As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
By: Sarah Karp / August 23, 2011
In the 2012 budget set to be approved on Wednesday, officials are quietly proposing to drastically scale back the money spent on some of the most troubled and struggling students. The rationale: Not only are these programs expensive, they are largely unsuccessful.
Last week, three CPS-operated sites serving students released from juvenile detention centers and on probation were shuttered. Officials also have significantly slashed the budgets of the only two schools left that serve emotionally-disturbed students, and the sole school for pregnant girls, a Catalyst Chicago analysis of school budget reports shows.
The district plans to cut all the extra resources for achievement academies, small programs inside big high schools for students who are too old for elementary school but have yet to pass 8th grade.
Last year, CPS spent between $14,000 and $30,000 per student at these various programs—significantly more than the $9,000 district spends on a typical high school student. These cuts will save the district about $7.5 million.
Advocates and teachers don’t know of specific plans for serving these young people, but the suspicion is that CPS may turn to private contractors. The recent trend has been to send these students to less expensive private therapeutic day schools or charter alternative schools.
A teacher from Healy South, which served students on probation, said many of her students were referred to Banner Schools, a for-profit company. (The teacher didn’t want to be identified because she in the process of looking for a job.) In 2011, CPS paid Banner Schools $5.8 million to run schools for young people who have been expelled, as well as day schools and programs for dropouts.
Though the schools for students on probation looked unsuccessful on paper, the teacher stresses they were dealing some of the toughest students in the district. Many students found the small, caring environment helpful in getting on the right path.
The intent was to get the students into the habit of attending school, help them catch up with credits and prepare them for transitioning into a regular or alternative high school. But in recent years, fewer students chose the option of going to one of these schools and, when they did, few of them transitioned later to a regular high school, according to district officials.
For the past couple of years, CPS has directed some students leaving the juvenile detention center to Banner schools, where they are part of the YES program. Originally paid for with a Department of Labor grant, students in YES took online classes while working with a transition counselor and a re-entry specialist on getting back into a regular school.
District officials say that young people exiting the detention program will be offered similar services as those in the YES program, though it is unclear whether the YES program is still operational.
The Healy teacher says she understands that the district needs to save money, but she worries about putting students, many of who are behind, in online classes and leaving them to their own devices. “They need to be re-taught almost everything,” she said.
For years now, staff at Montefiore and Buckingham, both of which serve students with behavioral disabilities, have feared that they were going to be phased out, mostly because of their high costs. Between the two of them, they are only projected to have about 80 students next year and they’ve been stripped of about $1.8 million.
Montefiore Principal Julious Lawson says that the school’s psychologist is now part-time, as is its art teacher. He notes that art therapy can be helpful for his students. He has also lost aides and assistants.
“It’s nearly impossible to run an effective therapeutic program with the staff we’ve been left with,” he said.
Another big question mark is what will happen with students who need to attend achievement academies. CPS is cutting $2.1 million from these programs, which served about 1,000 students last year. Achievement academies were created a few years after CPS established strict guidelines on which students could be promoted from 8th grade. The academies use a curriculum created by John Hopkins University that is designed to get them through 8th grade in the first semester and get them ready to transition to a regular program by junior year.
But the academies have low attendance rates and many students drop out. Hopkins University officials say that the implementation has been poor.
CPS officials have said they are trying to come up with something new to serve these students.
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
What I want is Donoso, Brizard and Rahm to STOP closing positions and making schools supplant their budgets. The carrot they offer is rot. You can’t improve/increase scores (without cheating) as long as they keep taking positions away and making schools double classrooms, cut programs, lose great teachers with over 20 years expereince. We are NOT able to do more with the so much less they give to us.
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
I reallly hope this works for these students, but I'm cynical because these schools are "for profit". Like privatizing prisons, privatizing education seems fraught with problems down the road. Will CPS paying less per student by sending them to contract or charter schools deliver the same level of teaching, support, etc.? Only time will tell, but who will the casualties be in the event that these businesses don't work? The students. I imagine that these students don't have much a voice, nor do their parents.
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
All I can say is that none of cuts discussed in this story are reflected in the CPS budget. If what Ms. Karp is reporting and I am also hearing via emails is true I should see far more reductions in the CPS budget than I am seeing. There was yet another reduction in school psychologists, but overall the budget shows an increase in special ed teachers which is not making sense to what I am hearing.
On the closure of the IDOC program at Healy South of course the program did not work, neither does the Youth Connection Charter School program work for these students, or the private Banner program work. As a nation students with emotional disturbance who also enter the criminal justice system are simply put throw aways. We as a society have written them off. To get results would require very major investments in these students and then the improvement probably would be limited. There is no will in our nation to do this, it is the school to prison pipe line.
