The Sun-Times reported this weekend that the CPS Inspector General (IG), Nicholas Schuler, was “under investigation” due to “accusations he allegedly berated employees.” On Monday, he abruptly quit. On Tuesday, Mayor Lightfoot said she accepted the IG’s resignation because “we need to go in a different direction.” Yesterday, there were new stories with Schuler responding to the situation. This is definitely a story to watch.  WTTW: Outgoing CPS Watchdog Admits Some Complaints Against Him Were ‘Justified’ Sun-Times: CPS watchdog admits he drove employees ‘excessively hard,’ urges mayor to appoint another ‘outspoken IG’ Continue reading

"Worthwhile" was how a few attendees described last night's CPS School Funding Working Group meeting held at Amundsen HS. These workshops are part of a larger initiative to examine Student Based Budgeting (SBB) with the possibility of changing it for the 2022 school year. Read a recent report on the inequities of SBB here. It will take all of us to challenge the current inequitable CPS SBB funding formula. Please plan to attend one of the 5 remaining meetings: Th, Jan 30, 6–8pm, Clark HS, 5101 W. Harrison St Sat, Feb 1, 11am–1pm, Corliss HS, 821 E. 103rd St Wed, Feb 5, 6–8pm, Hammond ES, 2819 W. 21st Pl Th, Feb 6, 6–8pm, Dyett HS, 555 E. 51st St Sat, Feb 8, 11am–1pm, Clemente HS, 1147 N. Western Ave Here's press coverage of last night from Chalkbeat Chicago: Chicago mulls how to reslice the school budget pie — but what about a bigger pie? Continue reading

New! Whole Child Committee meets Monday. SQRP is the focus. The first meeting of the CPS Board Of Ed Whole Child Committee will be held on Mon, Jan 27, 5:30-7:30pm, at Englewood STEM HS. You can register or sign up to receive updates here. Here is the letter that came from board member Rome: English; Spanish. And from an email: The focus on our first meeting will be on SQRP [School Quality Rating Policy] as the CPS seeks to engage community members to create a policy that is more responsive to stakeholders. Recommended SQRP reading before attending the Whole Child Committee meeting: Chalkbeat Chicago June 26, 2019: Chicago school board approves new school ratings scale despite complaints and confusion and July 9, 2019 Chicago is changing its elementary school ratings. Here’s why educators are watching closely. CPS SQRP web page | RYH resources from What Makes a School Great? Feb 12, 2018, including South Side Weekly coverage: Beyond the Levels Continue reading

The Mayor Lightfoot appointed CPS Board of Ed held their monthly meeting on January 22, 2020. RYH's Parent Liaison for Special Education spoke on our behalf and on behalf of the ~3500 students who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication or “AAC” devices in CPS, as these students are being underserved. You can read her prepared statement below and watch video of her speech here. A thread of our live tweets are here. We have listed press coverage far below. (Before the monthly CPS BOE meeting, we attended the CPS Finance & Audit Committee meeting. Our live tweets are here.)   Continue reading

We need your Special Education questions!  RYH is working on creating an online resource to help families navigate Special Ed in CPS and would love for you to fill out this survey in English and Spanish. Please share this survey with your contacts! Continue reading

Welcome back! 2020 will be a year full of parent advocacy!  Continue reading

To all of you who have supported our work and have been part of this critical education movement… THANK YOU!!! We have met our challenge grant and are very close to our end of year fundraising goal. Because of your support in one of our best fundraising years so far, we are able to hire a part time parent organizer in 2020. We are so close to being able to immediately hire someone for 20 hrs/week instead of 10 hrs/week. Help us double our impact.  Continue reading

At the December 2019 monthly meeting of the CPS Board of Education, five students from Kellogg Elementary spoke about the need for investment in their school's facilities. You can read their statements at the links below. You can watch them speak one after another here, starting at 1:05:00. Kudos to these students for their advocacy! #StudentVoice! Continue reading

Mayor Lightfoot and CPS announced yesterday that they will “...begin a community process to identify potential opportunities to further strengthen school funding.” They created a School Funding Working Group and will be convening public meetings in January and February 2020 so you can offer your thoughts and ideas on the way CPS funds its schools. Check out these articles from Chalkbeat Chicago to learn more: Announcement, Working Group members, and public meeting schedule: Here’s who will be leading Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s charge to reexamine Chicago school budgeting Background piece on the issue: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot promised to spend more money on students in need. Could change be imminent?  And definitely related to Student Based Budgeting… class size: As Chicago’s class size crackdown begins, schools that are ‘overenrolled by choice’ could face admissions changes Continue reading

Below is RYH's prepared statement. You can find our live tweets here. CPS now live streams monthly Board of Education meetings on their YouTube channel. You can find video of the fill meeting here, RYH speaks at 57:40. We've posted video of our statement on our YouTube channel here. Press coverage of the meeting is below. Continue reading