Chalkbeat

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.

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.

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.

Illinois lawmakers push back deadline for drawing Chicago’s elected school board maps

2023-05-26T20:50:13+00:00

Illinois lawmakers are giving themselves more time to divide Chicago into districts ahead of the city’s first school board elections.

Under a measure passed late Thursday night, the deadline for drawing the maps for the city’s school board moves to April 1, 2024 — seven months before the first elections are scheduled to be held. Chicago will move from a seven-member board appointed by the mayor to a 21-member board, with 10 members elected Nov. 5, 2024 and the rest elected in November 2026.

In a statement, Rep. Ann Willliams, who represents parts of Chicago’s north side and chairs the state House Democrats’ Chicago Public Schools Districting Working Group, said conversations have been “extremely productive.” But, “in order to create the strongest possible map and ensure all Chicagaons are able to elect the candidates that best represent their values, our work must continue.”

The delay comes after Chicagoans voiced concerns over whether voting districts would reflect CPS enrollment or the city’s overall population.

They also criticized legislators for rushing to create districts that will determine representation for the next several years before adjourning their spring session to meet a previous July 1 deadline.

Several advocates applauded the decision to delay.

“I’m very glad that the voice of reason prevailed and they did not just ram a flawed map down our throats,” said Valerie Leonard, the leader of the Illinois African Americans For Equitable Redistricting, which submitted a map based largely on existing City Council Ward boundaries.

Leonard urged lawmakers to use the time wisely. So did Miriam Bhimani, a Chicago Public Schools parent who is part of The FOIA Bakery, a group of parents and data advocates pushing for a transparent map-making process.

“The extra time means that we can engage honestly and transparently with communities across the city about what an elected school board should look like and what their responsibilities are,” Bhimani said.

In an effort to spur more public engagement and conversation, The FOIA Bakery published 2,000 computer-generated maps earlier this month they say comply with the Voting Rights Act, and maximize minority representation, as well as take into account where public school students live.

Drawing a representative map in a segregated city, school district

Lawmakers released two drafts in recent weeks. The most recent draft has seven Black majority districts, five majority Latino, two with a Latino plurality, five majority white, and one with a white plurality. The initial proposal had two districts with a white plurality and one with a Latino plurality. Currently, one of seven appointed school board members is white.

Typically, electoral districts are drawn – and redrawn – based on voting-age population or total population after every census. In Chicago, the population is 33% white, 29% Latino, and 29% Black, but the public school district’s student population is 46.5% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American. The city is also one of the country’s most segregated, making that dissonance even more of a challenge to those trying to draw representative maps.

“It’s a segregated city, the North Side doesn’t know what’s going on in the South Side; a parent who doesn’t have a kid in CPS, they don’t know their needs,” said Vanessa Espinoza, a public school parent who’s part of Kids First Chicago, which submitted a map and testimony to state lawmakers. “Even if you have a good intention, you don’t have the knowledge and experience.”

Espinoza said lawmakers should try to draw a map that considers the public school student population.

Leonard, with African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, said she also wants to see a responsive, representative school board with members who have “lived experience with our schools versus people in ivory towers who have never experienced poverty.”

But she said that giving neighborhoods where more Chicago Public School students live more weight could violate the constitution’s equal protection clause.

“It could fly in the face of the one man, one vote, equal protection under the law, even though it’s a noble idea.” Leonard said.

Jianan Shi, executive director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, a parent group that was part of a coalition of community groups that submitted maps in partnership with the Chicago Teachers Union, said he hopes the extended deadline will allow everyone to “get to the table” to find a compromise.

“There’s no perfect map,” Shi said. “How do we take in as much feedback as possible and keep making versions until we get closer?”

New deadline could shorten school board campaign season

The first-ever Chicago school board elections are scheduled to take place on Nov. 5, 2024. So when lawmakers approved the measure to give themselves a new April 1, 2024 deadline, Shi initially thought: “Shoot. I wish I was going to get out this information as soon as possible to our parents.”

“I want as much time as possible to educate people about the maps and where the boundaries are,” Shi said. Raise Your Hand is one of a few community groups that help train parents and community members to run for and serve on Local School Councils in Chicago. The councils are like mini-school boards serving individual campuses that make decisions over school improvement, principal selection, and parts of the budget.

Max Bever, a Chicago Board of Elections spokesman, said Friday the board had been planning to notify voters of their new school board districts through mailers around Labor Day this year, but will now face “a time crunch to get that all done.”

“Our team will be ready, but it’s more just having enough time for people to have awareness of: What’s your district? Who is running?” Bever said. “This also might be a very quick period for candidates.”

Bever said the timeline for candidates to collect the 250 signatures needed to get on the ballot will likely be during summer 2024. Because Chicago’s school board elections are nonpartisan, they will not be on the ballot in the March 2024 primary.

Rep. Ann Williams said the election is still on target for November 2024. The legislature will wrap up their spring session this week, but members are due back for a veto session in the fall when they could take action on a school board map. They could also wait until the next spring session begins in early 2024 to finalize how the city will be divided.

Lawmakers could also decide in the next session to clarify or tweak the law that created the 21-member elected school board for Chicago. There have been questions about whether board members should be compensated or if there should be campaign spending limits that are stricter than Illinois’ broader election limits. Neither exist in the law as it’s currently written.

“I think some of the campaign spending limits that people have talked about would be really helpful to ensure that the everyday Chicago mom and dad could run for the board without having to have either wealth or special interests backing them,” said Daniel Anello, CEO of Kids First Chicago.

Another concern raised by Kids First Chicago and others is that noncitizens will not be allowed to vote or serve on Chicago’s school board. However, the existing law requires a noncitizen advisory committee be created. Leonard said she would like to see something similar for Black families. Her group is proposing the creation of an African American Affairs Committee.

“If, for some reason, we end up with representation that doesn’t necessarily reflect the school population, at least you’ll have those permanent committees in place to make sure the interests of minorities are represented,” she said.

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

Illinois lawmakers release third draft map for Chicago elected school board

2023-11-01T22:00:04+00:00

As trick-or-treating got underway Tuesday night, Illinois lawmakers released a new draft map for Chicago’s soon-to-be-elected Board of Education.

It’s their third attempt at drawing districts future school board members will represent.

The new 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. Two districts — one representing Rogers Park on the North Side and the other representing Portage Park and Old Irving Park on the North West side — are plurality white, with Latinos making up the second-largest population.

Chicago’s Board of Education holds significant power over public schools. School board members approve the district’s annual multi-billion dollar budget, determine how schools are measured and held accountable, authorize contracts with third parties to bus students to and from school, clean classrooms and hallways, and even operate entire schools under charter agreements.

The board has been appointed by the mayor since 1995, when the state legislature gave control of Chicago Public Schools to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. After former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools in 2013, community organizations and the Chicago Teachers Union began fighting for an elected school board.

Valerie Leonard, with the Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, said under mayoral control, school board members were perceived to be not connected to the community.

“People felt — and I was one of them — like they were out of touch with what the community wanted, and they were only responsive to what the mayor wanted,” Leonard said. “It matters to have someone [on the school board] from your community who understands what people in your community are experiencing.”

After many years of advocacy and lobbying, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law in 2021 to create a 21-member elected school board with phased-in elections.

Under state law, Chicagoans will elect 10 school board members from 10 districts in November 2024. The mayor will appoint 10 members from those same districts, and will also appoint a school board president. A 21-member hybrid board will be sworn in January 2025.

Then in November 2026, the 10 appointed members and school board president will be up for election, while the 10 elected in 2024 will continue serving their four-year terms. Going forward, all members will serve four-year terms and elections will be staggered, with half of the seats up for election every two years.

However, the law does not spell out how the map will move from 10 to 20 districts. Lawmakers continue to draw a map with 20 districts and have not made clear how they plan to divide the city into 10 districts for the 2024 election.

Sen. Robert Martwick, a Democrat representing the North West side of Chicago and west suburbs, said that figuring out how to create 10 districts for the 2024 elections and 20 districts for the 2026 elections has been difficult for legislators.

“The original idea was that we would draw ten districts and then after the election we would split them into 20 districts,” Martwick said. “Another variation on that would be to draw 20 districts and combine them for the purposes of the first election. The idea there was that everyone in the city of Chicago would get to pass a vote on this new elected school board.”

State Rep. Ann Williams, who represents parts of the city’s North Side and chairs a special task force of House Democrats working on drawing school board districts, said the transition from 10 districts to 20 is “still under discussion,” but the goal is to vote on a map during next week’s veto session.

“At some point we have to get a map so that people can start looking at the districts and prepare to run for office,” Williams said.

“No map is ever going to be perfect. No map is ever going to make every single person happy,” she added. “But we really truly felt like this is the product that most incorporated the feedback that we got from the communities during all those hearings.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been a longtime supporter of an elected school board. But when asked through a spokesperson Wednesday if he supported the latest draft or would weigh in on how school board districts are drawn, the spokesperson wrote back: No comment.

Lawmakers were supposed to draw a map of Chicago school board districts by July 1, 2023, but extended the deadline to April 1, 2024 after pushback from the public for not drawing districts that would be reflective of student enrollment.

That’s a difficult task in a city whose population does not mirror the public school enrollment. Chicago’s population is 33% white, 29% Latino, 29% Black, and 7% Asian, but the school district’s student population is 47% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American.

School board seats are non-partisan so there will be no primary. According to the Chicago Board of Elections calendar, the first day candidates running for nonpartisan school board seats can circulate nominating petitions is March 26, 2024. They must collect 250 signatures from voters in their districts by June 24, 2024, in order to be on the ballot.

Last week, Martwick and state Rep. Kam Buckner, a Democrat, put forward a proposal that would also allow school board members to be compensated.

Mixed reactions to new draft map roll in

Legislators held two public hearings last month to gather additional feedback on their proposed school board districts. On Wednesday, several of the groups who have repeatedly testified and submitted public comment on previous maps reacted to the latest iteration.

Kids First Chicago, a nonprofit education advocacy organization that supports Black and Latino families and has an Elected School Board Task Force, called the latest proposal “more trick than treat.” The group took lawmakers to task for dropping a new draft map on Halloween when “most Chicago families were out celebrating with their children.”

Hal Woods, director of policy for Kids First Chicago, said the map continues to give white Chicagoans “substantial voting power” over a school district that serves just over 10% white students. He said parents see “more work that could be done.”

“Even with redlining, even with segregation, even with discriminatory housing policies that have forced many Chicago neighborhoods to be segregated … we have put forward prototypes that even with those historical inequities still adhere to all relevant election law,” Woods said.

A group of parents and data advocates called The FOIA Bakery released an analysis of the third draft map that looks at the proposed districts through the lens of the 2023 municipal election results. They say only seven districts in the new draft map would have elected a “minority-preferred candidate.”

But others say the new draft districts are much better than previous versions.

Jeff Fielder, executive director of the Chicago Republican Party, previously raised concerns about gerrymandering and argued for an independent commission to draw the maps. He said the third draft is better than the previous two because it has less gerrymandering.

“I’m sure there’s going to be lawsuits as it is but of their efforts, this is probably the best one,” Fielder said.

Cassie Creswell, executive director of Illinois Families for Public Schools, said she’s mostly concerned about not having a map solidified yet.

“The shorter the time between a final map and next year’s election, the worse it is for genuinely grassroots candidates who are trying to decide whether or not to run and then mustering the resources to do so,” Creswell said.

Political consultant Eli Brottman said the new map is “1,000 times better” and called six solid Latino districts a “huge win for our schools and our kids.” He said it took him multiple attempts to draw a map that would have six Latino majority districts.

Brottman said he suspects the lawmakers’ latest draft map has a “significant chance” of passing next week. Whenever that happens, he encourages people to get up to speed on what district they live in and who is running.

“Whoever we elect in these first couple rounds, helps to set a precedent for the future,” Brottman said.

Leonard, whose group Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting put out a 10-district map that tries to align school board districts with City Council wards, said lawmakers are getting closer with this latest iteration. But they need to figure out how their 20 districts become 10 for the 2024 elections, she said.

Corrina Demma, an organizer with Educators for Excellence Chicago that supports the map Leonard’s group proposed, raised concerns that lawmakers could propose residents in only 10 of the 20 districts would vote in 2024, meaning “only half of Chicago will have the privilege to vote … while the other half will lack a voice.”

“We need Illinois lawmakers to get the maps right, for the sake of the 323,000 students that are depending on it,” Demma said.

Samantha Smylie contributed reporting.

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

Illinois lawmakers propose having half of Chicago voters select school board members in 2024

2023-11-03T23:45:00+00:00

Roughly half of Chicago voters would get to elect school board members in 2024 and the other half would vote in 2026, according to new language proposed by state lawmakers late Friday.

Earlier this week, legislators released a new draft map that divides the city into 20 districts. Each district has roughly 137,000 people in it. The new proposal assigns each district a number and says odd-numbered districts would vote in 2024. The state legislature could vote on the proposal during next week’s veto session.

In addition to outlining how Chicagoans would vote in the 2024 and 2026 election, the proposal includes ethics requirements for elected members and a conflict of interest provision that falls in line with state law.

The proposal also calls for the board of education to create a Black Student Achievement Committee to address the needs of Black students throughout the district and create a strategic plan to close the gap in academic achievement between Black students and their peers.

Valerie Leonard, of Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, has pushed during public hearings for the Senate’s committee on the elected school board to create a Black Student Achievement Committee.

According to state law passed in 2021, 10 members of the school board are to be elected and 10 are to be appointed by the mayor in 2024. The mayor will also appoint a school board president. In 2026, the districts with appointed members will vote and the entire city will vote for a school board president.

People interested in running for Chicago’s Board of Education must collect 250 signatures from their districts and can begin circulating petitions on March 26, 2024. To get on the ballot, petitions must be filed by June 24, 2024.

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

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.

Who will vote in Chicago’s first school board elections in 2024? Lawmakers are trying to decide.

2023-11-08T00:39:39+00:00

Illinois lawmakers are debating competing proposals that would allow all Chicago voters to cast a ballot in the city’s first school board elections in 2024.

A new proposal put forward by House Democrats pairs up the 20 districts the city is currently divided into under a third draft map released last week.

That plan, filed by Rep. Ann Williams, who chairs the House Democrats’ Chicago Public Schools Districting Working Group, would result in 10 elected school board members and 10 appointed by the mayor from each pairing of districts. A school board president would also be appointed by the mayor.

Meanwhile, following a Senate executive committee meeting, Senate President Don Harmon put forward a plan to have all 20 districts vote in 2024 and let the mayor appoint only the school board president. That came shortly after a senate committee passed an amendment that suggested only 10 of 20 districts vote in 2024.

Harmon said creating an elected school board for Chicago has been “a long journey.”

“Hopefully, we are in the closing chapter in Springfield,” he said.

According to state law passed in 2021, Chicago will move from having a seven-member school board appointed by the mayor to a 21-member elected school board by 2027.

But the transition from an appointed board to a hybrid one to one that’s fully-elected has puzzled lawmakers tasked with dividing the city into electoral districts.

According to the law — and its subsequent trailer bill passed in 2021 — 10 school board members are to be elected on Nov. 5, 2024 from 10 geographic districts. The mayor is to appoint 10 members from those same districts and a school board president at-large. In November 2026, the appointed members would then switch to being elected, including the school board president who would be elected at-large.

By January 2027, all 21 members will be elected. Going forward, elections will be staggered, with half the board up for election every two years.

The senate’s previous proposal to assign each district a number and only have people living in odd-numbered districts vote in 2024 was met with criticism by advocates who spoke during Tuesday’s committee meeting.

Kurt Hilgendorf, special assistant to Chicago Teachers Union’s president Stacy Davis-Gates, said that while the senate’s plan proposes a more representative map and addresses concerns around candidate eligibility and ethics, the union has decided not to take a position because of the proposal to only allow roughly half of the city to vote in 2024.

“That creates a disenfranchisement lawsuit risk and that we think that maximum participation should be done in the first election,” said Hilgendorf. “We think that all the voters in the city of Chicago should have the right to vote in that first year election.”

Valerie Leonard, of Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, expressed the same concerns as Hilgendorf and suggested all 20 districts vote immediately.

“All districts should be up for election with half the terms being two-year terms and the other half being four years and that would create your stagger,” Leonard said.

At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Harmon said having only 10 districts vote was the “Achilles’ heel” of the proposal Senate Democrats put forward late last week.

Shortly after the meeting ended, Harmon filed the amendment that would have residents in all 20 districts vote. Members elected in odd-numbered districts would serve four-year terms and members elected in even-numbered districts would serve two-year terms. The mayor would only appoint the school board president and in 2026, that position would be elected at-large by all Chicago voters.

If the House passes its new proposal to pair districts, it would need Senate approval. Similarly, the Senate’s proposal to have all 20 districts vote in 2024 would need House approval. Lawmakers are scheduled to be in session until Thursday.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.”

Illinois becomes magnet for transgender students seeking protections in school, health care

2023-08-29T15:13:41+00:00

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Back in the spring, Kimberly Reynolds stared at a map of the U.S. Each state was filled in with a color gradient: red for those with the strictest active anti-transgender laws, bright blue for those with the most protections for trans people.

Her state, Florida, was awash in a sea of red. The closest state in blue? Illinois.

Reynolds took a breath. And some time to panic.

She had started researching a new place to live after legislators in Florida introduced a slew of anti-trans bills, many targeting transgender youth — including her 11-year-old son.

“Something inside me just broke,” she said. “I’ve dealt with a lot of policies in Florida that are not okay. But now they’re coming after my child. So that’s why we’re done. We’re getting out, one way or another.”

Reynolds asked her son: How do you feel about moving?

“I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s move. Let’s get out of this place. Let’s get out of this climate,’” Joseph Reynolds recalled thinking. “‘Let’s get out of this house. Get away from these people.’”

After Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed several of the anti-trans bills into law in May, Reynolds again checked the map. This time, her state had a new, special designation, marked in black stripes:

Do Not Travel.

Three months later, the new school year has started, and the Reynolds family remains stuck in Florida. The laws are already deeply impacting her child, Reynolds said. She’s hoping to get her family to Illinois as soon as she can.

Florida is not the only state that has passed or is considering anti-trans legislation. This year, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of data from the American Civil Liberties Union, at least 14 states passed laws regulating bathroom access, sports participation, or pronoun and name changes specifically in K-12 schools. Additionally, at least 18 states passed laws restricting gender-affirming health care, primarily — though not exclusively — for minors.

For many families looking to protect their trans children in school and to preserve control over their medical decisions, moving seems like the only option — and Illinois a safe landing spot.

Bills impact school policies, sense of safety for trans students

Illinois is a sharp contrast to many states across the nation, where anti-trans policies are playing out in schools. Here, state law protects students from discrimination on the basis of their gender identities. Students must be permitted access to bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams aligning with their identities, according to state guidance.

Changes to education policy are a big part of why the Reynolds want to move.

Florida’s board of education prohibits public schools from teaching students about sexual orientation or gender identity. School staff are also not allowed to ask students for their pronouns — or be required to use them — under state law. Another law forces K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions to discipline students who use a restroom that doesn’t align with their assigned sex at birth.

Such laws threaten to disrupt the lives of thousands of young people in Florida — and across the country. About 1.4% of the U.S. population between 13 and 17 identify as trans, according to the Williams Institute’s 2022 estimates, which are based on analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention youth surveys.

Even before the laws were passed, Joseph had run into discrimination at school. One time, he said, a kid in his class made a cross and screamed “die” while shoving it into his face. Still, he said his elementary school had largely been accepting, and he had a strong circle of friends.

But as Joseph watched the Florida laws come into effect over the summer, he said the idea of starting school there became more and more scary. Ahead of his first day of middle school this month, he had one word for how he was feeling: “horrible.”

At school, he introduced himself as Joseph to his classmates. He said they’ve mostly been respectful. But teachers have been calling him by his legal name, which he no longer uses, and using she/her pronouns to refer to him.

Under Florida law, teachers must use a child’s legal name unless a parent gives consent. After talking to multiple employees at her son’s school just to get a consent form, Kimberly Reynolds said, she’s not convinced that teachers will follow it.

Ultimately, she just wishes her son could have the chance to be a kid.

“He shouldn’t have to even know that there’s so many people against him and out to get him,” she said.

But Reynolds said it feels like there’s not much she can do right now. The timeline for their move is up in the air, since it’s been a struggle to get enough money to leave Florida. A few days after the laws were signed, she set up a GoFundMe to help with moving costs, but donations have slowed down. And Reynolds is concerned about having to leave most of her family behind in Florida, especially because she recently had a new baby.

Though her original plans have been delayed — and these challenges loom — she said she’s still prepared to move as soon as possible. They’ve even already started packing.

As for Joseph? “I just hope that it will be a lot more calm and peaceful than my life here.”

The Reynolds are hoping that the more accepting place could be Carbondale, a town in southern Illinois with a strong LGBTQ+ community, and where residents recently elected the first transgender person to a city council in Illinois.

In the center of town, a rainbow awning hangs above the doors of Carbondale’s LGBTQ+ community center, Rainbow Café. The executive director of the café, Carrie Vine, said that when anti-trans legislation began to increase across the country, a group of advocates got together and decided they should get the word out: Come to Carbondale.

They set up “Rainbow Refuge,” mainly run through a local group, the Carbondale Assembly for Radical Equity. People reach out over social media, and advocates direct them to accepting areas and schools, including Carbondale.

Vine has previously worked to help people in bordering states access abortion care. But she said supporting trans people through moving involves more long-term support.

“They’re not just coming here for one service and going home,” she said. “You’re talking about lifelong support — bloodwork, labs, doctor’s visits. So we decided we needed to make something that would be more sustainable.”

When families make that move, Vine said, it’s important to get them to a safe place for trans people. Though Illinois has statewide legal protections, she said, not everywhere is accepting.

Despite protections, not everywhere in Illinois feels safe

Jay Smith, a trans man living in a small town in rural Illinois, knows that struggle. For him, being openly trans isn’t a safe option.

Shortly after he finished his undergraduate degree, he got a job where his co-workers were openly discriminatory, using anti-LGBTQ+ slurs. To avoid harassment, he decided to keep his trans identity quiet and allow people to perceive him as a cisgender man. Smith is using a pseudonym for his safety in this story.

“I can’t really just exist a lot of the time,” Smith said. “At the same time, it’s nice to not have people policing me.”

Smith is only out to particular people that he’s close with, such as his girlfriend and friends from high school. He used to live in Chicago, where he was openly trans and connected with a LGBTQ+ community. Now, he said, he sometimes feels isolated.

Smith is becoming increasingly anxious about what might happen if he were to be outed — and he and his girlfriend are thinking about moving towns within Illinois or even leaving the country.

He’s not alone. Over half of trans and non-binary adults said they’d move — or already have moved — from a state with a gender-affirming medical care ban, according to a Human Rights Campaign survey.

As an adult, Smith can make that choice on his own. But he said he’s concerned about youth, who must rely on their parents to leave.

For him, he said, school acted as a place of escape against a lack of support he faced at home.

He attended Chicago Public Schools, where current district guidelines state that staff should use the names and pronouns that align with students’ identities. Students can request a support plan between administration and trusted adults — which doesn’t necessarily have to include parents.

That’s a divergence from bills that could “out” students as trans to their parents.

Smith graduated from CPS in 2017. When he came out as trans in high school, he said he simply emailed his teachers about his pronoun change. For the most part, he said, his school gave him a reprieve.

“It was nice to have that space from home, and know: My parents may not be able to treat me this way, but when I get here, I have that respect, that space, and that support that I just can’t get from home,” Smith said.

But Smith is scared for the kids who don’t have the same opportunity to escape transphobia, whether in school or out of school.

Families seek states that protect access to gender-affirming care

Packing up and leaving isn’t realistic for everyone. For many families, the options are limited to wherever is closest.

That’s the case for Carly West, who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. She is trying to move right across the border to Illinois, she said, in order to protect her trans child, Lisa.

“Sometimes I think that I’m overreacting, because it’s not like they’re banging down the door and pulling her out of my arms,” West said of the anti-trans push in Missouri. “But the reality is that she does need to be safe, and it’s not safe here.”

So much could change for Lisa with a short drive across state lines, West said.

In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has spoken out in support of trans children and established a task force to create more inclusive school policy. In Missouri, the governor has signed bills to ban gender-affirming health care for minors and prohibit trans girls from playing on women’s sports teams.

When Lisa heard about the laws, she said she thought to herself: Why? I’m not hurting anybody.

Lisa came out at 6 years old. Now 11 and attending middle school, West uses she/her and they/them pronouns, alternating back and forth between the two. They wear rainbow glasses and like watching dessert decorating videos.

After moving, West said, the family plans to keep Lisa enrolled in the same school district, since Lisa spends half their time with their mom and the other half with their dad, who is staying in Missouri. But if school policies change, Carly West said Lisa may transfer.

The biggest threat right now is to Lisa’s gender-affirming medical care. For young people, such medical care might include puberty blockers — which can delay puberty-related changes such as facial hair growth — or hormone replacement therapy.

A transgender teen holds a bottle of testosterone, which is used for hormone replacement therapy that can align people’s bodies with their sense of gender.

In Missouri, minors who were prescribed puberty blockers or hormones before Aug. 28 will be allowed to continue treatment, but health care providers cannot prescribe treatments to new patients.

Opponents of gender-affirming care say children are too young to make transition decisions and claim medical interventions are not safe. But more than a dozen top medical associations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support gender-affirming care as evidence-based and medically appropriate and have opposed laws restricting such care.

At least 33 states have proposed bills to limit gender-affirming care, according to a Chalkbeat data analysis of the ACLU’s 2023 anti-LGBTQ bills tracker. About a fifth of bills considered during the 2023 session would restrict gender-affirming medical care for adults, according to a Reuters analysis that identified additional bills not captured in the ACLU tracker. But most policies would specifically restrict children’s medical care.

In Illinois, state law protects health care providers and patients from being targeted by states that have banned gender-affirming care.

Before the cutoff date in Missouri, Lisa had a consultation to start gender-affirming care.

“I’m feeling great about it,” Lisa said, at the time. “It’s making me feel more like who I am.”

Then the ban went into effect Monday — and Lisa wasn’t able to be prescribed treatment.

Trans students carve out space in new Illinois towns, schools

On Feb. 28, the Nightengale family sat around the dining table in their Iowa home, making pins that read: “We say gay” and “Protect queer youth.” They stayed up late that night, preparing for a school walkout in protest of pending anti-trans laws in their state.

Shigeru Nightengale, 15, pinned the new additions to a vest, not too far from a demiboy pin. Shigeru mostly likes using it/its pronouns — sometimes he/him — because it feels void of gender but male-adjacent. Shigeru’s parent, Sami Nightengale, has a matching pin, for their own identity: genderqueer.

Shigeru Nightengale has covered its vest in pins, including ones protesting anti-trans legislation in Iowa. Shigeru passed out extra pins during the day of a March 1 walkout in Iowa.

The next day, approximately 50 students walked out of Shigeru’s high school as part of a statewide protest against anti-trans legislation. Across the state, 27 schools participated in the March 1 walkout, the Quad-City Times reported.

But a bill banning gender-affirming medical care for minors passed the Iowa legislature and headed to the governor’s desk by March 8 — the day before Shigeru was due to receive its first testosterone shot.

Shigeru had been going to a clinic in Iowa City for over a year. Sami Nightengale first remembers Shigeru expressing thoughts about gender as a young child.

“When he was 7, he started to talk a lot about not feeling right in his own body and it would be better if he was just dead. As a parent, that’s not something you want to hear from a little kid,” they said. “Then we went through this whole process, seeing family doctors and therapists and psychologists and finally he figured out what was going on.”

All those appointments led up to the moment of Shigeru getting on hormones. But as the Nightengales made the trip to Iowa City, they had no idea whether the governor would sign the bill into law before Shigeru could get the shot.

“I was so scared that I was going to just touch it and then have it completely taken away,” Shigeru said.

That day, Shigeru got its first T shot, and doctors taught the Nightengales how to administer subsequent doses at home, a standard practice for hormone replacement therapy. What was not so standard: With the legislation on the governor’s desk, Shigeru didn’t know whether future hormone prescriptions would be possible.

The next day, the Nightengales started searching for new clinics in different states. But some places didn’t have availability, and others didn’t know whether they could take on Iowa patients.

Iowa’s governor officially signed the gender-affirming care ban into law on March 22, less than two weeks after Shigeru’s first shot.

“There was just too much going on — the terror of, ‘Oh, God. All of these people hate us, because we are a queer family,’ and also the joy of having my T,” Shigeru said. “It was all so much that I went kind of numb.”

When politicians first started discussing anti-trans legislation, the Nightengale family had loosely talked about moving. But they thought they’d have more time — to save money, to pay off debt, to search for the best home.

Over the course of March, the window to wait seemed to close more and more.

In early April, the family found an Illinois clinic that would take Shigeru. And against the odds, Sami Nightengale said, they were able to move before the start of the school year.

Shigeru Nightengale, 15, at his Illinois home.

A badge with they/them pronouns

Shigeru Nightengale, 15, and its mom, Sami. Shigeru uses it/its pronouns and Sami uses they/them pronouns. A portrait for a specific story — don’t repeat unless we are covering the same family.

A school speed limit sign

Shigeru Nightengale, 15, at his Illinois home.

Now that Shigeru has settled in — and has reliable care — it said it can’t describe the joy it feels.

“It has been a struggle with ups and downs,” Shigeru said. “But I have been way happier than I have been pretty much my entire life.”

Having been on testosterone for a few months, Shigeru said this is its first time going into school “mostly sorted out.” Shigeru had previously come out as trans at school in Iowa, but felt people didn’t take it seriously because it still looked feminine.

So far, Shigeru said it has run into some discrimination at school, but that students and teachers have been fairly accepting. Looking ahead, Shigeru is staying hopeful — and carving out a space in Illinois.

Shigeru Nightengale’s desk is cluttered with its collections — including a bunch of rocks. Shigeru often picks up new stones to add to the pile.

On Shigeru’s bedroom desk are signposts of a new life: its first bottle of testosterone. A scattered rock collection. And, on top of one stone, a Band-Aid — narwhal-themed — from an appointment at the Illinois clinic.

Little things marking a big move.

Max Lubbers is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Max at mlubbers@chalkbeat.org.

Kae Petrin is a data and graphics reporter for Chalkbeat. Contact Kae at kpetrin@chalkbeat.org.

Thomas Wilburn is the senior data editor for Chalkbeat. Contact Thomas at twilburn@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois student test scores closer to pre-pandemic proficiency levels, but absenteeism remains high

2023-10-30T14:00:00+00:00

Illinois public school students made strides in recovering from pandemic disruption, with gains in English language arts and math test scores, a jump in high school graduation rates in the past decade, and an increase in students taking advanced courses, according to data from the state’s latest report card.

The report card issued by the Illinois State Board of Education shows that more students were considered proficient on standardized tests in the 2022-23 school year compared to the previous year, but scores have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

In a press conference on Wednesday, State Superintendent Tony Sanders said educators and families should be proud of the progress made on the 2023 report card.

“I’m so happy to see a second year of strong recovery post-pandemic,” said Sanders. “We’re moving fast toward recovery, although we still have quite a distance to travel.”

The annual report card provides families and educators with a glimpse at how their district and school are doing in comparison to the state’s 850-plus districts. Among the metrics collected by the State Board of Education are test scores, enrollment data, chronic absenteeism, teacher retention rates, graduation rates, the number of students taking advanced coursework such as Advanced Placement or dual credit, and participation in career and technical education programs.

The latest report card offers some good news for Illinois districts that are still working to help students recover from pandemic-related disruptions. To address learning gaps, they have focused on hiring more staff, creating after-school programs, and hosting summer learning opportunities. Some of those efforts were funded with the $7 billion in federal COVID relief funding the state received.

However, the state’s public schools will have to figure out how to continue these programs as federal relief funding will expire at the end of September 2024. Chicago Public Schools officials recently projected a $391 million budget deficit next school year.

Here are some of the highlights from the 2023 report card.

Test scores are trending up, but haven’t returned to 2019 levels

Illinois standardized test scores show that reading recovery continues to improve while math scores have yet to make similar progress. While all student groups across race and ethnicity made significant gains, the report card found that Black students made the most progress. The state board noted that Black students were hit the hardest in the pandemic and often remained in remote learning longer than other students when school buildings began to reopen in the school year 2020-2021.

On the 2023 Illinois Assessment of Readiness, known as the IAR, a yearly standardized test used as one of the measures in the report card, 35.4% of students between third grade and eighth grade were proficient in reading, a 5.2 percent point increase compared to 2022. In math, 27% of students in those same grades were proficient, a 1.6 percentage point increase. However, the 2023 scores still fell short of pre-pandemic levels; in 2019, 37.8% were proficient in English language arts and 31.8% in math.

Last month, Chicago Public Schools reported about 26% of students were considered proficient in English Language Arts on the 2023 IAR test, compared with 27.3% in 2019. For math, 17.5% of students passed, compared with 23.6% in 2019.

Students were unable to take the spring assessment in 2020 when the pandemic upended learning and forced school buildings to close. In 2021, participation was low as some schools had the option of offering the exam in the spring or in the fall, but participation rates returned to normal in 2022.

For 11th graders who took the SAT, a standardized exam used by colleges as part of admission criteria, 31.6% of students were considered proficient in reading and 26.7% were considered proficient in math. That’s fewer than the 36.2% of 11th graders in 2019 who scored proficient in reading and the 34.4% who scored proficient in math.

State sees increase in enrollment for English learners

The state’s overall enrollment continues to decline steadily. Over 1.8 million students were enrolled in Illinois public schools in 2022-23, a loss of more than 11,500 students compared to the previous school year. In a media call on Wednesday, Sanders said the declines track with a drop in birth rates across the nation and in Illinois.

Public schools saw an increase of Latino and Asian American students enrolling last school year. However, white and Black student enrollment has decreased.

Across student groups, English language learners had the largest bump in enrollment over the last five years, according to the report card. Sanders said the state board cannot say for sure how many students are migrants from Central America or refugee students from Ukraine or Afghanistan.

Students continue to be chronically absent at high rate

About 28% of students were chronically absent from school last year. That’s a slight decrease — about a 1.5 percentage point — from the 2021-22 school year when about 29.8% of students were chronically absent.

Students are considered chronically absent when they miss about 18 days, or 10% of school, with or without a valid excuse. Student mental health days also count towards chronic absenteeism.

When students miss a significant amount of school it can impact their academic performance.

The report card shows high rates of absenteeism among Black, Native American, and Latino students. But Black, Latino, Asian American, and white students also saw improvement in school attendance compared in 2021-22. During last school year, chronic absenteeism rates were high among students from low-income families, students experiencing homelessness, and students with Individualized Education Programs.

The Illinois data is similar to what schools are seeing across the country. Attendance Works — a nonprofit organization that looks into attendance rates across the country — has seen early data from 11 states that found about 27.9% of students were chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year — a 2.2% decrease in chronic absenteeism rates compared with the 2021-22 school year.

Illinois students graduation rates improve

High school seniors who graduated in the spring of 2023 entered high school in 2019. Their freshman year was disrupted in March when COVID-19 shuttered schools. Now state data shows that those students graduated at the highest rate in 13 years, excluding 2019-20 when graduation rates were inflated due to a reduction in graduation requirements in the spring of 2020.

Last school year, 87.6% of students graduated from high school, a 1.4% increase from 2019 and a 3.8% increase from 2011. Black and Latino students saw significant gains when it comes to graduation rates compared to 2019 — 80.1% of Black students, or a 3.6% increase, and 88.5% of Latino students, a 6.3% gain, graduated from high school in the spring of 2023.

During the press conference on Wednesday, Sanders was asked what factor led to higher student achievement for Black students when compared to previous years. Sanders attributed much of it to the evidence-based funding formula.

“The investment that local school districts have been making to better support our students of color is, I think, why you’re seeing some of these significant increases not only in student proficiency, but also in graduation rates and other key indicators,” said Sanders.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announces new agency to oversee early childhood

2023-10-24T23:28:41+00:00

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Illinois is planning to create a state agency focused on early childhood, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office.

The new agency would oversee preschool funding and regulation and day care licensing, as well as early intervention, home visiting, and child care assistance programs.

Currently, those programs operate under the Illinois State Board of Education, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Children and Family Services.

“When you have pieces of agencies that you’d like to bring together, we want to make sure that’s done in a way that’s cost effective,” Pritzker said Tuesday. He said the current system can be an “impossible bureaucracy” that’s difficult for both parents and providers to navigate.

“We need to make it so much easier,” he added.

Pritzker will be signing an executive order to begin a “multi-year process” to create the new agency. The governor’s office said he will work with the legislature next spring to pass legislation to bring together programs for the state’s youngest residents and their families.

The governor’s office said Ann Whalen will serve as transition director as the new agency is formed. Whalen has served as director of policy for the education advocacy organization Advance Illinois since 2019.

An advisory committee will provide input and gather feedback. It will be led by Bela Moté, the chief executive officer of the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, the governor’s office said.

Creating a separate agency focused on early childhood is another step in Pritzker’s work to make Illinois “number one” for child care access. In last year’s budget, the governor announced a $250 million four-year effort to expand preschool and child care.

