Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said she “broadly” feels confident that schools will be able to offer “some” in-person classes starting in September.

A Chicago public high school on the Northwest Side has voted to remove its school resource officers amid a nationwide push to rethink police in schools following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Chicago officials failed to act after the city’s watchdog found significant problems with the program that allows Chicago police officers to patrol schools, and used a federal judge’s order requiring reforms to delay any changes, the city’s watchdog told aldermen.

During the 2019 mayoral campaign, Lori Lightfoot’s platform called for a fully elected board to replace the group appointed by the mayor, but she has yet to make good on that promise.

The Chicago Board of Education votes to keep police in schools for now. Chicago and the state enter phase four of reopening. Rumors the city’s top cop is leaving amid spikes in gun violence. 

With the possibility of remote learning returning this fall, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday announced the launch of a $50 million program that will provide free high-speed internet to students over the next four years.

A contentious vote on police in schools. The next phase of reopening for the city and state. A plan for in-person instruction at schools in the fall. Those stories and more in this week’s roundtable.

Chicago Public Schools will continue to utilize school resource officers in some of its high schools, after a motion to terminate the district’s $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department was voted down Wednesday.

“As a school community, we champion diversity, inclusion, and understanding, and it's essential that we live up to these ideals in all possible ways," Lane Tech Principal Brian Tennison said in a letter to families Tuesday.

Nearly two years after an audit by the city’s watchdog found significant problems with allowing Chicago police officers to patrol schools, aldermen will hold a hearing on the program at the center of the debate over defunding the police department.

Teachers, parents and students across Illinois finally have an answer to the question of whether or not classrooms will reopen in the fall — and the answer is yes. But it’s not going to be business as usual.

Chicago Public Schools could become the latest major school district to pull police officers from its school buildings amid nationwide calls for police reform in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

CPS on Thursday announced it had laid off 703 employees, including 286 teachers, as part of its annual staffing adjustments, which the district said are caused by declining enrollment, changing student demographics and programmatic changes.

An ordinance that would terminate the $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department failed to advance Wednesday, but supporters of the measure vowed to continue their campaign.

Public school districts in Minneapolis, Denver and Seattle have recently suspended or outright terminated their contracts with local police departments. Could Chicago Public Schools be next?

During a virtual ceremony on Sunday, Oprah Winfrey told Chicago’s graduating high school seniors they are being called to “reckon with our country’s past and determine a more equitable future for black and brown people.”