CPS To Spend More On Mental Health, Learning As Part Of $9.5B Budget

CHICAGO — Chicago Public Schools will invest more money in mental health and social-emotional learning as well as creating safe and modern classrooms as part of a $9.5 billion budget that was unveiled on Tuesday evening.

CPS officials and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said they are committed to better serving students in the system after a pandemic period that Lightfoot characterized as “challenging for students.”

The budget includes an 8 percent increase per student in school funding that will go directly to student instruction and other school-level priorities, officials said in a news release.

"These investments will set the foundation for what CPS students can expect in classrooms, from reasonable class sizes to more staff members working to tap the full potential of our bright and talented children,” Lightfoot said in the release on Tuesday. “With this budget, our unstoppable students will stand ready to compete and collaborate in their communities, with their schools, and beyond."

The budget, which officials characterized as balanced in the release, is set to run from July 1 to the end of June 2023. It includes an increase of more than $240 million in school-level funding, which totals $4.6 billion of the overall budget, officials said.

The budget includes funding for more than 43,000 full-time employees, which represents an increase of 1,621 full-time employees over the fiscal year 2022 budget. Among the budgeted positions are 524 teachers, 745 school support staff, and 155 citywide student support staff including nurses, social workers, and other staff members working in school buildings.

The full-time roles also include 103 additional staff members in the Offices of Teaching and Learning, 66 instructional support leaders, and 17 administrative staff members, including 12 new employees who will focus on network safety and crisis teams.

CPS has used $1.26 billion of the allocated $2.8 billion (45 percent) in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund monies. Those funds, which were delivered over the past three fiscal year budgets, have been used to support CPS students and families during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

These funds allowed the district to implement new health and safety measures in schools, adjust to a temporary period of remote learning, hire additional staff to support academic recovery, increase social-emotional learning resources for students, and address other school-level priorities, including hiring and retaining quality staff, the district said.

The budget unveiled on Tuesday includes $730 million in these funds to advance CPS’s priorities, as follows:

• $404 million to support school-level funding for district priorities and local-level needs
• $230 million to support investments in academic recovery, social and emotional learning, and other programs to support students
• $96 million to cover school-based operations positions as well as other pandemic-related needs

“We’re grateful for these additional and much-needed federal funds,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who is overseeing his first CPS budget as CEO but served as the District’s Chief Financial Officer more than a decade ago. “We’re investing these funds strategically, setting a new foundation for success to ensure schools have the resources and capacity to move every student forward.”