for 4-year-olds and another 7,300 half-day seats for both 3- and 4-year-olds, a spokesperson said. That expansion was possible in part because of tens of millions of dollars in temporary federal COVID relief money, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat through a Freedom of Information Act request.

But the federal relief funds will run out next school year, raising a critical question: How will the district continue funding universal preschool?

Since July 1, 2020, Chicago Public Schools had spent close to $700 million on pre-K programs through the end of last school year, including new summer initiatives and programs for children under the age of 3, according to district budget records. It has budgeted another $262.7 million for this fiscal year, which covers the current school year. Of all of that funding, COVID relief dollars have so far covered about 14% of those costs, or $137 million, most of which went toward employee salaries, according to expense data obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request.

Chicago is slated to receive a total $2.8 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER, dollars which districts could use broadly to help students and schools recover from the pandemic, and had spent $2.4 billion as of mid-November. The district has used the bulk of the money to fund existing costs, such as employee salaries. It has also launched new programs, such as TutorCorps, expanded summer school, and purchased new technology.

CPS officials said it used federal dollars to help expand pre-K — and sustain it — because it didn’t have enough state funding to do so, and creating more seats was a district priority.

Studies have found that kids who attended preschool are more likely to have higher test scores, were less likely to be disciplined, have better employment outcomes, and are less likely to be involved with crime.

CPS has steadily reduced its reliance on COVID relief dollars for pre-K over the past four years, increasing spending of district dollars on early childhood programs by $6 million this year, officials said. And observers are expecting the state to increase funding for early childhood education. Last week the Illinois State Board of Education proposed a budget that would increase the state’s Early Childhood Block Grant – which helps cover the district’s pre-K program – by $75 million.

But as federal funds dry up, the district is grappling with how to avoid cuts while also plugging a projected $391 million budget deficit next fiscal year, which begins July 1. That includes figuring out how to cover the cost of pre-K with local or more state dollars.

Asked if the district is considering cutting pre-K seats or laying off teachers in order to save money, district officials said they were not ready to comment on that. But neither is their first choice; the district is pushing the state for more money.

“Chicago Public Schools is committed to ensuring that every 4-year-old in Chicago has the opportunity to attend free preschool to develop valuable academic and social-emotional skills and experiences,” said Sylvia Barragan, a spokesperson for the district, in a statement.

Preschool expansion plan predates pandemic

In 2018, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged to open a pre-K seat for every 4-year-old in Chicago before announcing he would not seek a third term. It would mean big shifts for the city’s preschool system, which included a mix of half- and full-day programs at public schools and in community-based programs that served 3- and 4-year-olds.

Emanuel’s promise was picked up by his successor, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who set a goal to make pre-K for 4-year-olds universal by this year.

Since 2019, CPS has added 1,950 new preschool spots, district officials said.

But even as the district has expanded pre-K, enrollment has been fluctuating amid the COVID pandemic and as Chicago continues to see birth rates decline.

Enrollment initially grew – from 12,900 4-year-olds in the 2018-19 school year to 14,300 the fall before the pandemic – and then plummeted by 34%, to about 9,500 students in the 2020-21 school year.

This school year, just over 13,000 4-year-olds were in pre-K at CPS schools.

The district has reached universal demand in nearly all Chicago communities, said Leslie McKinily, the district’s chief of early childhood education.

As of September, when the district officially counted enrollment, 75% of all pre-K seats were filled, according to the district. That has grown to 81% as of last week, McKinily said. The district’s goal is 85% because officials want to have spots available for new families throughout the year, McKinily said.

CPS does not have plans to open more pre-K spots, but McKinily’s team is looking to see where they need to “right-size.” For example, she said, the city has not met the demand for pre-K seats in the North Side neighborhood of West Ridge. But there are other parts of the city where pre-K seats are going unfilled.

“We’re really thinking about right now, do we have our programs in the right spaces? And how do we ensure that the programming meets the needs of the community?” McKinily said.

Chicago shrinks reliance on federal COVID dollars for pre-K

Over the past four years, pre-K instruction accounted for the third largest use of the district’s COVID relief dollars, behind reducing class sizes for grades K-3 and spending on administrative costs related to federal relief funding, according to the data obtained by Chalkbeat.