Rod Estvan
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
Many of these students should have been referred for special education services in the elementary schools. We need to stop passing students who are below level and those who exhibit behavioral issues which impact their learning. Early intervention is what works best, yet we are overloading our primary classroom with 34+ students. Pre-school teachers try to refer 3 and 4 year olds for specialized services but are stonewalled by a system which refuses to admit we have environmental and societal factors that contribute to a large popualtion that desperately needs special education services in the early grades.
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
yes, but in the elementary setting, what are we suppose to do when we have a mile long list of students who need to be staffed and central office changes the rules on how to staff a student? (From school based problem solving to some new term that has no exact guidelines as of yet). And you have to start your evaluative work all the way over?
Then we have a principal, who falsifies attendance so that the suspensions are simple absences and absences turn to being marked present. This results in her avoiding trouble for the rate/amount of suspensions & absences. This information is important for the teacher because the rate of attendance would indicate that the student has a problem. However, attendance is how the school gets paid, thus sometimes the child is never suspended for their wrongdoings and even when absent, they are marked present by the clerk or principal, despite the teacher marking them absent.
At the same time, there are really no consequences set before the students despite the uproar that the teachers make. So, students act how they want to act and do what they want to do. The school also ranges in age from preschool to 8th and at an early age, the behaviors & attitudes that the upper graders display is instilled and conditioned into the younger students daily.
To add, we also have a local school counsel, (who is underhandedly paid off by the principal) who complains when students (their kids) get consequences for their wrong doings, simply because they don't want their child sitting at home with them. As a result, poor behavior from the child equates to poor classroom management on the teacher's behalf. Thus, leading the teacher to potentially get a bad evaluation. So, teachers do everything in their power, behind classroom doors, to survive, document behavior and justify that help is needed, for that particular child. While at the same time, dealing with 30 others who are bouncing off the walls and in need of support services as well.
Then, we have a psychologist, social worker and nurse who only come once a week (twice if we are lucky) and they are too busy trying to help evaluate students and sit in on the staffing process to actually see the students. At the same time, let's hope that the school counselor shows up to work that day & hope that this is not during testing time. Oh, and cross your fingers and hope (sarcasm) that the student doesn't make ANY progress. If so, the child is immediately taken off the radar for the staffing process, so that time/effort can be spent evaluating those who do not make any progress at all.
I hope this helps to paint a very real picture of what goes on in some of Chicago's elementary school settings. I hope this helps high school teachers to better understand why students come to you in the way that they do. In all effort to truly help children who need support services get evaluated, realistically only one student from each classroom may potentially make it through the process within one year's time (despite the fact that SBPS only takes about 8weeks to a couple of months to complete). I, personally started & finished SBPS on a student and this student did not get staffed until 2 years later!!!!! Even with parents urging their child to potentially be evaluated, the school can't seem to beet the damned if you do & dammed if you don't issue. The school is on probation, and as long as students are being evaluated at the rate in which they are evaluated at this school, then the school may potentially remain on probation, thus encouraging the principal to falsify even more to counter act the consequences she must deal with, and more importantly work toward simply keeping the school from being shut down.
So the budget cuts actually hit the regular classrooms just as hard as they will hurt students who need these programs. Because now, these students will possibly be mixed in, without as much support services and money as before.
Regarding the amount of special needs teachers and their job increase, well, someone has to work with the mixture of all of these learning styles. Why hire a regular ed teacher, when you can get a special needs teacher to take on big caseloads and mainstream within a regular ed classroom? This whole system is messed up! We all need to not show up on the 1st day of school and show CPS that we, as a staff, are not playing. Give us our rights back. Lets make a powerful impression on society and show that we don't fear our jobs. Mr. Brizzard needs to fear his educated staff!!!!
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
yes, but in the elementary setting, what are we suppose to do when we have a mile long list of students who need to be staffed and central office changes the rules on how to staff a student? (From school based problem solving to some new term that has no exact guidelines as of yet). And you have to start your evaluative work all the way over?
Then we have a principal, who falsifies attendance so that the suspensions are simple absences and absences turn to being marked present. This results in her avoiding trouble for the rate/amount of suspensions & absences. This information is important for the teacher because the rate of attendance would indicate that the student has a problem. However, attendance is how the school gets paid, thus sometimes the child is never suspended for their wrongdoings and even when absent, they are marked present by the clerk or principal, despite the teacher marking them absent.
At the same time, there are really no consequences set before the students despite the uproar that the teachers make. So, students act how they want to act and do what they want to do. The school also ranges in age from preschool to 8th and at an early age, the behaviors & attitudes that the upper graders display is instilled and conditioned into the younger students daily.