It’s not clear the size of the new agency or what its new budget will look like. The governor is expected to make his 2025 budget proposal in January.

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

Illinois lawmakers propose allowing Chicago’s school board members to be paid

2023-10-24T23:13:18+00:00

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State lawmakers are proposing a bill that would allow elected Chicago’s school board members to receive compensation — a move advocates hope will encourage parents from low-income households to run for seats when the board shifts from appointed to elected.

State Sen. Robert Martwick and State Rep. Kam Buckner, who both represent parts of Chicago, announced at a press conference Tuesday morning a proposal to lift a prohibition in state law that prevents Chicago’s elected school board members from receiving compensation. The bills in the Senate and House, introduced during the fall’s veto session, would not mandate the school district to provide a salary or set minimums for how much school board members get paid.

Under a bill passed by the state legislature in 2021, Chicago’s board of education will transition from a seven-member mayoral-appointed board to a 21-member elected school board by January 2027. Ten of 21 school board seats will be up for election during the general election in November 2024.

Currently, Illinois law permits school board members to be reimbursed for certain expenses, but they do not earn a salary or stipend.

“I’ve had a number of conversations with people who live in my district from South Shore to Woodlawn who want to be a part of the solution, who want to be a part of this generational shift of a new elected school board,” Buckner said. “However, they don’t know how they’re going to do it and work the night shift.”

State lawmakers have a short window to pass the proposal. This fall’s legislation session is only six days and is currently scheduled to end on Nov. 9.

Courtney Hrejsa, executive director of Educators for Excellence, said in an interview with Chalkbeat the organization is behind this proposal because it hopes pay will persuade teachers to join the elected school board. The lack of a stipend or compensation is a major barrier to teachers who might be interested in running for school board, Hrejsa said.

“Teachers are typically middle-class residents of Chicago. They are breadwinners for their families and their income is required for their livelihood,” said Hrejsa. “If we are unable to provide them any sort of compensation for board service, we’re essentially excluding them from realistically being able to serve. That will not result in the best governance of our school system.”

Under the current law, employees of the school district are not allowed to sit on the elected school board, so a teacher would have to quit their job in order to serve.

Kids First Chicago, a parent advocacy group, surveyed almost 800 Chicagoans earlier in the fall to ask their opinions on Chicago’s elected school board. Over 70% of respondents believe board members should receive a stipend of salary.

Lorena Lopez, a parent and advocate with Kids First Chicago, said in an interview with Chalkbeat it’s only fair to pay parents for the time spent “helping the Board of Education.”

The issue of pay for Chicago’s elected school board members was taken off the table in 2021. Martwick, who sponsored the elected school board bill, pushed for compensation at the time, but said he ultimately took out the provision to get support for the legislation from some suburban and rural legislators. Martwick believes now is a good time to revive this issue during the session.

In an interview with Chalkbeat Chicago, Martwick said the proposal only focuses on Chicago at the moment, but he would not be opposed to supporting a bill from other legislators that would allow school boards across the state to decide whether they want to compensate members.

“The reason that we’re doing it for Chicago is because that’s what we’re focused on.” Martwick said. “We’re in the midst of creating (district) maps, figuring out how the process of elections is going to happen, and figuring out how we’re going to transition from 10 to 20.”

In Los Angeles, elected school board members make $125,000 if they don’t have outside employment and $50,000 if they do. Appointed school boards, such as those in New York City and Philadelphia, are not paid.

In Indiana, school board members can get a stipend of up to $2,000 per year, in addition to meeting stipends that max out at $112. Florida and Nevada allow school board members to be paid a salary.

Currently, Chicago City Council members are paid. According to Block Club Chicago, most aldermen will make $145,974 in 2024, with the lowest paid taking home $118,392.

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

Chicago teachers urge State Board of Education to help with ongoing migrant crisis

2023-10-19T00:49:30+00:00

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Chicago teachers are urging state education officials to help the city’s public schools with an influx of migrant students, many of whom lack basic needs such as clothing, medical care, and housing.

Teachers told board members on Wednesday during the state board’s monthly meeting that Chicago schools are struggling to meet the needs of newly arrived school-age migrants. Some teachers said classrooms have become overcrowded, schools don’t have enough bilingual educators, and many students need access to bilingual social workers or school counselors for social-emotional support.

Diane Castro, a bilingual preschool teacher at Lorca Elementary School, said the 3- and 4-year-old students she works with have endured so much and need more than her school can provide.

“Our students are … doubled and tripled up in apartment buildings,” said Castro. “The children are in clothes that are too small and shoes that are too big. Our children have not had proper medical or dental care.”

More than 18,500 migrants have come to Chicago since August 2022, according to city officials, though it’s not clear exactly how many are school-aged. Chicago Public Schools officials have pointed to climbing numbers of students identified as English learners and those living in temporary living situations as an estimate for how many newcomers are now in CPS.

The teachers’ push for help comes as city and state officials are calling on the federal government to come through with additional funding and support.

During the spring legislative session, state lawmakers filed a bill to help support migrant students by requiring the state board to create New Arrival Student Grants for schools. But the bill didn’t move past the rules committee.

In late September, Gov. J. B. Pritzker announced $41.5 million for Illinois cities seeing an influx of newcomers. Chicago got more than $30 million of that money. But in early October, Pritzker made a plea to President Joe Biden for support, calling the pace of new arrivals “untenable” for Chicago and Illinois.

A Chalkbeat Chicago analysis of staffing data over the summer found a decline in the number of designated bilingual teachers in recent years, but an uptick in teachers with bilingual or English as a Second Language endorsements. The analysis also found that the ratio of staff with bilingual credentials or titles to students was increasing as more English learners have enrolled.

Syvelia Pittman, a teacher at Nash Elementary School on the city’s West Side, has seen that play out on the ground. She told the state board Wednesday that her school serves about 50 newcomers, increasing the school’s enrollment in preschool to third grade. However, the school does not have any bilingual educators and teachers often use Google translate to speak to students.

Pittman asked the state board to provide schools with additional funding to hire more teachers and provide current teachers with support to obtain a certificate in bilingual education.

In addition to the increased need for bilingual educators, teachers said students are coming to schools without their basic needs being met.

Gabriel Paez, a bilingual educator at Cameron Elementary School in the West Humboldt Park Neighborhood and Bilingual Education Committee chair for the Chicago Teachers Union, said some students lack shoes and clothes and need access to vaccination to attend school. With Chicago’s harsh winter around the corner, students will need warmer clothes, winter coats, and housing.

“We have 20 newcomers in each grade level who arrive daily and in worsening conditions. Many of my students arrive stripped of their basic needs,” said Paez. “Medication, clothes, shoes, socks, medical attention, housing, and mental health, are all falling on already overburdened and understaffed schools.”

Paez urged the state board to provide winter supplies, emergency housing assistance, and first aid kits along with bilingual social workers and counselors.

Paez also asked the board to give students who are migrants an exception from the state’s English-only exams such as the Illinois Assessment of Readiness because it would be “damaging and retraumatizing” to students who do not understand the language.

Chicago Public Schools’ enrollment increased by 1,000 students for the first time in more than a decade this year. District data shows more than 7,800 additional students were classified as English learners this year compared to last year. Normally, the annual increase is by an average of 3,000 English learners.

The number of students identified as living in temporary housing also increased compared to last year. Migrant students are considered Students in Temporary Living Situations, or STLS, and guaranteed admission to local public schools despite not having a permanent address.

On the 20th day of the school year, when the district took its official enrollment count, a spokesperson cautioned against attributing the bump to “any one group of students.” Earlier in July, a top mayoral aide suggested to the Chicago Sun-Times that newcomer students would reverse CPS enrollment declines.

The Illinois State Board of Education will make a budget recommendation to Pritzker before his State of the State and budget address which typically happens in February.

Reema Amin contributed to this report.

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

With federal COVID money running out, advocates urge state education officials to boost 2025 budget

2023-10-06T01:22:00+00:00

The Illinois State Board of Education kicked off the process of crafting budget recommendations for the 2024-25 school year at the first of two virtual meetings Thursday night.

With the deadline to spend federal COVID relief money approaching, lobbyists, superintendents, school teachers, and advocates made the case for board members to ask Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the state legislature to beef up the education budget with at least a $550 million increase in what’s called “evidence-based funding” — a way of allocating additional state money that’s supposed to take into account student needs and lessen the disparity between districts that have affluent tax bases and those that don’t.

The state is supposed to increase evidence-based funding by $350 million each year with the goal of getting all school districts adequately funded by 2027. Lawmakers have done so every year since 2018, but the pandemic derailed one such increase in 2020. As a result, advocates argue that lawmakers need to boost that number to $550 million in order to meet the same funding level at a time of increasing costs for school districts and as federal pandemic relief dollars run out.

Chicago Public Schools already forecast a $628 million deficit by 2026, and district officials have called on the state to ramp up the amount of money it puts into K-12 education.

Vanessa Espinoza, a parent of three CPS students and a member of Kids First Chicago, a nonprofit advocacy group, argued that Illinois’ current education system shows deep disparities between affluent and low-income districts. But the quality of a public education “should not be determined by their zip code,” Espinoza said, advocating for the extra funding boost. “I have seen teachers struggling to make ends meet. You can make a profound difference in the lives of countless children and families across the state.”

The virtual meeting on Thursday evening was the second gathering this week, coming after ISBE held its first in-person meeting in Springfield. Christine Benson, chair of ISBE’s Finance and Audit Committee explained that testimony during the public hearings helps inform the budget recommendation it will make to the governor and state lawmakers in January 2024.

“We want to know what investments would make the biggest difference for the students and educators in each community,” said State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders in a statement last month. “Advocacy matters and truly makes a difference in how state funds are allocated.”

Advocates at the hearing also called for funding boosts to early child education, after school programs, career and technical education programs, and agricultural programs in K-12 schools. Last year, Pritzker added $75 million to early childhood education as part of a four-year plan called Smart Start Illinois to expand preschool and child care. Some who spoke Thursday supported the continued increases.

In May, state lawmakers passed a $50.6 billion state budget that allocated $10.3 billion to education. That included a $350 million increase to be distributed to K-12 school districts through evidence-based funding.

Chicago was expecting to get $27 million of that increase. But new calculations posted on the Illinois State Board of Education website show that the state is allocating $23.3 million of the increase to CPS. The drop in Chicago’s share of new state education money is partly due to a loss of low-income students and an increased property tax base.

Although state education funding has been increasing since 2017, many argue that Illinois still has a long way to go to make school funding more equitable.

Diana Zaleski, a lobbyist for the Illinois Education Association, lauded efforts so far to close the gap between the wealthiest and poorest districts in the state.

“We still have more work to do,” Zaleski said, as she urged board members to recommend a roughly $800 million increase per year in evidence-based funding to meet state goals of bringing all districts to a level of “adequacy” that would dispel an old image of Illinois ranking toward the bottom of public education funding.

Jill Griffin, superintendent of the Bethalto School District about an hour’s drive south of Springfield, said she remembers a time when the district was facing “catastrophic cuts” with only 28 days of cash on hand “in large part because of inadequate funding from our state.”

Since Illinois adopted the evidence-based formula in 2017, Bethalto is at 71% adequacy and “back on solid financial footing,” Griffin said. But with more money going to minimum wage increases for school staff, higher wages for teachers, and other state mandates, “this progress is inadequate.”

ISBE will hold another virtual public budget hearing on Oct. 30.

Michael Gerstein is a freelance writer based in Chicago.

At six Illinois college campuses, advocates seek to create ‘comfort’ for foster care peers

2023-10-02T10:00:00+00:00

Grace Ward spent four years in foster care before enrolling at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021. On campus, 200 miles south of her hometown of Rockford, she felt alone.

Before Ward entered care, she had missed three years of school and had briefly lived in homeless shelters with her mother. In her foster home, she was expected to prioritize chores over homework, babysit younger children, and call the police if a child was having a mental breakdown, she said.

A few months before coming to the university, she had a violent disagreement that involved her foster parent, leading Ward to end that relationship and head to school without knowing anyone well on campus.

“You kind of have to figure out and navigate for yourself now,” Ward said. “How do you find comfort in your life?”

Now a junior studying animal sciences, Ward has taken up a new role: peer advocate for youth on campus who have experienced foster care. The new gig, she hopes, will create the support system for others that she craved as a freshman.

Ward has joined the state’s new Youth in Care - College Advocate Program, or Y-CAP, which pairs peer advocates like Ward with other college students who have experienced foster care. The goal is for the advocates to check-in regularly with their mentees, help them navigate college life, and ultimately create a support system they’re missing.

A 2021 study found that of Illinois youth in foster care who turned 17 between 2012 and 2018, 86% enrolled in community college. Of those, just 8% graduated, according to the study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Students told researchers that they felt alone, largely weren’t aware of financial aid options, and that they needed more specialized attention.

As for what would help them, some interviewees said they wanted someone to help monitor their academic progress. Others said they wanted a support group, the study said.

“Young people with a background in foster care on college campuses are not getting the supports they need to be successful,” said Amy Dworsky, a senior research fellow at Chapin Hall at University of Chicago who co-authored the study and helped the state create the advocate program.

The state’s Department of Children and Family Services, or DCFS, launched the $200,000 program this year after its youth advisory board signaled that college-bound foster youth needed more support on campus, said Chevelle Bailey, deputy director of DCFS’s office of education and transition services. Some colleges have similar mentorship programs, but “there’s no consistency” across all Illinois campuses, Bailey said.

The program has launched one year after a new state law went into effect requiring each Illinois college to have a liaison that is charged with connecting students who are in foster care or are homeless with resources and assistance.

Department officials want colleges to be more “foster-friendly,” Bailey said, noting that foster youth need extra support in a new environment like college. These youth are at higher risk of dropping out of school, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In Chicago, which houses the most foster youth of any jurisdiction, 40% graduated on time from the city’s public schools last year, compared with 83% of all CPS students, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

DCFS contracted with Foster Progress — an advocacy organization for foster youth that runs its own high school mentorship program — to oversee YCAP on six college campuses this year. That includes University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Harold Washington College, and Kishwaukee College.

“One reason we started small is to make sure we do this right and not take on too much we can’t handle,” Kim Peck, DCFS’ downstate education and transition services administrator.

Nearly 20,000 Illinois children were in foster care as of last month, according to DCFS data. These youth have likely experienced abuse or neglect that led them into the system, and often cycle through multiple foster homes before they age out of care at 21.

So far, Foster Progress has hired three advocates on Ward’s campus, and they’ve identified four mentees, said LT Officer-McIntosh, program manager for Foster Progress. She’s expecting to hire a total of 10 peer advocates, who are paid $15 an hour, to support up to 100 mentees across all the campuses.

There are three parts to the mentor-mentee relationship, Officer-McIntosh said.

Advocates are supposed to hold regular check-ins, where they’ll track goals for what the mentee would like out of the experience and will also navigate college questions and deadlines, such as for financial aid.

Peer advocates and mentees will also pick a short group training they want, such as on resume building, and volunteer together so that they feel more rooted in the surrounding community.

Beyond this framework, program leaders want peer advocates and their mentees to figure out a support system that works best for them.

“Our goal with YCAP is to not tell them, ‘This is how you build community from our perspective,’” Officer-McIntosh said. “It needs to be rooted in the things that they identify, that they want out of a campus community and the experience in YCAP.”

Ward wants to help mentees with whatever they need to grow, whether that means being “a shoulder to lean on” or just instructions for how to do laundry.

Sometimes when she walks around campus, Ward thinks about how different her life is now. She wants her mentees to similarly feel like they have a “safe space” that doesn’t involve talking about required paperwork or upcoming court dates, if they don’t want to.

“It’s not something to be like, ‘You’re a foster youth,’ Ward said. “It is something to be like, ‘You have gone through challenges in your life; this is a time to ease those challenges, so you don’t constantly struggle and feel like you’re struggling.’”

Correction: Oct. 2, 2023: A previous version of this story said a 2021 study was conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago. The study was conducted by researchers at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

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

COVID relief helped Cook County child care providers stay open, but advocates say more support is needed

2023-09-11T19:13:56+00:00

Child care providers in Cook County were able to stay open during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic due to federal funding, but a new report finds that the region still lacks licensed home-care providers, spots for infants, hours in the evening, and affordable options.

For working families, having a safe affordable place to send their children during the work day is essential, but child care in Cook County continues to be expensive — on average $11,500 per year for a preschool child at a child care center and almost 16,500 a year for an infant, according to the report by Illinois Action for Children — a nonprofit organization that helps refer parents to child care providers in Cook County.

To address some of the barriers, the report recommends expanding eligibility for the state’s Child Care Assistance Program to make child care less expensive for families, increasing reimbursements for child care providers to help cover the costs of running their business, and using state funds to increase the number of licensed home-based care providers.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said he wants to make Illinois “the number one” state for child care access. The state invested $250 million in early childhood education for Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois program with the hope of making child care affordable for families.

Illinois Action for Children’s 2023 report examined the state of child care in Cook County, which includes Chicago and surrounding suburbs, from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 using their database of providers. Despite a mix of child care providers and settings, such as a center or care in someone’s home, there is a shortage of child care providers.

Here are four things you should know about the state of child care in Cook County from the report:

Child care centers stayed open with help from COVID-19 funding

The coronavirus pandemic “had the potential to devastate” an already fragile child care system, the report said. While some Cook County providers did close — 2% of child care centers and 12% of home-based care providers — the $980 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds distributed by the state’s department of human services helped to stabilize the industry.

Marcia Stoll, assistant director of research at Illinois Action for Children, said that the Illinois Action for Children data reveals just part of what Cook County’s child care providers went through during the pandemic. Stoll said she learned from providers that a workforce shortage in the industry has created challenges for providers and limited access to care for families.

“We’ve heard anecdotally that some have closed classrooms because they don’t have enough staff or operate shorter hours,” said Stoll. “So, it has made finding care harder for families. It’s not all a rosy picture.”

Home care providers declined during pandemic years

Cook County saw a 12% decrease in home-based providers, or 343 homes, from 2019 to 2022. The report noted that while the drop is “concerning,” the year-to-year decrease is similar to the trend prior to the pandemic. Over the past decade, there has been a 31% decline in the number of home-based providers.

Juliet Bromer, a research scientist at the Erikson Institute — a Chicago-based higher education institution that focuses on early childhood education — said home-based providers disappear because they are expensive to run, providers often work long hours, and the state’s current child care system is hard for an individual to navigate in order to receive funding that a child care center might have. A mix of these issues create burnout causing some providers to leave.

“In every study I’ve done, I heard a version of this quote, ‘I am the cook, the bookkeeper, the psychologist, the teacher, the parent,’” said Bromer.

Illinois Action for Children recommends that the state provide funding to help providers get a state license, offer startup grants, and reimburse home-based providers at a higher rate.

Early morning, evening, or weekend child care is often unavailable

Parents who don’t work a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job often can’t find child care early in the morning, in the evening, on the weekend or overnight, the report found. An analysis of census data for Cook County found that 34% of parents with low incomes need early morning child care from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m and 16% need child care in the evening from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m., according to the report. For parents looking for child care at these times, the report found that licensed home-based child care providers are more likely to offer services.

The report says the state could create policies that would allow families to mix the type of child care they need to ensure that they have care throughout the day. For instance, the state could allow parents to use home-based care during the evenings and center care during the daytime.

Child care is still expensive for families

The federal Department of Health and Human Services says child care should only cost 7% of a family’s income according to the report. For many families who don’t meet the threshold for the state’s child care assistance program and have infants or two or more children, child care consumes a large portion of household income. In 2022, the monthly income limit to qualify for assistance for a family of four was $5,203.

According to the report, the average price for center care for a 2-year-old accounted for 15% of family income in 2021, two times higher than what’s recommended. Illinois Action for Children recommends increasing eligibility for the state’s child care assistance program to support more families.

The report also recommends that the state increase reimbursement rates for providers so they pay staff a higher salary and continue to give families high-quality care.

Correction: Sept. 11, 2023: This story has been updated to reflect that Marcia Stoll is the assistant director of research for Illinois Action for Children, not the director of research.

Illinois parent mentors kick off the school year, ready to get back into classrooms

2023-09-05T15:25:59+00:00

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Last year, Pearlie Aaron volunteered as a parent mentor at the school her 10-year-old daughter attends — McKinley Elementary in Bellwood School District 88. Aaron got a chance to work with students on classroom assignments and receive professional development with other parent mentors for about two hours a day.

Now, Aaron is a program coordinator at McKinley for the Parent Mentor Program, a state-funded initiative run by Palenque Liberating Spaces through Neighborhood Action and the Southwest Organizing Project.

On Friday, Aaron and hundreds of other parent program coordinators — mostly Black and Latino women from Chicago and the suburbs — sat in a packed auditorium at Harry S. Truman Community College on the city’s North Side to celebrate the start of a new school year.

“When we talk about growing our own from within, this is the program to do that. We have such a shortage of teachers, it’s clear to see that these parents love education,” said Aaron. “These are future teachers sitting in this room.”

The Parent Mentor Program has around 2,000 parent mentors and staff in over 200 schools, at almost 40 school districts around the state, according to a press release. The organization works with 44 community-based organizations across the state to help recruit parents from their neighborhoods.

Through the program, community organizations train parents to work in their child’s school — experience that they can later use to work in classrooms as a special education classroom assistant or toward becoming a teacher.

Some parents have worked with local organizations to obtain a GED, learn English, and receive their credentials to become a paraprofessional in classrooms. The program already has helped more than 200 parents become paraprofessionals — helping fill much-needed positions, according to the group’s press release from last week..

A state database that tracks unfilled school positions over 2,600 paraprofessional vacancies across the state. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with Individualized Education Programs are required to have a paraprofessional if it is included in their programs.

During the 2022 legislative session, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill that lowers the age for paraprofessionals working in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms to 18 years old — part of a state effort to get more paraprofessionals into classrooms.

State Sen. Mike Simmons, a Democrat representing neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago, showed up at Friday’s event to show support for the parent mentor initiative. During the spring legislative session, he and his colleagues pushed for the program to get more funding. Simmons said he is invested in the program and watching it expand in school.

“I’m tired of seeing our moms, especially our Black and Brown moms, expected to do ten different jobs. They are already being underpaid in the labor force, they are expected to take care of their children in a context where there is no universal child care,” said Simmons. “We need to compensate our parents for doing hard work that goes well beyond their households.”

The Logan Square Neighborhood Association founded the Parent Mentor Program in 1995. In 2013, the program was able to secure funding from the Illinois State Board of Education and has worked to either grow or maintain that amount of funding with the help of legislators.

At the celebration on Friday, Sabrina Jackson and other parent program coordinates said they are excited to continue recruiting more parents throughout the school year.

Jackson recruits parents to help out at 10 schools in the Englewood neighborhood, located on the South Side of Chicago.

The best part of the program is watching parents realize their own leadership potential by participating in schools, said Jackson.

“We help them enhance those skills and we help them breakout of being a parent just at home,” said Jackson. “By becoming a parent that is a part of the school and becoming a change agent for their child’s education, they see that their input matters. It’s really great.”

Free meals for all Illinois students won’t be a reality this school year. Here’s why.

2023-08-31T23:34:00+00:00

McHenry School District 15, a northwest suburb of Chicago located 50 miles away, is feeling the financial strain of feeding students throughout the school day.

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the school was able to provide thousands of school meals to its 4,000 students thanks to federal waivers. This year, students who are not eligible for free or reduced lunch have to pay full price for meals — $1.60 for breakfast and $2.95 for lunch.

Kevin Harris, McHenry’s director of food services, said the district has kept the meal price the same since last year because the school board did not want to charge families more. According to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2022 report card, 38% of students in the district are eligible for free or reduced lunch. The district is subsidizing the cost of meals without federal waivers or an increase in state funding.

In early August, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law creating the “Healthy School Meals for All Program” to help local school districts pay for the cost of school meals to all students. State lawmakers and school officials say getting the bill signed into law was a step in the right direction, but the state did not allocate any additional money to make the program a reality for districts like McHenry.

Harris, a supporter of the bill, had hoped the law would help his school district receive more state funding for school meals, so it could feed more students.

But, Harris said, “without funding, it’s a worthless law.”

For some students, school is the only place where they can access breakfast or lunch throughout the day. The Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit that advocates for solutions to hunger, has pushed for free meals in schools because studies show it improves students’ overall health and increases their academic performance in class and on standardized tests.

When COVID-19 closed school buildings around the country, the federal government gave waivers to school districts that allowed them to feed students at their homes, provide school meals to all students for free, and have flexibility on what was served to students. Illinois school districts saw a bump in their reimbursement from the State Board of Education at the time.

But the federal school meal waivers lapsed at the end of June 2022. Now families have to prove that they need subsidized school meals by filling out paperwork regarding their income.

Illinois is one of the latest states to move toward universal free meals for all students. Eight other states, including California, Colorado, Michigan, and Massachusetts, have increased funding and passed into law free meals for all students plans.

State Rep. Maurice West II, who represents Rockford and was lead sponsor of the “Healthy School Meals for All Program” bill, said it was important to take on the issue because it will reduce stigma for students who need assistance to afford school meals.

Under the new law, West said, school districts must first seek money from the federal government’s Community Eligibility Program, a federal program that helps schools that serve a majority of students from low-income households offer free meals to all enrolled students. Then Illinois will help school districts make up the difference after federal funding.

But West says when it came time to increase the budget to do just that, lawmakers didn’t add any money. In fact, the reimbursement funding level has been flat since the 2008 recession, he said.

With just $9 million going towards school meals, West said, “we need more for this to be school meals for all.”

Michael Jacoby, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, said his organization estimates the Illinois program could cost the state around $200 million a year to fill in the gap after federal funding, when compared to other states that have a similar program. But without data from other states, he said, it is hard to estimate the exact cost.

The state will need to do a study to see how much it needs, Jacoby said.

Emily Warnecke, director of public policy at the Illinois Association of School Administrators, hopes the federal government will increase what they give to states.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering changing its rules for the Community Eligibility Program. Currently, school districts are eligible for the program if 40% of the student population can receive subsidized meals. Now, the federal government is looking to decrease that threshold to 25%.

If that happens, more federal money will come in for the program, ”which would lessen the amount of money that the state would need to fully fund the program,” Warnecke said “That’s kind of an outstanding variable.”

Warnecke expects the federal government to act on that change in April 2024.

When it comes to the state’s “Healthy Meals for All Program,’’ Illinois lawmakers could allocate money for fiscal year 2025 during next spring’s legislative session. If that happens, school districts would be able to offer free meals next school year.

As for this year, students at school districts like McHenry will have to fork over almost $5 for breakfast and lunch every day.

Correction: Sept. 1, 2023: A previous version of this story identified Michael Jacoby as the executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards. Jacoby is the executive director of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials.

Chicago Public Schools meets Aug. 21 deadline to train staff on restraint, seclusion, officials say

2023-08-21T22:04:28+00:00

Chicago Public Schools says it has met a state deadline to train school employees on the proper use of restraint, timeout, and seclusion, according to a press release Monday.

The district said it has met the Illinois State Board of Education’s Aug. 21 deadline to train two staff members per campus at 517 schools in de-escalation and physical restraint. The state board placed Chicago Public Schools under watch last fall after the district repeatedly failed to comply with state laws governing the use of restraint, timeout, and seclusion.

Over 3,000 staff members have completed training or are “in progress” at 513 district schools as of Aug. 21, similar to the district’s final count, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the district’s public database. Of the staff members trained, about 1,300 are school security officers.

The district missed several deadlines throughout the 2022-23 school year to come into compliance. In the Monday press release, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said restraint should be the last resort in schools and thanked school officials for making sure that staff were trained.

“We are proud to start the new school year with staff appropriately trained at every school and will continue to prioritize this important training for our school staff,” Martinez said.

Over the last school year, the State Board of Education issued repeated warnings to Chicago Public Schools over the use of restraint and timeout in schools.

In an April 18 letter to the district, the state board said Chicago Public Schools is “jeopardizing the health and safety of students and staff” because staff were not properly trained in restraint and timeout.

Last school year, Chicago Public Schools reported 220 incidents of physical restraint and timeout, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago through a Freedom of Information Act request. The numbers were a slight increase over the previous school year when the district reported 205 incidents.

Prior to 2021, the district did not report physical restraint and timeout incidents to the state. The data showed that in the 2022-23 school year, 151 employees involved in incidents were not trained, while in 2021-22, 113 untrained staff members were involved.

Between school years 2021-22 and 2022-23, a majority of students involved in physical restraint and timeout incidents were identified as Black and male, the data showed.

Other issues cited in that letter included the use of outlawed methods of restraints, students placed in restraints for long periods of time, and failure to notify parents within 24 hours if their children were restrained.

Restraint, timeout, and seclusion are disciplinary methods used to prevent students from harming themselves or others in school buildings. The state defines restraint as when a school employee restricts a student’s movement. Timeout is when a student is removed from a class and seclusion involves confining a student to a room without adult supervision.

A state law passed in 2021 aimed to reduce the use of these tactics and keep students safe during incidents, but did not did not put an end to their use.

The changes in law came after a 2019 report from Chicago Tribune and ProPublica found that school employees at districts across the state were overusing these disciplinary methods on students. A majority of students who were restrained or placed in timeout were students with disabilities, but the misuse of restraint and timeout can target all students. Students with disabilities sometimes have physical restraints or timeouts written into their Individualized Education Programs under behavioral intervention plans.

In a joint press release on Monday, State Superintendent Tony Sanders said the state board will continue to work with CPS to maintain the training. “Having appropriately trained staff is critical in the rare situations when a student’s behavior puts them or others in imminent danger,” Sanders said in the release.

Chicago Public Schools also said in a release on Monday that it will continue to train school employees since training certifications expire every year. The district said it plans to train staff on timeout procedures by the end of the first quarter of the school year — which the State Board of Education noted was missing from the district’s training.

More early childhood workers are attending colleges and university, report says

2023-08-18T22:45:29+00:00

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More early childhood workers in Illinois are pursuing higher education degrees — moving closer toward a goal set out by state officials two years ago, a new report found.

The Illinois Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity’s first annual report, released on Wednesday, found that since 2020 about 500 additional students who already work in early childhood education have enrolled in bachelor’s degree and applied associate programs, an increase of about 18%. The report also found an increase in the number of Latino and African American child care professionals who enrolled in college since 2020.

Ireta Gasner, vice president of Illinois Policy at Start Early, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that advocates for early childhood education, said it is important for child care professionals to get degrees to understand child development and to get higher wages.

“A lot of folks want to go back to school, but it’s difficult to do so because there’s a lot of systemic barriers between two-year and four-year schools,” said Gasner. “There is a lack of financial support that fits the needs of adult students like paying for transportation, child care, tuition, and books.”

A March 2020 report from Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies said “an estimated 28,000 early childhood education teachers and assistants would benefit from an opportunity to seek postsecondary credentials.”

The Illinois legislature passed a law in 2021 creating the consortium to pressure public universities and community colleges to create faster pathways for current child care professionals to earn college degrees. According to the report, over $200 million in funding for the consortium comes from the Illinois Department of Human Services’ federal COVID relief funds.

In order for the consortium to reach its goal of enrolling almost 5,000 members in higher education programs, it will need to complete this task by September 2024 when emergency funding expires.

Christi Chadwick, ECACE co-project director, said that when the legislation was passed in 2021, the consortium knew some funding for the work would expire in three years, so the group’s focus has been on building infrastructure to make sure that students have access to pathways in institutions of higher education.

“A lot of work has been happening in institutions around program redesign. So that pathways are smooth at two-year institutions or four-year institutions and between the two, and also working to put systems in place within institutions to better support the workforce,” said Chadwick.

For years, child care professionals and advocates have raised alarms about low wages and note that early childhood educators often have to work multiple jobs to make a living wage

A report from the Chicago Early Childhood Workforce Partnership Employer Council last fall found that Chicago’s early childhood educators are paid $18,000 less on average than elementary school teachers in Chicago Public Schools, despite having the same degrees. The gap is even wider for early childhood educators of color compared to white educators.

In addition to the consortium, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois initiative includes $130 million for an effort called the Childcare Workforce Compensation Contracts, which is aimed at increasing the salaries of child care workers and bringing more educators into the field.

According to a press release from the state on Wednesday, state agencies and universities who are a part of the consortium have worked on several initiatives to ensure that finances are not a barrier for current early childhood workers, the majority of whom are women and people of color.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Community College Board, and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission launched the ECACE Scholarship in 2021. In the first year of the scholarship, over 400 students were awarded $5.7 million. In the first six months of the second year of the program, $7 million was awarded to over 1,000 students.

Colleges and universities that are a part of the consortium have created their own initiatives to tackle financial barriers preventing workers going to school and to support them once they are on campus. According to the press release, some universities have given students laptops, academic tutoring, and test preparation to help them pass early childhood education licensing exams.

The report from the consortium shows a lot of promise, but figuring out how to expand the program will depend on whether it is sustainable after federal coronavirus relief funds expire in 2024, said Gasner.

“Once people feel like this is going to be here in four years or in two years, they’re going to be more likely to continue to engage,” said Gasner. “We’re going to be able to talk more about whether the scholarship needs to be further further tweaked. But all of that growth and progress is going to rely on sustainability.”

Correction: Aug. 23, 2023: A previous version of this story said $7 million had been awarded during the second year of the ECACE Scholarship. The story has been updated to reflect that $7 million was awarded during the first six months of the second year of the program.

Chicago’s first day of school is almost here. Here are five things we’re watching this year.

2023-08-18T20:42:43+00:00

Chicago Public Schools’ estimated 320,000 students will head back to class Monday for a school year that will be marked by old issues — and some new concerns.

The district’s enrollment has been dwindling for at least a decade, raising questions about how to best fund schools still recovering from the effects of the pandemic.

Funding overall has become more complicated as the city’s federal COVID relief dollars dry up. Much of that money has been used for supporting existing and additional staff, many of them providing extra academic support for students.

As the district decides on how, if at all, to continue funding some of those programs, it must also contend with the continued enrollment of incoming immigrant students.

Here are five issues Chalkbeat Chicago will be watching this school year:

A fiscal cliff is approaching

This is the last full school year before Chicago must earmark how to spend what’s left of nearly $3 billion it received in COVID relief aid from the federal government. The deadline is September 2024.

That means the district will soon be staring down a financial hole that has been filled by that influx of federal funds since the pandemic.

The district spent a large share of pandemic relief money on staff salaries and benefits. The district also spent hundreds of millions of dollars on academic recovery efforts, including after-school programs, an in-house tutor corps, and more counselors, social workers, and other support staff.

District officials have projected a budget shortfall of $628 million by the 2025-26 school year, raising questions about how Chicago will sustain any programs and services supported by the federal dollars.

A financial analysis released under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot noted that CPS “will not have a funding source” to keep up these academic recovery and social-emotional learning efforts.

As the district’s financial picture is becoming more precarious, Mayor Brandon Johnson has shared lofty plans for schools, including expanding the Community Schools model — leaving complicated financial decisions ahead.

The district’s state funding could also be in jeopardy if it fails to comply with a state law requiring that at least two staffers at each school are trained on the use of student restraint and timeout. The deadline for that, coincidentally, is the first day of school.

Student academic needs persist

Three years since the onset of the COVID pandemic, there are still signs Chicago students need extra help in the classroom. Students appear to be improving in reading achievement, but they’re gaining less ground in math, according to recent state test scores obtained by Chalkbeat.

As the district’s COVID dollars fade out, questions remain about how district officials will approach academic recovery, and whether there will be efforts to keep any of the extra support CPS has funded with the federal dollars.

Some of those COVID dollars went toward the creation of a $135 million universal curriculum called Skyline, which has received mixed reviews. The district has pressed schools not yet using the curriculum to prove they’re using another high-quality option, so it’s possible more campuses will use Skyline this year.

Additionally, Illinois’ General Assembly passed a new law requiring the State Board of Education to create a literacy plan for schools, which is due by the end of January 2024.

District grapples with continued dipping enrollment

Chicago’s public school enrollment has dipped by 9% since the pandemic began — a trend also seen among other big-city school districts — and is almost one-fifth smaller than it was a decade ago. Last year’s enrollment dip of 9,000 students was enough to push the district’s ranking from the country’s third largest public school system to the number 4 spot.

This year’s enrollment figures won’t be publicly released until later this fall.

As the district’s student body has thinned out, funding has grown — to $9.4 billion for the upcoming school year. Still, as the district has logged fewer students — including those from low-income families — CPS has in recent years received less state funding than it has projected. And with COVID aid running out, officials must grapple with how to fund schools serving a fraction of the kids they used to. (There is a citywide moratorium on school closures until 2025.)

Some advocacy and interest groups, including the teachers union, believe funding should be divorced from enrollment, in part because investing fewer dollars will only encourage more families to leave or to never enroll in public schools. Just over 40% of new budgets for schools this year was determined by student enrollment, with the rest accounting for other factors, such as student demographics.

Still, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has emphasized that the district can’t factor out enrollment.

“In a large school district where schools serve 40 students, 400 students, and even 4,000 students, enrollment simply has to play a role in our funding formula,” Martinez previously told reporters.

