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!

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

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

Thank you for your #GivingTuesday support and closing out a strong 2019 with us! Thank you for considering Raise Your Hand in your end of year giving if you have not yet donated. We are looking to bring on more staff in early 2020 to address significant LSC parent rep shortages. If we can raise $2,000 more by the end of the year, we would be able to start right in January. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! 😍

Teachers voted to ratify the contract last week which officially ended the strike. The CPS Board of Ed approved the strike make up days and the CTU and SEIU contracts yesterday at their monthly meeting. 

Some more press coverage on the strike & contracts below: 

WBEZ: Teachers Strike Remakes 25 Years Of Bargaining in Chicago

Chalkbeat Chicago: Budgets, school ratings, charter schools: Side agreements to Chicago teachers contract reach for big changes

Revised CPS calendar is here. 

CPS announced the five proposed make up days for the 11 day CTU/SEIU strikes: Wed, Nov 27; Th, Jan 2; Fri, Jan 3; Wed, June 17; and Th, June 18. 

Please note that these are proposed make up days. The CPS Board of Education (CPS BOE) must vote to approve these days. You have two opportunities to express your opinion before the CPS BOE vote: 

1️⃣ There will be a hearing on the revised calendar and budget on Tues, Nov 12, 2019: 4-6pm (in person sign up to speak: 3-4pm); 6:30-8:30pm (in person sign up to speak: 5:30-6:30pm) ; CPS, 42 W. Madison. Here are the details on these hearings. Speakers have 2 min to speak.

2️⃣ The calendar and budget revisions require approval from the mayor appointed CPS BOE. The next CPS BOE meeting is Wed, Nov 20, at 10:30am. Online sign up to speak or attend this meeting begins on Mon, Nov 18, at www.cpsboe.org, 10:30am sharp.

In good news, SEIU Local 73 has a tentative agreement! In not so good news, there's no agreement between CPS and CTU but negotiations continue. Emotions are high right now- and for good reason. Be good to yourself and others. We will get through this. Social media tip: Sometimes you just have to keep scrolling or get off social media for a while. At the end of this contract negotiation, we are still all parts of school communities which are part of a larger community, the Chicago Public Schools. Our children need all of us working together. 

Our new(ish) Executive Director, Jianan Shi, is celebrating his birthday! Wish him a happy, relaxing birthday weekend by BUYING YOUR Raise a Glass for RYH TICKETS TODAY! 🥳

Strike Update: 

Last night CTU’s House of Delegates set Thursday, October 17 as the possible start of a teachers’ strike. This is the same day that SEIU Local 73 (school district staff) and Chicago Park District workers could start strikes.

WBEZ: Chicago Teachers And Two Other Unions Set Strike Date

Sun-Times: 35,000 Chicago teachers, school support staff and park district workers set joint strike date

As we noted in our email blast sent last week: This does not mean there will definitely be a strike. We urge both sides to take every measure possible to avoid a strike.

The Advocate Group is holding a series of Special Education Workshops to help parents determine if their child may be eligible for extra special education services. Please join us!