Chalkbeat

Chicago Board of Education members are calling for more transparency from the district on cuts and changes being made to special education staffing positions. “Our parents are saying that their children are not receiving their services,” said elected board member Jitu Brown in an interview with Chalkbeat. “So these cuts have hit the classroom, and it’s not acceptable to bake that into what education is going to look like this entire school year.”

Over the summer, the district’s Office for Students with Disabilities cut staffing and made changes within the department. In the second week of school, about 200 students with disabilities had yet to be placed in a classroom. CPS officials said Thursday that 285 are awaiting placements, including students who qualified since the start of the school year. “You have schools where children don’t have a special education instructor after a month into the school year. You’ve seen the loss in the combination of special ed teachers and SECAs,” Brown said.