Increase in migrant students poses new challenges

Last year, Texas officials began busing newly arrived migrants to Democratic-led cities, including Chicago. Since then, an estimated 12,000 migrants, many of whom are fleeing economic and political turmoil from South and Central American countries, have arrived in Chicago, While the district won’t say how many such students have enrolled, CPS saw roughly 5,400 new English learners last school year, Chalkbeat found.

Most Chicago schools have previously struggled with providing adequate language instruction for English learners. And with the city expecting more newcomers, educators and immigrant advocates recently told Chalkbeat that schools are not adequately resourced to serve these new students.

Some of these children may arrive without years of formal education and, if they’re learning English as a new language, are legally required to receive extra support.

The district’s number of bilingual teachers has dropped since 2015 even as the English learner population has grown, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. More teachers have earned bilingual education endorsements, which allows them to teach, but it’s unclear whether any of those educators are using those endorsements in the classroom.

District officials will be tasked with how to properly support these students. Officials had previously promised to release a formal plan by the first day of school but have not done so yet.

No district maps yet for the elected school board

As Chicago prepares to begin electing school board members next fall over the next two years, lawmakers have yet to approve maps that would designate which districts each board member would be elected from in the first round of elections. Ten members will be elected in November 2024, while the rest will be elected in November 2026, for a total of 21 members.

Illinois state lawmakers are in charge of approving those maps. In May, they extended their deadline to April 1, 2024, after concerns over whether the maps would match the makeup of the district’s student body or the city’s overall demographics.

Some observers cheered the extension. However, the delay presents new complications. If maps are not approved until April, the campaign season for the first set of districts would last just seven months, making it potentially challenging for candidates to prepare and for voters to have enough information ahead of Election Day.

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

Chicago will get smaller share of state’s increased K-12 education budget for second year in a row

2023-08-09T19:28:21+00:00

Chicago Public Schools will once again get less state education money than officials anticipated, according to new data released by the state on Tuesday.

Although Chicago will still see an increase in state education funding, a drop in the percentage of students considered low-income and a bump in property wealth in the city means the district is not getting the largest share of the new money.

The largest share of the state’s new K-12 funding – $35 million – will go to Elgin U-46, Illinois’ second largest district. Plainfield School District 202, the state’s fifth largest district, will receive $13.1 million of the increase.

In all, Chicago will get $1.77 billion in K-12 funding, up from $1.75 billion last year. The amount doesn’t include millions it gets for things such as pre-K and transportation. The new state data indicates CPS is now getting more than $17,000 per student from the state and is considered 80% of the way to “adequately funded.”

A district spokesperson did not say how the change might impact the already-approved $9.4 billion budget. In a statement, they said the district is “eager to work with the General Assembly toward increased and targeted State funding that more equitably supports the students most in need in Chicago and across Illinois.”

Last year, Chicago Public Schools planned on getting $50 million in new state money, but instead received a little more than $27 million after losing 10,000 students and seeing an increase in property wealth.

Funding for public education has been steadily increasing in Illinois since 2017, when state lawmakers overhauled the formula used to distribute tax dollars to school districts. The goal was to add more money over time to bring all districts to a level of “adequacy” and shed Illinois’ reputation as a state that ranked near the bottom when it came to support for public education.

“When you consider how much progress Illinois has made in the last five years, it’s nothing short of remarkable,” said Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, a nonprofit advocacy and policy organization based in Chicago that focuses on public school education. “But that does not mean our work is done.”

Steans said the latest calculations make her hopeful that the state can fully fund schools in the next five years, but there is still a need to increase state funding for schools by at least $550 million a year to reach that goal.

Lawmakers have increased education funding every year since 2018, with the exception of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

State education officials calculate how much each school district gets based on a number of factors, including the needs of the students enrolled and a local district’s ability to fund schools using local resources such as property taxes. For example, districts that serve more students from low-income families or English language learners get more state money.

Chicago Public Schools is facing a looming deficit when federal COVID recovery money runs out next fall. District officials and school board members have said they hope for more state funding to fill the gap.

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

It’s a new school year in Illinois. What education story needs to be told?

2023-07-27T17:34:00+00:00

As Illinois’ almost 2 million students head back to school, Chalkbeat Chicago is looking for input from parents, students, and educators on topics to write about this school year.

Three years ago, school looked very different as students weren’t able to sit in classrooms, enjoy lunch, or in some cases participate in coming-of-age activities such as homecoming, prom, or graduation because the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered school buildings. In the years since, schools have undergone some significant changes.

To help students return safely to classrooms and recover academically from the pandemic, the federal government gave Illinois a total of almost $8 billion as part of a COVID relief package. Local school districts were allowed to use the funding for face masks, after-school tutoring programs, mental health programs, existing staff salaries, and technology.

Throughout the last school year, Chalkbeat Chicago covered a range of topics, including student mental health, academic recovery, how reading is taught, Chicago’s looming shift to an elected school board, and how federal COVID recovery money is being spent.

This year, Chalkbeat Chicago is keeping an eye on student learning, the deadline to use federal COVID money, and new Chicago leadership with a new mayor and school board. The stakes are high as federal COVID relief money is set to expire in 2024, which could mean the end of vital programs for students still recovering from the pandemic’s disruption.

The Illinois State Board of Education reported last fall that students from third to eighth grade who took the Illinois Assessment of Readiness lagged in reading and in math when compared to scores from 2019.

We want to hear from you before the school year takes off. What topics do you want to learn more about? What questions do you have about your local school?

Fill out the survey below to let us know what you think we should report on this year.

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Will Chicago meet an Aug. 21 deadline to train staff on how and when they can restrain students?

2023-07-21T13:28:27+00:00

Chicago Public Schools has until the start of school on Aug. 21 to train at least two employees at each of its over 600 schools in the use of student restraint and timeout or miss another deadline set by the state to comply with a 2021 state law.

If Chicago does not follow state law, the Illinois State Board of Education warned that the district could be placed under probation in a letter dated April 18. If the district does not comply, Chicago could lose state recognition meaning that it could lose state funding.

“CPS is jeopardizing the health and safety of CPS students and staff” by allowing the continued use of restraint, timeout, and seclusion by untrained staff, the state board said in the April letter to Chicago. “Students continue to experience escalating events, and staff need to be trained in the appropriate ways to de-escalate these students.”

On Monday, July 17, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education said they continue “to meet regularly with CPS to support the district’s compliance,” by the first day of classes.

Restraint, timeout, and seclusion are disciplinary tactics historically used to stop students from harming themselves or others. The state board of education defines physical restraint as when a school employee holds a student or restricts their movement, timeout is when a student is removed from a classroom for part of the school day, and seclusion is when a student is confined to a room without adult supervision. In recent years, as documented by a ProPublica and Chicago Tribune investigation, schools were found to be abusing and overusing these tactics putting children in danger and, in 2021, prompting changes to state law.

Chicago banned the use of seclusion years ago, but continues to allow restraint. Since last summer, the district has been under state watch for violating state laws governing the use of restraint and timeout in classrooms.

The letter from the state board detailed several examples in which staff who were not trained, were partially trained, or were not up-to-date with training were involved in restraint and timeout situations:

Untrained school employees were involved in 21 incidents involving physical restraint reported between Feb. 1 and March 8. In 13 of those, at least one staff member was not properly trained and in eight incidents, none were.
Staff at Prussing and Nixon elementary schools who were involved in incidents of restraint lasting 45 minutes did not meet training requirements.
It is not clear if any staff members were trained in seven incidents in which students were placed in physical restraint for over 15 minutes or in timeout for over 30 minutes between Feb. 1 and March 8. The April 18 letter said the district told the state that staff were trained, but the state said they could “not corroborate those reports.”

Students with disabilities are the most likely to be restrained or put in timeout. Physical restraint can be written into a student’s Individualized Education Program under the Behavioral Intervention Plan section.

How many staff members are trained?

As of July 20, about 2,400 staff members have either completed training or were listed as “in progress,” according to a Chalkbeat analysis of a public database posted by the district. The Chalkbeat analysis found no records in the database of trained or in-training staff at 147 schools, many of which were charter schools.

In May, the district told Chalkbeat that there were 3,546 staff trained and about 422 still to be trained. Chicago Public Schools said the numbers fluctuate due to the ongoing annual training cycle, staff departures, new hires, medical leave, and other personnel reasons. The district refused to reconcile the difference between the numbers provided in May and those in the database now. A spokesperson would not say how many staff still need to be trained in order for the district to be in compliance by Aug. 21.

“Chicago Public Schools has prioritized training to ensure appropriate personnel at every school receive instruction on the use of physical restraint by the fall,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement.

A document from Chicago Public Schools obtained by Chalkbeat says that schools with up to 300 students, must have at least two staff employees trained in physical restraint and timeout. The document indicates that larger schools must have additional staff trained.

The state initially asked CPS to complete training at a subset of 77 priority schools by Feb. 17. In the April 18 letter, they requested all schools have trained staff by June 9. Spokespeople for both the district and the state confirmed the new deadline is now Aug. 21.

Trained staff are often security officers

Chalkbeat’s analysis of Chicago Public Schools’ public database shows that most staff who have been trained are school security officers. On July 20, Chalkbeat found that 1,282 security officers had completed training and 29 are “in progress,” according to the district’s data. Chicago Public Schools said security officers have been trained on restraint since before the state’s requirements were in place.

Special education teacher Katie Osgood is concerned about the number of security officers overrepresented in the database because students will have to interact with officers who might not know them or their needs like their classroom teachers.

Osgood would like schools to have trained teams — including all special education teachers and classroom assistants, school clinicians, security guards, and at least one administrator. She believes it would be better for a group of staff to perform restraint or timeout instead of one or two people.

“It needs to be a big enough team of folks so that there’s enough people in the building that can come when called to help deescalate,” Osgood said. “To make sure that other kids are kept safe, make sure adults are being kept safe, and that we’re holding ourselves accountable.”

What training looks like

Physical restraint training takes place over two days. The first day focuses on how to de-escalate a situation, or calm a student down, while the second provides hands-on training on physical restraint. School staff have to complete training annually to continue to use physical restraint.

Chicago Public Schools has contracted with QBS LLC, a crisis prevention company that trains school employees using its Safety-Care Crisis Prevention Training. The contract was approved by the school board for up to $190,050 during fiscal year 2023. Invoices obtained through an open records request and posted to MuckRock show the district has paid QBS more than $700,000 since June 2022, with nearly $500,000 being paid in March and April 2023.

The bid documents obtained by Chalkbeat indicate the company is expected to train over 2,500 school employees on how to use de-escalation techniques and physical restraint, know when restraint is needed, understand how physical restraint can affect students, and report incidents when a student is restrained.

Special Education Teacher Natasha Carlsen said she was first trained in how to use physical restraint in 2018 by QBS. At the time, she was in her eighth year of teaching students with disabilities at Camras Elementary School on the city’s Northwest Side.

Carlsen found the district’s two-day training to be useful. She said she was “incredibly impressed and felt empowered.”

Now, Carlsen is concerned that other staff members are not having the same experience. Carlsen, who also sits on a district and teachers union joint committee on special education, said she’s heard from colleagues who have yet to receive any training. Osgood also noted that most staff weren’t offered the second day of training — hands-on physical restraint training. Osgood said she has only received the first day training about de-escalation.

During the pandemic in the 2020-21 school year, Carlsen said certifications lapsed because teachers and school-based staff could not receive training in school buildings. Staff are supposed to be trained in-person annually — which the state board called “unsustainable” in its April 18 letter.

“There’s just no support, or support is out of reach, for people having significant behavioral issues with general education or special education students,” said Carlsen. “There are schools that are still using prone restraint and putting students’ lives in jeopardy of death and it is incredibly heartbreaking.”

Illinois gives a first look at a literacy plan for schools. Here are four things to know.

2023-06-23T21:58:48+00:00

The Illinois State Board of Education has released the first draft of a plan designed to help public school districts improve the way they teach reading — a goal that has taken on a new urgency since the coronavirus pandemic.

The 54-page document provides a roadmap emphasizing methods backed by research that educators can use to teach reading to students from birth to 12th grade, at a time when students across the state are not meeting national or state standards in reading.

“Equitable access to high-quality literacy instruction is not afforded to many of our students,” the state board said in the report. “A significant number of our students’ literacy needs are not being met, with some students disproportionately impacted.”

The state’s plan cites the 2022 results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national exam that tests fourth, eighth, and 12th graders on subjects including reading, math, and science, which showed that about 40% of Illinois students lack “basic” reading skills. Children in third through eighth grade performed similarly on the state-mandated Illinois Assessment of Readiness exam in 2022.

For years, literacy advocates have been calling for the state board and lawmakers to encourage school districts to move away from “balanced literacy” — a now-debunked philosophy that says reading is a “natural process” — towards teaching phonics — an approach that teaches students the relationship between sounds and letters. Since 2019, states around the nation have been changing how schools teach reading to move away from balanced literacy.

This spring, the state’s general assembly passed a bill that requires the state board to create a literacy plan by Jan. 31, 2024 and to provide training opportunities to teachers that focus on teaching reading differently by 2025. This bill is currently waiting for Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature.

Starting next week, the Illinois State Board of Education will host listening sessions around the state to get feedback from educators, school officials, parents, and literacy advocates. It plans to release a revised draft in the fall.

Here are four highlights from the state’s draft literacy plan:

The Illinois literacy plan is a guide

The literacy plan provides schools with an evidence-based framework — called the Illinois Literacy Instructional Framework — to help educators teach students the relationship between sounds and words, expand their vocabulary, and master comprehension based on students’ age and grade level. The plan doesn’t give districts a curriculum to use in classrooms, but districts are encouraged to use the state’s curriculum evaluation tool, which will help them decide if the curriculum is high-quality and uses reading strategies backed by science.

The plan says “universal screening for literacy skills is essential” because it can help teachers figure out where gaps are in a student’s reading skills. However, universal screening is not currently required by the state. A bill in the spring that would have required screening to test for reading difficulties and disabilities such as dyslexia for children in kindergarten to second grade did not pass.

Reading is ‘not only an elementary school problem’

The state’s literacy plan emphasizes the importance of students learning how to read in elementary school, but it also notes that literacy development starts at birth.

The state board recommends parents, caregivers, and child care providers work with children from birth to three years of age on literacy to help them bond with caregivers and develop skills early. With young children, parents can use sounds like “ma” or “da,” pretend to have a conversation with infants when they make sounds, point out colors and shapes, and talk to babies during bath or feeding times, says the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. The recommendation is backed by years of research showing that children exposed to a literacy-rich environment in their earliest years often perform better in school.

Once children are in preschool, they can begin to connect sounds to letters and words and begin to learn how to write.

As young children transition to elementary school, educators should focus on deepening students’ understanding of reading, writing, and words across subjects. Third grade is when Illinois students begin taking state-mandated tests, meaning that schools have to lay a strong reading foundation in kindergarten to second grade.

In middle schools, students should have a solid foundation for reading. The board recommends that if students struggle to recognize words, educators should intervene by assessing what skills they are missing and work with the students outside of class — although such assessments can be used any time in a student’s education.

Once students reach high school, the state plan says that students should be able to read and speak fluently, comprehend what they are reading, and be able to analyze what they are reading. While literacy skills are only explicitly taught in English language arts classes, the draft plan says reading should be incorporated into different subjects throughout the school day.

The state’s literacy draft says that high school teachers of all subjects play a role in developing students’ literacy skills.

Educators need training, support to teach literacy

Amanda Mullarky, a teacher and a parent of a student with dyslexia, told the State Board of Education at its monthly board meeting on Wednesday that in order for educators to support students in reading, teacher preparation programs need to adopt evidence-based practices.

Mullarky was a primary school teacher for eight years with a master’s degree in reading and is a certified reading specialist, but she struggled to help her son learn how to read.

“The balanced literacy methods I, along with his teachers, use aren’t effective for kids with dyslexia or in fact the majority of children,” Mullarky told the board. “Despite my reading specialist endorsement, I was left underprepared to help my own child.”

In a report released earlier this month from the National Center for Teacher Quality that examined how well teacher prep programs across the country are teaching reading instruction, most of the Illinois programs studied received failing grades. The report, which studied 700 programs around the country, looked at 15 programs in Illinois: Three received a D and nine programs were given an F for failing to teach the five core components of reading — phonemic awareness (learning sounds), phonics (the relationship between sounds and letters), fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Few programs focused on how to teach reading to students with disabilities or English language learners, the report found.

The draft literacy plan suggests that teacher preparation programs should help prospective teachers learn about the science behind reading, understand national and state standards for reading, find ways to help students learn how to read, and use assessments to find where students are struggling to read.

Although the goal of the literacy plan is to change how reading is taught for all grades, in a time of strained budgets and staffing shortages, districts should consider providing professional development to elementary school teachers, the state’s plan says.

English learners must learn literacy in two languages

The state’s literacy plan includes guidance for how teachers can support English learners in the classroom — which was a key concern for advocates who wanted to ensure that the needs of those students were included in any literacy plan developed by the state.

Since many English learners already know a language and its grammar rules, it’s important for teachers to provide instruction in both languages in preschool through fifth grade, according to the draft plan. Speaking, reading, writing, and listening should be taught in both languages with a larger amount of time spent in English, the plan recommends.

The State Board of Education provides other recommendations for English learners, such as making connections between languages by pointing out the differences and similarities between English and their native language and teaching students how to write in English. Teachers should use signs, charts, and books in the classroom to help students master vocabulary and grammar in English.

Dolly Parton sending free books to all Illinois kids 5 and under

2023-06-14T21:30:00+00:00

The state is partnering with music icon Dolly Parton to help get more books in the hands of young kids.

The legendary country singer and philanthropist just inked a $1.6 million deal between the state and her reading program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

The program will mail “free, high-quality books” to Illinois children from birth to 5 years old, no matter their family’s income. Imagination Library has already partnered with a few cities and school districts around the state, but the deal made with Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration will take the program state-wide.

Pritzker said in a statement the partnership will “bring Dolly to every doorstep.”

“As a longtime early childhood advocate, I’m incredibly excited for what’s to come,” Pritzker said in the statement. “These are some of the most crucial years for learning of a person’s lifetime, and this initiative will connect low-income families to resources their children will need for lifelong success.”

The Imagination Library was founded by Parton in 1995 and is now under the wing of her Dollywood Foundation, according to the news release. Parton started out giving books to kids in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she grew up. But the program took off and is now offered in five countries: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.

One in 10 children in the United States under the age of five are enrolled in Parton’s book program, according to her foundation. A child enrolled in the program at birth could receive 60 free books by the time they turn 6, according to the Dollywood Foundation.

The program offers braille and bilingual books and negotiates the wholesale price of the books while state and education partners handle the cost of shipping.

The Imagination Library has increased kindergarten readiness in children by 29 percent, according to the news release.

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton joined Pritzker Tuesday at a school in downstate Cahokia to announce the program and other investments in early childhood education.

“Thanks to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, children in every corner of Illinois can receive free books mailed directly to their home,” Stratton said in the statement. “I applaud early childhood advocates like Dolly Parton, who are helping our children find joy in reading and creating future generations of avid readers.”

This story originally appeared in Block Club Chicago.

What education bills did Illinois lawmakers pass? Student mental health help, book ban prohibition, Native American history

2023-06-12T21:35:06+00:00

Illinois lawmakers passed a number of education bills at the end of the legislative session that will directly impact what children learn in classrooms across the state and what services they can access.

Lawmakers dedicated more state funding to early childhood education, pushed for a plan to change how reading is taught, and passed policy aimed at increasing access to mental health services for students. The general assembly also approved a $50.6 billion budget for 2024 that touted an additional $570 million for K-12 education and more funding to help students pay for higher education. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the budget into law last Wednesday.

Among the education bills passed this session are one that prevents libraries from banning books, which Pritzker signed Monday, and another that will require school districts to teach Native American History — a contrast to pushes in other states to restrict what books can be used in classrooms and to limit teaching about race.

Two other bills headed to the governor’s desk are one that will require the Illinois State Board of Education to create a literacy plan for schools and require districts to offer full-day kindergarten by 2027. Many other education-related bills didn’t make it to the finish line.

Here’s where some education-related bills landed at the end of the spring legislative session.

Bills improve access to dual credit, mental health services

Career and Technical Education and dual credit opportunities for students with disabilities: House Bill 3224 will require school districts to provide a student and parent with information about career and technical education opportunities and dual credit courses. If the student is enrolled in a dual credit course, it must be included as part of the student’s transition Individualized Education Program activities.

Task force on children’s mental health: Senate Bill 0724 will make it easier for families to access mental health services across several of the state departments, including the Illinois State Board of Education. This bill will create the Interagency Children’s Behavioral Health Services Act and require the state to establish a Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Officer who will lead the state’s effort to work across state agencies to help families get services. This bill unanimously passed both chambers of the general assembly with bipartisan support.

Establishing a home visiting program for families: Illinois has appropriated funding for the state Department of Human Services’ home visiting programs for over 30 years, but Senate Bill 1794 writes the program into law to protect it in the future. The goals of the program are to improve maternal and newborn health, prevent child abuse and neglect, promote children’s development and prepare them for school, and connect families to community resources.

Expanding dual language programs: House Bill 3822 will require the Advisory Council on Bilingual Education to create a report for the Illinois general assembly on how to incentivize dual language programs. The report will look at expanding dual language programs and instruction. It will also explore possible public-private partnerships, funding for programs, how to increase the number of qualified bilingual teachers for dual language programs, and standards for measuring student progress in programs.

Migrant youth, dyslexia screening proposals didn’t pass finish line

Supporting school-age migrant youth: Since the fall, Texas officials have bused thousands of people from the U.S.-Mexico border to Illinois — many are school-age children. Currently, many of recently arrived migrants are being sheltered at police stations across the state. The city of Chicago has committed $51 million to help migrants. House Bill 2822 would have required the Illinois State Board of Education to create a new grant program for public schools. This bill didn’t make it past committee.

Reporting informal removals of students with disabilities: House Bill 3600 would have required students’ schools to send a written notice to parents if students are sent home during the school day, given in-school suspension, or told not to come to school. Although this bill did not pass, Access Living, a nonprofit based in Chicago that advocates for people with disabilities and pushed for the bill, got a commitment from the Illinois State Board of Education to provide guidance to schools on documenting informal school removals.

Screening young children for dyslexia: House Bill 1124 would have required public schools to screen students for dyslexia in grade K-12 starting with the 2023-24 school year. The bill would have required the State Board of Education to require guidelines in the dyslexia handbook on how to screen children for dyslexia and other reading difficulties. The bill picked up steam earlier in session after passing a key committee in the House, but failed to get on the floor.

Chicago Public Schools violating state law on use of restraint, timeout in school, state says

2023-06-07T16:25:45+00:00

This story has been updated to include additional comment from Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.

Chicago Public Schools has put students — especially those with disabilities — at risk by not training staff on the proper use of physical restraint and timeout as required under state law, a nearly-yearlong investigation by the Illinois State Board of Education has found.

Documents obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago show that untrained staff restrained or secluded students for long periods of time, used outlawed methods of restraint, and restrained students who were not a threat to themselves or others.

The state has repeatedly warned CPS since the fall that it is not complying with state law on restraint and timeout. In multiple letters sent to the district this school year, the state cites the district for not properly training staff and not notifying parents within a legally required 24-hour time frame when a child has been restrained at school. The state defines physical restraint as holding a student or other methods to restrict a student’s movement.

In a letter dated April 18, the state board outlines a number of violations by the district. Among them:

CPS failed to report 15 incidents involving restraints that took place between Feb. 1 and March 8. Four incidents were not reported to the state board’s reporting system, and in 10 of 23 incidents reviewed, parents were not notified within the required time frame.
From Feb. 1 to March 8, the district reported seven incidents of either physical restraint over 15 minutes and timeouts or isolated timeouts over 30 minutes. But CPS did not clarify if licensed educators or therapists were involved to conduct an evaluation. The district also did not provide evidence that the staff involved were trained.
In some reported incidents, students were restrained for even longer periods of time: 45 minutes at Prussing Elementary School and Nixon Elementary School, one hour at Jones College Prep, and one hour and 15 minutes at Peterson Elementary School.
The district reported two incidents of prone physical restraint — when a student is placed face down and pressure is applied to their body to keep them in that position — on Jan. 30 and Feb. 9 at Roosevelt and Fenger High Schools, respectively. The state outlawed prone physical restraint at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.

In the letter, the state warns that the continued use of physical restraint, timeout, and isolated timeout “by untrained staff demonstrates that CPS is jeopardizing the health and safety of CPS students and staff.”

Terri Smith, a Chicago parent and advocate for students with disabilities, said the state findings echo her concerns about the district’s practices.

“Just when I think I’ve seen the worst, I see something worse like this,” said Smith. “They’re putting children at risk knowingly, wantonly, and maliciously. Everyone can see that they have made a conscious decision not to keep our children safe.”

Over her time as a parent at Chicago Public Schools, Smith said, she has lost confidence in the district to do right by students with disabilities — and believes many of the parents she works with feel the same.

When asked about the violations Wednesday at an unrelated press conference with Mayor Brandon Johnson, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said complying with state law is a “top priority” and the state’s requirements will be met “this summer before the school year starts.”

“We will make sure that this is corrected. Not only that, we’re going to make sure also that the programs get strengthened,” Martinez said. “This is an area that has been a challenge in our district for the last two decades, but we’re gonna fix it.”

State investigates Chicago in effort to reduce restraint in schools

The state opened a “systemic complaint investigation” in October after the district reported numerous instances of restraint performed by untrained staff, according to a letter dated Nov. 30, 2022. The use of restraint, seclusion, and timeout to discipline students in Illinois schools has been under scrutiny for several years.

In 2019, ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune published a joint investigation that uncovered how districts around the state were secluding students in isolated rooms, or quiet rooms, as a form of discipline. A majority of students featured in the investigation were students with disabilities.

In 2021, the Illinois general assembly passed a law that prevents school staff and educators from locking students in isolated seclusion rooms and limits the use of restraint and time out on students.

During a compliance check with Chicago Public Schools in August 2022, the state board found the district continually reporting violations to the 2021 state law — many included incidents where students were restrained or put in timeout by untrained staff and the use of restraint took place when students were not a threat to themselves or others.

In late November, the state board sent CPS a list of action items to complete to comply with the state’s law.

The district was required to notify all Chicago Public Schools parents of the violations contained in the November letter and findings in the April 18 letter.

On May 26, the district sent an email to parents and guardians — after 4 p.m. the Friday before Memorial Day weekend — to notify them that the district is working with the State Board of Education to address violations for restraint and seclusion.

The state also required the district to set up an email address where parents can submit concerns about restraint and timeout incidents. Parents can look up who’s trained in restraint and timeout at their schools and submit concerns to PRTO@cps.edu.

As of May 26, CPS officials said, 3,546 district staff had been trained in de-escalation and physical restraint training through a contractor called QBS LLC. But 422 still need to receive training. The state board requires two staff members per school building to be trained — a requirement that had not been met as of the April 18 letter.

The state board is still working with the district to comply with state laws for restraint and timeout, according to Jackie Matthews, a spokeswoman for the State Board of Education.

“Student safety and well-being is our number one priority, and these requirements were put in place as essential precautions to protect students,” she told Chalkbeat.

In an emailed statement to Chalkbeat, a CPS spokesperson said the district remains “committed to continually reviewing and improving our services, working closely with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and all partners, including parents and advocacy groups, to co-design an improved system that not only is in compliance with all State and Federal education requirements, but meets our own high goals for excellence.“

If Chicago does not come into compliance, the state could put the district on probation. If the school district still fails to comply after at least 60 days, it could lose state recognition, resulting in a loss of state funding and blocking sport teams from participating in state athletic associations. In 2021, some districts were placed on probation for not complying with the state’s mask mandate during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Matthews said putting a district on probation is the last resort and the state board will continue to provide assistance to help students.

Students with disabilities are often restrained in classrooms

In one case cited in the state’s April 18 letter, a student with disabilities was restrained on three days within a 30-day period and the staff involved in the restraint — security officers, a special education classroom assistant, and a school counselor — were not invited to attend the student’s Individualized Education Program meeting.

Such incidents can reinforce the mistrust that students with disabilities and their families have in Chicago Public Schools, which has a history of failing to meet their needs. In 2016, Chicago was found to be denying services to students with disabilities leading to state oversight, fell behind on creating or updating Individualized Education Programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and failed to offer transportation to students when school buildings reopened in 2021.

Frank Lally, an education policy analyst at Access Living — a nonprofit organization that advocates for Chicagoans with disabilities — said one of the major victories from the 2021 law limiting the use of restraint and timeout was ensuring that parents would be notified if a child was restrained.

But in Chicago, that is not happening, the state found.

“That struck me because there is a lack of trust between the district and parents of students with disabilities going back several years,” Lally said. “It’s kind of disheartening.”

Students have legally binding documents spelling out what supports and interventions they should receive, including which staff should support them when behavioral issues arise. In many cases, these are in the student’s Individualized Education Programs or Behavioral Intervention Plans. However, staff must be trained in de-escalation and physical restraint to intervene when a student has a behavioral issue.

Teachers union calls for firing top district leaders

Last week, the Chicago Teachers Union called for the firing of Stephanie Jones, the district’s top official overseeing services for students with disabilities. The union’s House of Delegates took a vote of no confidence in Jones last Wednesday for her “dismal failures to protect the district’s most vulnerable students, continued violation of special education laws and the creation of a toxic workplace.”

“Tonight our members said, enough. Enough with the lack of services and support, enough with ignoring the needs of our students, and enough with violating state law,” CTU president Stacy Davis Gates said in a statement.

Chicago Public Schools reported to the state board that Jones was the designated official responsible for restraint and timeout policies and incidents, according to the April 18 letter. Designated officials should maintain a copy of records, be notified of every incident by the end of the school day on which has occurred, and receive documentation or any evaluation of any incident that exceeds 15 minutes of physical restraint or 30 minutes for timeout, according to the state board.

Jones told the state board on Dec. 23 that she gave this authority to her team and to Erin Miller, then a manager at the Office of Diverse Learners and Support Services.

Miller left Chicago Public Schools on March 3 and her team set up a rotation, with each staffer taking one day of the week to review restraint and timeout data.

According to the board’s April 18 letter, Jones doesn’t meet the “requirements that the designated official must complete and is not acting as the designated official” and no other CPS staffer has taken on the duties.

As a result, the state board said, “CPS does not have a designated official who is informed and maintains RTO data as required.”

A group of teachers who challenged CTU leadership during its last internal election has also called for the ouster of other top district leaders, including CEO Martinez. In a statement, they said the violations extend “far beyond” Jones’ office.

The group of teachers — the REAL caucus — also called on the district to remove all police officers from schools, a decision currently left to Local School Councils. There have been instances of school resource officers using restraint on students in the past, such as a high-profile 2020 incident at Marshall High School. The teen whom officers dragged down a staircase sued the city of Chicago and was eventually awarded a $300,000 settlement.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools responded to the teachers’ call for removing Jones and Martinez in a statement, “Our top leadership at CPS has been committed and transparent about the need for improved systems, strategies, and services to support our most vulnerable students through our Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services.”

Becky Vevea contributed to this story.

Illinois passes 2024 budget with increased funding for K-12, early childhood education

2023-05-27T15:52:57+00:00

Early Saturday morning, Illinois lawmakers passed the 2024 budget with increases in funding for K-12 public schools, early childhood education, and college-bound students. The House pass the budget with a vote of 73 to 38.

State legislators passed the $50.6 billion budget with a $570 million increase in K-12 spending, $250 million more for early childhood education, and over $100 million to support students heading to college and those who want to become teachers. The 2024 overall Illinois State Board of Education budget will be $10.3 billion, a 6.2% increase over last year’s $9.7 billion budget.

The budget looks similar to the proposal that Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced during his State of the State address in February. The budget leaves out the tax-credit scholarship known as Invest In Kids, which Pritzker supported during his re-election campaign, and trims back funding the governor requested for early education facilities.

Early childhood education gets a boost

Smart Start Illinois, announced by Pritzker in February, will invest $250 million in early childhood education in the 4-year initiative’s first year, and that funding was also approved by lawmakers.

Of that $250 million increase, the state’s Department of Human Services early intervention program, which supports young children with disabilities, will receive an increase of $40 million. The Child Care Assistance Program, which helps low-income families access child care and early childhood education, will get an additional $70 million, and the home-visiting program that supports pregnant people and families with children between birth and 5 years old, will receive an additional $5 million.

The state board’s early childhood block grant, which supports establishing early childhood education programs, gets an additional $75 million.

“This budget makes transformative investments in the children and families of Illinois while building on our record of fiscal responsibility,” Pritzker said Friday in a statement.

Latino Policy Forum senior education policy analyst Rosario Hernandez said in a statement that the group applauds the general assembly for creating a budget that adds more funding for early childhood programming.

“We are especially excited about the $75 million increase to the Early Childhood Block Grant that will expand preschool access throughout the state, which stands to benefit the fastest growing group of students in Illinois: English Learners,” said Hernandez. “Recent research from the University of Chicago demonstratively shows that when English Learners have access to full-day bilingual preschool beginning at age three it yields positive outcomes in third grade.”

K-12 gets $350 million for funding formula

The state board’s evidence-based funding formula, which distributes money to K-12 public schools, received an increase of $350 million.

Education advocates had wanted lawmakers to give an additional $550 million to school districts under the state’s evidence-based funding formula, but that didn’t happen this year. They say more money is needed to put the state on track to fully fund schools by 2027 — which was the targeted timeline when the formula was created in 2017.

Rep. William “Will” Davis, a Democrat who represents suburbs south of Chicago, filed a bill that would have required the state to increase the minimum for evidence-based funding from $350 million to $550 million. But Davis’s bill did not move out of the House rules committee.

The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a nonpartisan budget watchdog and one of the key architects of the formula, found in March that the evidence-based funding formula is working as intended. Over the past five years, funding for public schools has increased by $1.6 billion with 99% going to historically underfunded districts, closing the gap between wealthier and underfunded districts.

The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability also agrees with advocates that the formula is severely underfunded and needs more than $350 million added annually.

Center Executive Director Ralph Martire said that there should have been at least $550 million put towards the evidence-based funding after 2020, when nothing was added.

“It will take them until 2038 to fully fund the evidence-based model. So we lose another generation-and-a-half of kids to an underfunded system, which is really unfortunate,” Martire said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “It would have been nice if the state could have made an additional investment to shorten this period of time and get the educational system the resources it needs to educate students.”

The state board will also receive $45 million for the first year of a three-year pilot program to help school districts that have a large number of teacher vacancies.

Funding to support students in higher education

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship, which provides scholarships to students of color and bilingual students who want to become educators, received an increase of $3.8 million instead of the $2.8 million increase proposed by Pritzker earlier this year. The program has grown to $8 million this year.

Funding for the commission’s Monetary Award Program, a grant program that provides funding to students from low-income families for college, received an increase of $100 million and the annual budget for the 2024 fiscal year will be $701 million.

Invest In Kids not in budget

Excluded from the budget this year is the controversial Invest In Kids program, a tax-credit scholarship that provides financial assistance to students from low-income households to attend a private school and makes available a tax credit for individuals who donate to the program. Public school advocates pushed lawmakers to not include it in the budget this year.

Illinois Families for Public Schools was a key opponent to the program and asked lawmakers to allow it to sunset. Cassie Creswell, the group’s director, said that the organization is happy to see the private school choice program is not in the budget and hopes that it will end soon.

“We shouldn’t be handing over public dollars to very weakly or completely unsupervised private schools that are discriminating and teaching low-quality curriculum,” said Creswell. “And there’s no evidence that they’re being helpful because there’s no data yet on the schools and we are finishing the fifth school year.”

While it is not included in this year’s budget, Invest in Kids could be considered later in the year. A spokesperson for Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch previously said that lawmakers could approve an extension during fall’s veto session.

Illinois has a budget deal. Here’s what we know about proposed education funding for 2024.

2023-05-24T22:37:19+00:00

With the Illinois legislature in overtime to pass the state’s fiscal year 2024 budget, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, along with leadership from the general assembly, announced Wednesday that a deal had been made.

Pritzker, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, and Senate President Don Harmon said a budget will be filed in the Senate Wednesday, and once voted on in that chamber, will be sent to the House with the hopes of passing by Friday. The state’s fiscal year starts July 1.

The proposed budget appears to be similar to the one Pritzker put forward during his budget address in February — and mostly maintains a key second term initiative aimed at early childhood education. According to a document released by Pritzker’s office, the deal includes the governor’s requests for bigger investments in K-12 schools and initiatives aimed at solving the state’s teacher shortage issue.

Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois would add $250 million to the Illinois State Board of Education’s early childhood block grant this year and the state’s Department of Human Services Early Intervention Program, Child Care Assistance Program, and Home Visiting Program.

In February, the governor proposed adding $100 million for early childhood education capital investment, but the document released by his office indicates that number has decreased to $50 million.

For K-12 public schools, the state board’s evidence-based funding formula would receive an increase of $350 million — keeping in line with the bipartisan promise that state lawmakers made in 2017 when the formula was created of adding a minimum of $350 million to the state’s budget each year .

The budget proposal also includes $45 million for the first year of a three-year pilot program to fill teacher vacancies in schools across the state. In February, Pritzker proposed giving $70 million per year to school districts that have a large number of teacher vacancies.

