CPS is committed to ensuring that our schools remain safe, inclusive, and welcoming educational environments that embrace and celebrate everyone in our diverse school communities. The District is part of a major, city-wide, all-hands-on-deck effort led by the city to support our students and families.
Thankfully, the District has strong protections already on the books for our students and staff; you can read about them in more detail here. These protections were reaffirmed by the Board of Education in a resolution last year. CPS will continue to rely on these policies and protections to guide our District in the months ahead.
View the sections below for more information on each topic.
Resources
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Know Your Rights
This resource provided by the office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul contains critical information that can help students and families protect themselves and defend their rights. It is available here in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Polish, Serbian, and Urdu.
This similar resource provided by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) showing actions that families can take is available here in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.
Trainings/Workshops
CPS’ Office of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) is working with Community-based organizations to hold “Know Your Rights” trainings and workshops through our Parent University program and at individual schools, prioritizing school communities with large numbers of immigrant and newcomer families.
Here is a list of current opportunities:
- Saturday, Jan. 11, 10 a.m. & 5:30 p.m.: Chicago Community and Workers’ Rights is hosting a Know Your Rights workshop at 18th Street Casa de Cultura located at 2057 W 18th St. For more information, reach out to info@chicagoworkersrights.org.
- Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6 p.m.: The Syrian Community Network, in collaboration with various immigrant rights organizations, will be hosting an Illinois Immigration Town Hall at the Edge Theater located at 5451 N Broadway. Please RSVP here.
- Thursday, Jan. 16, 1 p.m.: Northwest Center will be holding a Know Your Rights workshop in collaboration with Alderman Gilbert Villegas (Ward 36) at 6560 W Fullerton Ave., Unit #C118 - Suite A. No RSVP is required.
- Friday, Jan. 17, 10 a.m.: The Southwest Parent Advisory Councils (PAC) Collaborative, in partnership with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, will be hosting a Know Your Rights training at the Network 8 Back of the Yards Parent University located at Richards Career Academy 1435 W 50th Street, Door 14. This session will be in Spanish. Please RSVP here.
- Saturday, Jan. 18, 9:30 a.m.: The United African Organization will be hosting a Know Your Immigrant Rights Workshop and Breakfast at the Dawson Tech Institute (Cafeteria) located at 3901 S State St. Please RSVP here. Resources in French will be available.
- Weekly, Starting Tuesday, Jan. 21, 9:30 a.m.: Enlace Chicago will be hosting weekly Know Your Rights workshops through the CPS Network 7 Pilsen/Little Village Parent University located at Perez Elementary at 2001 S Throop St. For more information and registration, please contact 773-379-5669. These sessions will be in Spanish.
- Thursday, Jan. 30, 5:30 p.m.: The Indo-American Center’s Ek Saath will be hosting a Community Inauguration Debrief at the center located at 6328 N California Ave. Please RSVP here.
CPS will continue to work with our partners to schedule trainings and workshops; please check this page regularly for the most current opportunities. You may also hear directly from your child’s school about opportunities.
Please be aware that there is a high demand for these sessions and a limited number of organizations and trainers available. CPS is continuing to work with partners to build capacity to meet the demand.
Legal Resources
The Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) has created this list of dozens of local non-profit agencies providing free or low-cost assistance with immigration matters and forms, including:
- Family Visa Petitions (I-130)
- VAWA - Battered Spouse Self-petitions (I-360)
- Adjustment of Status/Residence/Consular Processing (I-485, OF-230)
- Waivers of Inadmissibility (I-212, I-601)
- Conditional Residence (I-751)
- Green Card Replacement (I-90)
- Naturalization (N-400)
- Acquired/Derivative Citizenship (N-600)
- DACA (I-821D)
- Asylum (I-589)
- Deportation Defense
Please visit the ICIRR website here for additional information.
Applying for Financial Aid for Higher Education
CPS has created resources for students from mixed-status families and for undocumented students who are completing federal and state financial aid applications for post-secondary education.
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The U.S. Supreme Court established in the 1982 case Plyer v. Doe that children cannot be denied a free public education based on their immigration status or their family’s immigration status. This protects the right to education for all students.
Current federal policy also places restrictions on the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as it relates to schools. Schools are partially public buildings that are considered “sensitive locations,” where ICE is currently restricted from carrying out enforcement actions, with some exceptions.
CPS actively works to protect our students and their families:
- CPS does not ask for our families' immigration status
- CPS does not coordinate with ICE
- CPS does not share student records with ICE, except in rare cases where there is a court order or consent from the parent/guardian.
- In line with the City of Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance, ICE agents are not permitted access to CPS facilities unless they provide their credentials, the reason they are requesting access, and a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. CPS will not admit ICE agents based upon an administrative warrant, an ICE detainer, or other document issued by an agency enforcing civil immigration law.
CPS has provided detailed guidance to school leaders and the appropriate school-based staff regarding interactions with ICE, and is actively providing training to support this guidance.
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CPS will continue to be a welcoming District for our LGBTQ+ students and staff.
For a complete set of information and resources to ensure LGBTQ+ supportive environments, please visit this page.
The District's non-discrimination policy, which is in line with the Illinois Human Rights Act, provides students and employees protection from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and many other categories.
Specific for our LGBTQ+ students, the Board of Education has codified specific guidelines for schools to follow, on everything from preventing bullying and bias-based harm, connecting students with health care services to get the care they need, supporting students' mental health needs, protecting bathroom access, staff training, and more.
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CPS is committed to keeping our students and staff healthy and safe. The District maintains strong minimum health requirements for attendance, provides access to healthy meals, vaccines, vision, hearing, and dental services, comprehensive sex education, and assistance with helping families access vital programs like Medicaid.
Please visit our Office of Student Health and Wellness web page here for complete information and resources.
Please visit CPS' Children and Family Benefits Unit (CFBU) page or call the Healthy CPS hotline at 773-553-KIDS (5437) for assistance with enrolling in:
- Medicaid, which provides free or low-cost health coverage
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides nutrition benefits to families so they can purchase healthy food
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which provides families with financial assistance and related support services, which may include child care assistance, job preparation, and work assistance
- Family Planning Program (FPP), which provides a range of reproductive health and family planning related services to eligible Illinois residents regardless of age or gender.
We will continue to adhere to these important protocols to keep our students and staff healthy and safe, especially in the face of any attempt to restrict access to vital health care services for students or remove minimum health requirements for attendance to schools
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When it comes to subject matter, CPS remains deeply committed to ensuring that all students experience holistic, robust, culturally-responsive curriculum and instruction, and that their identity is valued, celebrated and incorporated into their learning. CPS has enacted policies to ensure that every teacher implements standards-aligned, culturally-responsive curriculum, and to protect the free and respectful discourse around ideas within the classroom.
CPS’ guidelines around curriculum reflect many State laws and guidelines that protect important subject areas like Black history, Native American history, Asian American history, disability rights history, civics, holocaust/genocide education, women in history, character education, media literacy, violence prevention and conflict resolution, and LGBTQ+-inclusive instruction.
Furthermore, the Board has passed important policies guiding the selection of texts and materials in schools to ensure content is "by and about a wide array of people and cultures to authentically reflect a variety of ideas, information, stories, and experiences."
These policies can help protect the District from federal or state limitations on our academic freedoms, book bans or limitations and restrictions on our curriculum. The District will continue efforts to ensure every student has a more inclusive understanding of literature, history, and the impact of traditionally marginalized populations.