August 26, 2019 by Mary Fahey Hughes - 1 Comment

For Cripes Sake! Stop Illegal Overcrowding of CPS Classrooms and Follow the City of Chicago Municipal Code.

Class Size Matters

With the imminent start of the School Year and class rosters being finalized as we speak, I want to talk about class size and the City of Chicago Municipal Code. Small class size has been proven to significantly to improve student outcomes, especially for low-income and minority students. Yet, in CPS we regularly see class sizes of 30+ students, numbers that can be particularly devastating for younger learners. Education Researcher William J. Mathis from the University of Colorado and the National Education Policy Center published Researched Based Options for Education Policy Making, where he gave the following recommendations:

“• Class size is an important determinant of student outcomes, and one that can be directly determined by policy. All else being equal, lowering class sizes will improve student outcomes.
• The payoff from class-size reduction is greater for low-income and minority children. Conversely, increases in class size are likely to be especially harmful to these populations — who are already more likely to be subjected to large classes.
• While lowering class size has a demonstrable cost, it may prove the more cost-effective policy overall particularly for disadvantaged students. Money saved today by increasing class sizes will likely result in additional substantial social and educational costs in the future.
• Generally, class sizes of between 15 and 18 are recommended but variations are indicated. For example, band and physical education may require large classes while special education and some laboratory classes may require less.”
Mathis, W. J. (2016, June). Research-Based Options For Education Policymaking. Retrieved from https://nepc.colorado.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Mathis RBOPM-9 Class Size.pdf

The Municipal Code was Revamped after the Our Lady of the Angels School Fire to Keep Students Safe in Times of Need for Emergency Egress.

The point of small class size is so kids can quickly and safely leave a classroom, traverse the hallways and exit the building in times of emergency, such as fire, chemical spill, gas leak, etc. Many of these fire codes pertaining to schools were written in the aftermath of the tragic Our Lady of the Angel’s school fire that killed 87 children and 3 Catholic nuns that occurred on December 1, 1958, right here in Chicago. The Municipal Code was written with student safety in mind, yet CPS blatantly ignores the City Fire Codes (and CFD and the Mayor’s Office allows it) as it shoves more and more students into classrooms designed for a predetermined and limited amount of people based on classroom size. Overcrowding of any school is considered dangerous and hazardous to life safety and, coincidentally, an overcrowded classroom is not conducive to learning.

As Parents and Community Members, We Can Help Hold CPS, The Chicago Fire Department and The City of Chicago Accountable for Following the City Fire Codes

Below is a step by step process that anyone can use to alert the Chicago Fire Department about dangerous and hazardous classroom overcrowding.

Step 1. Know the Law!

Title 13-56 of the Municipal Code of Chicago (see attached info at the end of this post) governs the occupancy of all Type I and II schools in the City of Chicago. Complaints for overcrowding must be filed with the Chicago Fire Department because the CFD is the Authority Having Jurisdiction (“AHJ”). If you witness overcrowding or what appears to be overcrowding in a classroom or you have documented proof of overcrowding in a classroom pleases take action by reporting it to the Chicago Fire Department via 311.

Step 2. Call 311.

After wading through numerous prompts to direct your complaint to a department or agency that can’t legally address complaints for overcrowding you will be greeted by a 311 data entry specialist. The data entry specialist will say their name which may be inaudible when first spoken. Kindly ask them to repeat their name and provide the spelling of their name before going further. Write down the name they give you and repeat the spelling of their name to verify you have the correct spelling of their name. It’s important to establish this information up front and it will be clear later in this process why you will need their last name.

Step 3. Provide a description of your complaint.

I’m providing a sample complaint that worked for me so you can model a successful overcrowding complaint here:

“Hello, I’m calling to file a complaint of overcrowding pursuant to Title 13-56 of the Municipal Code of Chicago for the overcrowding of my child’s [ [1]] Grade classroom in Room number [____[2]] at [____________________[3]] located at [_________________[4] The classroom in question had over [ [5]] persons in it on [____________[6]] and the room is only big enough to have no more than [____________[7]] persons in it. Please route my complaint to the Bureau of Fire Prevention in the Chicago Fire Department. They need to send a fire inspector to determine if this classroom is in fact overcrowded.”