The Monetary Award Program, which provides funding for students from low-income families to get into colleges, could receive an increase of $100 million – what Pritzker asked for in February. The program’s overall budget would be $701 million.

Becky Vevea contributed to this report.

Full-day kindergarten will be required in Illinois public schools by 2027 under bill headed to governor’s desk

2023-05-23T22:07:52+00:00

Every public school in Illinois could have full-day kindergarten by 2027, thanks to a bill passed on Friday. The bill passed 84-24 in a final house vote and is heading to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.

Under HB 2396, school districts around the state will have to offer full-day kindergarten to families with children between 4- and 6-years-old by the 2027-28 school year. School districts can continue to offer half-day kindergarten classes for families that want the option. The bill also creates a task force that will look into how school districts should implement full-day kindergarten.

First-year state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, a Democrat representing Arlington Heights and lead sponsor of the bill, applauded the general assembly for passing the bill with bipartisan support.

“I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done,” Canty said. “From the stakeholder group to advocates, to the Senate, everyone worked really hard. Not only that, I am excited because we’re helping a lot of people and that is the only reason I do this job.”

Previously, Illinois only required schools to have a half-day kindergarten program.

Early childhood education advocates have been pushing for schools to have full-day kindergarten programs. They say teachers will have more time in full-day classes to help students learn foundational skills such as the alphabet, colors, and numbers and prepare them to enter elementary school.

Canty told Chalkbeat Chicago in April that she advocated for the bill to help working families, especially working mothers who have left the workforce since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to watch their young children.

While a majority of districts in Illinois report having full-day kindergarten, about 150 do not offer a full-day program. Some have only recently started offering it. School districts around the state such as River Forest School District 90 and Downers Grove Grade School District 58 — two wealthy districts in Chicago’s suburbs — are making the switch to full-day kindergarten this fall.

Even though the bill had bipartisan support in the general assembly, school district leaders voiced concern that creating full-day kindergarten would be expensive for school districts as they try to find space for more children and hire more staff.

The bill addresses those concerns by allowing school districts to waive transitioning to full-day kindergarten by two years if the district is funding below 76% according to the state’s evidence-based funding formula, is ranked in the top 25% of needing more capital funding, or meets a criteria set by the State Board of Education based on the task force’s recommendations.

Illinois set to roll out a new literacy plan aimed at changing how students are taught to read

2023-05-19T19:48:28+00:00

The Illinois general assembly has passed a bill requiring the State Board of Education to create a literacy plan for public schools with the hopes of changing how reading is taught and to help students struggling with reading.

The Senate voted 56-0 to pass the bill — SB 2243 — Friday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Democrat who serves the city’s West Side and Western Suburbs, was a lead sponsor of several literacy bills over the years. She was on the floor Friday asking the Senate to vote in favor of SB 2243.

“Every child deserves the instruction and support that meets their needs to become a proficient reader,” said Lightford in a press release. “This initiative moves Illinois off the sidelines and into the action to fight for every student to have access to the literacy instruction they deserve.”

In 2022, only 29.9% of the state’s students between third grade and eighth grade met or exceeded state standards in reading on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness exam. That represented a 7.5 percentage point drop from 2019. Research has found that students who aren’t proficient in reading by third grade are more likely to drop out of school.

Under SB 2243, the state board must develop and adopt a comprehensive literacy plan by Jan. 31, 2024 and create a rubric by July 1, 2024. Local school districts could use the rubric to evaluate their reading lesson plans. In addition, the bill requires the state to develop training opportunities for educators by Jan. 1, 2025.

Future elementary school teachers who plan to teach students in first through sixth grade will also be tested on their knowledge of literacy on a content-area exam student teachers are required to take before they receive a license. That will begin by July 1, 2026.

The next step is for Gov. J.B. Pritzker to sign the bill into law.

The Early Literacy Coalition — a group of organizations across the state advocating for evidence-based literacy instruction — has been pushing the state to create an evidence-based reading curriculum for schools that includes teaching students the relationship between sounds and letters, like phonics. Some public schools use a now-debunked approach called “balanced literacy” which is based on the idea that reading is a natural process and mixes some phonics into “whole language” instruction. One of the leading proponents for this approach has since revised her recommended curriculum to include phonics and the science of reading.

Jessica Handy, executive director of Stand for Children Illinois, was one of the lead advocates drafting language with state lawmakers for several literacy-focused bills over the last couple of years. On Friday, Hardy said that she’s excited to see SB 2243 head to the governor’s office after negotiations with legislators.

“We can really see a tremendous amount of momentum to adopt a comprehensive literacy plan that is inclusive, that takes into account every student needs to become a strong reader and writer,” said Handy.

The State Board of Education has already taken steps toward creating a literacy plan. During Wednesday’s board meeting, the board announced plans to release a draft ]literacy plan next month. Last fall, the board held a literacy summit where many participants supported the state creating a literacy plan.

“I do absolutely see literacy as a civil right in this country that has been denied to so many,” said board member Donna Leak during Wednesday’s board meeting.

A team of educators, administrators, parents, community organizations, and experts in literacy, special education, and bilingual education are working on the draft literacy plan, state education officials said Wednesday.

After presenting a first draft of the plan during the June 21 board meeting, the state board says it will hold a listening tour during the summer, and create a second plan by the fall with more public hearings. They expect to meet the lawmakers’ deadline and finalize the literacy plan by the beginning of next year.

Illinois is not the only state revisiting how reading is taught in schools. Since 2019, over 20 states have passed bills to change how states teach literacy by requiring schools to teach phonics.

This year, states including Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, and New Mexico passed laws that require schools to teach evidence-based reading instruction, ensure that teacher preparation programs are training students on the science of reading, and require the state to create standards for literacy and create a rubric to vet curriculum.

Will Illinois tax credit scholarship end? Four things you should know about Invest In Kids

2023-05-17T17:42:30+00:00

A controversial Illinois tax credit scholarship program could end if lawmakers don’t act to extend it.

Invest in Kids — which grants tax credits to people who fund scholarships that allow Illinois students from low-income families to attend private schools — is slated to sunset Dec. 31 unless state legislators approve an extension.

Jaclyn Driscoll, a spokeswoman for Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, said lawmakers still have time to extend Invest in Kids before the end of the year. The spring legislative session is scheduled to end Friday, but state lawmakers could approve an extension during a special session or the veto session in the fall.

The Invest In Kids Act became law in 2017, when Democrats and Republicans met during closed-door negotiations to overhaul how the state funded public education and ended a budget impasse that had lasted for two years. At the time, lawmakers agreed the program, which started in the 2018-19 school year, would sunset after five years. In 2022, the state extended the program by a year, with it now set to end January 2025 unless lawmakers agree to include it in the 2024 budget.

Several bills were introduced this session to extend the program, but none have been successful.

If Invest in Kids is allowed to end, Illinois will be bucking the trend of red states such as Indiana and South Carolina that plan to establish or extend their voucher programs.

Here are four things to know about Invest in Kids.

How many students currently benefit from the tax credit scholarships?

Over 9,000 Illinois students received the tax credit scholarship during the 2021-22 school year, according to a report from the state’s Department of Revenue obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago. In prior school years, enrollment numbers remained around 7,000 students.

Students who receive the scholarships come from low-income families. Under the tax credit scholarship law, students must come from households making less than 300% of the federal poverty level — which is about $90,000 for a family of four in 2023. Once the child receives a scholarship, the family income cannot exceed 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $120,000 for a family of four.

Of the students who received scholarships to attend private school in 2021-22, 57.6% were white, 29.7% were Latino, and 17.8 % were Black, according to the state’s report obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago.

Who donates and gets tax credits?

Illinois taxpayers can make a donation to one of the six grantee organizations that provide scholarships to students — also known as Scholarship Granting Organizations — and receive a tax credit of 75 cents for every dollar they donate. The amount donated is capped at $1 million per taxpayer per year. The state Department of Revenue says that taxpayers can donate their funds to a school that they would like their contribution to benefit.

Why do people want the program to end?

Public school advocates who are against the tax scholarship program argue that Invest In Kids diverts taxpayer dollars from public schools to private schools and lacks data or oversight. Some fear schools may discriminate against students with disabilities and LGBTQ students.

Illinois Families for Public Schools has been lobbying for the past few months to get state lawmakers to end the program. Cassie Creswell, director of the organization, says the state can’t afford a private school choice program because public schools are underfunded by billions of dollars.

“It should be deeply concerning to all public school supporters,” said Creswell. “Vouchers aren’t a evidenced-based policy that improve equity or education outcomes. We shouldn’t be funding them with scarce state dollars.”

What happens if Invest In Kids sunsets this year?

It’s unclear what will happen to the 9,000 students who receive scholarships to attend private schools if the tax credit scholarship program were to sunset. State law says the Invest In Kids Act will end Jan. 1, 2025, meaning students would at least have the chance to continue going to their schools through the 2023-24 school year.

School voucher advocates remain hopeful that the general assembly and Gov. J.B. Pritzker will continue to support the program — Pritzker said yes to supporting the tax credit scholarship program in a candidate survey for the Chicago Sun-Times in the fall.

Dan Vosnos, executive director of One Chance Illinois, an advocacy group involved in creating Invest In Kids, said the program has been helpful for families who cannot afford to go to a school of their choice.

“It allows families that don’t have the means to provide their child with their best fit education,” said Vosnos. “It gives families reassurance that their kids are in a loving, caring, nurturing, safe environment getting the education that they may not have received at their neighborhood school.”

Update May 17, 2023: After the initial publication of this article, a spokesperson from the Speaker of the House said the Illinois general assembly has until the end of the year to extend Invest in Kids.

Chicago elected school board draft map underrepresents Latino students, say advocates

2023-05-10T03:09:48+00:00

The first draft of a proposed map for Chicago’s forthcoming elected school board underrepresents the Latino students who make up about 46% of Chicago Public Schools enrollment, said advocates attending a virtual public hearing on Tuesday.

Advocates who spoke at the Illinois Senate’s Special Committee on the Chicago Elected Representative School Board Districts hearing wanted to see more districts that represent Latino families and to ensure that undocumented residents can vote in future board elections. The latter would require a change to state law.

“Our students need representation who understand their communities and the challenges that they face in their daily life,” said Vanessa Espinoza, a parent with Kids First Chicago. “We know that board members who have shared experiences with the communities they serve can better understand the needs of the students.”

Espinoza called the draft map “unconscionable” because she said it underrepresents Latino families in Chicago. Kids First Chicago has published a map that will create eight Latino districts and seven Black districts, she told lawmakers.

This virtual hearing came after Illinois lawmakers released the draft map last Friday. The proposed map includes seven majority white districts, seven majority Black districts, and six majority Latino districts.

Drawing voting districts and outlining who can vote will be important for the general election in 2024, when Chicago’s Board of Education begins to transition to a fully elected school board. Chicagoans will vote for 10 board members during November 2024 elections, while 10 members and the board president will be appointed by the mayor. The board will become fully elected after the November 2026 general election.

Chicagoans have voiced concerns over the last few months about whether voting districts will reflect Chicago Public Schools enrollment, and have drawn their own maps. Chicago is majority white, while the school district’s student population is 46.5% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American.

It is unusual for lawmakers to use school district enrollment rather than city population numbers to create districts for an elected school board, but advocates say it is the only way to ensure that Black and Latino families are equitably represented.

During Tuesday’s virtual hearing, Balthazar Enriquez, president of the Little Village Community Council, called for more districts representing Latino students and for allowing undocumented residents to vote for their board members.

“The Latino community has half of the population, meaning half of the seats should be Latinos. We only got six seats,” said Enriquez. “When this bill began, the Little Village Community Council was against it because it did not include undocumented families.”

It remains unclear how many maps will be drawn during the general assembly’s map-making process. State lawmakers have published a draft map for 20 districts, and have received nine map proposals from the public, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, who represents that city’s West side and west suburbs, said Tuesday.

Among the maps submitted was one from Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting. That group’s founder and leader, Valerie Leonard, asked lawmakers at Tuesday’s hearing what they planned to do for the first round of elections.

“Will the mayor appoint 10 people to fill the vacancies of 10 districts, while 10 districts will hold elections in 2024? So effectively, only half of our city will be engaged in the election of the school board,” asked Leonard. “Will the 20 districts be coupled so that we effectively have 10 districts now and then you can kind of break them out again in 2026?”

State lawmakers face a July 1 deadline to draw Chicago’s elected school board districts, giving more time for advocates, parents, students, and educators to weigh in on how the map should look.

Illinois lawmakers release first draft of Chicago’s elected school board map

2023-05-08T16:00:58+00:00

Under a draft map released Friday, Chicago’s elected school board would eventually be drawn from 20 districts reflecting the demographics of the city overall.

The proposal from Illinois lawmakers is a long-awaited development in the school district’s shift away from mayoral control. If the draft were adopted, the school board would likely end up skewing whiter than the students it would be representing.

That’s because the draft map proposes seven majority white districts, seven majority Black districts, and six majority Latino districts. Chicago Public Schools student population is 46.5% Latino, 36% Black, 11% white, and 4% Asian American.

The public will get a chance to offer feedback before a July 1 deadline for lawmakers to approve the map. The first school board elections are scheduled for Nov. 5, 2024. At that time, 10 members will be elected and 10 members and a school board president will be appointed by the mayor. The 11 appointed seats will switch to being elected in 2026.

The debate about whether the map should reflect the makeup of the city overall or its student population has come up in recent weeks, as Chicagoans testified at public hearings. The city’s population is 33% white, 29% Black, and 29% Latino.

Two groups of Democrats — one from the state Senate and one from the House — have held public hearings about the maps. They jointly released the draft map.

A proposed map dividing Chicago into 20 districts for school board elections.

In a statement, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, who represents parts of Chicago’s West Side and is chair of the Senate’s Special Committee on the Chicago Elected Representative School Board, said the committee took into account testimony from public hearings held in recent weeks.

“This draft map is intended to continue those conversations as the legislature works toward adopting boundaries that will help empower families and uplift children,” Lightford said in a statement.

Kids First Chicago, which collected feedback from hundreds of parents and submitted its own map proposal to lawmakers last month, said the draft map should be thrown out.

“We demand legislators go back to the drawing board and create districts that are more representative of CPS,” Daniel Anello, CEO of Kids First Chicago, said in a statement Saturday.

The Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, which submitted a map with 10 districts that mostly align with current Ward boundaries for City Council, also took issue with the draft map. Valerie Leonard, the group’s leader, called it a “non-starter.”

Leonard raised questions about whether only half the city will vote for school board seats in 2024 under a proposed 20-district map. The law states “the City of Chicago shall be subdivided into 10 electoral districts for the 2024 elections and into 20 electoral districts for the 2026 elections.”

“Will the Mayor appoint 10 people to fill the vacancies of 10 districts while 10 of the districts will hold elections in 2024? Will the 20 districts be coupled, so that we effectively have 10 districts?” Leonard asked in testimony she submitted at a Saturday hearing and shared with Chalkbeat.

Others took issue with the sprawling nature of some of the proposed districts.

“This map is a gerrymandered disgrace,” Chicago Republican Party Chair Steve Boulton said in a statement. “Parents living at 79th and Western share a board district with parents in Hegewisch, 12 miles away. Parents in the West Loop share a board district with those near Marquette Park, almost nine miles away.”

The elected school board districts have to comply with the Illinois Voting Rights Act and must be “compact, contiguous, and substantially equal in population.”

The Senate’s special committee will hold a virtual meeting to gather feedback on the proposed map at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 9. It will be livestreamed on ilga.gov. The public can also provide comment at Additional opportunities to provide comment can be accessed online at www.ilsenateredistricting.com or by sending an email to ChicagoERSBCommittee@senatedem.ilga.gov.

This story has been updated with additional reaction to the draft elected school board map.

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

Chicago’s elected school board is coming soon. Here’s what you need to know.

2023-05-04T20:36:02+00:00

Chicago voters will soon see a new office on their ballots: school board.

In November 2024, voters will elect 10 members to the Chicago Board of Education as the city moves to a 21-member school board that will eventually be fully elected.

The transition marks a dramatic change for Chicago Public Schools, which has been under mayoral control since 1995. Before that, school board members were seated through a nomination process.

The law — and its subsequent trailer bill — spells out a number of rules, regulations, and processes that have to be followed before Chicagoans are voting in school board elections every two years.

Here’s a closer look at some of the details – and outstanding questions.

How will the Chicago Board of Education change?

According to the school board’s website, it is “responsible for the governance, organizational and financial oversight of Chicago Public Schools.” Its mission statement promises “to set goals and standards and make policies that make a high quality public education system available to the children of Chicago.”

Currently, seven people are appointed by the mayor. They can step down or be replaced at virtually any time. Under mayoral control, the school board has been criticized by some as a rubber stamp that made decisions behind closed doors.

Advocates who lobbied for the elected school board wanted to change that and after many years of lobbying, lawmakers passed a law in 2021 to transition to an elected school board. That law expands the size of the board from seven members to 21. For two years starting in January 2025, the board will be a mix of elected and appointed members. By January 2027, it will be fully elected.

At that point, the school board will resemble Chicago’s current City Council — except instead of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards and one mayor elected by all of Chicago, there will be 20 members elected from 20 different districts and one school board president elected at-large.

When and how will school board members be elected?

The first Chicago school board elections will be held Nov. 5, 2024. Ten members will be elected from 10 yet-to-be-determined districts representing different areas of the city. Those members will each serve a four-year term and will be up for re-election in 2028.

By Dec. 16, 2024, Mayor Brandon Johnson must also appoint 10 members from those same 10 districts to serve two-year terms. The 10 mayoral-appointed seats will switch to being elected to four-year terms in November 2026. Those seats will represent different districts at that point and will be up for re-election in 2030.

The mayor will also appoint a school board president by Dec. 16, 2024 from anywhere in the city to serve for two years starting in 2024. In Nov. 2026, all Chicago voters will elect a school board president at-large. That person will also be up for re-election in 2030.

In all, 21 new school board members — half elected, half appointed — will be sworn into office in January 2025. By January 2027, all 21 members will have been elected. From that point on, school board elections will be staggered, with half the seats up for reelection every two years.

Who can — and cannot — run for the elected school board?

Chicagoans who want to run to represent their community on the school board will have to collect 250 signatures from voters who also live in their district. Candidates for school board president will have to collect 2,500 signatures from registered Chicago voters.

Similar to other elected offices, candidates will have to submit those petitions to the Chicago Board of Elections a few months before the election in order to get on the ballot and could face challenges to the validity of their signatures. However, the threshold is far lower than other offices, like mayor, which requires 12,500 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

The dates for when school board candidates can start collecting signatures to get on the November 2024 ballot are not set yet, according to spokespeople with both the city and state Board of Elections.

A number of Chicagoans won’t be able to serve on the school board, according to the legislation.

School board members cannot be employees of Chicago Public Schools or employees or owners of companies that hold contracts with the school district. It is not clear, however, if a candidate could run and then resign from those jobs in order to serve. Like other school boards across Illinois, members also cannot hold other elected offices.

One point of contention that has come up during public hearings is that non-citizens are not allowed to vote in school board elections or run for office. This disqualifies many public school parents in Chicago and is a departure from a separate state law that allows non-citizens to vote in and serve on Local School Councils, which oversee budget and leadership decisions at individual schools. The law does call for the creation of a non-citizen advisory board appointed by the mayor, but it does not spell out what powers or responsibilities that group would have.

How will my school or community be represented?

This is perhaps the most critical — and most up-in-the-air question. The short answer is: No one knows yet.

State lawmakers from both the House and Senate have been hosting public hearings to gather feedback on how they should divide the city into districts from which school board members will be elected. The next hearing will be held virtually on Friday, May 5.

The law states “the City of Chicago shall be subdivided into 10 electoral districts for the 2024 elections and into 20 electoral districts for the 2026 elections.”

It’s not clear if lawmakers plan to draw both a 10-district map and a 20-district map by the statutorily required July 1 deadline.

State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, who represents parts of Chicago’s West Side and a handful of near western suburbs and is chairing the senate’s Special Committee on the Chicago Elected Representative School Board, said the group is evaluating input from the public, including “proposals that suggest a map with 10 districts, and submissions that call for 20 districts.”

State Rep. Ann Williams, who represents parts of Chicago’s north side and chairs a working group of House Democrats focused on Chicago’s elected school board maps, said the number of districts drawn in the next two months is still “to be determined.”

Like all electoral maps, the elected school board districts have to be “compact, contiguous, and substantially equal in population and consistent with the Illinois Voting Rights Act.”

Several groups are already advocating for representation and have proposed maps, including Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and Kids First Chicago.

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

Illinois Teacher of the Year helps students process gun violence through writing and poetry

2023-04-28T22:22:43+00:00

East St. Louis teacher Briana Morales and a group of her students at Gordon Bush Alternative Center had just started their regular morning task of making school announcements when their routine was interrupted.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders and Bush principal Darnell Spencer had stopped by with some unexpected news: Morales had been named Illinois Teacher of the Year.

Morales, who has been in the classroom only six years, teaches English at Bush, an alternative school that serves a majority of Black students from low-income families. She was recognized for using writing and poetry to help her students process poverty, personal loss, and violence.

The first thought that came to her mind after she learned of the award on April 17 was “You really, really outdid yourself with this one!” – a phrase she often says to her students.

With state funding that she will receive from winning the award, Morales will take a year off, starting in July, to work with other teachers across the state, mentor early-career teachers, and represent Illinois in the National Teacher of the Year program.

Chalkbeat Chicago spoke with Morales to talk about her time as a teacher so far.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Illinois Teacher of the Year Briana Morales and students she works with at Gordon Bush Alternative School.

Why did you want to become a teacher?

I became a teacher because I had a phenomenal middle school English teacher. In seventh grade, I was struggling with complex life changes at home and I experienced a lot of trauma as a child. My teacher at the time tried to equip me with the skills to battle everything that I was going through. She taught me how to write poetry as a way to cope. I wrote my first poetry book in her class and I never stopped writing. It was powerful to have an adult to see me for what I was going through and not just as some random kid in their classroom.

You’ve spent the majority of your career teaching at an alternative school. Why?

I think alternative education is representative of the underdog in all of us. They are the kids that you’re rooting for to turn the tide and be who they want to be with the right resources. These are kids who may have unmet needs and lagging skills, but one caring adult can break the chains for so many children. We have a moral responsibility to ensure that every child has access to equitable experiences that allow them to be their authentic selves, especially in alternative education.

Writing and poetry were a way for you to process trauma in your life as a student. How have you used those experiences to work with your students today?

I was named an early career educator of color by the National Council for Teacher of English in 2021. Along with working with a cohort of educators across the country, I was able to work on a two-year research project with our students where we focused on writing poetry. Some of the lessons that we used in class were asking students to write about group up in East St. Louis because while every kid in that community may have overlapping experiences, their lived experiences are vastly different. In order to dismantle single stories and provide counter narrative for marginalized communities, poetry allows students to decide for themselves “What am I seeing and What do I make of it?”

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom?

Gun violence. I have lost a lot of students to gun violence. We are fortunate to have a wraparound wellness center in East St. Louis that has a 24-hour on-site trauma response team for some of the adverse experiences that my students might be dealing with. However, when we think about the toll that adverse childhood experiences have not just on a student, but also their family, the community, and then the educators that serve them. Not only am I trying to support a young person through navigating what it looks like to lose a sibling or classmate, I’m trying to figure out what that looks like for me. Having to console students, take them to funerals, helping families fundraise for a headstone and other things have greatly impacted my career.

Throughout Illinois, communities are being hit hard by gun violence. It’s often difficult for teachers to talk about it with their students. How do you start a conversation with students about gun violence?

I’m Mexican, something that is important to me and sharing with my students is the belief that there is more time than there is life. We may live a different life on the other side, and the only way that we can do that is if someone keeps our memory alive. I’m big on talking about memories and the legacies that people leave behind every year. I allow my students to share memories of loved ones, think of activities to do to honor that person, and brainstorm organizations that we want to donate to in that person’s spirit, so that we can carry their life on.

As a teacher, you prioritize your students’ mental health. What else can districts or the state do to support teachers and students?

We need to honor the fact that mental health needs to be addressed by a professional who is not a teacher. There need to be changes to legislation and policy to ensure that all students have access to mental health professionals in their school building on a daily basis, at the level that they need. There need to be resources available for school districts to create partnerships with community organizations that may not be able to afford a mental health professional in schools to meet with students and their families.

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

“Find your marigold.” Educators use the term “marigold” to think about the people you gravitate towards, get advice from, and sustain you in the work that could be a colleague or a friend. It’s really important for newer educators to find people to support you and remind you of your why. You need people to guide you through difficult times, because as high as the mountains are sometimes in education, the valleys are also very low.

As Illinois children struggle to read, lawmakers want the state to create a literacy plan

2023-04-24T22:26:50+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and statewide education policy.

Illinois may soon have to create a statewide literacy plan aimed at helping students learn how to read.

Several bills regarding literacy — backed by a coalition of education advocates, teachers, and parents — are currently moving through the state legislature. The bills would require the state board of education to create a literacy plan for school districts, create a rubric for districts to judge reading curriculum, and provide professional development for educators.

The Illinois Early Literacy Coalition has raised alarms about the lack of science of reading, which include phonics, in schools around the state. Some local schools use an approach called “balanced literacy,” which is based on a philosophy that reading is a natural process and mixes some phonics into “whole language” instruction.

That approach has come under fire in recent years, with some families and students taking action against school districts for not teaching students how to read. A group of Michigan students sued the state in 2020 for not providing them with a proper education. In recent years, a number of states, including Connecticut, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Delaware, have passed laws requiring phonics.

Members of the Illinois coalition have spoken at the State Board of Education’s monthly meetings and worked with legislators to create and push bills in Springfield this session. With just a month left of the legislative session, two of the six bills the coalition helped write are moving closer to passage.

The first bill, which has similar versions in the Senate and House, would require the State Board of Education to adopt a literacy plan for school districts by Jan. 31, 2024. The second bill, called the Literacy and Justice For All Act, would require the state board to create a rubric for districts to evaluate literacy curriculum and create professional development for educators.

The early literacy coalition and state officials spoke at a press briefing on Monday about the state of literacy in Illinois and how the bills will change how school districts teach literacy.

State Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a first-year lawmaker representing neighborhoods on the west side of Chicago, said she is sponsoring the Literacy and Justice For All Act in the House because she saw how the lack of science-based reading impacts students. Faver Dias taught high school history in Chicago Public Schools and said her students were not fluent readers. As a young teacher, she struggled with how to support them.

“There’s an ineffective reading curriculum that encourages students to guess from pictures and context clues, rather than decoding the words,” Faver Dias said. “By the time the students had come to me in high school, the words were more complex and the pictures were gone.”

Illinois test scores from the 2021-22 school year show that only 29.9% of students from third to eighth grades met state standards in reading, a 7.5 percentage point drop from 2019. Over the last year, parents, educators, and advocates have been pushing the state to focus on literacy.

If students are not proficient in reading by the end of third grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of school or fail to graduate, according to a national study.

This is a concern for parents such as Louise Dechovitz, a parent in Avoca School District 37. Dechovitz said her son has struggled with reading since kindergarten and required extra help during the school day. Still, Dechovitz said, he wasn’t improving.

When Dechovitz raised concerns, she said at the press briefing on Monday, she was often told not to worry, she just needed to keep reading to him and find books he liked. When her son was younger he loved story time, she said, but when he tried to read to himself he flipped through the books, simply reciting the words he memorized at school.

“Then he would throw the book across the room in anger,” she said. “He couldn’t decode those words”

In fourth grade, Dechovitz’s son failed his state exam and was falling further behind in reading, comprehension, spelling, and writing.

Dechovitz, whose family put in a lot of time and money to help her son learn how to read, said her son’s experience has fueled her advocacy around literacy. She wants to ensure that all children have access to effective literacy strategies.

Illinois could require school districts to have full-day kindergarten by 2027

2023-04-20T22:19:56+00:00

Illinois State Rep. Mary Beth Canty and her husband remember struggling to balance full-time jobs and picking up two children — who are currently in sixth and third grade — from their half-day kindergarten program in Arlington Heights District 25.

She also noticed that the then-kindergartners were loaded with homework because there wasn’t enough time to get through the material in the two-and-a-half-hour half-day session.

Now, Arlington Heights plans to start offering full-day kindergarten in the 2024-25 school year. Canty, a first-year lawmaker representing Arlington Heights, thinks that is the right move for all districts in Illinois.

She has introduced a bill that would mandate full-day kindergarten for school districts around the state by the 2027-28 school year. The bill, HB 2396, would also require the state to create a task force to examine full-day kindergarten in 2024.

The bill has already passed the house with bipartisan support and is in the Senate’s education committee where it will go up for a hearing on April 25.

Parents, educators, and advocates want school districts to offer full-day programs because they say teachers would have more time to help children learn foundational skills such as their alphabets, colors, and numbers, working parents would have child care covered, and students would be better prepared to enter elementary school. But some critics have concerns about additional costs, staffing, and space at local schools.

Illinois currently requires school districts to have half-day kindergarten. In 2021-22, over 700 of the state’s 852 school districts reported full-day kindergarten enrollments, but that could include students enrolled in half-day programs who are receiving other services throughout the day, a Chalkbeat analysis of data from the Illinois State Board of Education found. Districts report more full-day programs enrollments than half-day enrollments, according to the analysis.

According to the Education Commission of the States, 17 states and Washington D.C. required full-day kindergarten as of 2020.

In Illinois, Gov. J.B Pritzker earlier this year announced his Smart Start Plan to increase funding for early childhood education and child care in the state for children who are 3 and 4 years old. Canty believes that the state also needs to make sure that all 5-year-olds have access to full-day kindergarten.

Full-day kindergarten benefits students and their families — especially mothers who have left the workforce since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to watch their children, Canty said.

“If we believe in our kids and we want a strong economy, this is how we do it,” said Canty. “We invest in our youngest, we invest in our families, and we make it possible for them to participate meaningfully.”

State mandate could increase full-day kindergarten enrollment

Without mandated full-day kindergarten, education advocates worry that parents will not enroll their children in kindergarten and might be forced to shuffle them around to different family members’ homes while they work.

Erean Mei, a kindergarten teacher at KIPP Academy Chicago Primary, supports the full-day kindergarten bill because she sees it as a way to create equal opportunities for children regardless of their socioeconomic status.

“I think the bill addresses an equity question of children who grow up in a home where parents are able to pick them up from a half-day program versus those who are not able to access kindergarten,” Mei said.

In Illinois, parents are not required to send their children to school until they turn 6. During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Illinois saw a drop in the number of students enrolled in kindergarten in 2021 because parents worried about their young children contracting COVID-19 or had trouble managing remote learning and work.

A study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that students in full-day programs had significant gains in reading and math and social and emotional skills. Teachers were also able to get through more curriculum with students.

Some districts without full-day kindergarten are already adding it

Until COVID shuttered schools in 2020, River Forest School District 90 leaders didn’t see the added benefits of a full-day kindergarten when they discussed it in 2011 and 2015.

Then the pandemic hit and Superintendent Alison Hawley said she saw a gap in resources between students from low-income families and those in affluent families.

“We have more dual-income earners in our district than we did previously and family needs are changing,” said Hawley. “We’re changing standards for our kindergarten students. The academic standards are designed for a full year and we have a half-day program.”

River Forest’s Board of Education decided in February to expand its kindergarten program after getting input from families, educators, and community members. To prepare for the full-day program, the 1,300-student district will need to hire a few more teachers — especially if enrollment increases, according to Hawley.

River Forest is one of several Illinois districts switching to a full-day program this fall. While a majority of districts in the state report having full-day kindergarten, about 100 do not offer a full-day program. Some are slowly making the transition to full-day kindergarten without a law in place.

Downers Grove Grade School District 58 is another school district that decided in February to switch to free, full-day kindergarten for the 2023-24 school year.

Since 2015, Downers Grove has offered families free half-day kindergarten in the morning and a tuition-based full-day program in the afternoon. Next year, the district will offer a free full-day program for 5-year-olds, after receiving more funding through local tax revenue to work on updating older buildings in the district.

According to Downers Grove Superintendent Kevin Russell, the district had considered full-day programming for nearly two decades, but it was impossible without additional funding. Both River Forest and Downers Grove serve wealthier communities.

Russell worries that without additional funding to increase space and staffing, less affluent districts will have a hard time shifting to the full-day program mandated in Canty’s bill.

“When we’re talking about full-day kindergarten in a historic teacher shortage with a lack of a funding mechanism for more staff and facilities, this is a really daunting challenge for school districts,” said Russell. “Many of my colleagues have expressed that they don’t know how they’re going to make this happen.”

Opponents say funding and space are barriers

Emily Warnecke, director of public relations and deputy director of governmental relations for the Illinois Association of School Board Administrators, said her organization supports the idea of full-day kindergarten but believes more work needs to be done first.

“We know that there are districts that want to be able to do this,” said Warnecke, “but they just do not have the space and they would need the money to fund the construction to add those spaces.”

Before the state mandates full-day programs, Warnecke believes it should create a task force to study which districts have full-day kindergarten and the barriers districts that don’t face.

Canty said she understands concerns about funding, but hopes that extending the time to shift to full-day programs to the 2027-28 school year will make the transition smoother for districts.

Under the current version of the bill, districts can waive creating a full-day program for two years after the initial date if the district is funding below 70% according to the state’s evidence-based funding formula, is ranked in the top 25% of needing more capital funding, or meets a criteria set by the State Board of Education based on the task force’s recommendations.

How are education bills doing as Illinois’ legislative session hits the halfway point?

2023-04-10T21:36:27+00:00

With the Illinois legislative session at its midway point, bills targeting literacy, full-day kindergarten, and the informal removal of students with disabilities from school appear to have gained momentum in Springfield.

Lawmakers, who are off for spring break this week, have debated hundreds of bills over the last couple of months. Some have moved from one chamber to the next, while others have not been brought to a floor vote in either the House or Senate — which means that they don’t have a pathway to Gov. J.B Pritzker’s desk.

Chalkbeat Chicago has been following bills related to school funding, early childhood education, and teacher training during this session. But other issues also have gained traction, including an anti-book banning bill, a requirement to teach Native American history in schools, and a bill to require full-day kindergarten.

Here is an update on what Chalkbeat Chicago is tracking:

Bills that are moving:

Anti-book banning bill: Amid a conservative-led push to challenge books about race and LGBTQ issues, House Bill 2789 stands out. It would prevent libraries and library systems from banning books, or risk losing state grants. This bill has moved from the House to the Senate.

Native American history curriculum: House Bill 1633 will require schools to teach Native American history in every social studies course related to American history or government. Students in sixth to 12th grade will study genocide and discrimination against Native Americans as well as tribal sovereignty and treaties made between tribal nations and the United States. This house bill is currently in the Senate.

Task force on children’s mental health: In February, Pritzker spoke about the need to bring together state agencies that focus on children’s mental health to make it easier for families to navigate and access state resources. To address this concern, Senate Bill 0724 would create the Interagency Children’s Behavioral Health Services Act and require the state to establish a Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Officer who will lead the state’s efforts to work across state agencies to make it easier for families to access services. This bill has moved from the Senate and is in the House.

Decreasing transfers to alternative schools: To ensure families are aware of a student’s rights when being transferred to an alternative school, Senate Bill 0183 would require school districts to create an “Alternative School Bill of Rights.” The bill of rights would include information about the alternative school program, such as the curriculum, number of students, a typical daily schedule, and extracurricular activities. The bill also requires a transition meeting at least 30 days prior to a student transferring back to a traditional public school. This bill is currently in the House’s rules committee.

Full-day kindergarten: Illinois allows school districts to provide either half-day or full-day kindergarten programs for young learners. If passed, House Bill 2396 will require school districts to provide full-day programs by 2027-28 school year — instead of 2023-24 in an earlier version of the bill. The bill will also create a task force to conduct a statewide audit of kindergarten programs and offer recommendations to the state board of education. This bill passed through the House and is currently in the Senate.

Creating a statewide literacy plan: Senate Bill 2243 will require the state board of education to develop and adopt a comprehensive literacy plan for the state between Oct. 1 and Jan. 31, 2024. This bill sailed through the Senate with no opposition and is currently in the House.

Reporting informal removals of students with disabilities: House Bill 3600 will require schools to send a written notice to parents if students are sent home early during the school day, given in-school suspension, or told not to come to school. If a student with disabilities is removed from school 10 times during the school year, the school must hold a meeting with the student’s individual education program team or Section 504 plan team to discuss or create a behavioral intervention plan. This bill is currently making its way through the Senate after passing the House.

Bills with uncertain futures:

Supporting school-age migrant youth: In the fall, Texas officials bused hundreds of people who crossed the U.S-Mexico border to Illinois — many are school-age children. To support migrant students, House Bill 2822 would require the state board of education to create a new grant program for public schools. This bill did not make it out of the House’s appropriations for elementary and secondary education committee.

Screening children for dyslexia: Companion bills in the House and Senate would require public schools to screen students for dyslexia in grades K-2, starting with the 2023-24 school year. The bill would have also required the state board of education to create guidelines in the dyslexia handbook to screen children for dyslexia and other reading difficulties. While the House bill moved out of committee, it was not called for a vote on the House floor. The Senate version of the bill has also not moved out of committee.

