The Chicago Reporter

Carla Rivera’s 5-year-old son is in kindergarten, but he is already attending his third school. Rivera, 48, a parent outreach coordinator who lives in Chicago’s Hegewisch neighborhood, said she first noticed that her son was not meeting some developmental milestones when he was about a year old. She sought early intervention services but said delays in getting him evaluated meant he did not begin receiving occupational and behavioral therapy until he was about 2½ years old. When it came time for school, Rivera said another problem emerged: The schools closest to her did not necessarily have the special education services her son needed. Her son attended Henry Clay Elementary for pre-K3, Wendell Smith Elementary for pre-K4 and now attends George Washington Carver Elementary for kindergarten. Each move came down to which schools offered the program he needed and whether classrooms had enough support, Rivera said.

For parents trying to get their children the services and resources they need inside Chicago Public Schools, identifying the problem can be only the beginning. Families also have to figure out who has the power to fix it. That question carries more weight ahead of Chicago’s November school board election: When a school doesn’t have the staff, services, or resources a student needs, who is responsible for fixing it?