Chicago Public Schools To Start Year With All E-Learning (UPDATE)

CHICAGO — Chicago Public Schools will open this fall with an all e-learning curriculum until at least November, officials said

Last month, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson proposed a "hybrid" blueprint for reopening schools in the fall that calls for a mix of online and in-person learning in response to the coronavirus crisis. On Wednesday, they said the decision made on public health data and feedback from parents and staff.

Jackson said parents who engaged in town hall meetings and responded to surveys reported that they weren't comfortable enough with sending their kids back to school in September. CPS public officials said they plan to re-evaluate how to move forward, and decide whether to go ahead with the proposed hybrid learning model, at the start of the school year's second quarter Nov. 9.

"In a perfect world students would be in classrooms more, not less. But unfortunately that is not where we find ourselves today," Jackson said.

Lightfoot said Wednesday's decision was not prompted by reports that the Chicago Teachers Union planned to hold a strike authorization vote in protest of the hybrid learning model.

"We have to be guided by the science, period. When we announced the potential for a hybrid model some weeks ago, we were in a very different place in the arc of the pandemic," Lightfoot said.

"As Dr. Arwady has attested to every single day since, what we're seeing is this increase in cases. And in that context, not only an increase in cases here in Chicago ... but we're looking at where we're seeing in suburban Cook and other parts of the country, people are fearful, and they are concerned. This is not an easy decision to make."

CPS officials said details about the e-learning plan will be released in the next few days. Jackson said parents can expect students will have a full day of instruction and engagement, and teachers will be required to work a full day as they would if schools were open. Teachers also will be allowed to come to schools and engage in remote learning from their classrooms, Jackson said.

School attendance will be mandatory and schools will return to "normal grading," Jackson said.

"We've been working on improvements to remote learning since remote learning started. ... We're moving away from what we saw in the spring when we were sort of cobbling things together. Parents should expect engagement throughout the day that's going to look like a traditional class setting. But we're also going to be pushing for more small group instruction," she said.

CPS sports teams are no longer practicing, and it's likely fall sports seasons will be cancelled, Jackson said.

This is a developing story.