Other bills supporting students’ mental health: There are several bills focusing on students’ mental health that have not moved in Springfield. House Bill 3361 would have required the state board of education to establish a new grant program for schools. House Bill 1234 would have required all schools to post information about mental health resources offered by the school and state. House Bill 1243 would have created a mental health course for students in grades K-12 during the 2024-25 school year. And House Bill 1107 would require schools to develop and implement a plan to support students who have experienced traumatic events. None of these bills have moved out of committees in the House.

Illinois school funding formula is closing funding gaps for students of color, says report

2023-03-09T23:34:30+00:00

Six years after Illinois overhauled how the state funds K-12 public schools, a new report has found that the evidence-based funding formula is working as intended to reduce funding gaps.

The formula has increased funding to public schools over the last five years by $1.6 billion, with 99% going to historically underfunded districts, found a report by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability — one of the key architects of the formula. The additional money is helping close funding gaps between wealthier districts and underfunded districts and increase funding for districts serving more students of color and students from low-income families, which was the goal of the law passed in 2017 that created the new formula.

That formula calculates a target funding level for every district based on the characteristics of the students they serve. For example, districts get additional money for English language learners, which can be used to hire bilingual teachers. The goal was to get each district “adequately funded” by 2027.

The evidence-funding formula distributes funding based on tiers, which determine the level of need for state funding. Tiers one and two receive a larger share of state funding, while tiers three and four receive a smaller amount of state funding, Local property tax revenue and the number of students from low-income families attending the district can impact the tier a district is in and the amount of funding it will receive in the next fiscal year.

Every year, a complex calculation is run to determine how much state money a school district will get. Last year, Chicago Public Schools unexpectedly got less state money than it anticipated under the evidence-based formula. That was partly due to an increase in local property tax revenue, a drop in enrollment, and a dip in low-income students.

When the evidence-based funding formula started in fiscal year 2018, 657 of the state’s 852 districts, or 77%, were underfunded. In six years since, the number of underfunded districts has declined to 597, or 70%, according to the report.

The report found that when the formula overhauled the state’s education funds in 2018, Black students and Latino students received more funding per pupil — decreasing the racial funding gap between white students and students of color.

The change in the state’s funding formula has improved funding for schools across the state. The average annual per pupil distribution of new funding made to districts located in Downstate Illinois was $183, the highest for any region across the state.

Despite gains from evidence-based funding, the formula is still underfunded, said report author Allison Flanagan.

“The next step for the state is to increase the amount of new funding that goes into the formula,” Flanagan told Chalkbeat. “It’s unlikely that they’re going to get full funding by the statute limit at the end of fiscal year 2027. Increasing funding to $550 million each year is going to help get us there sooner.”

The report does not include an analysis of student academic achievements based on state funding because it takes about 10 years to see the impact of long-term policy changes, Flanagan said. However, she noted that if the state fully funds the formula faster, the impact on students may become clearer.

Since 2018, the state has added new funding into the formula every year, except in 2021 when the coronavirus pandemic rattled the state’s economy and Gov, J.B. Pritzker decided to keep the education budget flat. At the current rate of funding, it could take until fiscal year 2038 before the formula is fully funded, according to the Center on Tax and Budget Accountability’s press release.

A House bill currently in committee in the Illinois general assembly would require the minimum funding to be $550 million instead of $350 million.

Pritzker proposes $70 million program to hire and retain teachers amid Illinois teacher shortage

2023-03-03T20:36:30+00:00

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has proposed a three-year, $70 million pilot program in the state’s 2024 budget that would help school districts hire and retain educators amid the state’s ongoing teacher shortage.

Pritzker’s plan, called The Teacher Pipeline Grant Program, identifies 170 school districts across the state with the most vacancies; these districts account for 80% of unfilled teacher positions in Illinois. Pritzker estimates that 870,000 public school students would see an improved teacher-to-student ratio in the future under the initiative.

“Parents and children deserve schools that are fully staffed with quality educators,” Pritzker said at a press conference to announce the new grant program on Friday morning.

Pritzker said districts can create their own plans for how funding from the initiative should be used to attract new teachers. Schools could use the funding for sign-up bonuses, housing stipends, tuition assistance, professional development, and other approaches to address the teacher shortage in their districts, he said.

Pritzker said he hopes the program will attract teachers from abroad and surrounding states to join the teacher workforce in Illinois.

Some school districts have also used federal emergency coronavirus relief funds for programs to attract more teachers, since the COVID-19 pandemic heightened staff shortages in schools.

In January, the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools released a survey showing that the teacher shortage has worsened. A majority of school leaders from 690 districts said that the shortage is as bad or worse than last school year and applicants who apply aren’t qualified for open positions.

School districts across the state struggle to fill openings for special education, bilingual education, STEM courses, and support positions. The survey found that districts in towns and rural areas in east-central and west-central Illinois had more vacancies.

State Superintendent Tony Sanders applauded Pritzker for creating a plan to support teacher hiring.

“The experience of teaching is incredible,” Sanders said. “It is not teaching itself that’s causing the teacher shortage but the systemic inequalities present in our most under-resourced districts.”

The State Board of Education last year created a $4 million grant to support teachers who wanted to get a bilingual educator endorsement. The state has also expanded the Minority Teacher Illinois Scholarship, which is aimed at increasing the number of teachers of color and bilingual educators, to $4.2 million. Under Pritzker’s recent budget plan, he proposed another increase to the scholarship to a total of $7 million.

The general assembly will have to approve Pritzker’s new initiative in the 2024 budget at the end of the current legislative session.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the grant program would target 170 schools rather than 170 school districts.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker releases roadmap for Illinois agencies to better address youth mental health

2023-02-24T23:57:42+00:00

Illinois should respond more quickly and broadly to its youth mental health crisis, according to a report that Gov. J.B. Pritzker, mental health care advocates, and researchers released Friday highlighting how the state can better assist young children and teens.

Pritzker pledged to follow its recommendations.

“I refuse to let our youth fall through the cracks,” he said at a press conference on Friday.

Mental health crises among youth spiked during the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 40% of all young people in Illinois who experienced major depressive episodes were not able to receive mental health services last year, the report said.

The report provides a roadmap to provide better and accessible care for young people. Currently, families have to navigate mental health services from six different state departments which makes it harder for families to get services quickly. Recognizing the roadblocks, Pritzker created the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative last year to evaluate solutions for families in need.

The initiative’s report, “Blueprint for Transformation,” makes 12 recommendations for the state to follow. These include creating a central resource for families, improving coordination between departments, increasing capacity to serve more children and families, offering universal screening in schools and doctors’ offices, and offering incentives to mental health support staff to earn professional credentials.

Incoming state schools Superintendent Tony Sanders applauded the recommendations.

“Any student in need of behavioral health treatment deserves access to quality care, and it is essential that parents, educators, and school districts know how to help them receive that care,” Sanders said in a statement.

For more than a year, the coronavirus pandemic isolated children from their peers and schools. Even after schools reopened in fall 2021, students still had to worry about catching COVID-19. Many lost loved ones and family security, and endured gun violence, food insecurity, and homelessness.

While Illinois ranked 13th among states in providing mental health services to youth according to the Mental Health America, nearly 40% of its young people who have experienced major depressive episodes were not able to receive mental health care. The U.S. surgeon general reported that it takes an average of 11 years for a young person with an identified mental health condition to receive treatment across the nation.

Illinois spreads its mental health services across several state departments, including Human Services, Healthcare and Family Services, Children and Family Services, Juvenile Justice, Public Health and the Illinois State Board of Education. The state suffers from a worker shortage and does not provide services in certain areas. As a result, patients experience significant wait times in emergency rooms and for psychiatric inpatient units.

Recently the state took steps to improve mental health services for youth. The Department of Healthcare and Family services introduced its Pathways to Success initiative in December to help guide families through new services for mental health. Pritzker’s recently released budget proposal included $10 million toward comprehensive community-based youth services for youth ages 11 to 17 who are at risk of being directed to the child welfare system or the juvenile justice system.

In the initiative’s next step, the state will produce a plan in October to guide work on statewide mental health services for children and adolescents.

School funding, literacy, migrant students: Education issues to watch in the Illinois legislative session

2023-02-24T16:43:04+00:00

Funding for K-12 schools, early childhood education, and student mental health will be key issues during the Illinois general assembly’s spring session.

State legislators returned to the capitol in late January and have been holding committee meetings, filling hundreds of bills, and working on the state’s budget for fiscal year 2024, which starts on July 1, 2023.

Here are six education issues Chalkbeat Chicago will watch during session:

Illinois could increase funding for early childhood education, K-12

In the $49.6 billion operating budget Gov. J.B. Pritzker proposed last week, he pushed for increased funding for early childhood education, K-12 school, and access to college and universities. Now legislators must decide where funding goes in the state’s budget.

If the state legislature goes with Pritzker’s proposal to put $250 million into early childhood education and child care workers, it would push the state closer to universal pre-kindergarten for the state’s youngest learners, make it easier for low-income families to get affordable child care, and increase pay for early childhood educators and child care workers to promote recruiting and retention.

The general assembly could increase the Illinois State Board of Education’s budget by $571.5 million, including $350 million toward the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 schools and $75 million for the Early Childhood Block Grant, as proposed by Pritzker. State education advocates say there needs to be a larger investment in K-12 schools and are calling for $550 million.

State Rep. William Davis, who represents suburbs that are south west of Chicago, has introduced a bill, HB 2792, that would require the state legislature to add a minimum of $550 million toward the state’s evidence-based funding formula. If passed and signed into law, it would take effect July 1, 2023.

Will kindergarten be expanded?

Currently, school districts are allowed to provide either half-day or full-day kindergarten for young learners. Research shows when schools switched from a half-day to full-day program, more children enrolled and attendance improved. Under HB 2396, a bill currently assigned to the House’s Child Care Accessibility & Early Childhood Education Committee, school districts would be required to create full-day kindergarten beginning with the 2023-24 school year.

According to the State Board of Education, districts do not report what type of kindergarten program they offer. In 2021-22, over 700 districts reported full-day kindergarten enrollments, but that may include students enrolled in half-day programs who are also receiving other services for the remainder of the day.

In some cases, the lack of full-day kindergarten is due to financial constraints. But Illinois also does not require students to attend school until age 6, or first grade. A separate bill, HB3143, would lower the required age to 5, but that bill does not currently have any co-sponsors.

Literacy advocates want evidence-based reading programs

The Right to Read Act was a major issue before it hit a snag in negotiations last year. The original bill would have required the State Board of Education to create a list of evidence-based reading programs, offer grants and professional development to schools, and require teacher preparation programs to give teacher candidates a reading assessment for licnesure.

This year, lawmakers have divided up the tenets of last year’s bill into three new bills. Each one has been introduced by State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, who represents northwest suburbs outside of Chicago, and sponsored the Right to Read Act last year.

The first bill, SB 2243, would require the State Board of Education to create a literacy plan for the state on or before Oct. 1, 2023. SB 2244 would outline how districts use state funding from the Reading Improvement Block Grant Program to provide evidence-based literacy curriculum to students. SB 2245 would create the Literacy and Justice for All Act and require the State Board of Education to create a rubric for school districts to evaluate reading instruction programs and develop literacy plans and guidance on evidence-based practice. The bill would also require the state board to create training opportunities for teachers and require teacher candidates to take a test in reading foundation before receiving a license.

Schools would be required to report informal removals

A bill that would collect data on students with disabilities who are removed from school buildings during the school year has been revived this session after hitting a roadblock last year.

State Rep. Michelle Mussman, a Democrat who serves Schamburg, a northwest suburb of Chicago, has introduced HB 3600 which would require any school removal to be documented with a notice to parents about the reason a student has been removed. The bill would also require the school to hold a meeting with a student’s Individualized Education Program team or Section 504 plan team if the number of days removed exceeds 10 days in a school year.

Special education advocates such as Access Living have advocated for such a bill over the past year because parents of students with disabilities are often called to pick up their child during the school day for informal removals. Since this action isn’t a formal removal — such as a suspension — there may not be a record of how many times a student has been removed from school.

Schools would get resources to educate migrant youth

Since the fall, thousands of people who migrated to the U.S. by crossing the Mexico border have been bused to Illinois by Texas officials. Many of the migrants are seeking asylum. Roughly 425 are school-aged children, state officials told Chalkbeat Chicago last fall. That number has likely grown since then. This week, WBEZ reported that the Chicago Teachers Union estimates that 1,200 school-aged children have arrived since the fall.

HB 2809 would support those migrant students by requiring the State Board of Education to create New Arrivals Student Grants for schools. Before awarding grant money to schools, the state board can consider the number of new arrival students enrolled in pre-K to 12th grade schools, the needs of the students, and the ability of the school to meet those needs.

Bills center on student mental health needs

The coronavirus pandemic had a major impact on student’s mental health. In 2021, 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row and stopped doing their usual activities, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly 60% of girls and nearly 70% of LGBQ+ students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, the report found. More than 20% of LGBQ+ students and 10% of girls attempted suicide, the CDC found

Several bills before the general assembly would address the mental health needs of students.

HB 3361 would require the State Board of Education to establish a School-Based Mental Health Services Grant program to help schools provide extra mental health services to students. HB 1234 would require all schools receiving public funds to post information detailing mental health resources provided by the school and state. That information must be posted somewhere students can easily access it.

HB 1243 would create a course in the 2024-25 school year on mental health to help students identify signs of anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness. Students between kindergarten and 12th grade would take the course every year for at least one semester,

HB 1107 would require schools to develop and implement a plan to support students who have experienced traumatic events.

Gov. Pritzker wants to increase Illinois education funding by 6.2% in 2024

2023-02-15T21:47:11+00:00

This story has been updated with reactions to Pritzker’s speech.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday revealed his 2024 budget proposal — laying out a vision for a second term in office that includes ambitious funding plans for early childhood education and higher education.

Pritzker wants to increase the state’s funding for pre-K-12 education by 6.2% next year. His overall 2024 proposal would boost the state’s operating budget to $49.6 billion, an 11% increase over last year.

Throughout his first term in office, Pritzker said, he worked to balance the state’s budget and increase the state revenue — even when COVID-19 shook the state’s economy. With the state in a better financial position, Pritzker is recommending an increase in funding for early childhood education and child care programs.

His proposal still needs the approval of state lawmakers.

“I ask you to partner with me once again,” Pritzker said to the general assembly Wednesday in his annual State of the State address. “This time on the long-term investment that has the greatest return for taxpayers with the most positive social and economic impact that I have ever come to you with.”

Pritzker was referring to his four-year plan called Smart Start Illinois for early childhood education and child care that will create 20,000 seats for young learners. In the first year, the governor plans to increase funding to the state’s child care programs by $250 million and create 5,000 seats in preschool classrooms for 3- and 4-year-olds.

For K-12 education, the State Board of Education’s general funding would increase by $571.5 million, a 6.2% increase, for a total budget of $10.3 billion. That includes a $75 million increase to the Early Childhood Block Grant and a $350 million increase to state’s funding for K-12 schools — keeping in line with the state’s bipartisan promise in 2017 to add at least $350 million a year to the evidence-based formula.

The State Board of Education would also receive an additional $86.4 million for special education and transportation grants, and money for two new initiatives that will support computer science and ease the teacher workforce shortage. The latter would fund the first year of a three-year pilot program that would give $70 million per year to school districts that have a large number of teacher vacancies.

To help more students from low-income families access higher education, Pritzker wants to add $100 million to the Monetary Award Program, increasing the program’s overall budget to $701 million.

Funding for the Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship would go from $4.2 million to $7 million for the program that aims to bring more teachers of color — especially men of color and those in bilingual education — into the educator pipeline.

Pritzker’s plan falls in line with the recommendation the State Board of Education made in January during its monthly meeting. Former State Superintendent Carmen Ayala requested $516 million, with $350 million for K-12 schools and a $60 million increase to early childhood education. The rest of the funding would go to transportation, special education, and free school meals.

However, education advocates are pushing the state to add at least $550 million to the evidence-based funding formula to support K-12 schools and get the state back on track to fully funding schools by 2027.

Advocates also wanted an increase of 20% across all early childhood education programs through the State Board of Education and the state’s Department of Human Services to make early education affordable for low-income families and increase pay for early childhood educators, who are often women of color and work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

The general assembly will debate the 2024 budget before voting on it at the end of the spring legislative session in May.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers unions in the state, said it shares Pritzker’s concerns about staffing shortages from preschool to higher education and will work with the governor to implement his $70 million pilot program.

“The teacher and school staff shortage is having a dramatic impact on states across the nation and Illinois is no exception,” said Dan Montgomery, president of IFT, which also supported Pritzker’s proposal to increase higher education funding.

Start Early, a nonprofit organization that focuses on early childhood education throughout Illinois, commended Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois Initiative.

“This is a banner day for early childhood in Illinois, and Start Early looks forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to enact a budget that does right by infants and toddlers across the state,” said Ireta Gasner, Start Early vice president of Illinois policy.

PEER Illinois, a statewide advocacy group, applauded Pritzker’s proposal to expand child care and urged the state to put more than $350 million toward the evidence-based funding formula.

“To do less diminishes one of the state’s most highly regarded tools for advancing equity while reducing Illinois’ stated commitment to equity in funding K-12 education to rhetoric,” PEER Illinois said in a statement. “At its current rate of EBF funding, nearly two more generations of Illinois children will receive an inadequately funded education.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker renews pre-K expansion push with 2024 budget proposing $250 million increase

2023-02-15T10:00:00+00:00

Gov. J.B. Pritzker promised in 2019 to bring universal preschool to all Illinois children after being elected. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Today, he’s picking up where he left off with a budget proposal that adds $250 million to early childhood programs.

“I would have done it in year one if the dollars had been available to do it,” Pritzker said Tuesday in a briefing with reporters. He said enhancing early childhood care and education is a “win-win” that will remobilize the workforce and boost the state’s economy “now and in the decades ahead.”

Pritzker is proposing a four-year plan he’s calling Smart Start Illinois that will create 20,000 additional seats for 3- and 4-year-olds in preschool programs. Just over 76,000 students are currently enrolled in pre-K in Illinois public schools.

Pritzker is seeking a $75 million increase to the Illinois State Board of Education’s Early Childhood Block Grant to create 5,000 new preschool spots for children this coming school year. The Illinois Department of Human Services will receive a $40 million increase for early intervention programs that support children with disabilities under the age of 3, $5 million more for the home visiting program, and $70 million more for the Child Care Assistance Program — which didn’t see an increase in the state’s 2023 budget. That department will also receive $20 million to upgrade its payment system for providers.

Smart Start Illinois includes two entirely new initiatives. The first — a $130 million effort called the Childcare Workforce Compensation Contracts — is aimed at increasing the salaries of child care workers and bringing more educators into the field. The other is a $100 million Early Childhood Construction Grant Program to help child care providers improve building and facilities that they use.

After being re-elected in November, Pritzker said he wanted to make Illinois the number one state for child care access during his second term in office. With the spring legislation session in full swing in Springfield, Pritzker has signaled that early childhood education and child care access for families is his top priority.

Early childhood education advocates are pushing the state to increase funding for early education and child care by 20% — or $120 million — to help increase compensation for workers, who are predominantly women or color, and to address access gaps around the state. The State Board of Education proposed a 10% — or $60 million — increase for the early childhood education block grant in January during a monthly board meeting. Pritzker’s plan would fall in between the two figures.

While some have forecast that a recession or economic downturn will hit the nation’s economy this year, Pritzker said the state’s finances are in a better position to make a larger investment in early childhood education.

The proposed expansion comes amid declining birth rates and after a decrease in enrollment for early learners in preschool and kindergarten in the state. Many parents couldn’t keep their children home because they had to work or didn’t see the need for remote preschool.

Illinois law doesn’t require parents to start sending their children to school until they’re 6 years old, which allows families to keep children at home until they enter first grade.

Pritzker said the state will continue to work with private providers and school districts to create additional seats in preschools and help them market their services. The state also has a bilingual public campaign to attract families with young children.

On Wednesday afternoon, Pritzker will give a budget address and State of the State speech that will highlight his entire budget proposal, including what he wants to spend on K-12 and higher education.

The general assembly must approve a final budget for 2024 by the end of the legislative session later in May.

Correction Feb. 15. 2023: This story has been updated to correct one instance where Smart Start Illinois was referred to as Start Smart Illinois.

Tony Sanders named next Illinois State Superintendent of Education

2023-01-31T17:35:49+00:00

This story has been updated.

Elgin’s U-46 Superintendent Tony Sanders has been named Illinois’ next State Superintendent of Education. He will begin his term on Feb. 23.

Tony Sanders.

After a nationwide search to replace outgoing superintendent Carmen Ayala who is retiring after 40 years in education, the Illinois State Board of Education announced Sanders’ appointment during a special board meeting on Tuesday.

“Dr. Sanders’ breadth of experience as superintendent of School District U-46 and his entire background have prepared him to take on this role,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement. “His focus on innovation, social emotional development, and academic excellence make him an extraordinary pick. I can think of no better person to lead the Illinois State Board of Education as we continue to invest in, support, and elevate our students and educators.”

Sanders has been superintendent of Elgin’s U-46 since 2014. It’s the second largest school district in Illinois serving over 35,000 students.

In a statement to U-46’s school community, Sanders said leaving the district is bittersweet because his family lives in the community, his children graduated from the district, and he enjoyed his time working with teachers and support staff who dedicated their time to improving the lives of students.

“While I have such a strong connection to U-46, I have always set my sights on serving in the role of state superintendent,” Sanders said in a statement. “It is the only position that I would consider leaving U-46 to accept, and the fact that I was selected is an honor that I cannot decline.”

As the next state superintendent, Sanders will be responsible for helping schools, educators, and students recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as federal relief funds are expected to expire by 2025. The State Board of Education recently recommended a $350 million increase for the state’s evidence-based funding formula and a 10% increase to the board’s early education block grant.

But education advocates have said that’s not enough. They want the state legislature to increase funding for K-12 schools by $550 million and increase early education funding by 20%.

As U-46 superintendent, Sanders was a part of the push to enact the state’s evidence-based funding formula in 2017. That formula provides more money to districts if they serve higher percentages of students living in poverty, English language learners, or students with disabilities. About half of U-46 students are low-income, 40% are English language learners, and 16% are students with disabilities.

As superintendent, Sanders managed U-46’s $660 million budget. Sue Kerr, president of U-46’s Board of Education, said in a statement that Sanders eliminated the district’s structural deficit and built up cash reserves.

Pritzker, who had a hand in selecting Sanders, recently promised to provide free preschool to all Illinois families in his second term. In Illinois, children are not required to attend school until age 6 and many districts, including U-46, only recently added full-day kindergarten. Sanders oversaw the 2016 rollout of a play-based, full-day kindergarten in Elgin, which the state board touted in announcing his appointment.

Sanders comes to the state’s top education job at a time of great need. The COVID pandemic wiped away a decade of academic progress and left students, parents, and educators grappling with broader social and emotional issues beyond school.

During Ayala’s time in office, the board of education added social-emotional learning hubs through the state’s regional offices of education and expanded high-impact tutoring to catch students up academically. As superintendent at U-46, Sanders created a new alternative high school to reduce expulsions and provide students with trauma-informed care.

For a while, the state board seemed interested in overhauling how it measures academic progress, shifting from the annual state test at the end of the year, known as the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, to an interim assessment taken multiple times a year.

That issue is still unresolved, but the State Assessment Review Committee presented a list of recommendations on improving the state assessment during this month’s board meeting. Ayala led the charge on this issue during her time in office.

Over the past four years under Ayala’s direction, the State Board of Education has worked to increase the number of teachers throughout the state. While the state had a teacher shortage prior to COVID-19, the pandemic exacerbated the need for more teachers in classrooms.

The state launched initiatives to get more bilingual teachers into classrooms and increase the number of students of color in teacher preparation programs. Some school districts have invested in Grow Your Own programs that support new educators while they are getting licensure.

During Sanders’ time as superintendent in U-46, he invested in the same program and the initiative supported 60 employees to receive full tuition reimbursement as they work on getting a license.

Kerr, president of U-46’s Board of Education, said in a statement that the district’s board of education will deeply miss Sanders.

“He has been active in numerous community organizations, has been a constant presence in school buildings, and districtwide events, and has never hesitated to reach out to state legislators and the media to advocate on U-46’s behalf,” Kerr said.

One of the state’s largest teacher unions, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, congratulated Sanders in a statement and said they hope to work with him to “achieve policies that center and engage our students and teachers, especially our Black and Brown students who are still recovering from the pandemic.”

“During Dr. Sanders’ tenure leading Elgin District U-46, he was a strong advocate for equitable policies for Black and Brown students,” said Dan Montgomery, president of IFT. “His visionary leadership helped improve district assessment data collection to better the student and teacher experience.”

Until Sanders begins his term as superintendent, Krish Mohip, the State Board of Education’s deputy education officer, will serve as interim state superintendent starting Feb. 1.

Illinois public school enrollment continues to drop, preliminary numbers show

2023-01-23T20:12:54+00:00

A first glimpse at public school enrollment in Illinois shows continued declines in the overall student population, but an uptick in the number of students learning English.

Preliminary data released last week by the Illinois State Board of Education shows overall enrollment dropped by about 31,000 students — or 1.7% — between last school year and the current one, according to numbers as of Dec. 14. Chicago Public Schools accounts for at least a quarter of the decline. The district lost 9,000 students and its place as the third largest school district in the country.

The overall enrollment decline for students between pre-kindergarten to 12th grade across the state matches the trend prior to the pandemic. After the pandemic hit, state data showed about 69,000 students leaving public schools – about a 3.5% drop – during the 2020-21 school year.

Even as overall enrollment is down, the number of English learners continues to grow. The enrollment of English language learners also held steady during the pandemic, with a less than 1% drop during school years 2019-20 and 2020-21. The preliminary data for the 2022-23 school year indicates a 4% jump — from 255,000 last school year to 266,000 students this year.

Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro, director of Education Policy and Research at the Latino Policy Forum, said that as the state continues to see an increase in English learners there is a need to ensure those students are being taught by qualified teachers.

“Illinois has a good track record serving English learners and valuing bilingual education,” said Vonderlack-Navarro. “We need to maintain and grow our commitment to quality bilingual education and grow the future teacher workforce.”

She noted that the state has dedicated additional funding to increasing the number of bilingual teachers. The State Board of Education created a $4 million grant from federal coronavirus relief funds to help school districts pay tuition for current teachers who have a bilingual endorsement but want to earn professional licensure and for current educators who want to earn a bilingual endorsement.

The state also increased the Minority Teacher Illinois Scholarship by $2.3 million for a total of $4.2 million, which is aimed at increasing the number of teachers of color and especially bilingual educators.

The preliminary data released last week also shows that more Asian American students and students who identify as more than one race are attending Illinois public schools. However, the number of White, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander students dropped, though not as much as it did during the 2020-21 school year.

Among students from low-income families in Illinois, there was a slight increase in enrollment after major declines during the past three years. State officials said that may have been because free meals were offered to all students during the pandemic, regardless of whether districts collected income paperwork from parents.

The State Board of Education said it will have a better picture of enrollment for the 2022-23 school year when it publishes the annual Illinois report card data in October.

Illinois superintendent proposes $516 million education budget increase; advocates want more

2023-01-17T22:18:39+00:00

State Superintendent Carmen Ayala is proposing a $516 million, or 5.3%, increase to the state’s education budget next year, a request that education advocates say falls short of what Illinois school districts need.

Ayala’s budget proposal calls for a $350 million boost for K-12 schools, or about 4%, plus a $60 million increase to early childhood education. The rest of the requested increase relates to transportation, special education, and free meals.

The proposal, which surfaced on the board’s monthly meeting agenda Friday evening, drew pushback from some education advocates who say a $550 million increase in K-12 funding is needed to fully fund all districts under the state’s evidence-based funding formula.

Getting a budget request approved by the Illinois State Board of Education is Ayala’s final order of business before she retires from education. If her request is approved by the Legislature later this year, the state’s total education budget will grow from $9.8 billion to $10.3 billion.

The board discussed in December how much money to recommend for the state’s education budget. While Illinois’ finances have improved since taking a hit in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are still concerns about an economic slowdown or recession in 2023, Ayala noted in her proposal.

The state approved $350 million increases for K-12 public schools in 2021 and 2022, the minimum promised by lawmakers in 2017 when the evidence-based funding formula was created. Advocates are concerned that continued funding increases at the minimum level will not be enough to adequately fund schools by 2027.

Funding for IL’s Future, an organization representing districts, school leaders, and community and faith-based organizations, said on Twitter that “too many students, disproportionately those from urban and rural communities, are still in districts below 75% of full funding.”

Aimee Galvin, government affairs director for Stand for Children Illinois, said in a statement that “the current pace of funding is far too slow.”

“By adding $550 million to the formula, we can close that gap in less than 10 years,” Galvin said. “A generation of Illinois children looks for leadership to support the school funding they need to get the education they deserve.”

Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, said in a statement that the state should not only include $550 million more in the evidence-based funding formula, but also increase early childhood education funding by 20%, rather than the 10% Ayala proposed.

“The 10% incremental increase in early childhood is simply not enough to address the gaps in access to high-quality learning programs that persist in communities across Illinois, or to provide needed increases to compensation for early childhood educators,” Steans said, adding that “parents, educators and community members were loud and clear during the ISBE budget hearings — more resources are needed now.”

The board will vote on Ayala’s proposal during its monthly meeting on Wednesday. If approved by the board, it will head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office for consideration as he develops a budget to present to legislators for their approval.

Departing State Superintendent Carmen Ayala looks back at her tenure, COVID challenges

2023-01-17T12:00:00+00:00

State Superintendent Carmen Ayala was one of the key players helping guide Illinois’ 852 school districts during the pandemic. Now, she is retiring after 40 years in education, and just as schools are starting to recover from the fallout of COVID-19.

Just one year after being named superintendent, Ayala found herself standing next to Gov. J.B. Pritzker as he announced the closing of over 3,000 schools to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With Ayala at the helm, the State Board of Education quickly responded to the pandemic.

Now, with schools reopened, classrooms buzzing with activity, and districts flush with federal dollars to help schools deal with the fallout from the pandemic, Ayala said she feels that “It’s time to rest.”

“I’m excited in a way, because I am going to be able to do more yoga, take golf and singing lessons, and enjoy my children,” said Ayala. “It’s a little bittersweet, because the agency is at a certain point right now and there are so many exciting things coming down the pike.”

Ayala spoke with Chalkbeat about her time in office during the pandemic and what’s next for the Illinois State Board of Education.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Carmen Ayala

When schools shuttered in March 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, what were you feeling?

The pandemic was very difficult on everyone at all levels. At the classroom level, with teachers and students trying to pivot to remote learning. At the school level, trying to organize everything that is needed like buses and delivering food to children. District level board meetings were quite contentious, because there were differences in opinions. Then at the state level, we worked very closely with the state’s Department of Public Health and relied on their expertise. We wanted to make sure that the decisions we made to keep people safe and save their lives was based on data and science.

What were your concerns for the state’s almost 2 million students at the time?

We were dealing with a pandemic where hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, so I was worried about students’ safety and well-being. Remote learning was another concern. Our most vulnerable children — low-income children, children of color, children living in poverty and children with disabilities — were negatively impacted by remote learning. Also, I was concerned about students’ mental health, because they were not able to engage with peers and have social activities.

What would you say is the biggest unfinished business from your time in office?

One of the biggest things that is unfinished, but on the right road, is recovery. We’re not where we need to be in terms of health, wellness, and academics. We have to keep pushing forward and supporting our students. We have some great things available, like the six social-emotional hubs across the state providing trauma-informed services and supporting partnerships between schools, health professionals, and counselors.

What efforts are you most proud of over the past four years?

I am very proud of the equity work that the agency has done over these last four years. Our strategic plan has an equity statement and goals that really permeate throughout the plan. The equity journey continuum is now posted on every district’s report card, and provides the community and district with information about how they are doing. That’s important because of the 852 unique districts that we have across the state. At the State Board of Education, we’ve developed, implemented, and are working with an equity impact analysis tool. All of the decisions and activities that we do are filtered through an equity lens.

As school districts work to deal with educator shortages and diversify the teacher workforce, what efforts will the state need to continue or create to improve the situation?

We still have a teacher shortage that impacts specific areas like early childhood, special education, bilingual education, and in rural areas. To help get more teachers in certain fields, we started the career and technical education pathways where you provide grants and give designation on students’ diplomas that they have completed a particular pathway. This program provides students with dual credit and early teaching experiences to help them move on towards getting a teacher license. We’re preparing for potentially more than 10,000 teachers across Illinois.

What do you think is the best way to assess students for learning loss? What should the state do next?

Federally, we’re required to have a summative type of an assessment that is directly aligned to our Illinois Learning Standards. It can’t be an assessment that we just simply buy off the shelf. We have a state assessment review committee that is advisory and makes recommendations. We had one of the most robust stakeholder feedback engagements that we’ve had in quite some time and got great feedback. The state’s assessment review committee has provided the beginnings of a roadmap to guide us throughout our next steps. One of those steps is being clear on what is the true role, function, and purpose of our required Illinois assessments.

Students with disabilities struggled to get services written in their individualized education plans throughout the pandemic. What do you think went wrong and could have gone better? What would you say to families who did not get what they needed?

It was difficult to provide services that required face-to-face interaction. Some services could not be provided through Zoom. That’s one of the major reasons probably why some of the services were not able to be provided. Once we were able to come back to school, schools were trying to meet the requirements of the students’ individual education plans. We also experienced some loss in staffing due to the pandemic. But I hope that students are getting the services that they need.

What is your advice for the next state superintendent?

My advice to the next state superintendent is to communicate. It’s important to the field that they are aware and have information about what may be coming down the pipe. Also, communication is two-way street, providing information but also seeking and listening. The field will let you know where their greatest struggles are and where their greatest needs are.

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 lame-duck legislative session: Education bills you might have missed

2023-01-11T22:32:59+00:00

Illinois lawmakers focused their short lame-duck session on passing an assault weapons ban, expanding reproductive rights, and increasing their salaries. But several important education bills are also headed to the governor’s desk for approval.

Lawmakers returned to the state’s capitol last week to push through several major bills before new and returning lawmakers were inducted into office Wednesday afternoon.

Legislators passed an assault weapons ban that would immediately prevent the sale and distribution of assault weapons, high-capacity ammunition magazines, and switches that convert handguns into assault weapons once signed into law; a bill expanding reproductive rights by protecting abortion providers and out-of-state visitors seeking abortion; and a bill that included a 16% salary increase for lawmakers, raising wages to $85,000.

Among the education bills passed was one that focused on the state’s bus driver shortage. When students returned to the classrooms during the 2021-22 school year, many districts struggled to hire bus drivers to transport students to and from school. In Chicago, students with disabilities were hit the hardest. Throughout Illinois, students in rural communities or areas that do not have a public transportation system struggled to get to school.

Sen. Karina Villa’s bill, D-West Chicago, HB 1688, will establish an initial training and annual refresher course for drivers providing transportation to students in vehicles that can carry 10 or fewer students. The measure calls on the Secretary of State and the Illinois State Board of Education to develop the training.

“Accessible transportation to and from school is important to provide to our students,” Villa said in a press release. “This bill will help provide transportation to our students by clarifying confusing training requirements for bus drivers of vehicles or different sizes.”

Sen. Cristina Pacione Zayas, D-Chicago, advocated for a bill passed during session that will increase transparency between Chicago Public Schools and local school councils when filling a principal vacancy at a school. Currently, local school councils are responsible for hiring and evaluating principals. Pacione Zayas’ bill will allow local school councils to have access to the district’s hiring pool, ask the district to create criteria for why a candidate is not eligible, and allow due process for principal candidates who do not advance to the next hiring stage.

A bill that will give Chicago principals and assistant principals collective bargaining rights but prohibits them from going on strike awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s approval. For years, Chicago principals could not negotiate over workplace concerns because state law considered them managerial employees. HB 5107 changes the state definition to district employees who have significant roles in bargaining union contracts or creates management policies and practices.

With new and returning lawmakers taking office and the spring legislative session starting today, there is already buzz around addressing literacy in Illinois, creating voting districts for Chicago’s elected school board, and increasing funding for early childhood and K-12 schools in the state’s budget.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker promises free college, preschool for all in second term

2023-01-10T02:00:31+00:00

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is promising to expand preschool to all Illinois families and make college tuition free for working-class people by the end of his second term.

In a speech after being sworn in Monday, Pritzker said the state’s “long-term ambitions must begin with a focus on the people for whom we are building.”

“No policy proposal I could advance will have a greater impact on our future than the quality care and education we afford to our very youngest residents,” he said. “It’s time for Illinois to lead.”

The governor didn’t give specifics about how much it would cost to expand preschool and make college more affordable. The inauguration is mostly pomp and circumstance, but in early February, Pritzker is expected to release a budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year. The legislature must approve a state budget by June 30.

For decades before becoming governor in 2018, Pritzker supported early childhood education through his family foundation. His education platform both in 2018 and 2022 focused on expanding programs that serve children under 5. He has said he would work to lower Illinois’ mandatory school attendance age from 6 to 5.