[1] Child’s Grade level

[2] Child’s Room number

[3] School Name

[4] School Address

[5] Total number of people estimated to be in a given classroom during the school day. You can determine an estimate or approximation for the total number of people in a classroom in a number of ways: (1) at open house, note the number of chairs in the classroom and the square footage of the of the classroom; (2) ask school staff for the total number of students in your child’s individual classroom and the number of aides, as well as the square footage of the classroom.

[6] Date that you observed the classroom or date where school is in session.

[7] The number of people allowed in the classroom at any given time, per the Municipal Code. How to calculate that number: Note classroom length and width in linear feet. (e.g., Classroom is 20 feet in length and 30 feet in width – 20 x 30 = 600 square feet, divided by 20 square feet, which the number of square feet per person set out in the Municipal Code – 600 ÷ 20 = 30 total people allowed in 20 x 30 classroom.

Step 3a. Request that the 311 call taker read the documented text of your complaint back to you so you are clear that it says what you said, after you complete the process of communicating your complaint verbally to the 311 operator.

Step 3b. If the 311 call taker replies saying she/he will have to route this complaint back to CPS or an organization, agency or department other than the Chicago Fire Department please inform the call taker that the Chicago Fire Department is the Authority Having Jurisdiction regarding illegal overcrowding of Type I and Type II schools and that if she/he does not route the complaint to the fire department you will need to speak to their supervisor (on the day I phoned in this very complaint the call taker refused to route my complaint to the Fire Department). I informed the call that the Bureau of Fire Prevention in the Chicago Fire Department receives referrals for overcrowding for schools, nightclubs exhibitions and places of public assembly. The situation at my child’s school is dangerous and hazardous, should there be a need for emergency evacuation of the classroom.

Step 4. Don’t Take No for an Answer

If the 311 call-taker refuses to route your call to the Chicago Fire Department, you’ll need to document the time of your call and ask for a SR# (Service Request number). You will need this number so you can bring it directly to the Chicago Fire Department, Bureau of Fire Prevention for additional follow-up. My best guess is that the Fire Prevention Bureau will have to request the 311 complaint be routed directly to them so it can get closed out by the appropriate governmental agency.

Step 5. Wait 3 to 7 days and call back to 311 with your SR#

Call back to 311 and request the disposition of your complaint and say something like:

“Hello, I’m calling to follow-up on a complaint I made recently for overcrowding in a school. My SR# is 16-01234. Can you please look it up and provide me with the disposition of the complaint?”

The 311 operator may only be able to share limited information regarding the complaint but at the very least they should be able to tell you whether or not the agency or department they routed the complaint to closed out the complaint.

Step 6. Check back with the school to determine if the classroom was inspected for overcrowding.

Call the school principal and ask if the Fire Department reported to the school to investigate a complaint for overcrowding in the classroom that you complained about. Give the particulars of the complaint to the principal to include the SR#. If the principal tells you that the inspector was here but didn’t say one way or the other if the complaint was valid or not valid (founded or unfounded) you will then have to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the city via their website.

Step 7. File a FOIA with the Fire Department

Go online to www.CityofChicago.org to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to follow up on your initial complaint. Include the SR# and request any and all documentation generated by the Chicago Fire Department from the Office of the Fire Commissioner as well as the Bureau of Fire Prevention. Request the Fire Inspectors Name and Badge number as well as any written correspondence sent to the inspector regarding this complaint (include SR#). Request the Notice of Violation (“NOV”) if issued to the Responsible Party for the Chicago Public Schools for any and all violations written while on inspection at the (insert name of school here).