Nearly all of the spending of COVID relief dollars on pre-K – about $130 million – went towards employee salaries, pensions, and benefits, according to the data. When looking at all expenses related to pre-K, including separate line items for pre-K students with disabilities, the district spent a total $137 million in the relief funds.

Pre-K programs in Chicago are mostly funded through state dollars as part of Illinois’ Early Childhood Block Grant. The program is also funded by some local taxpayer dollars and other federal money unrelated to COVID relief funding.

District officials said a portion of the federal COVID recovery money went toward early childhood programs outside of the regular school day, including a new summer program called Preview to Pre-K.

A spokesperson provided an additional breakdown of budget figures to show how much was being spent directly on daily preschool instruction during the school year. It showed the district spent nearly $590 million from the fall of 2020 through the 2022-23 school year and about 13% came from ESSER dollars, according to CPS. In that time period, state funding grew by just $3 million.

The data show the district has cut down on its use of ESSER funding in that time period while boosting local dollars.

Theresa Hawley, executive director of the Center for Early Learning Funding Equity at Northern Illinois University who previously worked on early childhood education initiatives in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, said Chicago officials assumed “with decent enough reason” before the pandemic that the state would pump more money into the block grant and allow them to continue opening more pre-K seats.

Pritzker is a longtime champion of early childhood education and has promised to make universal preschool more accessible across Illinois.

But in 2020, the pandemic put “a wrench in that plan” when Pritzker decided not to increase block grant funding, Hawley said. Illinois, as well as state governments across the country, worried about how the public health crisis would impact local resources as the economy slowed down.

When the federal government sent billions of COVID relief dollars to school districts, CPS decided to spend a chunk of its share to expand pre-K in absence of more state dollars, district officials said. Officials continued to invest in expansion efforts even after enrollment dropped in 2020.

“We did monitor and adjust our enrollment expansion throughout the pandemic,” McKinily said.

Still, district officials said that pre-K expansion was one of several priorities that “couldn’t wait.” The federal dollars have also helped CPS pay for existing pre-K costs, staving off budget deficits.

As the district used federal funds on pre-K in recent years, one Logan Square mother enrolled both of her sons in preschool at their neighborhood school. The program saved the family from shelling out tens of thousands of dollars in day care costs, said the mother, whose name Chalkbeat is withholding because of concerns over immigration status.

She’s currently seeing pre-K’s impact on her younger son, who is 4. For example, he used to try to snatch toys from his older brother because he couldn’t wait to play with them. But after learning how to take turns in pre-K, her son now says to his brother, “When you’re done, can I play with it?”

The mother was surprised to learn that the district used emergency funding toward pre-K. But she thinks it was the right decision.

“They have to allocate money to keep the program going,” she said, saying she is concerned about what will happen if the district can’t find extra money.

“Day care is very expensive in Chicago, and I see how important it is to have early childhood education,” she said. “And if it’s only available to people who can afford to send your child to fee-based preschool, then it’s not equitable to children.”

What lies ahead for pre-K?

Fiscal watchdogs have warned districts against using temporary federal dollars for a program they want to keep permanently, such as pre-K. Doing so can result in painful cuts that can affect children and families, so such spending decisions should come alongside lots of planning for the future, said Joe Ferguson, Chicago’s former inspector general who is now the executive director of Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government watchdog group.

“Obviously, no one’s going to say pre-K education [or] early childhood support is not an important priority,” Ferguson said. “But if it’s an important priority, then the work should have been done already – certainly needs to be done now – to identify where the revenue stream is going to come [from] to maintain it.”

Chicago isn’t alone. In New York City, former Mayor Bill de Blasio used COVID relief funds to expand his signature universal pre-K program for 3-year-olds without a plan for how to pay for those seats once the federal funds ran out. His successor, Mayor Eric Adams, halted the program’s expansion and recently proposed slashing $170 million in early childhood programming, which includes preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has signaled an opposite approach, saying on the campaign trail that he wanted “child care for all” and would lobby Pritzker to increase early childhood education funding.

