CPS students to start 2020 year learning from home

Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared, “the start of the school year will certainly look different from anything before,” while announcing that Chicago’s public school students would spend the first quarter of the 2020 school year learning in their homes. Speaking at a press conference this morning, she listed the recent increase in COVID cases and the concerns expressed by parents among her reasons for arriving at the conclusion.

“Our decision to open CPS remotely this fall is based on our evolving public health situation and feedback that we’ve received notably from parents and faculty,” she said. “The fact of the matter is, we are seeing an increase in cases. The decision to start remotely makes sense for a district of CPS size and diversity.”

According to the city’s COVID Dashboard, the positivity rate for COVID-19 increased from 4.4% to 4.8% over the past two weeks. As of August 4, there have been 62,122 cases of COVID-19 identified in Chicago residents and 184,712 in Illinois.

To help ease the burden of at-home learning, the mayor said that the city “will be building on the lessons we’ve learned from our launch of remote learning this spring to create a more sustainable model,” adding that she is “immensely proud” of the Chicago Connected program.

Launched in June, the program “has become a national model for making sure that we provide free — emphasize free — high-speed internet service to the homes of approximately 100,000 CPS students.”

Mayor Lightfoot also acknowledged the strain that the situation has placed upon the parents of CPS students.

“We recognize how challenging this process has been for you, and we want to make sure that you to know that we see you and that we are very much interested in your continued feedback,” she said. “No one should have to choose between work and whether their child will have the resources that they need … we will make sure that that is not a choice that has to happen.”

After the mayor finished her opening remarks, Dr. Allison Arwady explained that the number of positive COVID cases reported in the city has increased by 80 to 100 per week.

Before taking questions from the media, the mayor reiterated the basic guidelines that the city recommends for

“Social distancing works. Wearing a face covering in public works,” she said. “No one is immune from this virus. No one.”

The city will reevaluate the Chicago Public School’s situation at the end of CPS’ first quarter on November 6.