If it is determined, based on the information you receive from your FOIA that your complaint for overcrowding a school classroom is valid and you do not see a Notice of Violation written by the Fire Department to the Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson or other Responsible Party, please post your information online for all to see. Don’t stand-by while the Fire Dept., CPS and the City ignore the laws designed to protect the life safety of your child. Do something about it! Take your complaint to the Authority Having Jurisdiction (Chicago Fire Dept.) to compel CPS to follow the Law!

********

I hope you find this useful. Thanks for reading!

December 3, 2017 by Mary Fahey Hughes - 1 Comment

NTA, Englewood and Montefiore: Rahm’s Racist, Ableist and Classist Agenda Plays Out in Chicago

Montefiore was a Chicago Public School that provided therapeutic special education services for students Grades 7 through 12 who had severe emotional disorders.

CPS “stealth” closed Montefiore, its only therapeutic day school, by simply not placing any new students there, transferring out existing students and staff and then eliminating a program that served 7th through 12th Grade students who had emotional disorders so severe that their behaviors had led to previous expulsions from other schools within CPS. These are the kinds of kids who now have NO options within CPS other than expensive private placement in a therapeutic day school — the procurement of which often requires hiring an attorney, which is commonly impossible for low-income families. The kids that Montefiore served, one of whom was Laquan McDonald, are Emanuel’s “throw-away” population — young people who have mental illness, little employment opportunity and few coping skills and who, in the face of little or no appropriate intervention, become a statistic in Chicago’s shameful legacy of supporting a school-to-prison-pipeline.

The building that housed Montefiore is now going become a private Waldorf School with a tuition of around $13,000 per year. I don’t begrudge the Waldorf School taking over the property, but I abhor that it represents the racist, ableist and classist priorities of Chicago’s Mayor, who continues to divest in programs and schools that support the neediest of Chicago’s children. The neediest children I speak of include black and brown low-income students in Englewood — who learned yesterday that CPS plans to close four Englewood High Schools, recklessly displacing 400 students out of their neighborhood schools and disrupting the education and community belonging to these young people — all smack dab in the middle of their transition to adulthood. The neediest children also include CPS students who have emotional disorders so severe that they cannot successfully navigate their neighborhood school. The neediest children also include those children who have special needs who, under Emanuel’s tenure, are having to endure a system that has been rigged with a $14 Million accounting consultant-crafted special education procedure manual designed to cut costs and undermine special education services and IEP Team decisions.

We need to look no further than the Emanuel-driven CPS plan to close NTA to see who is important to Rahm — and it ain’t poor black people. NTA is a Level 1+ (CPS’ Highest School Rating) elementary school, with a majority-black, low-income student population that has made phenomenal gains in student growth and achievement and uses a co-teaching model for full inclusion for students with special needs. With engaged families and a focus on social justice and growing student leaders, NTA should be held up as a model for successful urban education. Yet, in arrogant, short-sighted, pandering-to-the-majority-higher-income-white-people-Emanuel-fashion, CPS plans to close NTA in order to use the building to open a 1,000-seat neighborhood High School. This is a horrible plan for many reasons, the least of which is that there are approximately 3,000 currently-empty high school seats within a 3 mile radius of the South Loop neighborhood. See the NTA community’s plea to save NTA: WeAreNTA: The Kids Aren’t Alright – How Chicago Public Schools’ Proposal for a New South Loop High School Hurts Our Children’s Classrooms and Wallets.

See why NTA should remain open.

Prevail: The Story of the NTA Community

Please call Rahm Emanuel’s office at 312-744-3300 and ask that he do the right thing and keep NTA Elementary School open.

Please e-mail the following and ask them to support successful urban education and keep NTA Elementary School open:

Forrest Claypool (feclaypool@cps.edu)

Dr. Janice K. Jackson (cedo-jackson@cps.edu)

Chicago Board of Education Members via Kathryn Ellis (kmellis@cps.edu)

Frank M. Clark, President, CPS Board of Education

Jaime Guzman, Vice President, CPS Board of Education

Mark F. Furlong, Member, CPS Board of Education

Dr. Mahalia Hines, Member, CPS Board of Education

Arnaldo Rivera, Member, CPS Board of Education

Gail D. Ward, Member CPS Board of Education

#WeAreNTA

November 14, 2017 by Mary Fahey Hughes - 2 Comments

Fire the Liar: An Ode to Forrest Claypool

Run, Forrest, Run (From CPS)!