Chicago began expanding public preschool in 2014 with help from Pritzker’s foundation and Goldman Sachs. In 2018, then-mayor Rahm Emanuel promised universal preschool for all 4-year-olds, which officials now say is a reality.

Many Illinois families struggle with the cost of child care, which has been deemed one of the least affordable among states.

In an interview with Chalkbeat last October, Pritzker said he would once again offer more families financial assistance for child care. Currently, any family earning 225% of federal poverty level income is eligible, up from 185% when he took office. He said he plans to raise that to 300% of the federal poverty level.

Last week, Pritzker visited two early childhood programs — a non-profit in Chicago and a public preschool downstate — to tout investments his administration made during his first term. They claimed to have increased funding by about $1 billion.

But during the first three years of Pritzker’s first term, there were no increases to the Illinois State Board of Education’s early childhood block grant, one the largest sources of early childhood funding. This year, it got a 10% increase to nearly $600 million.

Though he gave no details in his inaugural address, Pritzker said it’s the state’s “obligation to make college more affordable” and said he wanted to “focus on making tuition free for every working-class family.”

The state’s key financial aid program for college students is known as the Monetary Award Program, or MAP. Those scholarships grew to $601 million in the most recent budget. The maximum annual award increased from $6,438 to $8,508. In-state tuition at the University of Illinois this year ranged from $17,000 to $22,000.

Despite increasing costs and declining college enrollment nationwide, Illinois saw a 5% increase in students enrolling in college this fall, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

In his speech Monday, Pritzker also took a moment to acknowledge the victims of gun violence, citing specific high-profile events, including a shooting just before winter break outside Benito Juarez Community Academy High School.

“I’m tired of living in a world where a mass shooting needs a title so you know which one we’re referring to,” Pritzker said, noting that he campaigned on a promise to ban assault weapons. The Illinois legislature is debating a measure during its lame-duck session, which is scheduled to end this week.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that lame-duck session ends this week, not on Monday.

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

Chicago principals a step closer to unionizing as bill moves to Illinois governor’s desk

2023-01-06T21:00:41+00:00

Chicago Public Schools may soon have to bargain with principals and assistant principals — if Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs a bill passed by the Illinois legislature Friday morning.

The bill, which will give Chicago principals and assistant principals collective bargaining rights but prohibit them from going on strike, passed the state Senate by a 45-7 and heads to the governor’s desk for approval. If the bill becomes law, Chicago will join school districts such as New York City , Los Angeles, and Newark.

A spokesperson for the governor’s office said in an email Pritzker “looks forward to reviewing the bill now that it’s headed to his desk.”

Chicago’s principals have been unable to unionize because they were considered managerial employees under state law. HB 5107 changes the definition of managerial employees to district employees who have a significant role in the negotiations of collective bargaining agreements or who create employer-wide management policies and practices.

The Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, a professional membership organization that advocates for issues affecting principals and administrators, has fought for years for this change.

“We’ve gotten further than we’ve come before,” said Troy LaRaviere, president of the association and a former Chicago school principal, noting Friday in an interview that he’s worked on this for four years.

LaRaviere said his association is already part of the American Federation of School Administrators, an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization, and members pay voluntary dues. If signed, the bill would give the group more teeth.

The association wants to make sure that they are protecting a principal’s time to focus on what impacts students, rather than dealing with one district mandate after another, LaRaviere said.

Chicago principals have said in the past that they often don’t have a say in their working conditions and have to pick up numerous tasks to keep their schools running. This means that principals’ responsibilities vary across the city depending on a school’s needs and resources, creating long days and uncertainty for some principals.

Principals assumed more responsibilities during the pandemic to ensure that their school’s communities were protected from COVID-19, including telling families about COVID mitigations, organizing vaccine clinics, and identifying close contacts.

The stress has caused some principals to leave the profession. Chalkbeat Chicago found retirements and resignations — especially among principals and assistant principals — increased since the pandemic began in March 2020. Staffing data shows that there are more than 1,100 principals and assistant principals in Chicago Public Schools, but 50 of those positions were vacant as of Sept. 30, 2022.

If the governor signs the bill, the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association will use “our place at the table to improve conditions for principals and their schools,” LaRaviere added.

Chicago Public Schools did not support the effort to unionize principals in the past, arguing that principals are classified as managers and not subject to unionization under state law.

But following the passage by the Senate, a district spokesperson said in an email statement that Chicago Public Schools would work with school leaders as they “become eligible for possible unionization.” She added the district is committed to collaborating with school leaders to meet the needs of students, families, teachers, and staff.

“We support statewide implementation of this legislation as the tenets hold true for all school districts,” the statement said.

In a separate statement, a spokesperson for Mayor Lori Lightfoot commended the passage of the bill and encouraged the expansion of collective bargaining rights to school leaders. “CPS will continue to work hand-in-hand with principals to achieve academic excellence — a goal that should be implemented statewide,” the mayor’s spokesperson said in the email statement.

Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, who championed the bill said in a statement on Friday that Chicago principals should have a voice in their working conditions, especially at a time when the district faces staff shortages.

“CPS is not only the largest school district in the state, but one of the largest in the nation,” Peters said. “With its size and staffing shortages come unique challenges that need to be addressed. I believe we should trust its principals to help create solutions to build a better work environment.”

The co-sponsor of the bill, Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, D-Chicago, said in an interview with Chalkbeat that she is thrilled HB 5107 cleared the Senate Friday morning because being a principal is a thankless job and principals haven’t had much say in their workplace.

“The unionization bill now affords them some type of seat at the table, when policy is being formed,” said Pacione-Zayas. “It ensures that there’s some salary parity and representation when there are grievances. That is like a game-changer for our schools.”

Pacione-Zayas is also advocating for a companion bill that would give local school councils more transparency on who is eligible for a principal position. The councils are currently responsible for hiring and evaluating principals. Pacione-Zayas’ bill would give local school councils access to the entire eligible pool of candidates, make the rubric and scoring system from the district public, and allow due process for principal candidates who do not advance to the next stage of evaluations.

Becky Vevea contributed to this report.

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

Gov. J. B. Pritzker vows to prioritize access to child care for Illinois families in second term

2023-01-04T20:51:46+00:00

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday he hopes to make Illinois “number one” for child care access during his next term.

After winning a second term in November and heading into a spring legislative session that will determine the state’s early childhood education and child care budget, Pritzker said he intends to prioritize child care to support families throughout the state and provide more funding for child care centers and their workforce.

“There is so much more that we can do to make it easier for young families to access quality child care, and early childhood education,” Pritzker said at a press conference Wednesday at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning’s site in Little Village. “But already our improvements have made a profound change.”

According to Pritzker, prioritizing child care is fiscally responsible and will result in positive outcomes throughout a child’s lifetime.

“It yields a higher high school graduation rate, a higher college attendance rate, greater lifetime earnings, lower health care costs, lower crime rates, and an overall reduction in the need for human services spending throughout the lives of these young children,” Pritzker said on Wednesday.

Access to early childhood education and child care provides children with cognitive and emotional development, improved self-regulation, and improved academic achievement, according to reports cited on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Later in life children who have had access to early childhood education also show improved health outcomes and reductions in crime rates, welfare dependency, and child abuse and neglect, the CDC notes.

Illinois has a number of ways of funding child care and early education across multiple government agencies. One of the largest is through the Illinois State Board of Education’s early childhood block grant.

The state was unable to put additional money into that block grant in the 2020, 2021, or 2022 budgets, primarily due to the economic slowdown spurred by the coronavirus pandemic However, the state was able to increase that budget line by 10% for the state’s 2023 budget.

In addition to the state board of education’s block grant, the state funds early childhood education and child care programs throughout the state’s department of human services. The department of human services supports the state’s youngest learners through its Early Intervention Program, which supports children with disabilities from birth to 3 years old and the Child Care Assistance Program, which helps low-income working families with child care costs.

Early intervention had $7 million in funding restored in the 2023 budget after a cut last year. However, the Child Care Assistance Program, which helps low-income working families with child care costs, did not receive an increase.

During the pandemic, the governor’s administration made it easier for parents who lost their jobs to receive three months of child care while searching for work or in a skills training program. Over the summer, the state increased eligibility for the Child Care Assistance Program by lowering the income limit and expanding benefits, increasing the number of families. Also, child care centers received more funding to retain staff.

Grace Hou, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, said Wednesday at the press conference that the state has invested over $1 billion in child care that has reached more than 12,000 child care providers across the state and over 50,000 child care workers.

Pritzker said the state’s investments have funded programs such as the Carole Robertson Center’s Grow Your Own Program Workforce Initiative, which trains community members to be educators. At the press conference, Bela Moté, CEO of the Carole Robertson Center, said the center has hired more than 30 people through the program over the last 15 months.

Pritzker is preparing his budget proposal for the 2023 fiscal year where he will make funding requests to the legislature for everything from education to public safety. Lawmakers will ultimately approve a budget in late May or June. However, the state’s budget is uncertain as the economy could be hit by a recession or another economic slowdown.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September: Can Chicago revitalize its tiny high schools?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chronic absenteeism went up when COVID hit. It got even worse last year.

2022-12-19T12:00:00+00:00

One in three Illinois students missed at least a month’s worth of school last year.

English teacher Briana Morales is not surprised. She notices her high school students in East St. Louis 189 missing for weeks at a time. Many are working during school hours to support their families, lack access to transportation, or need child care but can’t afford it or find someone that they trust.

“I have a lot of students who have missed 40-plus days of school at this point in the school year,” Morales said.

Her district – where 100% of students come from low-income families — had one of the highest chronic absenteeism rates in Illinois last year at 69%.

Statewide chronic absenteeism climbed to almost 30% last year, after it shot up in 2021 to 21.2%, according to state report card data. A student is labeled chronically absent if they miss more than 10% of the school year — or about 18 to 20 days — with or without a valid excuse. Illinois defines the school year as a minimum of 185 days, with student attendance required for 176 days.

Chronic absenteeism is sometimes conflated with truancy. But Illinois defines truancy, which could lead to legal consequences for families, as a student missing about 5% of the school year without a valid excuse.

Missing school — with or without an excuse — impacts student learning, especially at a time when districts across the state are dealing with the academic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. National and state test scores have shown a significant decline in math and reading scores for students.

Chalkbeat Chicago’s analysis of state data found that 228 out of the state’s 852 school districts had a chronic absenteeism rate over the state’s average in 2022. Some had rates as high as 80%. Chicago Public Schools rate was almost 45%.

School districts with larger populations of students of color and students from low-income families had higher rates of chronic absenteeism, according to Illinois’ most recent report card data. The chronic absenteeism rate was 48% for Black students, 36% for Hispanic students, 43% for students from low-income families, 35% for English learners, and 40% for students with disabilities.

Illinois is not the only state seeing chronic absenteeism soar. Michigan’s rate in 2022 was 38.5% and Ohio’s rate was 30%.

Nationally, about one in five students was chronically absent during the 2020-21 school year, which means 10.1 million students were chronically absent, 2 million more than in 2019, according to an analysis by nonprofit Attendance Works and John Hopkins University.

National data for 2021-22 is not yet available, but Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, found that in some states chronic absenteeism rates have doubled this year. As the pandemic enters a new stage, Chang says schools will need to step up efforts to get students back in class.

“The high level suggests that it’s going to take a real intentional approach to help our kids fully recover and get back into school,” said Chang. “Make sure they feel confident about being in the classroom, given how much they’ve missed.”

Rockford students did not have a normal school year

Across Illinois, many schools were looking forward to a return to normal last school year after the state shuttered school buildings in 2020 and many schools continued remote or hybrid learning for the following school year. Principals, teachers, and students looked forward to seeing each other in person every day.

But getting students in classrooms regularly was harder than expected.

In Rockford School District 205, the state’s third largest district after Chicago and Elgin U-46, students struggled to get to class. The chronic absenteeism rate in the district rose to 61% last school year, up 26 percentage points from 2019 when it was 35.4%.

Morgan Gallagher, Rockford’s chief of schools, attributes the high chronic absenteeism rate to lack of transportation for students, a spike in COVID-19 cases, and students who transfer between schools within the district due to insecure housing that makes families move around a lot. About 45% of Rockford’s students are from low-income families.

Rockford, which serves almost 28,000 students across 44 schools, struggled to find bus drivers to transport 18,000 students at a time when districts across the state and country grappled with a national school bus driver shortage, Gallagher said.

The district provided additional bus service to schools with a higher chronic absenteeism rate to ensure that students who were more likely to miss school got there, he added. But the district still had to cancel routes for students for several months.

Gallagher also noted that it is harder to increase attendance for students who live 1.5 miles within their school’s walking distance because they are not eligible for bus transportation due to a state law.

When omicron hit schools across the state last winter, Rockford’s average daily attendance rate dropped from 82% to 72%. After the surge in COVID-19 cases eased during the spring semester, daily attendance went back up to 84%, but was still below pre-pandemic rates.

Another issue for Rockford is the district’s high student mobility rate — defined as the number of students who transfer between schools. Students who transfer outside of school multiple times throughout the school year or between school years are four times more likely to be chronically absent than students who do not change schools.

When a student transfers out of a school it doesn’t mean that they transfer out one day and start at a new school the next day — they often miss days in between the process, Gallagher explained. Many factors contribute to students transferring in and out of schools, including insecure housing, he noted. Families that have to move to find an affordable place to live often move outside the attendance boundaries for their schools, requiring students to transfer schools.

While Rockford struggled last year to get students back into classrooms, Gallagher says there are signs that this school year is better. Rockford has enough bus drivers and is trying to add more bus routes to support families that need transportation.

Gallagher believes that the chronic absenteeism rate should be lower on next year’s state report card because the district’s average daily attendance rate is 6% higher than last year.

Illinois dedicates money to bringing students back to classrooms

As the state and local school districts, such as Rockford, start to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, they are taking steps to encourage students to come to class every day.

The Illinois State Board of Education provided $12 million to the state’s 38 Regional Offices of Education and Intermediate Service Centers and Chicago Public Schools to hire more staff to connect with families through home visits and phone calls.

In Rockford, district officials have allocated $27 million to schools to use for any services that would help students in academics or with social-emotional support. Some schools have focused on chronic absenteeism and decided to hire attendance specialists who will reach out to students missing 18 or more days of school. Others hired parent and community liaisons who call and visit chronically absent students.

Schools are constantly looking at attendance because it plays a significant role in how students will do in school, Gallagher said.

“Attendance is the number one predictive factor related to a student being successful in school and ultimately getting to graduation,” he said. “The flip side of that is if you are chronically absent, the likelihood of you ultimately graduating with your high school diploma plummet.”

In Springfield SD 186, where about six out of 10 students were chronically absent last year, many students aren’t just missing classes for a day or two throughout the month, said high school English teacher Crysta Weitekamp. They often miss weeks of school and might show up one time and then miss another 10 days.

That puts them far behind their classmates. It also means more work for Weitekamp, who has to help those students catch up while making sure the rest of the class stays on track.

“As a teacher, I want the students here in my classroom. I want them to learn,” she said. “I want them in my classroom doing the work learning alongside everyone else, so they can be successful so they can graduate.”

Many of Weitekamp’s students are either working or babysitting kids in their families. About 56% of the district’s student population comes from low-income families.

Weitekamp’s school has hired a truancy interventionist, who works with both students who are chronically absent and truant, to contact families and students and do home visits to get students back into the classroom.

Morales, the East St. Louis teacher, is glad her district has partnered with an organization to provide therapy to students dealing with mental health crises that could be preventing them from going to school.

She said they also hired a truancy officer at each of the district’s 10 schools to make phone calls and home visits to help students who are missing school because of chronic absenteeism or truancy get back to class.

But Morales worries that one person won’t be able to track down every chronically absent student. There are just too many students missing too many days.

Illinois education budget might boost career, early childhood programs – but recession worries loom

2022-12-15T17:13:07+00:00

The Illinois State Board of Education is hoping to increase funding for career and technical education and early childhood programs — but an uncertain economy could hinder those plans.

State board members are considering how much money to give K-12 schools, early childhood education, career and technical education, and other programs as they work on a budget recommendation for the 2024 fiscal year. On Wednesday, state finance officials from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability said that Illinois’s economy is in a good place, but there are still concerns about an economic slowdown or recession in 2023.

School districts must decide how to spend emergency COVID funds by a federally-imposed fall 2024 deadline. After federal funds run out, some districts may be scrambling to pay for programs created during the pandemic and increased staffing. However, according to a newly published spending dashboard, districts still have more than half of the pandemic relief money to spend.

The state’s K-12 education budget remained flat during the first year of the pandemic. In 2021 and 2022, the state increased funding by $350 million, the minimum amount required under the evidence-based funding formula. Though advocates have praised the state for increasing funding, they also have said it won’t be enough to adequately fund all public schools by 2027.

A statewide coalition of education advocates called The Partnership for Equity and Education Rights Illinois, or PEER IL, said in September that the state would have to increase funding by about $1.5 billion a year for the next five years to fully fund schools. If that doesn’t happen, the group said, the next generation of students will continue to go to under-resourced schools.

Money for the early childhood block grant, which pays for preschool programs across the state, did not increase in 2020, 2021, or 2022. But it received a 10% boost in the state’s 2023 budget. Early childhood education advocates hope the state puts more money into early education to help provide low-income families access to child care and increase wages for preschool teachers and caregivers.

The Chicago Early Childhood Workforce Partnership Employer Council found that early childhood educators are paid $18,000 less on average than elementary school teachers, despite having the same degrees. The wage gap is even larger for educators of color, almost 4% when compared to white educators.

Robert Wolfe, the state board of education’s chief financial officer, said at Wednesday’s board meeting that there is a need to increase state funding for career and technical education as the program has not seen a significant increase for almost two decades. During the budget hearings in October, school advocates asked for a $40 million increase.

Wolfe said he doesn’t know if a $40 million increase is possible, but thinks an increase in funding is important. Board members agreed with him, but asked for data to prove to state lawmakers that the program will need more funding.

State Superintendent Carmen Ayala, who is set to retire at the end of January, is expected to provide a budget recommendation to the board on Jan. 18. If approved, it will be sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, whose administration is working on a full state budget proposal to present to the state legislature on Feb. 15. The state legislature must pass a budget by late May.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker defeats state Sen. Darren Bailey to win reelection

2022-11-09T04:31:35+00:00

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker defeated Republican challenger state Sen. Darren Bailey on Tuesday to win a second term. The Associated Press called the race for Pritzker shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m.

In his victory speech, Pritzker promised to fight for “a quality education that’s not just a prize you win for growing up in the right part of town or being born to the right set of parents.”

Speaking at the Marriott Marquis in the city’s Near South Side, he vowed to work toward a world where “books are not banned, nor children are shielded from the truth about all of our American history.”

Bailey conceded just before 10 p.m. and challenged Pritzker to “be better for Illinois” and “be better for our children.”

“Republicans need to be the loyal opposition in Springfield: loyal to our state, loyal to our country, loyal to our Constitution, in opposition to the radical policies of the Democrats,” he added.

Public education in Illinois has been one of the key issues separating the two candidates during this election season as they staked out opposing positions on everything from mask mandates in schools to what is taught to how much money schools should get from the state.

Pritzker told Chalkbeat before the election that if he wins a second term, he plans to increase state funding for education for K-12 schools and expand access to higher education. He also said that he wants to make early education more affordable for families and increase pay for early childhood teachers.

Bailey, R-Louisville, served 17 years on the North Clay Board of Education and founded a private Christian school that his wife still runs. He was elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 2018 and opposed Pritzker throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which dominated the governor’s first term.

Bailey easily won the primary against five opponents despite being significantly out-fundraised. On the campaign trail, he has appealed to “parental rights” voters and promised to ban “critical race theory” — a legal framework taught in law school that conservatives started using as a catchall phrase to oppose schools teaching about racism and the legacy of slavery.

He also railed against a new sex education law and said he would cut funding to education and fire the current state board of education members. In a rally Monday night, Bailey spoke to a group of suburban mothers about Democrats imposing vaccine mandates for school-age children if they were to be re-elected, ABC7 reported. Pritzker has not indicated he plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for public school students.

Pritzker came into office in 2019 after beating Republican incumbent Bruce Rauner with more than 54% of the vote in 2018.

Just over a year later, Pritzker’s administration had to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. He decided on March 13, 2020 to close all of the state’s more than 800 school districts. Schools rushed to get students learning online to continue the school year.

Backlash from conservatives soon followed. Early in the pandemic, Bailey made a name for himself opposing Pritzker’s executive orders in the courts. He filed a restraining order against Pritzker’s stay-at-home order and refused to wear a mask during the spring legislative session in 2020.

The state continued to adjust public health requirements for students and school employees to keep up with the shifting pandemic for the last couple of school years. Pritzker issued several executive orders requiring school employees to receive a coronavirus vaccine or test weekly, quarantining students and staff who tested positive for COVID-19 or were close contacts, and implementing universal mask mandate for K-12 schools. Most mandates were contested by parents during state school board meetings and in court.

While the COVID-19 pandemic dominated much of Pritzker’s first term, he also increased the state’s education budget by more than $1 billion, and signed laws to create an elected school board for Chicago, ban hairstyle discrimination in schools, and require Illinois schools to teach Asian American history.

Prior to Pritzker taking office, the state created an evidence-based school funding formula in 2017 with the intention of adding $350 million to the state’s education budget every year. The goal is to get the state’s 800 school districts to adequate funding by 2027 in an effort to address inequities across the state. The formula was signed into law after a budget impasse that lasted between 2015 to 2017 under the Rauner administration and resulted in funding cuts to K-12 schools and a decrease in funding for the state’s tuition assistance program for low-income students.

During Pritzker’s first term, he kept a bipartisan promise to add at least $350 million toward K-12 education in 2019, 2021, and 2022. In 2020, however, the budget remained flat due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the 2022 budget, the governor increased funding for early childhood education and for the Monetary Assistance Program that allows students from low-income families to attend college.

In 2021, Pritzker signed into law a bill that made Illinois the first state to require public elementary and high schools to teach Asian American history. He also signed the Jett Hawkins bill that prevents private and public schools from discriminating against students based on hairstyles historically associated with race, ethnicity, or texture.

Pritzker also signed bills that expand the Chicago Teachers Union bargaining rights, which has been a point of contention for over two decades, and will give Chicago a fully elected school board with 21 seats by 2027.

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.

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

Illinois governor says education funding, learning recovery are top priorities if reelected

2022-10-28T19:30:24+00:00

Education has been a top issue in the Illinois governor’s race, as the state’s 852 districts continue to grapple with the fallout of pandemic disruptions, declining test scores, and an uptick in chronic absenteeism rates.

Incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat running for a second term in office, has said that he wants to increase funding for K-12 schools and to make early childhood education and higher education more affordable. Republican challenger state Sen. Darren Bailey has said that he would cut education spending and fire the state board of education.

Pritzker spoke with Chalkbeat Chicago about his education agenda, touching on early education, K-12 public schools, funding, and access to higher education for working-class families.

Chalkbeat requested an interview with Bailey and has not received a response.

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

School enrollment is declining across Illinois. Chicago Public Schools is no longer the nation’s third largest school district. What strategies would you propose to reverse this trend?

We’ve seen a decline of enrollment at K-12 across the country. Part of it is due to the pandemic, and much of the effort to try to recover is dependent upon our ability to hire teachers to make sure that we’re staffing properly to keep schools open. It’s also important that we recognize that population trends are bringing down the numbers of kids who are in K-12 across the country, as well as in Illinois. There is work that we have to do. It’s the learning renewal plan that’s going to be very important to making sure that we get kids back and helping families recover financially to stay in the city and send their kids to the public schools in Chicago.

In Illinois, child care costs eclipse rent. It’s also increasing annually at a time of inflation. How do you plan to address the rising cost of child care?

Illinois has a child care assistance program. During my time in office, we have increased the income eligibility to include families at higher income levels. When I came into office, that level was at about 185% of the poverty level, now it’s at 225%. Everybody at and below that level is eligible for the CCAP program. My goal is to get all the way to 300% of the federal poverty level and have it on a sliding basis from 300%. So all the way up to that level, you can get some level of assistance. Also, the state provides three months of free coverage for unemployed parents who are looking to get back in the workforce, which did not exist before.

Preschool educators and caregivers are underpaid, often working with no benefits and taking on a second job to pay their own bills. What are your plans to increase pay for child care workers?

So far, we’ve addressed this issue by raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and increasing the reimbursement rates for providers so they can afford to pay more and keep people on staff. Finally, we’re making sure that we’re providing the opportunity for child care workers to increase their skill levels and get paid more in more important positions in child care. We put $200 million into a scholarship program for everybody that’s in child care to be able to go back to school and get a certificate or a degree that allows them to get a better job like being a manager of a facility or to open their own facility.

The evidence-based funding formula was created in 2017 to help get schools close to being fully funded by 2027. Legislation requires the state to commit at least $350 million in new money every year – which did not happen in 2020, but did in 2021 and 2022. If reelected, will you increase the amount of funding for K-12 education annually by more than $350 million?

In order for us to increase education funding even more — and I will absolutely commit that — we have to balance the budget. Before I came into office, the state government was only putting in about 24% of funding for public education and then almost all the rest of it was coming from local property taxes. The state went from 24% to almost 30% in education funding and we need to do more. But, when we do increase state funding for education, we must alleviate the pressure on property taxes. Education makes up about 70% of an average property tax bill.

The most recent state budget included more money for the Monetary Assistance Program – or MAP – grants which provide college scholarships to students who demonstrate financial needs. Will you continue to increase funding for these grants?

I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to do to increase the MAP program by 50% or $200 million over the course of my time in office. It’s allowed 26,000 more students this year than in 2019 to go to college and to be able to afford college in Illinois. I’m thrilled about that, but there’s so much more that we need to do. I would like to make it so that anybody at or below the median income level — in Illinois most people are in the $60,000 to $70,000 range — can go to college for free.

Illinois test scores highlight pandemic fallout with declines in math, reading

2022-10-27T14:01:00+00:00

Illinois students are still struggling to get back to pre-COVID academic achievement levels in math and reading, according to the state’s latest school report card, which mirrors national trends showing sharp declines in test scores following pandemic disruptions.

Preliminary results released today from the 2022 Illinois Assessment of Readiness, known as the IAR, show that 29.9% of students between third grade and eighth grade met or exceeded state standards in reading, a 7.5 percentage point drop from 2019. In math, 25.8% of students in those grades met or exceeded state standards, a 6.2 percentage point decline from 2019.

The state board of education says 20% fewer Illinois students met or exceeded grade level standards in reading and math in 2022 compared to 2019, before the pandemic shuttered schools and upended learning. State officials say they anticipated the drop because it aligns with nationwide trends.

Testing conditions for the 2022 spring assessments were more typical than in 2021, when virtual learning was still in place for many Illinois schools and districts had the option to administer the state test in the spring or fall. Low participation rates for Black and Hispanic students in 2021 also make comparisons to that year problematic.

While the 2022 results show declines in proficiency levels, the state did see gains on other metrics, including an increase in the four-year graduation rate, which reached its highest level in the past 12 years. The number of ninth graders on track to graduate also held steady and the number of students who need remedial classes when they go to community college dropped. Enrollment also went back to its previous trend of decreasing by only 1% per year.

In a press release, State Superintendent Carmen Ayala said the 2022 report card data shows that the state is on the right track despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

“The accelerated rate of learning that students achieved last year means that we’re headed in the right direction,” said Ayala. “The ways in which we invested the federal pandemic relief funds are working. We can expect to see even more growth over the next couple years as these programs expand and reach even more students.”

Still, the latest report card indicates that the state’s 2 million students continue to grapple with the effects of the pandemic, which led to statewide school closures. Illinois students had limited options for in-person learning until 2021-2022, when the state mandated that all schools reopen classrooms. Students with disabilities often did not have access to vital services or paraprofessionals in remote learning.

The state also struggled with getting students to attend schools in 2022. Chronic absenteeism — when students miss school 10% of the school year, or 18 to 20 days, with or without a valid excuse — rose to almost 30% compared to 17.5% in 2019. The rates for chronic absenteeism were higher among Black and Hispanic students, English learners, students from low-income families, and students with disabilities.

In Chicago, 20.1% of students were proficient in reading and 15.7% in math on the 2022 IAR — a decline of 6.9 percentage points from 2019 in reading and 8.1 percentage points in math.

The 2022 results also show that the proficiency levels of Illinois students in third grade — the first year students start to take state and national exams — are still below pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading on the IAR, the annual spring exam administered to Illinois students between third and eighth grade.

About 27.4% of the state’s third graders met or exceeded the state’s standards in reading — 9 percentage points lower than the 2019 scores in that subject. In math, 33.8% of third graders met or exceeded state standards — 6.8 percentage points lower than in 2019.

On the SAT — a standardized exam used by many colleges as part of admission criteria — 29.8% of the state’s 11th graders were proficient in reading while 28.8% were proficient in math in 2022, a drop of almost 7 percentage points in reading and 6 percentage points in math from 2019.

Among Chicago’s 11th graders, 21% were proficient in reading and 20.5% in math on the SAT, dropping 5.3 percentage points in reading and 6.2 percentage points in math from 2019.

Racial and other disparities on state tests persist

The 2022 state report card also shows continuing disparities among racial and ethnic groups, English language learners, and students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

On the IAR and SAT, Asian American and white students far outpaced their Black and Hispanic peers, who were among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

The 2022 data shows that, on the IAR, only 6.9% of the state’s English language learners were proficient in reading and 6.8% were proficient in math. English language learners make up over 13% of the student population.

Among students with IEPs, who make up 16.5% of the state’s student population, only 7% were proficient in English language arts and 7.2% in math. During virtual learning, many students with IEPs were cut off from vital services such as occupational and speech-language services and from the support of paraprofessionals.

Chicago has created a recovery plan for students with disabilities. However, shortages of special education teachers and paraprofessionals present obstacles in helping students with disabilities get back on track.

During Chicago’s school board meeting on Wednesday, district CEO Pedro Martinez acknowledged “significant drops in proficiency in math and reading” in both NAEP and state tests results. The declines are consistent with results from other school districts across the country, he said.

“This is data that is very sobering,” Martinez said, calling it “a reflection of the pandemic,” not of students’ abilities or the hard work of faculty.

Despite the challenges, Martinez expressed optimism that the current school year would bring a strong recovery.

Illinois scores reflect national trends

The Illinois scores reflect challenges facing schools around the country as they grapple with the academic fallout from the pandemic. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, found that test scores for students in fourth and eighth grades saw unprecedented declines in math and dips in reading between 2019 and 2022.

Chicago’s latest NAEP scores saw math proficiency levels return to what they were almost a decade ago, while reading scores had a slight dip. Illinois’s NAEP scores remained flat between 2019 and 2022 for fourth graders in both reading and math while eighth graders saw a dip in math.

State officials say that there is still work to be done to get students back on track and have already started to use emergency funding to provide academic support to students.

Illinois received $7.8 billion in federal COVID relief funds, distributing 90% of the money to local school districts through Title I and keeping 9.5%, or almost $500 million, for state initiatives.

About $25 million of the state’s pot of federal funds went to create the Illinois Tutoring Initiative to help students in underserved school districts receive free high-impact tutoring. The state also provided 455 of Illinois’ 852 school districts digital equity grants to provide technology such as computers and iPads to close the digital divide. Almost 130 districts offered Jump Start programs to provide educational support to incoming kindergarteners and first grade students.

Mauricio Peña contributed to this report.

Illinois uses federal COVID money to expand high-impact tutoring. Will it help students catch up?

2022-10-25T14:31:25+00:00

Jack Goodwin was already struggling with math in middle school when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, upending his education even more. His mom, Shelly, knew he needed extra help to catch up.

But Shelly Goodwin couldn’t find a tutor in their small town of Paris, about four hours south of Chicago.

“I would ask the teachers, ‘Do you know anybody that tutors or can you tutor?’,” Shelly Goodwin said. “They would try to meet with [Jack] after school but they had five or six kids after school and they would say, ‘We don’t really know anyone that tutors around here.’”

Now, Jack is a high school freshman and spends one hour three days a week with a tutor provided through a high-impact tutoring program called the Illinois Tutoring Initiative.

His district — Paris Union School District 95 — was one of seven that were a part of a initial rollout of the $25 million effort to help students catch up on reading and math by using federal COVID recovery money for the program, which state officials aim to expand to 60 districts by the end of this semester.

In order to roll out the program, hire tutors, and expand the initiative to districts, the state partnered with local universities and Pearl, a tutor management platform. But the federal relief money supporting the initiative will dry up in two years, raising questions about how effective the effort might ultimately be.

The Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois Board of Higher Education, and Illinois State University teamed up to create the initiative in the spring semester of last school year. The state’s P-20 Learning Council recommended high-impact tutoring in a report in 2021 to help get students back on track.

The program provides tutoring to districts that serve a majority of students from low-income families and were hit hardest by the pandemic. Students from kindergarten to eighth grade work on reading and math with an in-person tutor while high school students work on math online.

This fall, 300 tutors are working with 800 students across 30 districts throughout the state. The initiative expects to double the number of districts in the next few weeks.

Chicago Public Schools has invested $25 million of its federal COVID recovery money into a similar program called the Tutor Corps, which helps match students with a tutor. The district has provided 230 schools with at least one tutor to work with students in math and reading.

As of Oct. 18, the district had hired 662 tutors to work with 9,000 students. The district plans to expand the corps to 20 more schools, with a total of 800 tutors to work with 12,000 students this school year.

High-impact tutoring could help students catch up

At first, Jack Goodwin balked at getting a tutor. He would rather play football over the summer, he told his mom. But she insisted and he started meeting in person with his tutor, Cody Sanders, three times a week. Since school started this fall, he has switched to online tutoring after football practice and started working with a new tutor.

Just like Jack, students in the program meet with tutors one-on-one or in small groups with no more than three students for one hour, three times a week for eight to 14 weeks. The program doesn’t give students new lessons to work on, but supports what teachers are already doing in classrooms.

Education researchers call this approach high-impact tutoring and say it is the most effective way to get students back on track after the pandemic.

Only about a third of Illinois fourth and eighth graders are considered proficient in reading and math, according to the results of the National Assessment of Academic Progress, known as the “nation’s report card,” released yesterday. Fourth graders performed somewhat better on the math test, with 38% considered proficient.

Miguel Cardona, Education Secretary, called the national test results “appalling and unacceptable” and said how the nation responds would determine “our standing in the world.”

He noted that more than half of districts across the country are turning to high-impact tutoring to recover.

That’s because it is one of few programs that show students making gains in math and reading, according to a 2021 report from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University and the University of Virginia.

The report defines high-impact tutoring as more than three days per week or at least 50 hours over 36 weeks. It recommends that students work one-on-one with tutors or in small groups of no more than three to four students.

Tutors do not have to be current educators in order to help students, the report concluded, but they need adequate training and ongoing support.

Community members step up to tutor

When Cody Sanders was first assigned to work with Jack over the summer, Shelly Goodwin was relieved because she already knew the tutor from their Paris community.

“I am overprotective of my children, and they will tell you that,” Shelly Goodwin said, laughing. “It made me feel really good that I actually knew him and he is from the community. He’s a really awesome person.”

Sanders wanted to tutor students after losing his leg to sepsis due to diabetes in October 2020. He wasn’t feeling like his usual self and thought that helping people would be good for him.

Sanders has been tutoring third to eighth graders at Paris Union School District students since the program started in the district in the spring. Tutoring has benefited Sanders as well as his students, he said. “These kids have also helped me to come out of my shell.”

In addition to placing future educators from partner institutions of higher education into the classroom, the program also hires current teachers, retired educators, and community members such as Sanders. Potential tutors only need a high school diploma. For high school math, program leaders look at transcripts to see if tutors are proficient in the subject they are tutoring.

The program trains tutors to help them adjust to working with students, learn about high-impact tutoring and culturally responsive teaching, and understand how to support students. Before working with students, potential tutors are required to pass an assessment of the content with an 80% or higher.

During the initial rollout of the program in the spring, tutors received $20 an hour for one-on-one tutoring and $30 an hour for group tutoring. Now tutors can make $50 an hour regardless of class.

Christy Borders, director of the Illinois Tutoring Initiative, said that it was important to increase the pay rate because the program was struggling to recruit tutors who could work somewhere else for the same amount or more

While the main goal of the initiative was to address learning needs for students, Borders said, the program is also helping create jobs in communities that need them.

Will tutoring continue after COVID money expires?

Shelly Goodwin says the tutoring program improved her son’s mood and gave him confidence. Jack even smiles now, she noted.

This was the first time Jack’s district was able to provide this kind of tutoring and school leaders say they are seeing students make progress in reading and math. Jeremy Larson, the superintendent of Paris Union School District 95, said the district saw gains in both subjects on the state’s annual spring assessment for third through eighth graders.

There are also signs that the tutoring is paying off in more than just better test scores.

“We noticed that students who participate in it have better attendance,” Larson said, “which we believe is a social-emotional factor of having an interest in coming to school.”

Even as positive results are emerging from the rollout of the tutoring initiative, the program may be running out of time.

