Happy, Happy 2019! You are all an important part of RYH and we look forward to working with you to strengthen public education during this new year & beyond! Thank you so much for your participation AND a special shout out to all the donors who helped us raise more than $10,000 in our #RaiseOurVoices end of the year fundraising campaign! We far exceeded our goal and raised over $13,000!!! We’re also proud that we now have 43 monthly donors- we added 10 during this campaign. Wow!!! THANK YOU.

(Spanish below. Español abajo. Chinese below & linked here: 芝加哥公立学校 （CPS）护理服务调查问卷 )

We are passing on this important message from Access Living:

Congratulations to the NTA community on their historic victory; NTA will remain open as an elementary school! For details see #1 in our "public ed news this week" list below.

After a temporary CPS employee was fired, she downloaded a database containing names, employee ID numbers, phone numbers, addresses, birth dates, criminal histories and any records associating individuals with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Parents who were in the process of the CPS background check and school volunteer approval process and many CPS employees are saying they received an email last night from CPS indicating their data was downloaded by the former employee.

CBS 2: Fired CPS Employee Steals Personal Data Of 70,000 People, Charged With Multiple Felonies

This week’s RYH email newsletter brought to you by the letters S, Q, R, and P!

Below is the prepared statement of Joy Clendenning, CPS Parent, LSC Member, and RYH Managing Director. You can watch video of her statement here.

You can watch a video here of Laurel Henson, a CPS mom working with RYH to bring attention to the widespread nursing issues within CPS. 

Raise Your Hand had a second meeting with a group of parents, the head of Special Ed and the Chief Operating Officer to discuss major nursing compliance issues at the district. Many students are put in unsafe situations due to lack of coverage, untrained nurses from temp agencies, and lack of continuity of care.

Raise Your Hand's annual fundraiser, Raise a Glass for RYH, is this Tuesday!  Join us at Lagunitas Brewing Company on Tuesday, October 2, from 5:30 - 8:30pm.  Please buy your ticket in advance so we can plan ahead!

The CPS unelected Board of Ed met on Wednesday, September 26, 2018. Raise Your Hand was there, speaking and live tweeting. You can read prepared statements below. 

You can find a playlist of 3 videos from the meeting here: Mary Hughes on special education issues, Wendy Katten on nursing issues, and Liz Keenan's (ODLSS Chief) response to the statements. 

RYH live tweet thread links: Four new charter schools looking to open in 2019-20, 45 minute data presentation- CPS slides, Alderman Dowell, King, Daley Thompson and Solis speak in support of the new boundaries for the new South Loop HS, and public comment thread.