I know. Not original, but I’m freakin’ exhausted from dealing with the Lying Liar of Liartown and his Court.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed Forrest Claypool as CEO of Chicago Public Schools in July 2015. For the past several years, students, teachers, parents and advocates have endured blow after blow as Forrest Claypool and his minions attacked Special Education funding, staffing and services each school year with new and ever more diabolical schemes, procedures and policies that fly in the face of Federal Special Education Law. Bruised, exhausted and suffering, we stakeholders turned to each other in helpless disbelief, as the picture of what our kids’ educational opportunities should be (per Federal IDEA Law) turned into a picture of scarcity, powerlessness and desperation, as our kids struggle without adequate supports in a City that places corporate profit over the well-being of its children.

A Professional Hatchet Job

…and then Sarah Karp’s story broke on WBEZ that, under Claypool, CPS paid $14 Million to his accounting consultant cronies to address “inequity” in CPS Special Education. Their answer to address this inequity was to develop a multi-pronged, layered attack designed to cut Special Education Funding – from toddlers coming out of Early Intervention being denied IEP’s after a clown-show of a ludicrously pared-down assessment process, to busing denials for a High Schooler with an assessed developmenal level of a 5-year-old, to case managers being told to change IEP’s without parental consent because of the inexplicable denial of additional staff in the completely non-transparent special education staffing appeal process – to name just a few examples of the new policy and procedure consequences. Claypool continues to try to discredit Ms. Karp’s impeccable reporting and insists that the erroneous conclusions reached in CPS’ White Paper entitled: Closing the Achievement Gap and Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities, is the reason why CPS had to “overhaul” how it parses out Special Education services and funding in Chicago Public Schools.

A Load of Flaming Excrement

This White Paper is a load of horse dung and, I assert, was created with the express purpose of providing CPS/Claypool a convenient excuse to bring in a team of funding gatekeepers (a/k/a ODLSS Network Representatives) to carve away at the more costly Special Education services CPS provides to it’s neediest and most vulnerable students.

The CPS Special Ed Funding Gatekeepers

As only a small part of Claypool’s Special Education cost-cutting scheme, CPS now has a team of high-paid, mid-level-management Network Representatives whose jobs are to act as Special Education funding and service gatekeepers. There are good ones and bad ones.

The good ones:

approve appropriate services (as determined by the Student’s IEP Team);
approve busing service for any and all students with IEP’s who attend CPS;
work with Principals on scheduling of Paraprofessional and SECA staff to ensure coverage of IEP minutes with the most efficient number of staff members within a given school; and
approve necessary additional staffing to achieve full coverage of staffing set out in the IEP Minutes of ALL students in a given school, based on each IEP Team’s determination of student need.

The bad ones:

override IEP Team decisions;
make outrageous conclusions and spout their opinions about students with whom they have no direct knowledge in an effort to justify diminishing, delaying or denying services;
insist on “MTSS-type” Special Education interventions prior to approving continued or additional paraprofessional support, even when the child has an IEP and their whole day (per their IEP) is filled with “MTSS-type” interventions that are currently inadequate to meet the child’s needs;
use CPS’s truncated criteria to determine the eligibility for ESY (Summer School) and requiring duplicative and burdensome data collection to justify ESY placement;
use CPS’s arbitrary and limiting criteria to determine eligibility for busing as a related service in order to justify removal or refusal of busing service from a child’s IEP;
exclude parents from the IEP process by holding “pre-IEP meetings” with the school staff and clinician IEP Team members — where the Network Rep. states what services he will and will not approve and tells the school staff and clinicians to write their goals and accommodations within the constraints of what he has approved;
hamstring the IEP Team from completing online input of certain staffing and services by blocking the ability to enter such services in the CPS computer system, setting certain default responses to “no,” and requiring Network Representative approval to move forward, causing delay or denial of IEP Team decisions.
intimidate Special Education teachers who advocate for their students and make recommendations contrary to the wishes of the Network Representative by reporting their advocacy to the teacher’s Principal and demanding disciplinary action against said teacher.
delay approval of services;
arbitrarily deny services; and
rumor has it, get job perks like new iPhones for keeping the numbers down on private placement, even when such placement is appropriate.