Last year, Pritzker proposed a four-year plan that aims to expand early childhood.

The state increased the Early Childhood Block Grant this year by $75 million, of which nearly $28 million went straight to Chicago Public Schools, as required by state law. Pritzker has not yet proposed a budget for next fiscal year, but the Illinois State Board of Education is proposing another $75 million increase.

District officials have said that more state funding for K-12 would also help. CPS, like other districts, is on a ramp toward “adequate” state funding and is $1.4 billion short of that goal, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Elliot Regenstein, partner at law firm Foresight Law and Policy and an advocate for early childhood education who helped launch the state’s Preschool for All program under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said maintaining pre-K funding in the future depends on leadership.

“To some degree, all of those sustainability plans are just a hope and a guess that when the one-time funding runs out, that whoever is in charge at that moment will make decisions that carry on the momentum of those one-time funds,” Regenstein said.

He said Chicago’s decision to invest in pre-K, even with temporary dollars, is backed by research that shows it’s beneficial for children.

“The pandemic has had an impact on all children,” Regenstein said. “I think it’s great that CPS looked at its data and said ….we can’t ignore the kids who haven’t even entered kindergarten yet and we believe that if we invest in those kids it will help set them on a positive trajectory.”

Larson, the mother from Bridgeport, agreed. She said much of her daughter’s first years were during the pandemic and in social isolation. Pre-K has helped her make new friends, on top of learning about letters and numbers.

“Sometimes you need to be investing in a program to make it a program that you want people to send their children to,” she said.

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

Illinois families will have access to over 5,800 additional pre-K seats, says Pritzker

2024-01-19T19:53:50+00:00

An additional 5,800 preschool seats for Illinois children received funding under the first year of the state’s Smart Start Illinois initiative, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday.

“For too long, child care has been either unavailable and affordable or both,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Thursday.

Pritzker, who has long promised to make universal preschool a reality around the state, noted that the state’s reimbursement system was unpredictable and made it difficult for child care providers to retain staff and offer seats to parents.

Smart Start Illinois, which launched in 2023, added $250 million to the state’s early childhood education programs. The initiative is focused on expanding access to preschool for low-income families and families living in “preschool deserts,” regions of the state where there are not enough pre-K seats for at least 80% of low-income families with young children, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

The initiative included funding for the Illinois State Board of Education’s early childhood block grant and for the state department of human services’ child care assistance program, home visiting program, and early intervention services that support young children with disabilities.

The plan’s initial goal was to create a total of 20,000 preschool seats for 3- to 4-years-olds within four years. The state planned to create 5,000 preschool seats for young children within the first year of Smart Start. The state surpassed the first-year goal by 18%, Pritzker said on Thursday.

The state board provided new funding to 95 programs statewide to create 5,886 new preschool seats. Once these programs are up and running, over 82,000 preschool seats will be available.

In the state’s 2024 budget, the state board of education received $75 million for its Early Childhood Block Grant as part of the Smart Start Initiative — the overall budget for the grant went from $598.1 million in 2023 to $673.1 million. With the additional funding, the state board plans to provide and administer seats for 5,383 additional children in half-day preschool programs and 503 additional seats for full-day preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.

At Thursday’s press conference, State Superintendent Tony Sanders noted that preschool is important because it is where children and families form their first relationships with schools.

“We’re going to keep working until we transform every preschool desert into places where our youngest learners have a chance to thrive,” said Sanders.

Under Smart Start Illinois, the state board allocated $8.4 million to existing child care programs. According to a press release from the state, the state board encouraged programs to consider using funding to boost salaries for early childhood educators.

Many child care workers at centers have the same education levels as preschool teachers in public schools, but often make significantly less money. Many have reported having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet or being forced to leave the field altogether. More funding could decrease the pay disparity, especially for women of color who dominate the workforce.

The coronavirus pandemic slowed down Pritzker’s efforts to expand preschool. After he was reelected in 2022, he vowed to make good on his promise by increasing funding and increasing pay for workers.

