RYH Newsletter 10.28.20

Oct 28

Thank you to everyone for a successful Raise A Glass 2020 fundraising campaign! We raised $44,500 dollars, which brings us one step closer to being able to have a part time and full time parent organizer in 2021!!! THANK YOU.

Vote Yes for Fair Tax!

RYH has consistently called for a progressive income tax for Illinois as a viable revenue source to adequately and more equitably fund public education in Illinois. (See our “Solutions to avoid a budget crisis in CPS” infographic from Summer 2015 here.) Vote Yes for Fair Tax! Learn more:

Illinois Families for Public Schools has a Fair Tax presentation here.

Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA): Everything You Need to Know About the "Fair Tax"

Chicago Tribune: Commentary: How a graduated-rate income tax can increase school funding

South Side Weekly: Taxing the Rich for the Public Good | Impuestos a los ricos para el bien público

What Is Your Plan To Vote?

Election Day is Tues, Nov 3 (no school, BTW.) Make a plan to vote.

Here are two helpful resources from Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (CLC):

Election Day is only two weeks away—make your vote count.

Election Protection — Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights

#CPSTalkToUs Events Hosted by Grassroots Education Movement (GEM)

If you missed #CPSTalkToUs on Twitter Monday evening, go check out the tweets here. Over 1300 tweets were sent with this hashtag from 4-5PM. Thanks to everyone who participated! Please share your own questions to CPS regarding their Phased Reopening "plan" and/or remote learning & use the hashtag #CPSTalkToUs.

CPS should be actively engaging with parents, caregivers, students, educators, and community. RYH tweets came from 16 pages of questions that YOU shared with us via social media & email- thank you!!! Thanks, also, to one of our awesome interns, Jordi, who put all your questions in a doc! And thanks to Jason Tumalan for the wonderful art!

On Tuesday morning, GEM hosted a press conference with parents and teachers from zip codes with high COVID-19 positivity rates. Read our live tweets here. Press coverage:

WTTW: Parents, Advocates Want Transparency from CPS Before a Return to In-Person Learning

WGN: Chicago Public Schools asks parents to weigh in on district’s reopening plans (Note: This headline is inaccurate.)

Previously... RYH hosted a Remote Learning Town Hall. (We also hosted an event with LSNA in August.) Several other GEM organizations hosted discussions like this as well. Using the input gathered from parents, caregivers, students, educators, and community members, GEM wrote this letter and sent it last week.

CPS Board of Ed Meets Today & Other Related News

We are speaking at the CPS BOE meeting today. We will publish our statements here later this morning. The meeting starts at 10:30AM and it is live streamed on the CPS YouTube channel.

Do you have a written comment you want to share with the CPS BOE? Use this Google form. If you have trouble accessing the form your CPS child might be logged into their CPS account on your device- log them off, then proceed again. This form will close Th, Oct 29, 5PM.

Here’s some recent CPS budget news:

Sun-Times: CPS gets TIF windfall, but takes on pension, crossing guard costs in Lightfoot’s 2021 budget

Chalkbeat Chicago: City Hall to shift $55 million in costs onto Chicago Public Schools

Please follow RYH Social Media. We share news & upcoming events daily. Search @ILRaiseYourHand: Facebook Page | Twitter | Instagram | Linktree

RYH Local School Council (LSC) Election Resources & News

We’re excited to share our latest toolkits designed to support CPS parents and caregivers, community and school communities through the Local School Council (LSC) election process. The aim is to consolidate useful information for your use. Let us know if you have any questions/suggestions.

Updates from CPS:

Press release on LSC Elections, Oct 21: English | Spanish
Email on candidate literature due Th, Oct 29, Noon (this is an optional part of the LSC Elections process): Screenshot

Chalkbeat Chicago: For first time, Chicago’s Local School Council election to include mail-in option | LSC Election Guide

Citywide LSC Letter- Please Share with Your LSC

Our LSC Connection Google group has 600+ LSC members from across the city. The Group has written a Citywide LSC Letter that any LSC can sign. LSC members are asking CPS to freeze enrollment counts from SY20 for schools that experienced an enrollment drop in SY21 as not doing so would negatively impact SY22 school level budgets.

Please share these links with your LSC and ask them to consider signing on: Letter here | Form to sign on here

Special Education Upcoming Events & RYH Webpage

RYH SpEd Community Call: Access Living Transition Programs

Mon, Nov 2 | 12-1PM | Register here

Super Family Saturday | Hosted by Star Net | Sat, Nov 7 | 8:30AM - 4PM | Various workshops | Virtual | Flyer with details & registration
ICYMI… we have a newish RYH webpage: RYH Special Education Parent Resources for Remote Learning and More.

GoCPS High School Application Process

Here is the Link to the GoCPS Eligibility Criteria and Selection Procedures: 2021-2022 School Year (HS Supplemental Guide 2021-2022), where you can find both the criteria for being able to apply for and the criteria used in Acceptance/Selection of students in each of the 318 General Education and Specialty Programs and 68 Cluster Programs. RYH has had repeated discussions with CPS over the last 3 years about how this system discriminates against students with disabilities. A minor change in process is that students in cluster programs can now apply for their preferred schools online rather than paper, though placement still requires final review and approval by ODLSS for eligibility and proximity.