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ISBE: “CPS continues to defy its legal obligations”

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Illinois

Chicago Public Schools has repeatedly violated state law over the use of physical restraints of students, “overwhelmingly failed” to train its staff properly and continued the practice despite multiple directives this school year from the Illinois State Board of Education to stop, the state agency alleged in a letter to CPS obtained by the Tribune.

“CPS’ complete disregard for the health and safety of its students and blatant violation of state law is unconscionable,” an ISBE official wrote to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. […]

Such findings from ISBE’s monitoring of CPS prompted the state agency to open a “systemic complaint investigation” in October alleging “several violations” of state law related to staff training. At that point, ISBE “mandated that CPS stop the use of physical restraint until it could demonstrate that staff who may need to use physical restraint are trained in its safe application,” the letter to Martinez states.

ISBE contends CPS continued to report the use of physical restraints in the following weeks, despite at least two more warnings from the state education agency.

“CPS provided a wholly inappropriate response on November 9, 2022, to our third directive to halt its unlawful practice physical restraint because it had overwhelmingly failed to train its staff appropriately. CPS continues to defy its legal obligations,” ISBE wrote.

There’s lots more, so go read the rest.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, May 30, 23 @ 2:01 pm

Comments

My heart hurts. I hope that the confidence I have in Brandon Johnson will translate into doing the right thing. This is heinous and must be stopped immediately.

Comment by Education First Tuesday, May 30, 23 @ 2:40 pm
If CPS under the new administration can put its constant battles with teachers/staff behind them, maybe they can finally get to addressing issues like this.

Comment by NIU Grad Tuesday, May 30, 23 @ 4:15 pm