Federal COVID relief funds are set to expire in 2024, with much work still left to do. Since the initiative is still young, there is not enough data to prove the program has helped students recover from the pandemic and make significant academic progress.

For her part, Shelly Goodwin has seen Jack improve in math and hopes that the tutoring program lasts through his high school career. She still remembers the struggle to find affordable tutoring in her rural community and hopes she’s not left in the same position after federal funding dries up.

Correction: Oct. 25, 2022: This article has been updated to reflect that Pearl is a tutor management platform, not an online private tutoring company.

Illinois educators ask for $700 million more across early ed and K-12

2022-10-05T18:25:43+00:00

Treasa Howard-Collins loves her job at Joliet Township High School’s Child Care Center, but despite having 12 years experience and a master’s degree, she says she’s “earning an unlivable wage.”

“Not only am I working a second job, but I’m also doing gig work to supplement the income for the job that I love,” Howard-Collins told state officials during a budget hearing Tuesday.

Howard-Collins and several other speakers want the Illinois State Board of Education to increase funding for early childhood education by 20% – or $120 million – to increase wages for early childhood educators.

Throughout the hearing, school leaders, educators, parents, and advocates pushed for an increase of about $700 million — $120 million for early education and $550 million toward K-12 schools — to the state’s overall education budget for fiscal year 2024, which starts in June 2023. The state education budget supports early education, K-12 public schools, after-school programs, and agricultural education.

Lawmakers approved $9.7 billion for the state’s education budget in the spring with $350 million more dollars heading toward K-12 public schools and $54.4 million dollars toward the state’s early childhood block grant.

State law calls on the legislature to increase K-12 funding by $350 million annually by 2027 to get every school district to “adequacy,” or ensure that schools have enough funding to provide resources to students. Since the funding formula was created in 2017, it has resulted in an increase of $1.5 billion overall.

And while advocates applauded new funding in education, many said the state’s funding formula should increase by at least $550 million dollars this year in order to correct funding gaps more quickly.

Summer Butler, an elementary school teacher at Bellwood School District 88, said that her school is considered 70% “adequately funded,” according to state data. But her school is understaffed and overflowing with students.

Butler said that her students aren’t excelling in core subjects like math and reading, with about 14% meeting math and reading proficiency standards.

Butler noted that astronaut Eugene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 that went to the moon in 1972, attended her school in the 1940s.

“At this rate, we might not ever have another Eugene Cernan among us any day soon, because we don’t have all of the necessary resources to make that possible,” she said.

Bob Chikos, an educator at Crystal Lake Central High School in District 135, also asked for an increase of $550 million in K-12 funding because he wants to end funding disparities between school districts. He pointed to differences in funding between his district, which is 77% funded, nearby Elgin’s U-46, which is 63% funded and below adequacy, and Libertyville High School in District 128, which is 171% funded — far above adequacy.

“Disparities, such as this, have exacerbated educational, racial and wealth gaps. We live in a state in which there’s a resource race amongst adequately funded districts to offer the best education possible,” said Chikos. “While not adequately funded, districts try to hold on to the minimal resources they have to meet their students’ needs.”

Last week, Partnership for Equity and Education Rights, PEER IL, and the Education Law Center asked the state to increase funding for the evidence-based funding formula by $1.5 billion a year to hit the 2027 goal written into law.

While a majority of speakers asked the state to increase funding for early childhood education and K-12 public schools, a few speakers asked the state to boost funding to after-school programs and community schools.

Susan Staton of Afterschool for Children and Teen, ACT Now, and other advocates requested $20 million dollars for after-school programming and $15 million to go toward community schools.

“These programs all throughout Illinois are improving attendance, improving grades and helping to teach social-emotional learning skills,” said Stanton.

The state board of education is planning to host two more budget hearings. One will be held in person at 4 p.m. Thursday at the state board’s office in Springfield, Illinois, and the other will be virtual at 4 p.m. Oct. 24.

In previous years, the state board of education announced its recommendations for the education budget during its December board meeting. The board then sent its proposal to the governor and legislature in January. The governor then made a budget proposal in early February and the legislature approved the budget by the end of spring legislative session in April.

Will Illinois have fully funded schools by 2027? Not without ramping up funding, advocates say

2022-09-28T20:50:36+00:00

Illinois education advocates say that the next generations of public school students will continue to attend under-resourced schools if the state doesn’t increase funding by about $1.5 billion a year for the next five years to fully fund schools by 2027.

The Partnership for Equity and Education Rights Illinois — a new coalition of several education advocacy programs — and the Education Law Center said in a press release that they found that 1.7 million students from 83% of Illinois school districts still attend an underfunded school. By only placing $350 million into the state’s evidence-based funding formula – the minimum amount recommended by law – the state will not be able to fully fund school districts by 2027, a new report from the advocacy groups found.

At a press conference on Tuesday, ahead of budget hearings the Illinois Board of Education is set to start holding next week, the advocates urged state officials to increase funding for the next school year.

Naoma Nagahawatte, advocacy director for Raise Your Hand Illinois and a Chicago parent, said time is running out to fully fund schools to ensure that students who go to schools with a higher concentration of poverty can receive the same education as students in wealthier districts.

“Generations of future Illinois students in low-wealth districts will continue to seek significantly less funding and resources for their education,” said Nagahawatte, “while districts like Dolton-Riverdale will continue to unfairly more in local property taxes to make up the money that the state of Illinois is obligated to put into their school districts.”

When the state legislature created the evidence-based funding formula in 2017, it intended for schools to be fully funded by 2027, with at least $350 million added to the formula every year. However, there was no new funding for 2021 – a fallout from the financial hit the pandemic delivered to the state. The state board of education recommended adding more than $350 million into the evidence-based funding formula for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, but legislators stuck with the $350 million minimum outlined in the law.

At the end of the legislative session in April, state lawmakers approved $350 million more for the funding formula, which is now at $7.9 billion. The state’s overall education budget is about $9.7 billion. Under the increase sought by the advocates, the evidence-based funding formula would be over $15 billion by 2027.

Sincereuray Gordon, whose children attend Zion District 6 in a North Chicago suburb, said children with disabilities are also impacted by inadequate funding. In Zion, students often have to be relocated or bused to another school to be provided services, but spots are limited.

“I think every child has the right to proper resources and services in the school building that they are in as opposed to having to relocate,” Gordon said at the press conference.

In Chicago, where schools are funded based on enrollment, programs have been cut despite getting additional state money, said Brenda Delgado, a member of the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and a Chicago parent. Chicago lost about 25,000 students during the height of the pandemic.

“My children are students at a school that received a lot of cuts due to student-based budgeting. That’s not fair,” said Delgado. “Our kids deserve to have a library in their schools. They deserve counselors and nurses. They deserve programs.”

Partnership for Equity and Education Rights Illinois wants state legislators to be required to put more than $350 million additional money into the state’s funding formula and to ensure that school districts steer the money directly to public school classrooms and students, Nagahawatte said.

Education advocates throughout the state have raised concerns that the minimum will not be enough with rising costs and a 40-year high inflation rate. However, even as Illinois’ finances are starting to rebound, neither the governor or legislature have indicated they will add more to the funding formula.

The state’s professional review board released a report last year noting that full funding would not happen until 2042 if the state continues to increase the funding by the $350 million minimum.

A spokesperson for Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the governor understands more work needs to be done to increase funding for schools around the state.

“The administration remains committed to working with our partners in the legislature to expand evidence-based funding levels and provide schools throughout the state with the resources necessary to thrive,” Pritzker’s office said in a statement.

The state board of education will hold virtual and in person hearings throughout the month of October. Virtual hearings will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 4 and Monday, Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. An in-person hearing will take place in Springfield on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 4 p.m.

North Chicago will start transition to an elected school board in 2025, with a fully elected board in 2027

2022-09-21T19:09:21+00:00

The Illinois State Board of Education has agreed to transition North Chicago School District 187 back to having an elected school board after a decade under state control. Elections will begin in 2025 with three out of seven seats up for election; by 2027, the board will be fully elected.

The state board voted unanimously on Wednesday to return the suburban school district to an elected school board after North Chicago made academic and financial gains over the past 10 years. The district serves 3,000 students across eight schools. The student population is predominantly Latino and 81% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, according to the 2021 state report card.

State Superintendent Carmen Ayala recommended a slow transition because the coronavirus pandemic set the district’s academic growth back a few years and the district is in the middle of spending over $17 million in federal emergency funds.

“A transition of this magnitude is not to be taken lightly,” said Ayala on Wednesday. “The last thing we want to do is jeopardize student’s academic and social-emotional recovery, especially during this critical time as they recover from the pandemic.”

Starting in 2025, the state board plans to expand the current Independent Authority board — which was created during the state’s oversight of the district — to seven members, with three members elected by the North Chicago residents. The state superintendent will continue to appoint the chairperson and remaining members of the Independent Authority board.

By 2027, the state board will disband the Independent Authority and residents will be able to vote for all seven seats.

The state board of education plans to create a community advisory group made up of residents in North Chicago, the Independent Authority board, the Financial Oversight Panel, elected officials, district parents, and students to create a plan to ensure that the transition to an elected school board is successful. The state board will release a plan by Jan. 15, 2023.

The state board stepped in to take over the North Chicago school district in 2012, citing financial troubles, quick turnover of superintendents, and low test scores that showed students barely meeting or exceeding the state’s standards. The district was on the state’s academic watch list for years.

While the state has changed how it measures student academic performance twice since taking over North Chicago’s schools, state data shows the district made significant improvements in English and math. In 2015, just 12% of students were proficient in English, compared to 16% in 2019. In 2015, 9% of students met the bar in math, compared to 12% in 2019.

State officials also said the North Chicago school district’s financial score went from 3.25 out of 4 in 2012 to an estimated 3.7 in 2021.

With the progress made by the district, local elected officials and community members agree with the state board of education’s plan to transition slowly to an elected school board. Some, however, disagreed if the transition should take place in 2023 or in 2025.

The state board conducted five community meetings from May to September at schools throughout the North Chicago district to hear what residents think about transitioning back to an elected school board.

According to the feedback the state board received, a large majority of residents wanted an elected school board even though there was some disagreement about when it should take place. Twenty-four comments, or 48%, were in favor of an elected school board to transition in 2025 or with no specified timeline. Twenty comments, or 40%, were in favor of an elected school board by 2023. Only three comments, or 6%, were against an elected school board.

Elected officials and residents of North Chicago who attended the state board meeting on Wednesday morning and spoke in favor of a slow transition.

Leon Rockingham, mayor of the city of North Chicago, said that he was wary of transitioning to an elected school board too quickly.

“I fear that if we move too quickly to local elections for the school board before candidates have the time to solidify support from the community, obtain signatures for petitions and have the proper time to campaign,” said Rockingham. “This would cause an adverse effect on all the positives.”

Cynthia Jackson, a resident of North Chicago who was involved in the district’s strategic plan, said the district has yet to meet all of its goals for its strategic plan.

“A change in leadership could jeopardize the success track of our students. A shift to an elected school board at this time would be detrimental to the academic success of district 187 students,” said Jackson. “The needs of our students should be our top priority.”

Longtime Illinois educator Steven Isoye named chair of state board of education

2022-09-20T17:58:17+00:00

The Illinois State Board of Education has a new chairman: Steven Isoye, a science teacher-turned-superintendent from Chicago’s suburbs.

Isoye was sworn in Tuesday at the board’s monthly meeting, one day after Gov. J.B. Pritzker made the announcement.

Isoye replaces former chair Darren Reisberg, who left the state board in May to become President of Hartwick College, a small liberal arts college in New York. Reisberg said in his exit interview with Chalkbeat that it will be important for the next board chair to spend time with school leaders, teachers, parents, advocates, and others invested in education to make good policy.

As chair, Isoye will be responsible for overseeing the state’s continued efforts to recover from the pandemic, diversify the teacher workforce, retain educators, and figure out the best way to test students. He will serve for four-year terms and can serve up to two consecutive terms, according to the state board of education.

In a statement, Isoye said he is honored to be appointed.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Board and State Superintendent Dr. Carmen Ayala to foster an academic environment in which every student in the state can be successful,” Isoye said.

Over Isoye’s career, he worked his way from a science teacher to superintendent with roles at several school districts in the Chicago suburbs. Before becoming a superintendent, he was a principal at Maine East High School in Park Ridge and Warren Township High School in Gurnee. He also served as science department chair at Highland Park High School.

Prior to his leadership roles, Isoye spent 12 years in the classroom, teaching chemistry, biology, and physical sciences at Highland Park, Deerfield, and Warren Township High Schools, The Latin School of Chicago, and Loyola Academy.

Isoye was named the Illinois High School Principal of the Year in 2010 and Illinois Teacher of the Year in 1998.

Isoye is “an exceptional educator and person,” Pritzker said in a statement, adding that he is a great fit to lead “the best educational leadership team in America.”

Isoye most recently served as superintendent of Niles Township High School District 219, but his first superintendent job was at Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200. Colleagues there applauded his appointment.

“Not only is he an exceptional educator, but he also has a deep commitment to equity and the work of ensuring that race, socioeconomic status, and other social factors are eliminated as predictors of students’ academic achievement and social emotional growth,” Karin Sullivan, executive director of communications at Oak Park and River Forest High School, said in a statement to Chalkbeat.

In addition to being an educator and administrator, Isoye has sat on a number of state boards and committees over his career and holds membership with several state and national associations. He currently sits on two state committees, one focused on tests for students and one on evaluating teacher performance in classrooms.

Brent Clark, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, said he is looking forward to working with Isoye in his new role.

“As a recent sitting superintendent, Dr. Isoye understands the issues impacting public school districts across the state of Illinois and will be a great partner in helping address those challenges,” Clark said.

Pritzker’s office said Isoye’s appointment awaits confirmation by the state Senate, which is scheduled to meet in November.

Illinois eases COVID testing requirements for unvaccinated school employees

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A $760 million opioid settlement could help fund Illinois early childhood programs, say advocates

2022-09-09T16:40:45+00:00

This story has been updated with a comment from the Illinois Attorney General’s office.

Illinois law enforcement officials are asking the state to use millions of dollars from a national opioid settlement to better fund early intervention and home visit programs for families facing poverty, single parenthood, addiction, and other adverse conditions.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a nonprofit network of 320 law enforcement officials in Illinois with partners across the country, is pushing for the state to use some of the $760 million it’s expecting to get from four pharmaceutical companies to increase funding for early childhood initiatives to support families impacted by the opioid crisis and to prevent parents or children from using opioids in the future.

These initiatives can intervene early to support parents who struggle with addiction and connect them to treatment options and prevent children from experiencing child neglect and abuse.

At a press conference on Wednesday, J. Hanley, Winnebago County state’s attorney, said this is a personal issue. Hanley’s adopted daughter was born with neonatal abstinence syndrome — a wide range of medical complications in children exposed to opioids in the womb — and currently has delayed speech.

“I think it’s the best way to spend the funds that are coming our way,” said Hanley. “Support children in their earliest years and protect them at that time, but also keep them out of trouble and support our communities going forward.”

When asked if Gov. J.B. Pritzker would support giving a portion of the settlement funds to early childhood programs, a spokesperson for the governor said where the money goes is determined by the attorney general’s office.

In an email statement to Chalkbeat, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office said settlement funds can go to “prevention efforts and enhanced support for children and families,” but did not specifically address the proposal from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids’ proposal.

Earlier this year, Raoul announced that the state would receive approximately $760 million over the next two decades from a $26 billion settlement in a national lawsuit against three major pharmaceutical distributors — Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen — and one manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson.

In July, Pritzker issued an executive order to create the Office of Opioid Settlement Administration to oversee the distribution of settlement dollars. An advisory board made up of state and local appointees and chaired by state’s chief behavioral health officer will make recommendations on how to spend the funds. The board will work with a state opioid steering committee, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Human Services.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Illinois advocates said areas in need of more support are the Illinois Department of Human Services’ home visiting programs, in which trained professionals coach families at home on parenting skills, and Early Intervention services, which support young children with disabilities.

At the press conference, Dora Villarreal, state’s attorney from Rock Island County, said law enforcement officials are “very reactive and instead we need to focus so much more on prevention.”

The state should invest funds in home visiting programs, Villarreal said, especially since those services have struggled to receive new funds. Last year, home visiting programs received a modest increase.

An analysis completed in 2020 by the state’s Prenatal to Three Initiative, currently known as Raising Illinois, found that 15,000 families lack the home visiting help they need. Seventeen Illinois counties have no such services at all. The home visiting program received roughly $1 million in the latest state budget.

Illinois education advocates have said that early childhood education and child care programs are in crisis and funding has been inadequate for years.

Before the fiscal year 2023 budget was approved by the state this year, advocates were pushing for a 10% increase for all early childhood programs to help raise salaries for workers, fund professional development, and keep costs down for families. However, advocates say it’s been difficult to properly fund early education because services are spread out across state agencies such as the State Board of Education, Department of Child and Family Services, and the Department of Human Services.

The state board of education’s Early Childhood Block grant got a 10% increase in this year’s budget, but other programs that early childhood advocates were fighting for did not see a similar increase. The Department of Human Services’ Child Care Assistance Program, which subsidizes the cost of child care for low-income families, stayed flat. Early Intervention regained $7 million that had been cut the previous year.

Illinois families must again prove students need school meals

2022-09-02T20:04:05+00:00

Illinois families will once again have to prove that they are eligible for free and reduced-price school meals — signaling the end of a pandemic-era program that allowed schools to provide free meals to all students.

Some Illinois students will continue to receive free or reduced-price breakfast, lunch, and after-school snacks but will have to submit information to local schools to see if they qualify, the state department of education announced on Friday.

During the height of the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave states waivers that allowed all students to receive free school meals. Schools across Illinois were able to create distribution areas where families could pick-up “grab and go lunches.”

News that the pandemic-related federal waivers were set to expire at the end of June sent schools scrambling to find ways to feed students, even as districts grappled with food and staffing shortages and higher prices.

However, in June, the Biden administration passed the “Keep Kids Fed Act” that extended the pandemic waivers through the summer and allowed schools to operate grab-and-go meal programs and deliver food to students. The legislation will also allow districts to continue receiving higher reimbursements for meals this school year.

During the 2022-23 school year, eligible students will be able to access free and reduced-price meals through the federal government’s National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Districts that serve many low-income students are able to apply for a program that allows them to serve breakfast and lunch to everyone, regardless of income. The state board has approved districts such as Chicago Public Schools, Peoria Public Schools SD 150, and East St. Louis SD 189.

Local school districts can also check to see if a student’s family receives public benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Programs to qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

In school districts that don’t offer free meals to everyone, families must fill out a form to determine eligibility. Depending on the size and income of a family, students may receive free or reduced-price lunch. For instance, a family of four making about $36,000 would qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

Families should receive a form from their school at the beginning of the school year.

In a press release on Friday, state schools chief Carmen Ayala emphasized the importance of nutritious meals when it comes to a student’s success in the classroom.

“I applaud all of our food service professionals who have gone above and beyond during the pandemic to ensure students across the state continued to have access to the nutrition they needed and who are now supporting students and families through the transition back to regular meal service,” said Ayala.

North Chicago may transition back to an elected school board, state officials say. It’s unclear when.

2022-08-23T11:00:00+00:00

A decade after being placed under state control, North Chicago School District 187 may go back to having a locally elected school board.

The Illinois state board of education says the suburban school district, which serves more than 3,000 students, has made enough progress academically and financially in recent years to justify considering lifting state oversight.

The district, which has a majority Latino student body and 81% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch, was placed under state control in 2012.

The state changed how it measures student academic performance twice since taking over North Chicago’s schools, making it difficult to track improvements back to 2012. But since 2015, the percentage of students considered proficient in English and math has increased, according to data provided by the state. In 2015, just 12% of students were proficient in English, compared to 16% in 2019. In 2015, 9% of students met the bar in math, compared to 12% in 2019.

State officials also said the North Chicago school district’s financial score went from 3.25 out of 4 in 2012 to an estimated 3.7 in 2021.

North Chicago’s modest gains while under state control are rare. A national report from 2021 found little evidence that districts see a rise in test scores as a result of being taken over by the state. The report found that state control had slightly negative effects on students.

Before the state stepped in, North Chicago schools were riddled with troubles, including a quick turnover of superintendents.

A former school board member and former school transportation director were also indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2011 and later convicted for getting more than $800,000 in kickbacks for school bus contracts over almost a decade before getting caught. Students were barely meeting or exceeding the state’s standards, putting the district on the state’s academic watch list for years.

During the state board of education’s monthly meeting last week, state superintendent Carmen Ayala said she is open to transitioning the district to an elected school board by 2025. However, the decision will be made after the board completes community engagement meetings that have been running throughout the year. The next meeting will be Sept. 7.

North Chicago district parents, community members, and local politicians also think it’s time to move to an elected school board. At the state board meeting last week, North Chicagoans urged the district to move the process along.

Rayon Edwards, a North Chicago resident, said he understands why the district was taken over by the state, but thinks it’s time for an elected school board.

“We’re tired of not having any say in who educates our kids and how it’s being done,” said Edwards.

“We can no longer allow this to happen,” said Thomas Coleman, another community member. “Every other city surrounding us in the state of Illinois has an elected school board. We want the same thing for our community. It’s unfair.”

Later in the board meeting, Donna Leak, a member of the state school board who also serves as superintendent of Community Consolidated Schools District 168 in Chicago’s south suburbs, asked if the transition will happen next year or in 2025.

Board members agreed that earlier could be a good option, but said the transition depends on evidence that the district can govern itself. If not, they said, a longer transition with additional support could be helpful.

Board member Roger Eddy said state oversight was only supposed to be for a certain time period and that the board should consider moving forward with transitioning.

“When folks have a passion to become self-governing and self-determinant of how their school is going to serve them,” said Eddy, “we should provide them an opportunity with whatever means we can while still giving them support for that little transition period.”

Illinois eases COVID quarantining and testing as school year starts

2022-08-15T21:31:37+00:00

Illinois schools and early childhood centers can ease some COVID protocols — including regular screening tests, quarantining close contacts, and social distancing — but are recommended to continue masking to limit cases, according to the latest federal public health guidance.

The state’s department of public health and the state board of education announced late Friday that Illinois has adopted the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for K-12 schools and child care centers. State officials said the expansion of vaccines for children 6 months and older, a decrease in hospitalizations, and other public health mitigations factored into their decision to update their guidance.

“This updated guidance from the CDC acknowledges the importance of in-person learning by allowing schools to more aptly adjust to changes within their own communities,” said state superintendent Carmen Ayala in a press release on Friday.

The state is asking that parents keep sick students at home and use tests to rule out COVID-19. Schools are required to provide remote learning for students in quarantine this school year, according to the state’s remote learning declaration from last fall.

Chicago Public Schools said the district will review the latest federal guidelines and work with the city’s public health department on its plans before school doors open on Aug. 22.

Schools districts across the state can make local decisions about how they want to mitigate COVID-19 in their schools. Throughout the pandemic, the state board of education along with the state’s health department has encouraged districts to work with their local health departments to determine the needs of their community.

“Teachers, professors and education support professionals are looking forward to welcoming students to the new school year,” said Kathi Griffin, president of the Illinois Education Association. “We trust schools and universities to work collaboratively with employees to ensure each school has done everything necessary to keep students, educators and communities safe and healthy.”

Here’s what you need to know about the latest guidance.

No need to quarantine if exposed:

The latest federal guidance says students no longer have to quarantine if they have been exposed to COVID-19. However, those who have been exposed should wear a mask for 10 days, regardless of vaccination status.

If someone tests positive for the coronavirus, the guidance says they should isolate for at least five days.

Last year, Illinois schools and child care centers had to close classrooms to limit the spread of coronavirus and other students and staff were sometimes absent for long stretches. Students were often unable to access remote learning during the time they were in isolation.

Easing testing for schools:

Some schools used a “test-to-stay” program last school year to test students exposed to COVID-19, as a way of limiting the number of students in quarantine. The latest CDC guidance says schools and child care providers no longer have to use that program.

Illinois school districts are pulling away from testing students at schools. The state’s health department has a partnership with the University of Illinois to administer the SHIELD test — the university’s saliva-based test for COVID. Around 180 districts out of the state’s 852 school districts have applied for the program this year, compared to 250 districts last year, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

The Illinois department of public health announced last week that it would ship a one-time bulk shipment of one million over-the-counter COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to K-12 public school districts outside of Chicago for this school year.

The CDC also said K-12 schools and child care centers can stop regularly screening students for COVID. Federal public health officials only recommend this kind of testing when there is high community spread and students and staff are participating in high-risk activities such as sports.

Wear a mask to prevent spread:

The latest federal health guidance recommends wearing high-filtration masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. When the transmission rate is high, indoor masking is recommended for all K-12 schools and child care centers. Masking is recommended in health care settings such as school nurses’ offices regardless of vaccination status.

For those younger than 2 and for some students with disabilities who cannot wear a mask, it is recommended that schools and child care centers use other strategies such as improving ventilation and social distancing.

Chicago schools get smaller share of state money after enrollment drop, property wealth bump

2022-08-05T22:04:07+00:00

Chicago is getting a smaller share of new state education funding this year, in part due to a loss of low-income students and an increased property tax base.

New calculations released by the Illinois Board of Education this morning give Chicago Public Schools $1.75 billion in state money, an overall increase of roughly 1.5% over last year.

But the state’s complex formula for determining how to fund public school districts recategorized Chicago in a way that could mean less state money in the future and a longer road to be considered fully funded.

“They’re still getting money from the state, it’s just less money than they would have,” said Ralph Martire, executive director with the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and one of the architects of the state law that created the so-called evidence-based funding formula in 2017.

The state is adding $350 million to the billions it is distributing to districts this year. Of that new money, Chicago will get a little more than $27 million of the additional dollars. But district officials say they expected to get around $50 million.

In a statement, a CPS spokesperson said the shift puts more pressure on the district at a time “when our needs have never been greater.”

“Public schools are serving a wider scope of needs than ever before as we emerge from the pandemic and we need all the resources we can get,” the statement said.

The state’s formula for determining how to fund schools looks at a variety of factors, including the percentage of low-income students and wealth of the property surrounding schools. Chicago saw a 4% loss of low-income students and a 3% increase in the city’s property tax base, according to state data.

Chicago lost 10,000 students last school year, continuing a decade-long trend of shrinking enrollment. While nearly 70% of Chicago students are low-income, those numbers have also dipped as parts of the city have grown wealthier.

“They’re sitting on a lot of property wealth and they don’t necessarily tap that property wealth to the level they could,” Martire said of Chicago. He also noted that districts, including Chicago, are getting a windfall this year from a tax on corporate profits, which affects the formula but is not as reliable as a source of revenue.

The state legislature overhauled how it funds public schools in 2017 and promised to equitably fund the state’s 852 school districts by 2027. To get there, the formula prioritizes every district into four tiers. Tier 1 districts get the most help from the state to fund their schools and Tier 4 districts get the least. For the coming fiscal year, Chicago moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2, which effectively puts it further back in line for new money.

Jessica Handy, director of government affairs at Stand for Children, said she didn’t anticipate Chicago Public Schools would be recategorized this year because the district still serves a large population of students from low-income families.

Handy said the evidence-based funding formula is better than the system it replaced, but the state needs to increase its contribution to get all districts to adequate funding.

“Illinois was a deeply inequitable school funding system,” Handy said. “Evidence-based funding made it better because we’ve set up a framework to get ourselves to adequacy. But at a rate of $350 million per year, it’s not enough to fully fund the many needs of our school districts, especially our neediest school districts.”

Robin Steans, president of Advance Illinois, said the formula is designed to provide a base amount that districts can count on year after year. Any new evidence-based funding a district receives becomes part of its base funding in the future year.

“This predictability can be quite helpful to districts for planning purposes,” said Steans. “For many districts, including CPS, their base funding minimums have grown over the past five years as they have received new evidence-based funding.”

Nearly 60 school districts, including many surrounding Chicago, will get a larger share of the $350 million in new money after being reclassified due to enrollment shifts and property wealth adjustments.

Among them is Lincoln Way Community High School District 210, which saw a 131% increase in the number of students identified as English Language Learners. Similarly, Warren Township High School District 121 saw a 20% increase in students learning English.

Another district getting a larger share of the new state education money is Homewood Flossmoor District 233, which saw declining enrollment but also had a drop in property wealth, according to the formula.

Last year, an analysis released by a group of legislators, superintendents, and experts tasked with overseeing the new funding model estimated that it would take until 2042 to fully fund schools if the state continues to invest $350 million — considered the base amount.

Pritzker and the general assembly hoped that the more than $7 billion in emergency COVID federal funding the state received will make up for not being able to add more than $350 million toward the state funding formula.

State education advocates have warned that without an increase in state funding schools will be seeing a cut in services because districts base long-term staffing positions on state funding, not short-term federal funding.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org. Becky Vevea is Chalkbeat Chicago’s Bureau Chief. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkeat.org.

Illinois is reducing sales tax on school supplies for the next 10 days

2022-08-04T22:16:30+00:00

For the first time in more than a decade, Illinois families and educators can save money on many back-to-school school supplies during the state’s tax holiday Aug. 5-14.

Beginning Friday, the state sales tax on school supplies and other school-related items will drop from 6.25% to 1.25%.

The “Back to School” tax holiday was included in a $1.8 billion tax relief bill proposed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker late in the spring legislative session, and approved by the general assembly. The tax relief comes at a time when inflation is at a historic high of 9.1% and has caused significant increases in prices for gas, groceries, and utilities.

“Our parents shouldn’t have to choose between buying essential school supplies for their children and putting food on the kitchen table,” said Pritzker in a press release Thursday. “Our teachers shouldn’t have to break the bank to do right by the students that they nurture day in and day out.”

The state claims that during the 10-day tax holiday, Illinois families could save up to $50 million on school supplies.

Here are some of the items that qualify for the reduced sales tax:

School uniforms
Coats
Sneakers
Book bags
Calculators

Unfortunately, certain items are excluded, including:

Computer accessories
Masks
Sports or recreational equipment like gloves or mouth guards
Art supplies like paint and watercolors

Items over $125 are also excluded.

Though anyone can purchase these items during the tax holiday, teachers will find a lot to stock up on, including blackboard chalk, binders, index cards, and notebooks. During tax time next year, teachers will receive an income tax credit of up to $250 for school supplies they purchased for their classrooms.

While this may be the first back-to-school tax holiday for Illinoisians since 2010, many states around the country do it annually. Florida’s tax holiday started July 25 and ends Aug. 7. It includes a discount on clothing, footwear, school supplies, children’s books, and technology. New Jersey’s tax holiday will take place Aug. 27-Sept. 5, and covers school supplies, technology, and athletic gear.

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

2022-07-11T11:00:00+00:00

Stephanie Diaz was at a debate camp, three hours away from her hometown of Highland Park, Illinois, when she got a text from her boyfriend:

“You might be seeing something on the news in a bit, but we’re safe. I’ll get more details later, but everyone is safe.”

“Wait, what’s happening,” she responded.

“There might’ve been a shooting in Downtown, at the parade we were just at.”

The rising junior at Highland Park High School turned to social media, confirming that a gunman had opened fire on a crowd of Fourth of July paradegoers. She immediately checked on her family members — including her mother who works at a Potbelly less than half a block away from the parade route.

Her mom had been escorted from the sandwich shop to her car. Safe. Her brother was away that weekend. Safe. Her dad, a truck driver, wasn’t there. Safe.

Still, the 16-year-old couldn’t sit still 200 miles away.

“The only thing I wanted to do was be back home, be with my family and see them,” Diaz said. “The most terrifying thought was I could have lost them in a split moment.”

The following morning, she was at her high school volunteering as school officials helped provide crisis support to a grieving community wrestling with the trauma that rippled through the suburb nestled 27 miles north of downtown Chicago.

In the wake of the Independence Day shooting that claimed the lives of seven and wounded more than 30 people, District 113 and District 112 transformed their schools into a haven for students, staff, families, and other Highland Park residents, offering mental health services and support for yet another community hit by gun violence.

The response in Highland Park is an example of how schools across the country have often been thrust into the frontlines, helping students and the broader community cope with the aftermath of mass shootings and increasing gun violence.

Seven people were killed in the shooting on Independence Day, and over 30 more were wounded. The traumatic events in Highland Park occurred less than two months after two other high-profile mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

The Highland Park shooting came less than two months after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and a supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York, which killed 10 and left three wounded, just 10 days before that. In all, more than 300 mass shootings have taken place in the U.S. so far in 2022, according to the Washington Post.

Beyond high-profile mass shootings, gun violence has been on the rise in recent years. And students in major cities have been forced to navigate neighborhood gun violence that seeps into schools with few resources to address ongoing trauma.

In Chicago, union leaders, parents, and students have long called for more mental health services to handle the ripple effects of gun violence on the South and West Sides.

Since spring 2021, Chicago Public Schools has been working to expand a network of care teams to address trauma including gun violence. But parents, teachers, and students say more is still needed.

In Highland Park, District 113 and District 112 officials responded quickly to the shooting. Within hours, they announced plans to offer trauma services at Highland Park High School and Deerfield High School, said Karen Warner, District 113’s communications director.

Over the course of the next two days, district staff and more than 30 counselors from the surrounding area served about 600 people, Warner said in an email.

“We know this incident will have a profound impact on the community for a long time,” Warner said.

Among the victims was 8-year-old Cooper Roberts, who remained in critical condition days after he was shot in the chest and his spinal cord was severed. His twin brother and mother Keely Roberts, superintendent of Zion Elementary School District 6, were also injured in the shooting.

Chicago Public Schools teacher Zoe Kolpack, her husband, her father, and her brother-in-law attended the parade and were among the dozens wounded. CPS officials were in contact with Kolpack, and their crisis team and support service were available to support Kolpack’s colleagues and students at William Dever Elementary staff, according to a statement posted on Twitter.

“Chicago Public Schools is devastated to learn that one of our CPS teachers and her family members are among those who were injured in Monday’s mass shooting in Highland Park,” the district said in the July 5 statement.

Chicago Public Schools frequently dispatches mental health and crisis services to individual schools that have been affected by gun violence, but staff and families have advocated for more sustained support.

Last month, teacher Jessie Hudson stood outside Jacob Beidler Elementary School on Chicago’s West Side and called on the district to bolster schools with more counselors and social workers to help students deal with the impact of neighborhood gun violence. Hudson, along with union leaders, teachers, parents, and students, were holding a vigil to remember students lost to gun violence over the past year.

“Our children need the counselors in the school more often,” Hudson said. “Our children need psychologists in the school more often. I’m not a psychologist — I’m a teacher so I try to stay in my lane. But I want to give them as much as I can of me so that they can have someone to talk to.”

In Highland Park, residents are still trying to make sense of the mass shooting that catapulted their suburb into the national spotlight.

North Shore School District 112, which serves Highland Park and neighboring Highwood elementary school students, moved their counselors from Highland Park High School and opened two of its schools last week to provide counseling services for younger children.

As part of the community fabric, school leaders needed to “rise up” with “care, love, and compassion” to serve the community, said Michael Lubelfeld, District 112 superintendent.

The emergency response was to handle “an immediate, outpouring of grief, fear, confusion, anger, and a need for some support,” Lubelfeld said.

In recent years, Lubelfield said, the district has been increasing the number of therapists, counselors, and social workers to deal with social emotional issues stemming from the fallout of the pandemic. The shooting in Uvalde only intensified that urgency for more support, he added.

While the Highland Park shooting didn’t take place at a school, “it did shatter the innocence of our community — and has a residual effect on our schools,” Lubelfield said. “The schools are the frontline for the community’s children.”

“We’re the frontlines for everything that goes on in society — good or bad,” he added. “And right now, every school needs to have therapists on site.”

The FBI’s Victims Service Response Team also set up a family assistance center at Highland Park High School to offer additional trauma counseling, government aid assistance, and financial assistance, said Chris Covelli, deputy chief of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also issued a disaster proclamation for Lake County, effectively expediting the use of state resources, personnel, or equipment to aid in the Highland Park recovery.

“There are no words for the kind of evil that turns a community celebration into a tragedy,” Pritzker said in a press statement. “As we mourn together, the State of Illinois will provide every available resource to Highland Park and surrounding communities in the days and weeks ahead as the community works to recover from this horrific tragedy.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, seen here embracing Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, advocated for residents to seek the support they needed following this tragedy.

Vice President Kamala Harris visited the scene of the massacre the day after the shooting and offered her condolences to the Highland Park community, saying the nation needed to take this seriously.

“I’m so sorry for what you experienced,” Harris said. “This should never have happened.”

The Biden administration, Harris said, would continue to provide “all of its resources” for the mayor, the police chief, and others.

In the aftermath of the trauma, “a lot of healing,” physically and emotionally, would have to happen, Harris said.

“There’s no question that this experience is going to linger in terms of the trauma,” Harris said, while urging all families and individuals to seek support “you so rightly deserve.”

The day after the shooting, families trickled out the front doors of Highland Park High School, some embracing one another, others wiping tears from their eyes, or rubbing the upper back of a loved one to offer comfort. Small children walked out with large plush stuffed animals or small plastic bags filled with various items.

A man, woman, and two young children settled on a patch of grass nearby, eating tacos from a food truck giving out free food to community members making their way in and out of the high school.