CPS Relies on Stonewalling and Exhausting SpEd Parents

Under Forrest Claypool’s tenure at CPS, getting and keeping Special Education services has become extremely difficult, leading to diminishment, delay and denial of the support our kids need to reach their full potential. Students who have special needs often have only a very small window of time in which to make the gains that can only be achieved through Special Education. The achievement gap for students with disabilities is real and low-income parents are often without the resources of time, money and energy to get their children additional help outside of school. Thoughtful, robust and generous Special Education services can help to make the achievement gap smaller. Because our students have disabilities, it is impossible to totally eliminate that gap and it is delusional to expect to do so. For example, in lieu of a medical miracle, A 7^th Grader with an intellectual disability who reads at a 2^nd Grade level will never, ever, ever be able to achieve a 7^th Grade reading level as a 7^th Grader. However, that 7^th Grader who has an intellectual disability can make gains and progress to achieve a reading level that may lead to employment and an opportunity to live independently as an adult. Under Forrest Claypool’s leadership, parents have seen the roll-out of policies that create a hostile climate related to acquiring appropriate services, staffing and funding of Special Education.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Forrest Claypool is a gaslighter extraordinaire. Month after month, he pounds away at his tired and false talking points, as parents scream into the void of the uncaring, unresponsive and unelected Chicago Board of Education. He continues to insist that there is racial and gender bias in CPS Special Education identification and that an increase in Special Education costs and services at a time when there is less enrollment indicates a problem with the way Special Education services are approved.

Meanwhile, In The World of Honest People…

Here’s the thing, Forrest, when per pupil funding means there are 45 3^rd Graders in a classroom with no classroom assistant or other paraprofessional support, a child with a disability (who may have been able to achieve at an acceptable level in a classroom of 25 students with a teacher and a classroom assistant) is going to need Special Education services. It is your policies and Student Based Budgeting that are responsible for the increase in students identified for Special Education and, given the number of low-income students who attend Chicago Public Schools, Black and Hispanic boys are actually underidentified!!!! Our kids do not have the luxury to wait until an Elected Representative School Board makes the education of students who have special needs a priority.

Forrest Claypool must go!

Here are some links related to this blog post, if you have the time or inclination to swim in sewage. Thanks for reading.

CPS White Paper: Closing the Achievement Gap and Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities

CRITICS: CPS SPECIAL ED POLICY IS ‘DELAY AND DENY’ – Katie Drews, BGA, 1/23/17

WBEZ Investigation: CPS Secretly Overhauled Special Education At Students’ Expense, by Sarah Karp, WBEZ, 10/16/17

AUTISTIC TEEN’S DEATH IN CPS POOL HEIGHTENS QUESTIONS OF SPECIAL ED CARE, by Katie Drews, BGA, and Lauren FitzPatrick, Chicago Sun-Times, 9/8/2017

Parents protest CPS special education policies before board meeting, by Taylor Hartz, The Chicago Sun-Times, 10/25/2017

CPS Making ‘Major Changes’ to Special Ed Funding, by Matt Masterson, Chicago Tonight/WTTW, 7/20/2017

Critics Say CPS Cutting Special Ed Services to Save Money, Paul Caine, Chicago Tonight/WTTW, 1/24/2017

Public Voices Concerns Over Special Education in Revised CPS Budget, Matt Masterson, Chicago Tonight/WTTW, 11/28/2016