Smart Start also included two new initiatives to help support child care providers. The Childcare Workforce Compensation Contract was aimed at increasing the salaries of child care workers and bringing more educators into the field and the Childhood Construction Grant Programs was created to help improve current child care facilities.

In the spring legislative session, Illinois lawmakers will decide how much to approve for the second year of the governor’s plan. Pritzker is expected to give his State of the State address and budget proposal later in February.

How much school are Illinois students in foster care missing? The state doesn’t track.

2023-12-18T11:00:00+00:00

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Hundreds of Illinois’ most vulnerable students are falling behind in school through no fault of their own: The state simply doesn’t have enough homes for them.

Each year, hundreds of children in the state’s foster care system get stuck in limbo — in psychiatric facilities, juvenile detention centers, or even social workers’ offices — as caseworkers try to find suitable placements. The problem has become so intractable that people in legal circles refer to it as “placement crisis docket.”

Child welfare advocates have called this problem an egregious civil rights violation. Apart from issues of unlawful detainment, under federal law, all U.S. children are entitled to equal opportunities in education regardless of the status of their parents or guardians.

But the problem of kids stuck without a placement has only gotten marginally better since 2018, according to Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert and attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union. That’s when a ProPublica investigation found that nearly 30% of all Illinois children in foster care who were hospitalized for psychiatric conditions were kept in hospitals longer than was medically necessary.

In those situations, the most difficult-to-care-for kids — many of whom have faced severe emotional trauma due to abuse or neglect — receive about an hour of instruction a day, as a Department of Children and Family Services scrambles to find appropriate foster care placements in an overwhelmed system. Golbert called education in these psychiatric facilities “a joke.”

But keeping kids in psych wards months after they should have been released is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Illinois’ foster placement problems and the issues that cause youth in foster care to fall behind academically. For thousands of children who are supposed to be attending a school, simply being moved from one home to another can lead to missed school days, in part because school records are not always quickly transferred.

However, the state doesn’t compile and report data on absences and truancy for youth in foster care.

Both the Illinois State Board of Education and the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) responded to open records requests from Chalkbeat seeking that information by saying they had no applicable records. In follow-up emails, department officials said that data exists for individual school districts.

That makes it hard to know how much issues like inappropriate placements, placement transfers, or other problems contribute to foster youth falling behind in school.

But the numbers are clear in one respect: Foster care youth are trailing their peers on every academic measure that the state does track.

The main federal K-12 education law, reauthorized in 2015, requires states to track graduation rates and math and reading proficiency for foster care youth. According to the most recent state report card data for the 2022-23 school year:

56% of foster youth statewide graduated high school in four years, compared to 87.6% of Illinois students overall.
6.7% of foster youth statewide were proficient in math, compared to 26.9% of students statewide.
12.6% of foster youth statewide were proficient in reading and language arts, compared to 34.6% of students statewide.

Foster students’ outcomes are even lower in Chicago Public Schools, the largest district in the state. According to state data, 53.2% of foster students in CPS graduated in four years, 9.2% were proficient in reading, and 3.9% were proficient in math.

Chicago Public Schools did not respond to multiple inquiries from Chalkbeat seeking comment and interviews for this story.

Foster kids can miss a month or more of school

The number of foster children kept in hospitals beyond medical necessity over behavioral issues climbed steadily from 75 kids in 2014 to an all-time-high of 356 in 2021 before tapering off to 284 in fiscal year 2023, which ended June 30, state records show.

It’s a small percentage of the roughly 20,000 foster kids in Illinois — but the lack of suitable placements for kids like this has drawn intense scrutiny from advocates, lawmakers and others.

The state refers to these children as “BMN youth,” meaning they stay in hospitals “beyond medical necessity.” But this sanitized description fails to capture the suffering those youth experience.

In his role as Cook County public guardian, Golbert said he’s worked with children who have missed an entire semester or even a full year of school while they’ve waited for a placement.

“Even under the best of circumstances, as a practical matter, a month or more of missed school starts to become very difficult to make up by the start of the next semester,” Golbert said.

For example, Golbert recounted the story of a 15-year-old transgender boy who was psychiatrically hospitalized from Dec. 25, 2022, until Oct. 26, 2023 — close to a year — after his parents, who don’t respect his gender identity, refused to pick him up. During that time, he read every book available to him, but is currently a year behind in school because of his hospitalization.

