Chicago Teachers Union

The Chicago Teachers Union, citing COVID-19 concerns, wants the school district to delay by one week the tentative April 19 re-opening of high schools for in-person learning.

Friday is the last day parents of Chicago Public Schools students can let the district know if they will join in person classes this year.

It would be the first time high school students in the nation’s third-largest school district have the option to be back in classrooms since going fully remote a year ago amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Weeks after the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools finally hammered out a deal to safely return students and staff to school buildings, the union says a North Side charter school operator is backing out of a promise to agree to enforceable safety standards before reopening.

About 37,000 K-8 Chicago Public School students will return to classrooms on Monday for the first time in almost a year. Teachers will work with in-person and remote students simultaneously.

Four school-based vaccination sites will launch next week and will offer 1,500 first-dose vaccinations each week that are solely dedicated for CPS staff.

Chicago parents Willie and Brittany Preston have spent nearly a year wrestling with online school schedules for their six children, often with everyone hovered over devices around the dining room table.

Leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union agreed Monday to let thousands of union members vote on a proposed deal to get students back into classes.

Karen Lewis, a former Chicago Teachers Union president and onetime mayoral hopeful, has died at age 67, a spokeswoman said Monday.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Sunday that a preliminary agreement has been reached the teachers’ union over COVID-19 safety protocols, potentially averting a strike in the nation’s third-largest school district.

“The parties have been in discussions throughout the course of the day to determine if there is a pathway toward a final, comprehensive deal. Those discussions continue," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Dr. Janice Jackson said in a statement. The Teachers Union says they want a "mutually agreed upon safe reopening plan."

CPS originally planned on welcoming K-8 children back for in-person learning this past Monday but has kept pushing back that date, as the union has instructed teachers to continue working remotely during negotiations. 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot demanded Thursday that the city’s teacher’s union reach agreement on COVID-19 safety protocols by the end of the day and bring students back to the classroom, but did not say what she would do if that doesn’t happen.

Chicago extended remote learning for tens of thousands of public school students after city, school and teachers’ union officials on Wednesday were once again unable to reach an agreement over COVID-19 safety protocols.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday blamed former President Donald Trump for the current impasse between the city’s public schools and teachers union.

Teachers don’t need coronavirus vaccinations in order for schools to reopen safely, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.

Chicago Public Schools has backed down on its threat to lock K-8 teachers out of their remote learning tools if they failed to show up at its facilities this week to prepare for the return of in-person classes.