Union approves deal with Chicago schools to return to class

The first wave of students, in pre-K and special education, are due to return on Thursday. Other students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 will be returning in the coming weeks for limited classroom instruction. No plan has been made for high school students, who will continue to learn online.

Discussions on resuming classroom instruction from the far-off departure last March have been heated. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had warned teachers that they would be kicked out of district systems if they didn’t show up for work. The union retaliated by threatening to strike.

Chicago public school officials insisted it was safe to have in-person classes with protocols in place, like wearing face masks and a $ 100 million safety plan that includes thousands of air filters in the classroom. District officials and Lightfoot said distance education left many behind, especially black and Latino students who make up the district’s majority of about 340,000 students.

The union says district plans fail to protect teachers and that insufficient numbers of students have shown interest in fully reintegrating more than 600 schools. The union had previously voted to defy orders to return to class and continued to teach remotely.

Initial surveys of parents showed that around 77,000 students were interested in returning to class. When in-person school briefly resumed last month for struggling and pre-K students, student attendance was around 19% of those eligible.