Another 15-year-old student was only supposed to spend one month in the hospital. But he’s been there since January and is not receiving special education services to which he’s legally entitled. Instead, he gets an hour of school each day on the computer, where “he struggles to engage and has made little to no academic progress,” Golbert said.

DCFS Chief of Staff Jassen Strokosch said youth in foster care in psychiatric settings “need intensive treatment” and are a threat to themselves or others. That means the priority is getting them emotionally and mentally stable, and then finding a proper placement for them. Schooling comes later.

“It would be inappropriate to attempt to have a normal educational experience taking place within that setting. They’re just not ready for it,” Strokosch added. “Simply being [in a hospital beyond medical necessity] does not mean that they are also in a place where they’re capable of returning to a full-time educational curriculum.”

During the time youth stay in hospitals, they’re kept indoors for most of the day, receive minimal schooling, have limited ability to see friends and family, can’t have phones, and can’t participate in sports or other extracurricular activities, Golbert said.

In addition, they see other children going through acute psychiatric episodes and face the pain of seeing other kids their age picked up by family as they languish long past the date they were supposed to be released.

“It’s hard to think of a better way to tell a child, ‘You don’t matter,’ than keeping the child locked up in a psychiatric ward for months on end because [the state] has nowhere to place you,” Golbert wrote in a 2021 court filing about the issue.

DCFS attributes the dip to increasing placement capacity in a foster system that’s still roughly 500 beds short of the number Illinois had prior to a budget impasse between 2015 and 2017, when partisan political disputes led to state funding cuts that resulted in dozens of group home closures.

After that, the agency vowed to create new specialty foster homes for youth with severe emotional and behavioral problems. But few ever materialized, experts say.

“The reason we are seeing this problem is they don’t have sufficient community-based resources to keep kids in the most integrated [least restrictive] setting possible,” said attorney Heidi Dalenberg, who heads an institutional reform project for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. “It is a resource problem that has not yet been fixed, and it doesn’t work just to clear the pipeline every six months. That’s not a solution.”

Dalenberg argued that the real solution is offering more supports and services to families before there are cases of neglect — and offering more help to foster parents before they relinquish custody of children who are difficult to care for to the state.

That’s a key part of a new task force created by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2022 to deal with problems in the foster care system, and something that DCFS has been dedicating more resources toward.

But many advocates say the agency still has a long way to go.

Foster placement moves can prompt school transfers, missed days

When it comes to education, many foster children — not just those who are locked up in hospitals or jails — struggle to stay afloat, said Nora Collins-Mandeville, a colleague of Dalenberg’s who is a lead attorney in ongoing litigation about problems in the foster care system.

Kids may not show up to school because they’re struggling with emotional difficulties stemming from serious, unresolved trauma, she said. Or they might easily miss school days after being moved from one placement to another.

“Every time you move a kid, you are, by definition, knocking them back a ways,” Collins-Mandeville said.

To streamline the process and minimize class disruption as much as possible, state youth-in-care liaison Emma Bandy, who works for the Illinois State Board of Education, advises school districts and sometimes social workers and parents on best practices. The state guideline is that transferring foster youth to a new school shouldn’t take longer than three days, and there are special rules in place to expedite records transfers.

“We know when a child comes into care, they’re already experiencing such a disruption,” Bandy said. “It’s the instability and disruption when it comes to their school, family, social supports. This complex trauma can significantly affect them in a lot of ways.”

Three days for changing schools is already too long, Bandy said. But she said didn’t know how often the process might result in more than three missed school days.

From where he sits, Glenn Wood could tell her it’s not uncommon. The superintendent for the Plainfield Community Consolidated School District, Wood said foster placement transfers can often result in a week or two of missed school days. So not only are new students grappling with being in a new place, a new school and whatever trauma they may still be dealing with — but they’re already starting off behind.

“It rarely happens the next day,” said Wood, whose roughly 25,000-student school district is home to many foster youth.

