FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2020

Contact: Jianan Shi
Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, 617-838-1420 / jianan@ilraiseyourhand.org

CHICAGO - Education advocates this afternoon asked Governor JB Pritzker and Illinois State Board of Education Superintendent Carmen Ayala to prioritize the use of federal CARES Act funding to reduce racial gaps and other disparities in student learning during and after the COVID 19 crisis.

We hope you and your family are healthy and well. Please consider following us on all of our social media channels for daily updates. First, a few things we want to highlight...

• Did you know that your child does not need to be with you to pick up food from a CPS Meal Site? Did you know that a child can pick up food? Did you know that you should receive 3 days of breakfast and lunch for each of your children? Check out our webpage:  CPS Grab & Go Meal Sites: Basics + Sites + Delivery Form.
• Find all 10 of our RYH Parent Mantras for Remote Learning (+ a bonus one where you can create your own!) here. Hang in there, folks!
• Check out City Bureau’s Chicago COVID Resource Finder. Please share with families. Text "covid" to 312-436-2280 to access via phone.
• Raise Your Hand has joined the Right to Recovery (R2R) Coalition, which is made up of progressive grassroots organizations and elected officials who believe that our path to recovery must center those most at risk. We are looking for parents who want to be part of the fight and join RYH's Right to Recovery parent leaders. If interested, fill out this form. Thanks to those of you who already signed up!

On Saturday, Governor Pritzker suspended in-person instruction for the rest of the school year in IL. We recognize that there are so many questions about public education in IL. We are trying to find the answers and share them out. We are also consistently pressing for parents to be at the table, virtually of course, so that we have input in the plans and solutions moving forward. Please consider following us on all of our social media channels: Ways to stay in touch!

CPS started Remote Learning on Monday. Thank you for sharing your concerns, your successes, and your stresses with us. You are not alone. We’ve been sharing a RYH Parent Mantra for Remote Learning via social media every day this week and will continue to do so next week. You can find those Mantras here. We created this one pager, RYH CPS Remote Learning Guidance (Synopsis), to give you the basics on CPS Remote Learning Guidance. Here's a helpful resource from SEL Chicago: Supporting Children in Remote Learning.

Below you will find some Quick Links, information on the consolidation of CPS Meal Sites, and .... did you know report cards will be sent by CPS next week? Please see below on some confusion on grading policy during this time and confusion on the CPS school calendar.

Remote Learning starts in Chicago Public Schools on Monday, April 13. In other Illinois school districts, remote learning started on or around March 31. We released one RYH Parent Mantra for Remote Learning each day for two weeks to help parents get through this new endeavor. Please share!

Check out this RYH one pager: RYH CPS Remote Learning Guidance (synopsis)

CPS Parents! Take this RYH parent survey on Remote Learning (published May 6, 2020.)

We hope you and your family are well. We’ll start with some RYH QUICK LINKS:

• RYH webpage: RYH Remote Learning SpEd Resources from CPS Parents, Teachers & Clinicians
• RYH one pager compiled from several Zoom calls with SpEd community: What SpEd Parents Want to See from CPS re Remote Learning 
• RYH webpage: CPS Grab & Go Meal Sites: Changes for Spring Break & beyond 
• RYH one pager: RYH CPS Remote Learning Guidance (Synopsis) 
• RYH one pager: Various Supportive Resources (pdf) 
• RYH webpage: RYH COVID-19 Resources
• A Letter from RYH's Executive Director: Hope is a Discipline | Community Building and Resources during COVID-19

Here are all the ways to stay in touch with us. Stay well, friends.

~RYH Board & Staff

We have compiled a list of resources that were shared by Parents, Teachers, and Clinicians in the various SpEd Community video meetings we have had since the COVID-19 school closures.  Please share links to any other resources you may have to faheyhughes@gmail.com and we will add them.  

UPDATED 5.27.20

UPDATE 6.17.20: This webpage will be out of date as of Monday, June 22, and it will no longer be updated. 

We will create a new webpage for the CPS Summer Meals program soon. Please note: CPS Meal Sites are closed on Fri, June 19. Summer Meals start Mon, June 22, and run through Aug 28. Here is an email sent from CPS on Wed, June 17: English | Spanish.

We hope you and your family are well. Yes, this newsletter has a lot of content- again. If you read and scroll you'll find many things of value. You can find the RYH COVID-19 Resources page here- we try to update this daily. You can read more about what we are doing during this time here. Here are all the ways to stay in touch with us. Stay well, friends.

~ RYH Board & Staff

We hope you and your family are well. Yes, this newsletter has a lot of content, including many articles. If you read and scroll you'll find many things of value. You can find the RYH COVID-19 resource page here- we try to update this daily. You can read more about what we are doing during this time here. Thanks for reading. Here are the ways to stay in touch with us. Stay well, friends.

~ RYH Staff & Board