State of Our Students; Springfield Update

Since the pandemic, students nationally have struggled to rebuild a sense of community, mental health, and academic skills. The longstanding inequalities that affect the experiences of students of color, with disabilities, and students learning English continue to create extra challenges. Chicago Public Schools students are no exception. At the same time, CPS students are rebounding in reading and express optimism and resilience in surveys. Two new reports dig in on the state of Chicago's young people: A Better Chicago's State of Our Youth 2025 and Kids First Chicago's The State of Chicago Public Schools (Spring 2025).

There's been a lot of talk about both these reports in op-eds and events, and I encourage Board Rule readers to take a look at both reports for themselves. I'll focus today on two observations related to chronic absenteeism, which is arguably the greatest challenge facing schools locally and nationally. If students aren't coming through the door, they are missing a lot of instruction and become more likely to drop out.

Much of the conversation around chronic absenteeism focuses on removing practical obstacles to attendance, like lack of transportation or unstable housing, and supporting student mental health. These solutions are important. But we're missing a key piece of the puzzle when we ignore the need to offer more engaging, relevant, and intellectually challenging classroom experiences. A Better Chicago's survey of 400 youth found the number-two reason young people gave for why their peers miss school was "boredom/dislike of school." At the same time, youth surveyed overwhelmingly called for more community-based, out-of-school-time programs to support them and keep them safe and engaged. While the new contract between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union promises to expand Sustainable Community Schools, which should bring more of these kinds of programs to schools, I wonder how teachers can bring more of the kinds of experiences students have in after-school--hands-on, voluntary, and relevant--into their classrooms.

Second, there has been a lot of work done nationally to address chronic absenteeism, and I don't know how deeply CPS has examined that work as it tackles the problem. Here are a few resources the district could look to: the Attendance Playbook created by FutureEd (disclosure: I worked there) and Attendance Works, Thomas Dee's practical tactics to connect with parents, and Everyone Graduates' principal survey about the broader set of strategies that are working to help students recover, such as tutoring, mentoring, and success coaching.

Springfield Updates

Last week, the General Assembly made it through the third reading of bills. That’s the moment when bills either make it–or don’t–from the House to the Senate, or vice versa.  Here are a few important education bills that are still alive at this point in the session:

The cell phone ban in schools requested by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in his State of the State address is live. SB 2427 would permit the use of school-issued devices or devices used for educational purposes, but would require school boards to pass policies banning the use of personal communication devices during instructional time. (There are exceptions for emergencies and for students with disabilities who require a device for medical care or as part of their IEP.) “This is a floor,” Sen. Christina Castro, D-Elgin, told Capitol News Illinois.

HB 2337 would limit school districts’ ability to force families to waive their rights to bring future claims against a district in exchange for receiving services for their children with disabilities. These waivers come up when mediation is necessary to resolve disputes between families and school districts about what services a child should receive. Chalkbeat Chicago explains why special education advocates support the bill: they see it as an important check on school districts’ power to deny services.

Two bills would make it easier for Illinois students to transfer from community college to 4-year college. The process has historically been difficult. It can also come with surprise expenses when credits don’t transfer and a student has to retake courses. HB 3522 would create direct admission programs to Illinois state universities for both first-time and transfer college students, based on their academic performance. SB 1958 would require state universities to “provide a seamless pathway for transfer” from their local community colleges.

HB 2696 would strengthen student data privacy protections by preventing testing vendors from using student data for commercial purposes. HB 2423 limits the use of suspensions and expulsions for students in Pre-K through third grade. 

Bills have also been filed to insulate the state from federal demands to change course in education. HB 2927 would create the Inclusive History Commission and charge it with creating “multiperspective, inclusive, and comprehensive standards that a school may use as a guide in replacing or developing its curricula for history education.” Schools would be expected to create or enhance curriculum, focusing on “inclusion of diverse perspectives, contrary interpretations, and the viewpoints of various groups of people whose voices have traditionally been excluded from the conventional teaching of history.” The new history curricula would launch in the 2026-27 school year. A bill to fortify the rights of undocumented students to free public K-12 education in Illinois was introduced, but I’m not clear if it is moving forward. 

Old Business

An aside: what a relief it is to move issues that have driven the conversation about CPS for most of the last year into an "Old Business" section.

On Monday night, 97% of the Chicago Teachers Union voted to approve the tentative agreement. To seal the deal, the Chicago Board of Education must also approve it, which will likely happen at its April 24 meeting. The completion of this process should make room for the board to take a deeper look at what students are experiencing.

Chalkbeat Chicago reports that outgoing CPS CEO Pedro Martinez will take part in a public interview as a finalist for the state commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. He’ll face off against Jack Elsey, who served as chief officer of innovation and incubation for CPS from 2013-2015. His work for CPS included overseeing charter schools. He and Martinez did not work in CPS at the same time. The public interview will be livestreamed from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Central time on Thursday.

New Business: The Next Campaign...Already?

We know that U.S. Representatives, who are re-elected every two years, are in permanent campaign fundraising mode. Given that the next Chicago school board elections are only about a year and a half away, I decided to dig into the Illinois Sunshine database and see where board members’ campaign fundraising stands.

Six board members currently don’t have a committee to raise funds for a future electoral campaign: Sean Harden, Olga Bautista, Norma Rios-Sierra, Emma Lozano, Cydney Wallace, and Frank Niles Thomas.

Six board members have active campaign committees and have received contributions since January 1, 2025, suggesting they plan to run again: Jennifer Custer, Ellen Rosenfeld, Karen Zaccor, Yesenia Lopez, Angel Gutierrez, and Che Smith. 

Carlos Rivas has not yet received any campaign contributions in 2025, but he is about to hold a fundraiser. 

Eight board members have active campaign committees but have not received contributions since January 1, 2025: Ed Bannon, Ebony DeBerry, Debby Pope, Jitu Brown, Michilla Blaise, Jennifer Biggs, Anusha Thotakura, and Therese Boyle.