RYH Statement on Remote Option 8.25.21

Statement at Remote Option Press Conference prior to CPS Board of Education Meeting on 8.25.21

Jianan Shi, RYH Executive Director

Good morning, my name is Jianan Shi and I am the Executive Director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education.

We are here outside of the state building because we have a petition totalling over 5,000 signatures demanding that the Illinois State Board of Education and local districts provide a remote learning option for families, especially for those who are under 12 and cannot be vaccinated. Over the past month we have heard hundreds of parent stories and it's clear that for many families, they are not ready to go back. Let me be crystal clear here; we want our students to thrive and are eager to return to normalcy but not all family situations are the same. Not all families are impacted by COVID19 equally. And many families still have mountains of questions and concerns from their local districts that are not being answered.

In Chicago, we just got our parent guide last night. Parents are also dissatisfied with the lack of creativity and responsiveness in local districts such as why there isn’t a push for outdoor lunch whenever possible (and staffing up for that) or not having vaccinated folks quarantine when the delta variant, which is the most dominant variant here, has proven to be transmitted by vaccinated folks as well. 

The delta variant, confusion with local district safety plans and the diverse set of family needs are why we have thousands of families who have signed our petition for a remote learning option in the past few weeks. These are families all across Illinois, covering over 250 zip codes. We also surveyed over 1000 CPS families. These responses came from over 43 different zip codes, covering the majority of the city. Of the almost 700 parents who reported their race, 77% of them were people of color. Trust with CPS has not increased between our last sampling in May of 2020; Over 650 parents gave CPS a rating of 1 out of 5 and 170 gave CPS a rating of 2 out of 5. The vast majority of parents surveyed 88%, almost 900, support a remote learning option. Over 800 of those parents are considering pulling their student out before school starts. 

Based on the petition and survey data and the communication with parents across the state, many families feel like they have no option but to pull their students out, which is a reflection of a failed policy that does not fit the needs of thousands of families in Illinois.