❄️ Happy Winter Break! ❄️

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. 

Important news for people concerned about the impact of high-stakes standardized testing on Illinois schools. There's not only a new state test this coming spring to replace PARCC, the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR), but there's also a new state rating system for IL being rolled out later this month, and opt out rate may play a big role in your school’s rating.

#cpsuccess! We are still retweeting away at @CPSuccessChi. Please tag us in your #cpsuccess tweets and use that hashtag! (Note the clever spelling.) Some recent & amazing #cpsuccess stories chosen randomly from our Twitter feed:

Why support RYH at our annual fundraiser on Tuesday, Oct 2, 5:30-8:30pm? A note from a CPS parent & member of our fundraiser committee:

Hello fellow public education supporter,

I have a photo from six years ago almost to the day: it's my family holding picket signs in the playground behind Ray School from when teachers went on strike over a longer school day and labor conditions. It reminds me of the school closing hearings, state budget fights, and assorted other CPS zaniness over the years. I believe Raise Your Hand keeps the people inside the Board of Ed building from going totally off the rails, which is one reason we helped plan a fundraiser to honor special education parents’ epic fight this past year and raise funds to support continued organizing on this issue and so many other issues on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

We all got the stunning news yesterday that Rahm Emanuel isn’t running for re-election, and that means there’s going to be a new boss of the Chicago Public Schools in May 2019.  If you’ve read our newsletters over the past eight years, you know that in Chicago, the Mayor oversees the schools, appoints the school board, and selects the CEO of CPS. The primary election is in February 2019 but the next mayoral term doesn’t start until May 2019.

With students back to CPS Tuesday, we wish you & your family a happy first day and an excellent school year where your children have the opportunity to learn and thrive. We hope you have a fun, yet relaxing, Labor Day weekend planned- enjoy!

It’s been a busy, productive summer for RYH and we are looking forward to another school year of advocating with you. There is so much to do to ensure that all students are getting what they need to be their best selves, and we hope you’ll join us this year to work on many of our campaigns! Stay in touch with us: Email sign up, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

By law, CPS must publish Draft Guidelines for School Actions every school year by October 1st. Once published, CPS provides a public comment period. This year's comment period ended on October 20 at 5:00pm. At this time, CPS is reviewing the submitted comments. They may or may not revise the published Draft Guidelines. The Final Draft Guidelines will be used to determine school actions. On December 1st, CPS will announce school actions.

The below comments were submitted to CPS by RYH on Friday, October 20, 2017.