Chalkbeat Chicago

Chalkbeat Chicago received more than 350 responses from families and students citywide.

CPS expects about 60,700 students in the elementary grades and in intensive special education programs to learn in school buildings by mid-March — slightly fewer than 30 percent of the eligible students.

CPS budgeted more than $1 million for its COVID-19 notification and contact tracing system, which includes a new district-level team and several online reporting programs.

The district also wants employees to disclose whether they have been vaccinated.

Schools chief Janice Jackson stressed the importance of moving away from remediation in addressing learning loss. The focus should be on providing students below grade level more resources to accelerate learning, she said.

One week after Chicago struck a fragile peace with its teachers union, fault lines have emerged over who gets to work from home, for how long, and why.

Child care workers technically qualified for vaccines beginning in the state’s second phase, on Jan. 25, along with adults age 65 and older and essential workers like public transit drivers.

CPS released data that showed the majority of white families reported to school buildings as expected so far, while nearly half of Black families chose to stay home. About 62% of Latino students reported to campuses.

Regardless of their reopening stance, many are trying desperately to find their bearings in a month that is bringing schedule changes, classroom reassignments, confusing messaging and upset children.

Slightly more than 40 percent of Chicago Public Schools students go to four-year colleges, and only half of them graduate.

The figures paint a stark picture of the ongoing drop in engagement around LSCs, the mini-democracies that are given authority over budgets and principal hiring in most Chicago schools.

The district bought laptops and tablets from Meeting Tomorrow as part of a larger push to quickly get devices into the hands of students who needed them for remote learning.

Mark Aistrope, the CEO of Chicago-based Meeting Tomorrow, who contributed nearly $30,000 to Lightfoot’s mayoral bid, emailed the mayor in late March.

The union released its list of demands Thursday, and it’s the most detailed look yet at what it would take to get union leaders to support reopening schools.

The scores could lead to disproportionate and incorrect identification of Black teachers for remediation and dismissal — an outcome that would be counterproductive to efforts to diversify the teacher workforce.

The district has announced staggered reopening dates for students in kindergarten to eighth grade starting in January.

Chicago Public Schools’ gradual reopening plan for early 2021 calls for a mix of in-person and virtual learning.

“The way I look at it, we’re crafting a plan for 100 percent of wishes,” CPS CEO Janice Jackson told Chalkbeat in a wide-ranging interview about the city’s reopening plans.

Noble, which before had promised to “sweat the small stuff” on discipline, got rid of its school uniforms and a controversial demerit policy that punished students for small infractions. But can the changes stick?