The man in the group turned down a request for an interview, saying in Spanish: “I’ve been talking all day and I just want to be at peace with what happened.”

Standing outside the school, Rabbi Anne Persin said three of her congregants were wounded and two remained hospitalized. Still in shock, Persin said she was trying her best to provide spiritual guidance to her congregations.

“I don’t want thoughts and prayers. I want actions,” Persin said, adding that if the shooter obtained the guns legally, “then the laws are wrong.”

Inside the school, grief counselors and social workers provided mental health service and support to staff, students, and families, according to a Highland Park High School teacher. Chalkbeat is not naming the teacher because they did not have approval from the district to speak with the press.

Therapy dogs were also brought in to support community members stopping by for services.

The teacher said a lot of students, parents, and family members of those injured showed up last week for crisis counseling. Staff also came in to be with each other.

“Everyone processes it differently,” the teacher said, “which is what I think we are trying to work together to figure out.”

At Highland Park High School, counselors and social workers provided support and crisis counseling to members of their school community.

The teacher stressed that they wanted to make sure students had an open door to process the events – whether through one-on-one therapy or play-based therapy for younger children.

Gisele Ramilo, whose husband works for District 113, said district officials have done an excellent job in responding to the shooting.

“That’s a good start,” said Ramilo, a teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School.

“I believe at the beginning of the school year there should be some sort of professional development for teachers, students, and the community to have an outlet to talk about what they’re thinking and feeling,” she said. “I think people are scared and nervous now.”

Stephanie Diaz, the Highland Park student who rushed back from camp, also appreciates the resources flowing into the community.

“It’s amazing so many volunteered to come help,” she said. “Personally, I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve never seen our community do something like this.”

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

Illinois board of education holds off on changes to the state assessment

2022-05-18T22:33:44+00:00

After more than a year of heated debate, the Illinois state board of education has decided not to move forward with proposed changes to the state’s existing standardized test, saying it will reconsider changing the end-of-year exam once schools return to normalcy after the pandemic.

The state board of education announced last April that it was looking at changing the state’s current assessment system. After the coronavirus pandemic interrupted schools across the state, the board considered changing the assessment to collect data on how much learning students lost over the last two school years.

The original proposal called for a gradual replacement of the Illinois Assessment of Readiness exam, or the end-of-year assessment, by 2025 — when the state’s contract with Pearson, the creators of the IAR, ends. With both contracts potentially overlapping, the state board of education expected 20% of the state’s student population to take both exams.

Under that proposal, the state would have contracted a company for almost $300 million over five years to create an assessment that would test Illinois students in third through eighth grade three times a year. The state also wanted to administer an optional test for students in kindergarten through second grade.

At the state board’s May board meeting on Wednesday, state superintendent Carmen Ayala said the state board decided to hold off considering changes because many schools are still rebounding from the toll that the pandemic has taken on learning in classrooms.

The state board will “continue our focus in supporting students’ academic and social emotional recovery from the pandemic and working toward closing any equity gaps for our students,” Ayala said.

After board member Donna Leak asked Ayala what the state board could do to speed up reporting assessment results to school districts, Ayala said she will work with the state’s current vendor to report results to school districts faster. School district leaders, administrators, and educators have said it takes too long for districts to get assessment results.

Leak also asked if the state board could limit the number of tests administered during the school year. Ayala said interim assessments are administered by local school districts, not the state. A majority of the state’s 852 districts use interim assessments. Chicago used the Measure of Progress assessment until the district ended its contract with NWEA — the administrator of MAP— last year.

Roger Eddy, along with other board members, applauded Ayala for getting feedback from school districts and educators on how to improve the state system and said they hope to use that feedback in the future.

“If we were to prioritize all the comments and feedback that we received, you’d hit the nail on the head for what I think most educators would like from their assessment system, which would be more timely results,” said Eddy.

The state board’s decision to table changes to assessments came a week after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the “Too Young To Test” bill last week. The new law will prevent the state board of education from requiring standardized assessments for students in kindergarten to second grade unless for diagnostic or screening purposes. The bill was advocated for by Illinois Families for Public Schools and other advocacy groups who were concerned about testing early learners.

School leaders, educators, and advocates were not satisfied with the state’s current end-of-year assessment because results are reported the next school year and testing takes time away from curriculum.

Many were also concerned about increasing the number of tests given every year. Some spoke about what they would like to see in any new state assessment system during the public portion of the meeting on Wednesday morning.

Cynthia Riseman Lund, legislative director of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said too much time is being taken away from learning in the classroom due to the amount of testing in schools.

“In too many school districts across Illinois — especially in school districts with higher community poverty rates who serve black and brown students — our members decry the overuse and misuse of these types of interim tests,” said Riseman Lund. “When districts purchase interim tests to prepare for the summative state tests, the results are harmful to students’ work and to teaching and learning.”

John Burkey, president of the Illinois’ Large Unit District Association, said assessments are important, but they need to be better. Burkey also advocated for the board to support districts to purchase or develop interim assessments so “they can get quality student assessment on individual students.”

7 things to know about paid COVID sick leave for Illinois school staff

2022-05-10T16:52:45+00:00

A new law gives Illinois school employees paid leave for COVID-related reasons and restores sick days used during the 2021-2022 school year. However, there are some questions about who is covered under the new law.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law last month a measure that grants fully vaccinated school staff paid administrative leave if they have to take time off for COVID-related reasons. The law also restores COVID-related sick days to employees who had to use them in the 2021-2022 school year. School staff must be fully vaccinated by May 10 to be eligible for the benefits.

The law “ensures that if a teacher has done their part to keep their classroom safe for their most vulnerable students, they won’t have to worry for a second about their pay or their paid time off if they get COVID, if they’re required to isolate or if the school has moved to e-learning and their work can’t be done at home,” Pritzker said when he signed the bill.

Here are seven things that educators and school employees need to know about the new law:

What’s the purpose of the law?

The law restores sick days to school staff who had to take time off due to COVID-related reasons during the 2021-2022 school year and provides paid leave in the future.

Under the Illinois school code, teachers receive a minimum of 10 sick days per year — in line with national averages, according to the National Center for Teacher Quality. While the vast majority of districts allow teachers to carry over unused sick days from year to year without a limit, many educators used up their sick days for COVID-related reasons. Earlier in the pandemic, affected school staff were required to stay home for up to 10 days; it is now five days.

Who is covered?

This law, HB 1167, covers fully vaccinated employees of K-12 public schools, charter schools, community colleges, and universities throughout the state who needed to take days off because they tested positive for COVID-19, were required to quarantine by their school, or because their child tested positive or needed to quarantine.

The law also covers hourly employees such as janitors, transportation employees, food service providers, classroom assistants, or administrative staff who could not perform their duties because of school closures or e-learning days.

What age must their children be for school staff to be eligible?

This law applies to children who are in elementary or high school who had a confirmed positive case or were in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. The law does not cover children in day care or preschool.

Who is considered fully vaccinated?

The law states that people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 two weeks after receiving a full dosage of the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson vaccines. Currently, the state does not require boosters for someone to be considered fully vaccinated, according to a spokesperson for the state department of public health. The law says that can change if the Department of Public Health adopts changes made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When should educators be vaccinated to be covered under the law?

All school staff must be fully vaccinated five weeks after the bill is signed into law, or May 10, unless an employee has a medical or religious exemption protected under federal law.

Most educators were required to receive their first dose of a COVID vaccine in the fall by an emergency order issued by the governor. The state’s largest teachers unions — the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Educators Association — supported the mandate. IFT has reported that a majority of its members are fully vaccinated. In Chicago, 90% of the district’s employees are fully vaccinated, according to a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools.

What proof is needed to restore sick days or receive paid leave?

To restore sick days, Illinois school staff and their school-age children will need to provide proof of a positive lab COVID test or documentation of a quarantine because a school required it or because the employee or child was a close contact of someone who tested positive. Similar documents will be needed to receive paid leave.

Can school districts opt out of the law?

All Illinois school districts are required to follow this law, they cannot opt out. Schools cannot rescind sick days returned to a teacher or other school employees if the definition of “fully vaccinated against COVID-19” is changed by the CDC.

‘Exhausting’: What it was like to chair the Illinois state board of education during a pandemic

2022-05-03T22:08:13+00:00

Darren Reisberg, Illinois State Board of Education Board Chair, will leave Illinois to become the president of Hartwick College in New York.

As the coronavirus pandemic uprooted schools for millions of students across Illinois, the state board of education was tasked with churning out new guidance for the state’s 852 school districts. Leading the board was Darren Reisberg, who started working at the board in 2005 and was later appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019 to serve as chair.

Now Reisberg is leaving the state board and his position as executive vice president and chief strategy officer of the Joyce Foundation (a funder of Chalkbeat) to become the 11th president of Hartwick College, a small liberal arts college in New York. His last board meeting will take place on June 15.

“I am incredibly excited about my next journey,” said Reisberg. “Small liberal arts colleges have to find a way to distinguish themselves in order to attract students. I think Hartwick has done a nice job in terms of figuring that out. I’m going to be there to try to take it to the next level —it’s a big challenge for me and I’m ready to do it.

Chalkbeat Chicago sat down with Reisberg to talk about chairing the state board during the time of the coronavirus pandemic, efforts made by the state board during the last couple of years, and what he hopes for the state’s future.

This story has been edited for clarity and brevity.

What led you to a career in education?

Once I started at a law firm, it allowed me to become part of the civic community in Chicago. I was able to connect with Chicago Public Schools as a volunteer. After about five years into my time at the law firm, I had that urge to do more but I didn’t know what that might look like. Coincidentally, there was a position that opened at the Illinois state board of education as deputy general counsel. That’s what brought me into working at the board of education in 2005. I ended up becoming general counsel, I developed a strong relationship with the state superintendent and became deputy superintendent in addition to general counsel and worked on education policy.

Pick one word to describe working at the state board during the coronavirus pandemic.

Exhausting. No matter how much we tried to focus on education policy over the course of the past two years, the public health crisis and other issues were all-consuming. We weren’t able to focus on our strategic plan in the way that we wanted to.

With everything the state was juggling at the time, what were some efforts that were sidelined?

While it didn’t fall by the wayside — there was a lot of attention on this issue — improving our assessment system was one of those efforts. Carmen Ayala, state superintendent, really spent time trying to build out some potential options to see how we can improve. One of the efforts was to develop a through-year assessment to replace our current summative assessment system. That was in large part because of concerns about the assessment system in Illinois; that it doesn’t provide actionable results for purposes of instruction, it’s too long, it takes too many days away from instruction, and it takes too long to get the results back. All of these issues, Dr. Ayala has tried to address but due to pandemic, it has just taken a long time to be able to actually get the stakeholder engagement. By the time we get feedback, I think the four years of our respective terms are going to be up. I think the question is, what is the next step? My hope is that the next board is able to lead on that and that we’ve set up the table for them to do that well.

Any efforts that ISBE was able to do during the pandemic that you were proud of?

Prior to the pandemic and during the pandemic, I am proud of our equity work. I was able to chair a task force with a high school student to create a resource guide for school districts to better understand the many issues that trans and nonbinary students face and provided the students and their families and advocacy groups with really important information to help improve the lives of students in the state. That’s a real tangible action that I’m super proud of on a personal level as being part of the LGBTQ community.

At a time when you’re seeing the critical race theory issues pervading across the country, the state board was able to push for culturally responsive teaching and leading standards here in Illinois. That will guide the way educator preparation programs prepare educators to go into classrooms. Even though we had a minority of stakeholders pushing against us, we didn’t back down.

What was inspiring to you during this time?

What was inspiring was seeing 852 school districts with superintendents, principals, teachers, parents and students push through it. Our kids —whether it was remote learning or ultimately back in the classroom — were still given opportunities, despite all the headwinds that made that super difficult. When I say it was exhausting for us at the state board, I know it was even more exhausting for those who were on the ground. That was extremely inspiring for all of us.

Are there any efforts that the state should be looking at to continue to get schools back on track?

My hope is that some of the ways in which the state board is using our state set-aside funds from ESSER are designed to do that very thing. Thinking about virtual induction and mentoring programs for educators across the state to make sure that we’re seeing meaningful retention of our teachers. So that you have continuity within our schools and that we’re not exacerbating the shortage. Thinking about how the rollout of the high-impact tutoring that is happening across the state can play out, so that we’re doing what we can. For school districts that don’t have the resources or the expertise, to be utilizing formative or interim assessments to be able to more quickly get a sense of where students are and to help guide instruction for those students as recovery continues. Those are ways that we’re trying to utilize these resources and what I think is really critical is trying to understand where those investments are actually making a difference.

Any advice for the next board chair?

Spend time meeting with key stakeholders in the field to be able to learn what is on everybody’s mind. These past couple of years have been so unique, that you just need to really understand where everybody is coming from in order to make good policy. It’s a lot waiting at the front end in order to be informed enough to be making good decisions.

Illinois educators, advocates, parents push back against state assessment proposal

2022-04-29T22:22:07+00:00

Illinois educators, school advocates, and parents are calling on the Illinois state board of education to create an assessment system that responds to the needs of students, not one that increases the number of tests throughout the school year.

The opposition comes as the board of education considers a plan to go from one end-of-year exam to a three-times-a year exam for Illinois students in third to eighth grade. The board also contracted the Center for Assessment, a New Hampshire-based nonprofit, to collect feedback from school leaders, teachers, parents, and students on what they believe the state assessment should look like.

At the board of education’s April meeting, the Center for Assessment presented results from the focus group, which included a recommendation to decrease the number of tests.

At a press conference Friday morning, the Illinois Federation of Teachers along with advocates, educators, and parents, spoke out against the plan, saying it would further disrupt learning during the school year. In addition, speakers said, tests often do not relate to curriculum being taught in class and the results can come too late to impact what is being taught.

IFT president Dan Montgomery said testing has gone too far.

“It’s not helping children learn,” he said. “It’s not helping teachers teach. Especially right now with COVID, the need for students’ recovery is great and pressing.”

Aaron Bingea, a 10-year teacher at Chicago Public Schools, said Chicago’s interim assessment known as the Measure of Academic Progress, or MAP, changed what students learned in class. In elementary schools, to prepare students for tests in an effort to boost reading and math scores, Bingea said schools lost instruction time in art, physical education, science, and social studies.

“Any momentum developed in your learning community that you work so hard for as a teacher is immediately broken every time you have to give a state test or a standardized test,” said Bingea.

The district ended its contract with the nonprofit NWEA, the creators of MAP, last year, and this is the first school year Bingea has not had to give high-level testing to students. He said he’s been able to figure out where students are based on the curriculum assessment he gives to students.

Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas (D-20), former state board of education member, said the “Too Young To Test” bill, which passed during the general assembly session, will prevent the state from developing, paying, or requiring districts to test students in kindergarten to second grade. It does not prevent schools from screening students for special education services or gifted programs.

“As legislators, we have the responsibility to lock arms with our educators, with our parents, with our community leaders about what is possible, ‘’ said Pacione-Zayas. “We need to reimagine and we need to recommit to that because we know that what happened in the past did not work.”

During April’s state board of education meeting, the Center for Assessment, which conducted a survey of over 5,200 school leaders, teachers, parents, and students, reported results from focus groups along with recommendations.

The focus groups were made up of over 90 participants divided into eight groups. According to data collected from the Center for Assessment, focus group participants were not supportive of a three-times-a-year testing model. They preferred for the state to support local assessments and provide professional development for educators.

Focus groups participants also wanted the state to find a way to reduce testing time, so educators could focus more time on activities that support student needs. They also recommended shortening the time for school districts to receive results from the end-of-year test, currently known as the state Illinois Assessment of Readiness.

Other recommendations from the focus groups, which expressed moderate support for developing voluntary interim assessments, included clarifying the purpose of existing or newly proposed assessments and advising the state not to rush into a new assessment system.

At April’s board meeting, the Center for Assessment gave the board several recommendations for how it should proceed in trying to create a new assessment system. A few recommendations reiterated points made by survey participants and the focus groups, including suggesting that the state develop assessment supports and resources separate from accountability measures, develop criteria for “high quality” assessments, consider shortening the end-of-year exam, and speed up results.

The State Assessment Review Committee is expected to give its recommendations at the state board of education’s May or June monthly meeting. The board will then decide whether or not to submit a request for sealed proposals.

Which education bills made it through the Illinois legislature? Here’s what we tracked.

2022-04-12T19:41:59+00:00

The Illinois General Assembly ended the spring legislative session Saturday morning with a raft of education bills heading to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk. They address the impact of COVID-19, the state’s teacher shortage, and mental health.

During the session, Republican lawmakers filed a flurry of bills that proposed restricting what the state board of education, the state department of public health, and the governor’s office could do during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a number of curriculum transparency bills. These bills did not make it past committee in February.

The bills that moved quickly through the House and Senate focused on challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic, such as a teacher shortage, a lack of substitutes to fill in when teachers are sick or must isolate because of exposure to COVID, and mental health stresses on educators. Other notable bills sought to change literacy standards in the state, prevent testing for young learners between kindergarten and second grade, and allow Chicago principals to unionize.

Here are some bills Chalkbeat tracked during the legislative session.

Bills that passed and are headed to the governor’s desk:

Mental health days for educators: A compromise bill will allow Illinois educators to use sick days for mental health. The original bill would have given teachers five additional days to use for mental health reasons; the bill that passed both chambers of the legislature expands how sick days can be used. Some Illinois educators hope this is the start of the conversation about mental health needs.

Hiring retired teachers: Senate bill, SB 3465, will allow retired teachers to come back to classrooms without harming their retirement funds. Local schools will be able to hire retired teachers until June 30, 2024 if they are requesting help to fill classrooms in a subject shortage area.

Lowering the age for paraprofessionals: One bill lowers the age for a paraprofessional license, allowing 18-year-olds to teach pre-kindergarten to eighth grade until they are 19 years old.

Getting more substitute teachers into classrooms: Illinois school districts have been hit by another crisis during the coronavirus pandemic: a substitute shortage. When cases surged during the winter, many teachers called in sick or had to quarantine and schools struggled to find substitute teachers. One bill, SB 3915, will waive the application fee for a short-term substitute teaching license when the governor declares a disaster due to a public health emergency. Another bill, SB 3907, will allow substitute teachers to teach up to 15 days in the classroom instead of five days.

Assessments for early learners: The ‘Too Young to Test’ bill will prevent the Illinois state board of education from giving standardized tests to students in kindergarten to second grade. However, it will not prevent school districts from administering the state’s Kindergarten Individual Development Survey, local exams, or diagnostic screeners to determine if a child has a disability.

Promising bills that did not pass

Phonics-based literacy instruction: The ‘Right to Read Act’ bill made an effort to centralize how reading is taught across the state by pushing the state board of education to create a list of evidence-based reading programs. It also would have moved school districts toward using phonics-based instruction to teach students how to read. The bill is currently undergoing negotiations with advocacy groups concerned about literacy instruction for English Language Learners. This bill could reappear during the veto session in the fall or in the next spring session.

Removing students with disabilities from classrooms: Under a House bill, removing a student for disciplinary reasons any time during the school day would be counted as a formal removal and recorded. Special education advocates have heard from parents who say they never received paperwork after their child was removed during the school day. That makes it hard to track how many times a child is removed from class. This bill did not move through committee.

Creating a union for Chicago principals: Another attempt to unionize Chicago principals did not pass through the legislature. State law has prevented Chicago principals from unionizing because they are considered managerial employees. A House bill that stalled in the Senate, HB 5107, would have changed the definition of managerial employees to district employees who play a significant role in negotiation of collective bargaining agreements.

Bills already signed by the governor

Paid COVID sick leave for school employees: Pritzker has already signed into law a bill that creates paid administrative leave for fully vaccinated school employees who must stay at home for COVID-related reasons. It also restores sick days to employees who had to use them for COVID-related absences earlier in the 2021-2022 school year. For bus drivers, janitorial workers, lunchroom staff, and classroom assistants impacted by school closures or e-learning days, the bill will protect hourly wages.

Illinois lawmakers pass budget with more money for schools, tax relief for families

2022-04-13T17:24:09+00:00

Illinois legislators approved a budget plan over the weekend that includes more funding for K-12 public schools, a modest increase for early childhood education, and tax relief for families.

The spring legislative session was expected to end at midnight Friday, but lawmakers blew past the deadline to vote on a $46 billion budget proposal early Saturday morning. With the state starting to rebound from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2023 fiscal year budget includes $350 million toward the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 public schools and $1.8 billion in tax relief for working families hit hardest by rising costs of food, utilities, and gasoline.

Gov. J.B Pritzker praised the passage of the budget and the tax relief bill at a press conference on Saturday morning, saying, “We’ve achieved our state’s strongest fiscal position in generations, and we prioritized the education, public safety, health, and welfare of the residents of Illinois.”

The general assembly voted to increase the state’s K-12 education budget to $9.7 billion. The budget plan includes $350 million toward the evidence-based formula that will disperse funding through a tier system and property tax relief grants to the state’s K-12 school districts. For early education, the legislature’s plan increased the state board of education’s Early Childhood block grant to $598.1 million, a 10% increase from last year.

The state department of human services’ Early Intervention program— which supports children with disabilities from birth to 3 years old — had funding restored after a $7 million cut last year. The Child Care Assistance Program, which subsidizes the cost of child care for low-income working families, did not receive an increase this year.

The Monetary Award Program, otherwise known as MAP, provides scholarships to students who demonstrate financial need. The fund has grown to $601 million in the latest budget plan and would give an additional 24,000 students funding for tuition and fees as they pursue an undergraduate degree. The maximum award for students increased from $6,438 last year to $8,508 this year.

In addition to the money going to education, the proposal includes tax breaks and direct checks for families. Individuals earning less than $200,000 or families making less than than $400,000 can receive a one-time payment of $50 per adult and $100 per child, up to three children. The package also includes a “Back to School” tax relief for families and teachers for school supplies and clothing items.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers, one of the state’s largest teachers unions, praised the passing of the budget on Saturday because of the increased funding for K-12 schools.

“Budgeting for the annual $350 million increase to the evidence-based funding model puts our state one year closer to achieving equitable funding and eliminating disparities in districts statewide,” said union president Dan Montgomery.

Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, (D-Chicago), a former state board of education member, said “there’s a lot to celebrate.”

Pacione-Zayas, along with early education advocates, pushed for a 10% increase across the board for early childhood education funding. In the plan approved by the legislature, only the Early Childhood block grant got a 10% boost. But Pacione-Zayas said she was happy to see funds restored to Early Intervention.

The general assembly’s budget plan is in line with what Pritzker proposed during his budget address in February. In a press conference last week announcing the budget deal with Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Chris Welch, Pritzker said that he would sign the budget into law because it is a “responsible, balanced budget” that puts working families first.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that the state’s department of human services received an additional $41 million for the Child Care Assistance Program in the budget. This story has been updated to reflect that program did not receive an increase.

Pritzker signs bill creating paid COVID sick leave for all vaccinated school employees

2022-04-05T21:44:30+00:00

Gov. J.B Pritzker signed into law a bill that gives paid sick leave to all fully vaccinated Illinois school staff who have to take time off for COVID-related reasons and provides wage protection for hourly school employees who miss school because of closures or e-learning.

The bill creates paid administrative leave for all employees of public schools, charter schools, community colleges, and universities throughout the state who have to stay home for COVID-related reasons. It also restores COVID-related sick days to employees who had to use them earlier in the 2021-2022 school year.

The bill “ensures that if a teacher has done their part to keep their classroom safe for their most vulnerable students, they won’t have to worry for a second about their pay or their paid time off if they get COVID, if they’re required to isolate or if the school has moved to e-learning and their work can’t be done at home,” Pritzker said Tuesday morning at the state capitol.

The bill, which went into effect immediately, passed both chambers of the legislature in late March.

School employees can also use the benefit if their child has to quarantine because they either contracted the virus or were in close contact with someone who did. For bus drivers, janitorial workers, lunchroom staff, and classroom assistants impacted by school closures or e-learning days, the bill will protect hourly wages.

“Because of this new law, when I have to miss school to keep students safe and prevent the spread of COVID, I don’t also have to worry about how I will pay my bills, or if I need to think about finding a different job,” said Angela Bulger, a paraprofessional at Central Elementary School at Central School District 104, who spoke during the signing event.

Bulger, who started working at her district in August 2021, had to take off eight days due to COVID-19 during the school year. Bulger contracted the coronavirus in January during a surge in cases due to the highly contagious omicron variant and had to miss work because her 7-year-old daughter was exposed to the virus.

Bulger’s school district only gives school employees 11 sick days per year and she was concerned that her pay would be cut if she missed any more days.

Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, thanked Pritzker for signing the bill.

“By signing this bill today, Governor Pritzker has provided important relief and ensured that education personnel can afford to take time off if they or their families become ill with COVID-19,” Montgomery said in a statement on Tuesday. “His leadership will help keep our students and communities healthy even as new variants arise and COVID rates in our state fluctuate over time.”

Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, attended the bill signing this morning and in a press release said the bill is a part of the effort to get safety measures for educators and students.

“Our members, our students and all of our families have worked their hearts out to support each other through more than two years of this pandemic,” said Gates. “Collectively, we’ve worked tirelessly for safety measures so educators and students who have sacrificed so much in the era of COVID can get the resources and supports they deserve. This bill is a critical part of that effort.”

Correction: The original story misspelled Angela Bulger’s last name.

With federal school lunch waivers set to expire, Illinois districts worry: How will we feed students?

2022-03-31T14:35:01+00:00

Even as the COVID pandemic closed schools and made it harder for students to eat together in cafeterias over the last two years, McHenry School District 15 was still able to provide meals. Students could pick up lunch and breakfast and the district distributed 15,000 meals to all of its 4,000-plus students last summer.

But that program will not continue this year – as federal waivers that gave school districts around the country the ability to offer free lunch to all students and to provide grab-and-go meals are set to expire June 30.

As a result, McHenry, where 41% of students are eligible for free or reduced price meals, will have to scrap its summer lunch program this year, said Kevin Harris, the district’s director of food services and president of the Illinois School Nutrition Association.

McHenry is not alone. Schools districts across Illinois – and around the country – are scrambling to adjust their summer lunch programs this year after Republican leaders objected to extending the initiative as part of a recent federal budget deal.

The waivers, issued in response to the pandemic in 2020, allowed schools to provide meals to students who were quarantined or when school buildings closed. Districts received a larger reimbursement and schools did not have to tap into education budgets to pay for food. The initiative allowed all students to receive free meals, regardless of eligibility for free or reduced price lunch – and gave school districts greater flexibility in how they operate meal programs.

The waivers will expire on June 30, as scheduled, school districts will bear the burden of paying more for food. The average reimbursement a school gets will drop from $4.56 to an estimated $2.91 for each meal served.

That will also present an additional burden for families already grappling with the rising cost of food, utilities, and gasoline and the loss of the expanded child tax credit, which ended in December. National data shows that the tax credit decreased child poverty and hunger when it was in effect.

Students whose families are eligible for free or reduced price lunch will still be able to access meals next school year and districts where 40% of the student population is eligible for subsidized meals can continue to use the Community Eligibility Provision program, which allows them to provide free lunch to all students under the age of 18.

But the ending of the nutrition waiver and the federal child tax credit means that some children might go hungry.

Some advocates such as Emily Warnecke, director of public policy at the Illinois Association of School Administrators, are concerned about students who don’t meet the requirement for free or reduced price meals, but whose families still face economic hardship.

“There are a lot of families who don’t qualify for [free or reduced lunch] who have been able to have a reduction in meal costs for their students over the last two years,” said Warnecke. “We are hearing a lot about inflation and the impact that it’s going to have on our families. We would have liked for the waivers to be extended for at least one more school to help them through that.”

National advocates say access to meals throughout the school day increases students’ academic achievement in classrooms and on standardized tests. The Food Research and Action Center has even called for “Free Meals for All” to get rid of the stigma attached to free or reduced price lunch and to eliminate lunch debt for those who have to pay for school meals.

Illinois school district leaders and food nutrition directors say they wish the federal waivers were extended this year because it gave them more flexibility to feed students. Some districts will be utilizing federal emergency funds to work with community partners to feed students, while others will have to cut their programs.

When Chicago Public Schools classrooms were closed from March 2020 to September 2020, the district gave millions of meals to students and expanded pick-up sites throughout the city. According to the state’s recent report card, the district has 78% of students who are eligible for free and reduced price lunch.

According to a spokesperson, Chicago will resume its summer LunchStop program, which allows anyone in the community under 18 to receive meals for free.

Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat, superintendent of Peoria School District 150, where 70% of students can receive free or reduced price meals, is optimistic about how many meals the school district will be able to offer students over the summer.

Last summer, the district had over 20 distribution sites at school buildings where students could pick up lunch and a partnership with the Salvation Army to drop off food at students’ front door. The district was able to provide 600,000 meals to 12,000 students.

This summer, Peoria plans to work with the Salvation Army, Park District, Boys and Girls Club, and other community partners to provide meals to students attending summer programs. The district will also operate 17 school sites for students to pick up lunches during summer

McHenry School District 15 plans to provide a snack to students who attend the district’s summer school program that lasts for three weeks. But the district does not have enough staff in the summer to open a school building to allow students to come in and eat, said Harris, McHenry’s school nutrition director.

Even if the district did open one building to feed students, he worries that many students would not show up because it would be too far for some families to travel.

“It is important but a meal is $3. Are you going to ride all the way across town to drop your kid off for lunch so they can have a $3 meal versus saving the gas and not drive 10 miles round trip?” said Harris. “It’s a tough decision for families.”

An Illinois bill blocking testing for early learners clears committee

2022-03-21T18:49:59+00:00

The “Too Young To Test” bill that would prevent the Illinois state board of education from testing students in pre-kindergarten through second grade passed a House education committee Wednesday evening. If the bill clears the Senate and House, it will head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker for his signature.

The progress of this bill comes as the Illinois state board of education plans to change the current end-of-year assessment, known as the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) for third to eighth grade to an interim assessment — an assessment that will test students three times a year — and an optional test for kindergarten to second grade assessment. The state already requires educators to complete a Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS) within the first few months of school, but opponents of the plan worry that early learners could be required to take standardized tests in the future.

Samay Gheewala, assistant director of Illinois Families for Public Schools — the parent advocacy group that created the bill — testified during the state board of education’s monthly board meeting Wednesday calling for the board to stop any consideration of testing for young learners.

“Assessment researchers, teachers, and early childhood experts all agree that data collected from standardized tests on children this young has almost no value for meaningful study of student achievement or school performance,” Gheewala said.

Amanda Elliot, director of legislative affairs at the state board, said during the meeting the board has opposed the bill. She said, “We are opposed to that legislation that would restrict the agency from offering those types of optional tests, not used for accountability.”

State assessments were also the focus of a survey released Wednesday by the Center for Assessment, a nonprofit organization that focuses on state assessment systems across the country, and has been working with the state board of education to help design a new assessment. Over 5,200 people responded to the survey that took place between December 2021 and the end of January 2022. Seventy percent of respondents were teachers and other classroom personnel, 20% were school administrators, 4% parents, 4% students and 2% others answered the survey.

Three-fourths of respondents said that they were not satisfied with the IAR and over 50% said that the assessment needed changes. Most participants had mixed feelings about using an interim assessment; they liked the idea of districts using their own interim assessments over the state’s readiness assessment and the state using data from local assessments for a summative designation to measure how well the schools are serving their students. Results were split on whether the state board of education should provide an optional kindergarten through second grade assessment.

Currently, 70% of school districts use interim assessments for third to eighth grade that are administered multiple times throughout the year. Chicago Public Schools used to be one of those districts until it ended its contract with nonprofit NWEA last year to provide the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) test. Brenda Dixon, chief research and evaluation officer at the state board of education, said Wednesday that if the state changes from an end-of-year assessment to an interim assessment, local school districts’ interim assessments would not be acceptable under federal law. The state can not allow districts to have a variety of assessments.

The state board of education and the Center for Assessment have been getting feedback through surveys and focus groups on a new design for the state assessment, but advocates have raised concerns about the state’s transparency during the process.

During the public comments of the board meeting, Cindy Oberle-Dahm, a social studies teacher from Belleville West High School, questioned how the survey was administered and the number of parents who participated.

“There was really only 4% of parents and we don’t know where those parents are from since demographic information was not included,” Oberle-Dahm said. “I fear that for our most vulnerable Black and brown students that we don’t know if their parents even had a chance to respond.”

In addition to the survey, the Center for Assessment is currently working to analyze feedback from the eight focus groups and plans to provide the final report to the state board by March 28.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Brenda Dixon is the chief research and evaluation officer at the Illinois State Board of Education, not the director of data strategies and analytics.

Illinois teachers would be able to use sick days for mental health. Will it help?

2022-03-15T21:14:46+00:00

Teachers like English teacher Briana Morales worked overtime to support their students through two years of disruptions and emotional upheaval during the pandemic. Now, Morales wonders who will help those exhausted teachers.

The fifth-year teacher at an alternative high school in East St. Louis District 189 in southern Illinois has provided academic and mental health support for students reeling from coronavirus issues, as well as gun violence and poverty that predate the pandemic. In summer 2020, she attended funerals for three of her students who were killed in shootings.

“In the fall of 2020, I had to just bounce back because my students still needed me at that time. But I had no time to process what I needed for myself,” Morales said. “On top of that no one even asked me, ‘What do you need?”

A bill, SB 3914, in the Illinois general assembly proposes one step to address the needs of educators like Morales — by allowing teachers to use sick days for mental health reasons. It comes in response to the increased demands on teachers over the last two years: shifting instruction from remote to hybrid classrooms to in-person learning while balancing the needs of students who have lost learning and need mental health support.

SB 3914 passed the Senate unanimously and is scheduled for a House committee hearing Wednesday. The bill has changed a few times throughout the legislative process; the first version of the bill would have given teachers five mental health days at full pay but now it has expanded how teachers can use sick days to include mental health concerns.

To Morales and other educators, the bill is a step in the right direction — but not enough.

Teachers burn out from the pandemic

Under the Illinois school code, teachers receive a minimum of 10 sick days per year. That puts the state in line with the average across the country, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, a nonprofit policy organization. The vast majority of districts allow teachers to carry over unused sick leave from year to year without a limit.

Chicago Public Schools teachers receive at least 10 sick days per year and as many as 13 based on experience level, plus three personal days. Chicago gives five days for bereavement leave and allows up to five days of sick leave to be used for bereavement.

The pandemic has made the need for additional mental health support even more important. According to “Job-Related Stress Threatens the Teacher Supply,” a report by the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research institute, one in four teachers said that they were likely to leave their jobs by the end of the 2020–2021 school year. According to the report, 78% percent of teachers reported job-related stress compared to 40% of the general population. While teachers across the nation have voiced frustration with their jobs during the pandemic, a Chalkbeat analysis of data from the states and large school districts found that a mass teacher exodus has not happened yet.

The state’s largest teachers union, the Illinois Education Association, supports the bill.

“If our teachers are overworked or overwhelmed and need to take a break from the classroom for a day, they should absolutely be able to do so without fear of being punished for taking care of themselves,” Kathi Griffin, president of IEA, said in a statement to Chalkbeat.

Allowing teachers to take time off for mental health reasons would help districts retain educators and recruit new teachers, Griffin said.

The public supports giving teachers mental health days, according to an IEA survey of 1,000 Illinois residents. Of those polled, 72% supported allowing educators to take mental health days.

Not everyone agrees. Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said she’s concerned about giving more days to educators because students have to recover learning after the pandemic.

“I don’t see how having [teachers] out of school more often is going to help anyone. It may be a temporary fix, but we’ve got to put kids first here,” Walsh said. “We can’t have kids showing up to school and getting escorted into a gym to spend the day because there’s nobody to teach them.”

Are mental health days enough?

Lisa Thyer, a teacher of 16 years, has found the current school year to be the most challenging. While school district leaders have promised that this year would be a return to normalcy, it’s been far from normal, according to Thyer.

She teaches English to high school students at Consolidated School District 230 in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Thyer has struggled to figure out the academic and emotional needs of her students this school year and feels unsure about her ability to teach.

“No one knew how to do hybrid instruction and we were all doing the best we could, but I was supposed to know how to do classroom instruction,” Thyer said. “I don’t feel like I’m doing a good job anymore.”

Morales, the East St. Louis teacher, and Thyer think that the proposed mental health days would be useful, but they feel that educators will need more to stay in the profession and get past burnout.

Morales wants to see districts provide more mental health support for educators. Her district has contracts with therapists to support students and families. She would like to see that extended to educators.

Morales said that teachers have multiple obstacles blocking them from seeing therapists on their own like the cost of going to therapy and time to schedule an appointment.

“Is there a way that we can balance a school day so that both students’ families and educators are all getting the same levels of support that they need to sustain themselves during this time and going forward?” Morales asked.

Thyer is cautiously optimistic about the proposed mental health days for educators. She wants it to be the first step in the conversation on how to support teachers but worries that some will not even take sick days due to the state’s substitute shortage.

“If there’s no one who can cover your classes, taking a day off is gonna fall on your colleagues to miss their plan period or things like that to help cover your classes,” Thyer said. “It’s nice to have them but for them to actually be useful is a different thing, especially in this pandemic.”