RYH Newsletter | Boletín de RYH 6.30.21

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We are pleased to announce that our weekly newsletter will now be offered in Spanish!

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Nos complace anunciar que nuestro boletín semanal se ofrecerá ahora en español.

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RYH Woods Fund pic.png — **Interview With RYH Executive Director, Jianan Shi**

RYH Executive Director, Jianan, was interviewed by Woods Fund as part of their Grantee Partner Spotlight series. RYH has continually been supported by Woods Fund for multiple years. We are proud and honored to be a grantee and to be featured this month!
Check out the piece via the button below and learn more about RYH.
Thanks, Woods Fund, for your continued support of our work.

Read The Piece Here

Summer Meal Sites

USDA: Find Meals for Kids When Schools are Closed

IL List of Summer Meal Sites

CPS Grab-and-Go Summer Meal Sites

Trust Learning Care Platform

During the winter, parents and youth gathered to craft the Trust, Learning, and Care (TLC) Platform. At RYH we still keep these demands front and center in our advocacy with CPS with respect to the coming school year and in how CPS spends its federal funds.

Here’s some recent coverage of #TLCMakesSense:

Elected School Boards & Noncitizen Voting in IL

SB 1565 is a trailer bill to HB 2908 (concession elected school board bill for CPS) and will allow non-citizen parents and guardians to vote in local school board elections. Here’s some press coverage from NPR Illinois on a subject matter hearing on SB 1565: Legislative Proposal Would Allow Noncitizens To Vote In School Board Elections.

Here’s our one pager on HB 2908.
- Spanish language version courtesy of Enlace Chicago.
Some recent coverage of HB2908 from Sun-Times: Lightfoot, lawmakers hold ‘robust’ but ‘cordial’ meeting on elected school board bill Pritzker is on verge of signing

CPS Board of Ed Met Last Week

Our live tweet thread is here.
The #ChiDocumenter live tweets are here and the webpage is here.
You can watch the meeting in its entirety here.
Hot topics: departure of CEO Jackson; teacher and student support personnel layoffs; changes to the Student Code of Conduct (SCC); fall reopening of facilities for in person instruction 5 days a week; CEO search; and Student Re Engagement + Moving Forward Together plan.

WTTW: Janice Jackson on CPS Exit: ‘I Think That I’ve Made Things Better’

Chalkbeat Chicago: CPS wants limits on when schools call police. Are they enough?

Sun-Times: CPS looks to re-engage students this summer with search on for next CEO

Chalkbeat Chicago: ‘The single most important task we have’: Chicago previews plan to reconnect with missing students

Cleaning and Maintenance Management: Chicago Public Schools Taking Over Facilities Management

CPS: Town Hall Tonight, 5:30PM | Virtual Academy FOCUS GROUPS | Calendar

“Virtual Academy” for SY2021-22

Find out more at the CPS webpage here: Virtual Academy.

Your student must meet medical fragility requirements.
You must apply by July 23.
A licensed medical provider must submit the COVID-19 Health Eligibility Form.

NEW! We received an email yesterday morning regarding Virtual Academy Focus Groups. More details and registration info here.

“Moving Forward Together”

CPS has a framework for ESSER III, the federal funds that are part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Their framework can be found here: Moving Forward Together.
CPS will host one more town hall (of two total) TODAY, Wed, June 30, 5:30PM.
- You can register here OR watch on the CPS YouTube page.
- There is a breakout session so you might want to register to participate.

Chicago Tribune: How CPS will spend $525 million to get at-risk students back on track after ‘unprecedented’ stresses of COVID-19 and remote learning

CPS SY2021-22 School Calendar

ICYMI... The 1st day for CPS students is Mon, Aug 30.

Local School Council (LSC) Event

LSCs Working Together: Monthly Q & A | Hosted by Lugenia Burns Hope Center

Wed, July 14 | 6PM | Register

SpEd: ISBE Oversight Continues | #NoGoCPS | SSCA/UER Resources | FRDC

ICYMI… ISBE oversight of CPS special education continues. Chalkbeat Chicago: Chicago special education monitor extended by Illinois
At RYH we’ve been pointing out the discrimination in the HS application process for students with disabilities and have been talking to CPS about this for some time.
- Now it’s time for collective action: Email your alderperson to let them know about this issue.
- If you have an 8th Grader with an IEP in CPS who you believe was denied opportunity for appropriate High School programs due to NWEA and grade cut scores (for either application or acceptance), we want to hear from you at bit.ly/NoGoCPS.
- More on this issue here.
We launched a new website in April and it is still a work in progress. Here are our most recent RYH SpEd Resources!
RYH teamed up with Equip for Equality for two information sessions (one in English and one in Spanish) on UER (Universal Enrichment Remedy) and SSCA (Student Specific Corrective Action). Free extra special ed services or reimbursement for extra services you already paid for?!? Yes! And did you know CPS has identified over 10,000 students to automatically get extra services to make up for their illegal special education actions in school years 2016-17 & 2017-18? It’s true! All of the resources from both events are here.
For parents looking for an advocate, we recommend the Family Resource Center on Disabilities. It is a federally funded not-for-profit organization that has a core mission to support people with disabilities and their families. They have special education advocates who will answer your questions, review your documents, even attend IEP meetings with you - all for FREE. The only thing that they ask is that you first attend one of their know your rights trainings, as that is the most efficient way to ensure parents are exposed to the basics. Their advocates are experienced and knowledgeable. The website is www.frcd.org.