Speakers Question TIF Dollars, Special Ed Funding at CPS Budget Hearings, Matt Masterson, Chicago Tonight/WTTW, 8/18/2016

Aldermen Call For Claypool’s Ouster, Accuse CPS Of Stiffing Special Needs Kids, By Dana Kozlov, CBS Chicago News, 10/24/2017

Chicago Public Schools takes heat over special education spending changes, By Juan Perez Jr., The Chicago Tribune, 12/8/2017

Principal Voices on the Negative Impact of CPS Special Education Policy, By Troy LaRaviere, CPAA, 10/25/2017

Access Living: Chicago Public Schools Budget Analysis: Fiscal Year 2017, By Rodney Estvan, M.Ed., August 2016

November 3, 2016 by Mary Fahey Hughes - 1 Comment

Get on the bus, CPS Special Ed!!!*

photo_00071

Note to self: Don’t post an important, short informational video designed to help CPS kids with special needs keep busing service in their IEP’s on the day the glorious Cubs win the effin’ World Series. Repost said video on Sunday morning.

CPS is ramping up their latest version of special education funding cuts in new and creative ways, such as revoking busing service for many students under their “new” busing policies that limit services that in the past had been provided to students with special needs as a matter of course because it is in Federal Law under IDEA!. Here’s a quick video with some tips to help you protect busing service for your child with special needs.

*PET PEEVE ALERT!!!

CPS’s Special Education Department uses the moniker “ODLSS” which stands for Office of Diverse Learners Supports and Services, which is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. ALL learners are diverse, but not NOT ALL learners have a disability that impacts their learning to the point that they qualify for special education services under IDEA. The terms “Special Needs” and “Special Education” are in the Federal law that provides protections for students who have special needs. “Diverse Learners” is a fluffy, vague and deliberate marketing ploy to undermine the legality, weight and responsibility surrounding the challenges of educating students who have HUGE obstacles to overcome. Words matter. Special Education is Special Education.

I am now going to stable my high horse for the evening. His name is Jake.

Go Cubs!

September 16, 2016 by Mary Fahey Hughes - 1 Comment

The Elephant in the Illegally Overcrowded CPS Classroom

Not a great plan…

Overcrowding is on my mind due to the proposed plan to close Kellogg Elementary (a wonderful, Level 1 neighborhood elementary school with 83.5% African-American enrollment) and send those students to nearby Sutherland. Per CPS’s numbers, this plan would immediately bring Sutherland to 136% “utilization capacity,” however, according the Municipal Code of the City of Chicago, occupying a Type IA Elementary School beyond 100% capacity constitutes overcrowding, and in this case, overcrowding by 36%.

Class size is a “classroom size” issue…

CPS regularly ignores the City of Chicago’s Fire Code which, out of concern for the life safety of students, teachers and staff, purposefully limits the usable classroom space to 20 square feet per person in a typical “corridor-type” school classroom. The 20 square feet per person calculation includes individual persons, including students (no matter how small), teachers (no matter how awesome), push-in special education teachers (no matter how phenomenal), and paraprofessionals (no matter how many or how wonderful). For example, if a classroom is 27’ x 20’, the maximum number of persons allowed in that classroom at any time is NO MORE THAN 27 TOTAL PERSONS!

Code enforcement to address overcrowding of classrooms in the City of Chicago is the responsibility of the Fire Commissioner’s Office. Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago has a Bureau of Fire Prevention with Inspectors who specialize in school inspections. It is their job to inspect public schools for all manner of fire code violations, least of which is overcrowding, because overcrowding of any school is considered dangerous and hazardous to life safety. Coincidentally, an overcrowded classroom is not conducive to learning, but I digress… Many of these fire codes pertaining to schools were written in the aftermath of the tragic Our Lady of the Angel’s School fire that killed 87 children and 3 Catholic nuns that occurred on December 1, 1958, right here in Chicago.

