RYH Newsletter 4.9.20

Apr 9

We hope you and your family are well. We’ll start with some RYH QUICK LINKS:

RYH webpage: RYH Remote Learning SpEd Resources from CPS Parents, Teachers & Clinicians (webpage) | Doc here
RYH one pager compiled from several Zoom calls with SpEd community: What SpEd Parents Want to See from CPS re Remote Learning
RYH webpage: CPS Grab & Go Meal Sites: Changes for Spring Break & beyond
RYH one pager: RYH CPS Remote Learning Guidance (Synopsis)
RYH one pager: Various Supportive Resources (pdf)
RYH webpage: RYH COVID-19 Resources
A Letter from RYH's Executive Director: Hope is a Discipline | Community Building and Resources during COVID-19

Here are all the ways to stay in touch with us. Stay well, friends.

~RYH Board & Staff

Local School Council (LSC) news

LSC elections have been officially postponed.

Our next COVID-19 LSC Community Solidarity Call is TONIGHT, Th, April 9, at 6:00pm on Zoom. Register here. Upon registering, you’ll receive an email containing the login information. For the first 30 minutes, we will be joined by Maurice Swinney, EdD, CPS Chief Equity Officer. If you cannot join us, please take a few moments to complete a short survey. All individual responses will be kept confidential. On the last two calls, there were deep concerns and questions shared. We’ve synthesized 41 questions and sent them to CPS for action/response; you can view them here. Today, we’ll dig deeper into how things are going across school communities and develop some next steps.

Special Education news

We have compiled a list of resources that were shared by Parents, Teachers and Clinicians in the various SpEd Community Zoomings we have had since the COVID-19 school closures. They are listed here in this RYH webpage: RYH Remote Learning SpEd Resources from CPS Parents, Teachers & Clinicians. | Doc here

RYH is hosting weekly Special Ed Parents & Supporter Zoom calls: Tuesdays, 1-2:30pm. Register here. The next call is Tues, April 14, 1PM. NOTE: We have changed our Zoom meetings to Tuesdays moving forward. From the calls so far, we have compiled this list: "What SpEd Parents Want to See from CPS re Remote Learning." We have also shared other concerns and questions with CPS.

A letter from Access Living: Remote Learning for Students with Disabilities

Kids Art Contest sponsored by the Sun-Times

Enter The Imagination Project: Kids’ art contest aims to brighten future.

RYH awarded the Ron Sable Award for Activism from Crossroads Fund!

We were honored last week. You can watch the video about our work which includes our acceptance speech. You can read our entire speech here. Thanks to everyone who tuned into the Facebook watch party! And thanks to all of you who have participated and supported us during our first 10 years (TEN!) of parent advocacy in Chicago and Illinois!

RYH is part of the Right to Recovery (R2R) Coalition

You can find the R2R platform here. You can sign up for updates or to get involved here.

The spread of the novel coronavirus has laid bare the gaping holes in our public health and social safety net infrastructure, as well as the brutal inequality built into our economy. Relief efforts cannot follow the usual pattern of trickle-down aid for the wealthy. We need a new approach and call on our elected officials to take immediate action to protect and expand our Right to Recovery.

Action alert from the Network for Public Education (NPE)

Quick action to send an email to each of your US Congresspeople.

Tell Congress that publicly funded charter schools should not be eligible for funds to save small businesses. They are still amply funded by taxpayers. Federal funding should be reserved for businesses in need. Send your letter today.

CPSuccess

Sun-Times: CPS teachers on parade: 30-car caravan brightens day for kids missing school (yes, some are) Dore ES #cpsuccess | Don't miss all the pictures!

A Meal Today, A Meal Tomorrow is a student-led Chicago campaign to help our local food insecure students and restaurants during these tough times.

It works like this: For every gift card amount a person purchases from a participating restaurant, they’ll get back a gift card worth 80% of that amount. The remaining 20% will be put on a separate gift card made out to A Meal Today, A Meal Tomorrow which will be given to a student in their local school community. A person can also just order a gift card to send to the campaign from ANY restaurant. CPS’ Children First Fund will help in the distribution of these gift cards.

Go to AMealTodayAMealTomorrow.com to see how you can help. It takes only minutes.