Chalkbeat Chicago

At more than 200 schools, the opt-in COVID testing rates fall short of the city’s 10% threshold goal. At 70 schools, 10 or fewer students are enrolled in the school-based testing program.

Despite the district’s payments, which came to total more than $53 million, bus companies struggled to ramp up operations this past fall, stranding thousands of students without transportation.

A report paints a picture of a school culture where sexual harassment and charges of abuse and inappropriate behavior were overlooked or brushed under the rug by those in charge at Marine Leadership Academy in Logan Square.

Over the summer, the district gave $47 million to its roughly 500 campuses, allowing them to spend the money as they saw fit to address the pandemic’s academic and mental health fallout.

District officials have avoided large-scale school closures as students returned to in-person learning. But critics have questioned the district’s efforts with testing and contact tracing.

Students with disabilities are still having trouble difficulty getting reliable transportation, and special education assistants have been pulled from classrooms because of staff shortages.

The post-Thanksgiving spike in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant could further complicate existing staffing problems.

The test-to-stay pilot comes amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases across the city, as well as the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Some schools in Little Village, North Lawndale and Austin had fewer than five students enrolled in CPS' testing program.

Amid a moratorium on school closures until 2025, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has vowed to better understand the drivers of student losses at the neighborhood and campus level. 

CPS leaders are considering continuing transportation stipends and partnerships with companies that provide rides to children amid a national school bus driver shortage.

More federal pandemic relief spending on staffing has been a key sticking point in negotiations over a fall reopening agreement.

As schools tackled bouncing back from pandemic disruption, the district started phasing in two suites of optional academic assessments.

The issue of compensation spotlights an ongoing concern for local advocates of the elected school board movement: whether the board will represent working-class families.

There are 3,800 students without reliable school transportation, according to data presented Wednesday to the school board.

Only about 7 percent of the district’s student body has enrolled in the testing program.

Choose to Change will reach 1,000 students this school year, CEO Pedro Martinez said Monday. Four community groups will provide services to students most impacted by violence and trauma.

Martinez's contract extends through June 2026. The school board votes Wednesday to formally appoint him.

CPS on Thursday said 83.8 percent of students graduated in five years in 2021, compared with a rate of 82.5 percent last year.