Then there’s the challenge of helping them feel welcomed in a new school while teachers and guidance counselors work hard at establishing trust: “You can’t really do as much academically until kids feel safe and welcome at their school.”

On average, Illinois youth in foster care move to a new placement about every eight-and-a-half months, said Golbert. For a child that enters care as a baby and ages out of the system at 21, that’s almost 30 different placements.

The number of transfers is in line with the national average, according to state data, but some advocates say it’s still too many. Moving a student to a new school is often par for the course if social workers determine that the transfer is in the youth’s best interest, such as moving to a new part of the state to live with family rather than being in a large residential facility with many foster youth where they might have stayed at the same school.

“It’s really important that we look at whether the school district of origin where that child came from, or the new school district is the appropriate setting for them to be in,” said Strokosch, chief of staff for DCFS. “There’s a lot that goes into those decisions. It takes some time to figure out sometimes what’s in the best interest of that child, especially at the beginning of them coming into care where we don’t necessarily know that child and what their needs are.”

Strokosch stressed that caseworkers are actively engaged in every foster youth’s life, with more than 20 meetings over the course of a year and frequent communication.

A spokeswoman for ISBE said she didn’t immediately offer data showing how often foster placement changes might result in more than three days of missed school. In a follow-up email, DCFS spokeswoman Heather Tarczan said they have “educational advisors” and legal aides who provide oversight on schools sticking to best practices.

New collaboration on Illinois foster care spurs hope

Illinois’ foster care system has fallen under intense scrutiny in recent years for its failure to promptly find appropriate homes for youth. The problem fueled criticism, legislative hearings, and even lawsuits.

Earlier this year, DCFS Director Marc Smith announced he would resign at the end of the year. He was the 11th official to lead the troubled system in fewer than eight years.

But some child welfare advocates — Golbert included — say they have reason for hope.

Under Pritzker, the DCFS budget has nearly doubled climbing from a low of $1.07 billion after years of austerity to more than $1.88 billion planned for next fiscal year despite the rest of Illinois’ human services budget being cut 5%, by $544 million, in the latest budget signed in June.

“For the first time they can’t say it’s money,” Golbert said. “It’s a matter of having those resources translate into improved outcomes.”

Earlier this year, Pritzker’s office also announced plans to overhaul the state’s mental health and foster systems for youth. The blueprint calls for changes to foster care system capacity and cutting bureaucratic red tape to make it easier for youth and families to receive state services.

In August, Pritzker signed into law legislation — which cleared the legislature unanimously — creating a new position in state government to oversee Illinois’ effort to overhaul behavioral health services for foster youth.

The new law also streamlines cooperation between different state agencies meant to get help to foster youth and families quicker. Some experts consider this provision to be a key piece of Pritzker’s efforts.

It also broadens the support and placements community-based providers can offer to youth in crisis, increases transparency around staffing practices at residential and institutional facilities, and sets a goal of making a plan to offer annual mental health screenings to all K-12 students in the state.

Dana Weiner, a senior policy fellow for Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago who leads Pritzker’s task force on foster care issues, said the amount of cooperation she sees now between different agencies involved in foster care, including ISBE — along with the legislation signed into law in August and the funding DCFS now has at its disposal — give her hope.

“On both sides of the aisle there was so much support for help for families,” Weiner said. “I think people can really get behind this plan because it lays out a methodical data-driven approach to solving a set of problems.”

Chicago’s transition to elected school board up in the air as disagreements remain among state lawmakers

2023-11-10T01:30:46+00:00

How Chicago school board members will be elected one year from now is still in limbo after Illinois lawmakers couldn’t agree on the details of the transition this week.

But lawmakers in both chambers appeared to agree on the third draft of an electoral map dividing Chicago into 20 districts. That map has seven majority Black districts, six where Latinos make up 50% or more of the population, and five where the population is 50% or more white.

However, they could not agree before adjourning their fall veto session on how elections would happen in 2024 and 2026 in order to transition to a fully-elected school board.

The state legislature is scheduled to meet again in mid-January.

According to a 2021 law — and its subsequent trailer bill — 10 school board members are to be elected on Nov. 5, 2024 from 10 geographic districts. The mayor would appoint a school board president and 10 members from those same districts. In November 2026, the appointed seats would be elected and a school board president would be chosen by all Chicago voters.

