More than 5,000 English learners have enrolled in Chicago Public Schools over the course of the year, many of whom are the children of migrant families. The influx is shining a spotlight on the shortage of bilingual instructors and services at schools.
Chicago Public Schools
The seven-member board voted unanimously in favor of the agreements, which would settle a pair of lawsuits filed by Prussing parents after at least 71 students and seven adults were taken to the hospital as a result of the leak.
Files released to WTTW News in public records requests identify 42 district security personnel disciplined between January and October of 2023. The records included individuals terminated in cases with a controversial video in Albany Park, and a sexual assault investigation in West Ridge.
Chicago education officials this week could vote to approve more than $800,000 in payments to settle a pair of lawsuits filed in response to a 2015 carbon monoxide leak at a Northwest Side elementary school that left several dozen students and staff members hospitalized.
The Chicago Board of Education will take public comments on proposed changes to the district policy. That move comes weeks after CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher published investigatory results showing that $23 million worth of electronic devices had been unaccounted for.
CPS announced classes will be in session for all students Wednesday as the frigid temperatures the city has seen this week have begun to dissipate.
“We have been carefully monitoring the forecast over the past 24 hours, and have determined that given frigid temperatures predicted for tomorrow, and a Wind Chill Warning from the National Weather Service that wind chills that could reach -30 degrees, it will be unsafe for staff and students to travel to school,” the school district said in a statement.
State law allows districts to switch to e-learning if an emergency like weather prevents students from being in school physically. But if districts want the option, they must have an electronic learning program established in advance.
Chicago Public Schools was among 67 winners of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first Clean School Bus Program.
Those findings were among numerous cases highlighted in an annual report published Tuesday by CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher, which examined investigations undertaken by his office between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.
“We’re trying to put ourselves in the place of these families,” Haugan Elementary School principal Heather Yutzy said. “If we were in this situation, what would we need for our kids?”
In a major departure from past policy, the Chicago Board of Education has announced it intends to move away from a system built on school choice.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of three minor, unnamed victims, alleged that Federico Garcia Lorca Elementary School teacher Andrew Castro was able to continuously abuse the boys despite prior complaints of similar abuse.
Following a Farragut Academy employee’s arrest, an examination of his criminal history raises questions of whether the district was or should have been aware of his 25 past cases for activity like burglary and aggravated assault.
A study from the University of Chicago Education Lab showed using restorative practices led to an 18% reduction in suspensions, along with 35% fewer arrests at school and a 15% decrease in out-of-school arrests.
The Chicago Board of Education is expected to renew the campus agreement for Urban Prep charter schools located in Bronzeville and Englewood after a judge ruled that CPS violated its moratorium on school closures by attempting to take control of the schools.