Is your child’s classroom dangerous and hazardous? Find out…

Let me walk you through how you can effectively determine if your child’s classroom is in compliance with the Municipal Code of Chicago with respect to classroom size. E-mail your school’s Principal and ask them to determine the square footage of each and every classroom your child may utilize throughout the day and compare it to the attendance record or number of chairs in each classrooms and count the maximum number of persons (not just students) who occupy that space at any given time. Ask the Principal to divide each classroom’s total square footage by 20. If there are more chairs or more people than this calculation allows, your child’s classroom is overcrowded. Overcrowding is not an average calculation. A classroom in a school is either overcrowded or in compliance with Title 13-56 of the Municipal Code of Chicago regarding “occupancy content determination.”

municipal-code-re-school-overcrowding

What do you want to bet?

Parental push-back of this kind could go one of two ways: (1) Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago could take a stand for the safety of school children and teachers and require that CPS comply with the Municipal Code of Chicago as it pertains to overcrowding in Title 13-56-310; or (2) CPS will continue to flout the Municipal Code and the Mayor and his cronies on the City Council will push through a change that weakens this code to the detriment of the safety and well-being of our children in Chicago Public Schools.

Meanwhile, back in the 19th Ward…

Alderman O’Shea has asked for ideas and solutions to the overcrowding problem at Mt. Greenwood and the structural needs at Esmond. His plan would close Kellogg and send those students to Sutherland, move Keller Regional Gifted Center to the Kellogg building and give Mt. Greenwood Elementary the Keller building. It seems to me that overcrowding Sutherland to alleviate overcrowding at Mt. Greenwood just perpetuates the overcrowding problem in the 19^th Ward. We need more classroom space. For real.

A solution that works for everyone…

Here’s a possible solution. While I understand that the $20M Junior High Annex at CHSAS is no longer on the table and that investment from CPS must be worked out, CPS could build a classroom-heavy addition at Cassell and move Mt. Greenwood’s boundaries to alleviate Mt. Greenwood’s overcrowding. At the same time, CPS can step up and also invest in updating and repairing the school of our neighbors at Esmond. Overcrowding would be alleviated, children in special education cluster programs would not get pushed out of Mt. Greenwood and Cassell, Sutherland and Kellogg students who need instructional placement would get the classroom space they need and our neighbors at Esmond would get the long-overdue investment they deserve.

For-the-love-of-all-that-is-holy, kids with special needs need room for dedicated, school-specific, K through 8 instructional classrooms in their neighborhood home schools!

The proposed closure of Kellogg and the planned absorption of Kellogg students by Sutherland shuts down opportunity for students who may need instructional placement in their neighborhood home schools at both Kellogg and Sutherland (which requires, at minimum, 2 to 3 dedicated special education classrooms per school). Neighborhood schools need actual, protected, special-education classroom space that lies outside of CPS’s ludicrous and illegal utilization formula. We cannot continue to allow CPS to propagate the lie that all square footage is created equal because it discriminatorily refuses to include our neediest, most vulnerable children in projections and optimization numbers. We need a solution that works for ALL of the kids in the 19^th Ward.

Forrest, scofflaw much?

And we need the Chicago Public School system to follow the Municipal Code.

July 13, 2016 by Mary Fahey Hughes - 1 Comment

Shhhhh… CPS is Systematically Disinvesting in Kids with Special Needs

In the Good Ole’ Summertime…

To give you some background, every summer CPS professional staff (special education teachers, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, nurses and psychologists) come together to enroll incoming CPS students who have special needs. Students are identified, assessed and IEP Teams (parents, special ed teacher, gen ed teacher and any appropriate clinicians) meet to write the child’s federally-mandated Individualized Education Plan. This plan is supposed to be driven by the child’s individual needs, as determined by the individual child’s IEP Team. This is the plan that guides the child’s school experience and is supposed to be thoughtfully and collaboratively designed by the child’s parents and the team of professionals that make up the IEP Team.

Legal Rights? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Legal Rights!