To add, we also have a local school counsel, (who is underhandedly paid off by the principal) who complains when students (their kids) get consequences for their wrong doings, simply because they don't want their child sitting at home with them. As a result, poor behavior from the child equates to poor classroom management on the teacher's behalf. Thus, leading the teacher to potentially get a bad evaluation. So, teachers do everything in their power, behind classroom doors, to survive, document behavior and justify that help is needed, for that particular child. While at the same time, dealing with 30 others who are bouncing off the walls and in need of support services as well.
Then, we have a psychologist, social worker and nurse who only come once a week (twice if we are lucky) and they are too busy trying to help evaluate students and sit in on the staffing process to actually see the students. At the same time, let's hope that the school counselor shows up to work that day & hope that this is not during testing time. Oh, and cross your fingers and hope (sarcasm) that the student doesn't make ANY progress. If so, the child is immediately taken off the radar for the staffing process, so that time/effort can be spent evaluating those who do not make any progress at all.
I hope this helps to paint a very real picture of what goes on in some of Chicago's elementary school settings. I hope this helps high school teachers to better understand why students come to you in the way that they do. In all effort to truly help children who need support services get evaluated, realistically only one student from each classroom may potentially make it through the process within one year's time (despite the fact that SBPS only takes about 8weeks to a couple of months to complete). I, personally started & finished SBPS on a student and this student did not get staffed until 2 years later!!!!! Even with parents urging their child to potentially be evaluated, the school can't seem to beet the damned if you do & dammed if you don't issue. The school is on probation, and as long as students are being evaluated at the rate in which they are evaluated at this school, then the school may potentially remain on probation, thus encouraging the principal to falsify even more to counter act the consequences she must deal with, and more importantly work toward simply keeping the school from being shut down.
So the budget cuts actually hit the regular classrooms just as hard as they will hurt students who need these programs. Because now, these students will possibly be mixed in, without as much support services and money as before.
Regarding the amount of special needs teachers and their job increase, well, someone has to work with the mixture of all of these learning styles. Why hire a regular ed teacher, when you can get a special needs teacher to take on big caseloads and mainstream within a regular ed classroom? This whole system is messed up! We all need to not show up on the 1st day of school and show CPS that we, as a staff, are not playing. Give us our rights back. Lets make a powerful impression on society and show that we don't fear our jobs. Mr. Brizzard needs to fear his educated staff!!!!
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
It's clear that dedicated teachers across the board have varied skills, all of which are necessary. The teachers at Healy, Center Factory, Montefiore, Buckingham, etc. choose to dedicate their careers to students very different from those who teach and dedicate their careers to students at a selective enrollment school, traditional school or grammar school. The fact remains that the students who were entering the Healy, et al. schools didn't have the services they required while in grammar school. I'd like to point out that the Healy, et al. teachers were not reassigned, but rather terminated due to the closing of these schools. I'm not a teacher and never had the patience or dedication to be one, but my father worked for CPS his entire life and my partner is a CPS teacher. I'm proud of both of them for their dedication, hard work, love of students, etc. I'm saddened that they would never recommend that young people go into teaching at this point (but they do believe fiercely that education is the answer for young people, whether selective, troubled, adjudicated, etc.), and that's on CPS. And that's a shame.
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
Poor Intelectualkat! If he (or she) would pay better attention to the spelling and the grammar in his (or her) postings, then perhaps those postings (accusations...rantings...half-baked ideas) might be taken a little more seriously!
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
"but the suspicion is that CPS may turn to private contractors. The recent trend has been to send these students to less expensive private therapeutic day schools or charter alternative schools."
Here's an idea. Why not just provide real estate tax vouchers and give all parents the choice to send their children to less expensive, more efficacious private schools of their preference.
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
"but the suspicion is that CPS may turn to private contractors. The recent trend has been to send these students to less expensive private therapeutic day schools or charter alternative schools."
Does Catalyst know how these private therapeutic day schools have been made less expensive? Less expensive to whom (with verified spending audits)? For the same services (that have been documented)? Equal or better outcomes (proven)? Are there placements available in these schools? Which are on the OSS list as eligible for placement of CPS students? Could you look into this? Thanks.
School budget cuts to hit most troubled students
Retired Principal re: Intelectualkat. The grammar and spelling is the last stage of the writing process, and actually, I found a lot of these accusations ring true or at least true-ish. Sometimes, a person has to vent and hit "post" before editing. You know that a lot of sped in CPS is a hot mess. (Some is not, but the sped involved with these "most troubled students" can be profoundly dysfunctional.)
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