We attended and spoke at the April 24, 2019 monthly meeting of the unelected CPS Board of Education meeting- the last one under Rahm. Our prepared statements are below with links to videos of our speakers. You can find our live tweets from the meeting here.

RYH Communications and Outreach Director, Jennie Biggs, is serving on mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s Education Transition Committee. She attended the first meeting on Thursday, April 11. There are two more scheduled meetings of this Transition Committee: Wednesday, April 24, and Friday, May 3. 

RYH submitted a "Memo to the Mayor" as part of the Education Transition Committee process. You can find our Memo here. The writing of this Memo was a collaborative effort by several parents and RYHers who have been active over the years. Our intent was to reflect what RYH has been advocating for since 2010. We also tried to incorporate the many things we've learned over the years, especially while working with so many community based organizations in various coalitions. Feel free to share your thoughts or feedback with us: info@ilraiseyourhand.org

UPDATED May 9, 2019: You can find a public, shared Google Drive folder which will serve as a record of the Education Transition Committee's work here. In the folder, you can find meeting materials, survey results, feedback from committee members, education memos, and other documents referenced and used through the transition process. After the Education Transition Report is released, there will be a copy in this folder as well. All Transition Reports will be presented to Mayor-elect Lightfoot on Friday, May 17. 

At this press conference before the monthly meeting of the unelected CPS Board of Ed, parent leaders from across Chicago spoke about their vision for Chicago and CPS. Participating organizations included Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Chicagoans United for Equity, Enlace, Generation All, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Journey 4 Justice, Parents 4 Teachers, and Raise Your Hand. Action Now, Logan Square Neighborhood Association, and Northside Action for Justice also support this vision.

You can watch video of the entire press conference here.

Statements from the press conference are below.

When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable. Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time. 

Parents, school staff, and other adults in the community can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment, and creating a community-wide bullying prevention strategy.

– U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.stopbullying.gov

The purpose of the Raise Your Hand Bullying Toolkit is to help families navigate the CPS Anti-Bullying Policy that is found in the CPS Student Code of Conduct (SCC) and the CPS Policy Manual. Other resources are provided when appropriate.

If you are a not a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) family, much of the below also applies to you. According to the webpage, Illinois Anti-Bullying Laws & Policies from www.stopbullying.gov, Illinois school districts must adopt bullying prevention policies and these policies “must contain key policy and procedural elements…” Additionally: Illinois anti-bullying laws require districts to file policies with the State Board of Education and to engage in a policy evaluation review process to assess the outcomes and effectiveness of the policy. Information developed as a result of the policy evaluation must be made available on the Internet website of the school district. Illinois school districts must review and re-evaluate policies every two years and make any necessary and appropriate revisions.

Your district has a Student Code of Conduct (SCC), and your school may have its own policies that work within that. Check out your district’s website as well as your school’s. Physical SCCs and school handbooks can also be helpful - this is true for both CPS and non CPS schools.

Remember you are not alone when your child is bullied. There are resources out there to help guide you. We have seen an uptick in parents and students speaking out about bullying at school. Please contact us directly at info@ilraiseyourhand.org if you have any questions about the information provided below or have tried-and-true resources that you think we should add. This is an evolving toolkit and we plan to add other sections, such as “The Child Who Bullies.” So do reach out with your resources, experiences, suggestions, and questions.

Immediate Help

• Bullying is Sexual in Nature: CPS Office of Student Protections and Title IX or 773-535-4400
• There has been a crime or someone is at immediate risk of harm:  911
• Someone is feeling hopeless, helpless, thinking of suicide:
  • Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline online or at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Disclaimer: The Raise Your Hand Bullying Toolkit is made available to provide guidance and general information on responding to bullying and the CPS Student Code of Conduct (SCC), CPS Anti-Bullying Policy, Illinois Anti-Bullying Laws & Policies, and StopBullying.gov. The RYH Bullying Toolkit is not a substitute for professional medical or legal advice and the suggestions below are not necessarily appropriate for every situation. At some point, you may need to seek psychological, psychiatric, or legal assistance. All of the documentation you’ve gathered as a result of following the guidance below should be shared with these outside professionals.

Although RYH will try to keep this toolkit accurate and up-to-date, we will have no obligation to do so. RYH disclaims any liability for actions taken or not taken in reliance on the guidance and information contained in the toolkit.

©2019 Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education

Section 1

The Basics: Understanding the definition of bullying, district policies, and additional resources

The focus of Section 1 is the child who was bullied. A downloadable and printable pdf of Section 1 is here. 

Section 2: Under construction

Section 3: Under construction

The window for the IL Assessment of Readiness (IAR) opens Monday, March 11. Use this weekend to review our 2019 Toolkit for Standardized Testing and Opt Out to learn more about this “new” assessment and how you can #ChooseToRefuse #ZombiePARCC! 🧟 The three main resources are now translated into Spanish: Q & A, Notification Letter of Refusal (scroll to p. 2), and Refusal Cards- all three can be found in the Toolkit.

This RYH research report and summary of several meetings with CPS, entitled Improving Nursing Care in Chicago Public Schools: Creative and Meaningful Solutions Left on the Table, was delivered to CPS at the February 2019 monthly meeting of the CPS Board of Education.

You can find the full report here- it is downloadable, printable, and contains links to resources.

At the February 27, 2019, unelected CPS Board of Education meeting, RYH delivered a parent research report entitled Improving Nursing Care in Chicago Public Schools: Creative and Meaningful Solutions Left on the Table. You can find the report here.

Below are the prepared statements from three RYH parents who delivered the report and explained the need for a complete overhaul of the CPS nursing design system. The fourth prepared statement below includes several questions from RYH on various CPS issues such as the ARA meetings, an overhaul of SQRP which hasn't involved parents, and implementation of a new IL CPS facilities law. 

You can find 3 videos of our speakers, plus a video of the CPS BOE and Central Office discussion after our 3 speakers here.

On February 26, 2019, Raise Your Hand and other members of the Advocates Group sent a letter to the IL State Board of Education (ISBE) prior to their meeting which included an update from the ISBE Monitor. It has been nine months since the ISBE public inquiry into CPS special education found that CPS delayed, denied, and withheld services to students with disabilities- and this continues.

Please read the letter below.

WBEZ: Chicago Special Ed Parents Say Students Still Being Denied Services

Below is an email we sent with our sister org, Raise Your Hand Action, on January 30, 2019.

RYH and more recently, our sister-org, RYH Action have been leading the fight for TIF reform in Chicago for 9 years. One of our first campaigns in 2010 was delivering 5,000 letters and emails to Mayor Daley demanding he declare a TIF surplus to help plug the budget hole at CPS. This led to over $90M being returned to the schools.

On Wednesday, we delivered a report entitled, “High School Application and Placement for Chicago Public Schools Students with Disabilities” to the unelected CPS BOE. This 18 page report shows major barriers to CPS HS access for the most vulnerable students. For example, 31% of high schools have a minimum NWEA score requirement to apply.

See the Key Findings & Recommendations and find a link to the full report here.

Read our statements to the BOE when delivering this report here.