In the past few years, CPS has systematically attempted to undermined special education services through student-based special education “All Means All” budgeting program; making unilateral decisions to “max out” special education student-to-teacher ratios in instructional settings (even where inappropriate); cutting paraprofessional staffing to such an extent that IEP plans could not be followed; and trying to shut down successful instructional special education programs across the City.

Sung to the tune of “Plausible Deniability”: I’m New At This Job and Have No Special Education Credentials

CPS has a new head of the “Office Of Diverse Learners Supports and Services” (ODLSS)… Patrick Baccellieri, a long-time CPS administrator who does NOT have a degree in special education and has attained this top job at the pay of $178,000-a-year… which happens to be $8,000 more a year than his predecessor (who had a boatload of special ed credentials, not that it mattered much when the budget slashing marching orders were delivered). Mr. Baccellieri is the head yes man, uh, I mean, honcho of CPS Special Education and he is quietly leading the charge to do this…

Shhhhhhhhh… ODLSS Won’t Put It In Writing, But Summer Assessment Clinicians Have To Get Approval From Principals and ODLSS Prior to Including The Following in an IEP: (1) Instructional Placement; (2) Paraprofessional Support; (3) Bus Service. Oh, And They Better Hurry Up!

I was recently contacted by a CPS Clinician who is elbows-deep in summer assessments for incoming CPS students with special needs, who shared the following about this year’s process:

ODLSS is pushing blended placement on preschoolers with special needs by denying the instructional placement recommendations of the Clinicians doing summer assessments unless they have approval from ODLSS and the school Principal!!! What!!!???? The only people who should have input into the placement decision for a child with an IEP is the IEP Team. What this means in practical terms is that little preschoolers with inadequate support will flounder, suffer and waste months or even years in a busy blended classroom, unless or until a grown-up intervenes and asks for another IEP meeting. By that time, instructional placement could become difficult, with instructional classrooms at a premium since so many children will be inappropriately given “blended” placement. This means upheaval and disruption for our little ones who are already at a disadvantage because of their disabilities. Remember, these are critical developmental years that could make the difference between a lifetime of dependence and a full, independent life for our kids.
ODLSS is denying paraprofessional support for students without secondary approval from ODLSS and the school Principal. Paraprofessional support can mean success or failure for many students with special needs, especially when navigating the general education classroom environment. Paraprofessionals are at the top of the “If-Only-We-Could-Contract-These-People-Out-So-MRE’s-Campaign-Donors-Can-Make-A-Profit” List for CPS. Every year CPS brass comes in with a metaphorical machete to slash the paraprofessional budget, to the detriment of the kids in the classroom.

ODLSS is steering (no pun intended) Clinicians away from offering busing services for students with special needs. If parents and caregivers new to CPS don’t know that their children may have the right to bus service and the IEP team members “in the know” don’t mention it, it doesn’t get included in the IEP and CPS doesn’t have to pay for busing.

ODLSS is instructing CPS Clinicians to complete the testing, assessment reports and IEP meetings within two hours so they can complete three cases per work day. This time limit on the tasks, paperwork and meetings necessary to establish a new student with special needs within the CPS system is irresponsible and short-sighted. CPS has hired professionals who need time to properly do their jobs and our children deserve the thoughtful, federally-mandated, individual education plan that meets each child’s needs.

Dear Mr. Baccellieri, please tell me in writing that what I have set out above is untrue and that you are not attempting to balance the budget on the backs of our neediest kids.

Dear Dedicated CPS Clinicians, please tell me if this post makes a difference in what the IEP team is “allowed” to give to our kids at the IEP meeting.

Dear Parents of Little Ones who have special needs, do your best in the face of an overwhelming transition and fear about your child’s future to connect with an advocate BEFORE your child’s IEP meeting. There is power in communication. Much love and all the best to you and your child.

July 13, 2016 by Mary Fahey Hughes - 0 comments

Shhhh… CPS is Systematically Disinvesting in Kids with Special Needs