Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is expected to announce on Wednesday that Chicago Public Schools will start the school year with remote learning, according to CPS sources.
Ever since floating a proposal that students go to school buildings two days a week, officials have said they won’t make a final decision until closer to Sept. 8 start of school.
That decision was likely sped up by the threat Tuesday from the Chicago Teachers Union to hold a strike vote next week if the school district went forward with in-person learning.
The announcement also comes amid rising COVID-19 cases in Chicago. The district said a move to remote learning was dependent on whether the Chicago Department of Public Health determined COVID-19 cases weren’t under control. Though the city hasn’t surpassed those benchmarks, there is growing concern Chicago will reach them before too long. .
Now, Chicago parents and teachers will be looking to Chicago Public Schools to put forth a robust remote learning plan.
There’s wide acknowledgment that remote learning was a bumpy experience in the spring when all schools were abruptly shut down. For more than a month, Chicago Public Schools did not have any formal instructional days with some schools offering a lot of lessons and others none.
And even once school was officially in session online, a quarter of students did not log on even once weekly and 16 percent did no graded work, according to CPS data from the week of May 11 through 16.
Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.
