CPS Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said that while the number of A’s given to students this school year is up compared to last year, so too is the number of F’s, particularly among students of color.

Though Illinois will soon see increased restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, some Chicago Public Schools students and teachers are set to head back to the classroom. The head of CPS and Mayor Lightfoot discuss the plan.

The Board of Education has agreed to engage in mediation with teachers, but said it won't discuss the most pressing issue for the union: when students will return to school.

The second quarter for Chicago Public Schools students is underway, and it’s still not clear when teachers and students could return to their physical classrooms. But in some other districts, schools have reopened.

As a potential return to in-person learning draws nearer for some Chicago Public Schools students, the Chicago Teachers Union is seeking help in negotiations with the district over classroom reopenings.

With a return to in-person learning nearing for some groups of Chicago Public Schools students, the district has announced it will spend $8.5 million on air purifiers for classrooms and staff spaces to protect against the coronavirus.

Community members, parents and officials are voicing their concerns over a proposal to close three elementary schools with dwindling enrollment and replace them with a new, state-of-the-art facility.

Parents and activists are calling on Chicago Public Schools to answer critical safety questions about in-person learning before some of the district’s most vulnerable students return to their classrooms.

“We all want to return to our students. We don’t want to die doing our jobs, and we don’t want to be vectors for spreading illness or death to our students and their families,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said.

With local school council elections coming next month, Chicago Public Schools has announced it will let families choose between voting in person at their school, submitting their ballot by mail or dropping off their mail-in ballot at their school.

After policy changes were made to improve equitable enrollment, students of color and those from low-income households were three times more likely to enroll in full-day pre-K, according to a new report from the University of Chicago.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson talks about the school district’s recently announced plan for some students to return to the classroom. 

Chicago Public School parents are having mixed reactions to the district’s new plan to bring some students back into the classroom before the end of the calendar year, just as COVID-19 cases in the city begin to increase again.

The school district announced Friday morning that its citywide enrollment had fallen from 355,156 in the 2019-20 school year to 340,658 this year.

Under the district’s plan, pre-K and cluster program students would return for full-day learning, five days a week beginning next quarter.

Chicago Public Schools says it wants to triple the number of district graduates it hires annually as teachers, and through a new partnership, it’s planning to make the majority of those hires people of color.