By January 2027, Chicago will have a 21-member fully-elected school board. The shift comes after three decades of mayoral control over Chicago Public Schools.

Lawmakers were supposed to divide the city into electoral districts by July 1, 2023, but gave themselves an extension in May to get the maps drawn by April 1, 2024. Many lawmakers and advocates hoped to define the map and how school board elections would roll out during this week’s veto session.

“By Senate standards, we are years ahead of schedule by being months ahead of schedule,” said Senate President Don Harmon, before the chamber voted 38-12 to approve a plan he put forward earlier this week to have all 20 districts vote right away, leaving only the board president up for mayoral appointment.

Under that plan, Mayor Brandon Johnson would lose the power to appoint 10 members and keep control via a hybrid Board of Education with 11 mayoral appointees.

“I am very hopeful that when all is said and done, this will be the law in Illinois, and we will have a fully elected school board after November of 2024,” Harmon said.

But lawmakers in the House passed a different proposal that would more closely aligns with the current law. It would pair up the 20 districts and result in 10 elected school board members and 10 appointed by the mayor from each pairing of districts. A school board president would be appointed by the mayor in 2024 and elected at-large in 2026.

“This has been a decade-long project, and is the product of years of advocacy and quite literally years of negotiation discussion with stakeholders, community members, leadership, elected officials, so it’s not surprising that it’s not an easy thing to implement,” said State Rep. Ann Williams, who chairs the House Democrats’ Chicago Public Schools Districting Working Group.

Williams said Harmon’s proposal to go to a fully-elected board and eliminate the hybrid period when the mayor would still maintain control by appointing 11 of 21 members was a surprise Wednesday.

“Opening up the bill again with only a day or so left in the veto session was a difficult prospect and created a lot of complications in the conversation,” Williams said. “I don’t think it’s something we could have done in just one day.”

Johnson said he was “very much committed” to the bill that passed in 2021 that would allow him to appoint half the school board in 2024. He also noted there are financial entanglements between the city and CPS that need to be “worked through.”

“This is going to be a tremendous adjustment for the people of Chicago and adjusting in a way that provides confidence in a new body of government is something that we have to take into real serious consideration,” Johnson said. “What we don’t want is to set individuals up with expectations that cannot be met.”

Harmon said Wednesday he would not call the House version for a vote in the Senate because it had “woefully inadequate ethical provisions” and “opens the door for corruption” by exempting future Chicago school board members from state law governing conflicts of interest for public officials, including school board members, throughout the rest of the state. The House, however, passed a bill Thursday afternoon agreeing to the Senate’s ethics provisions.

Senate Democrats initially proposed having voters in only 10 of 20 districts cast a ballot for a school board representative in 2024. That was met with criticism from advocates who said it would disenfranchise half of the city by making them wait until 2026 to have a say in who is elected to the school board.

In a statement Wednesday night, the Chicago Teachers Union said Harmon’s proposed changes could “delay and deny the democracy Chicago so desperately needs and deserves.” The union has been fighting for an elected school board in Chicago since 2013 and supports the House version.

Hal Woods, chief of policy for Kids First Chicago, said waiting until January or the April 1 deadline to finalize the details of school board elections will leave potential candidates less time to run and voters less time to decide on who to support.

Corrina Demma, an organizer for the nonprofit Educators for Excellence-Chicago, echoed those concerns.

“It gives us so little time to learn anything about these candidates, and get to know them,” Demma said.

“We’re on a budget cliff with the COVID funds running out,” she added. “There’s a lot of big decisions that are gonna have to be made that will affect all Chicago’s children and families. And who’s going to be making those decisions? How do we know if they’re gonna be qualified, if they have any lived experience, and can make choices that are best for the communities that they’re a part of?”

Demma said she wished lawmakers had also taken up the issue of compensating board members. State law currently prohibits school board members from being paid.

Lawmakers did also appear to agree on requiring the Chicago Board of Education to create a Black Student Achievement Committee that would focus on improving academic achievement for Black students.

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