The Chicago Teachers Union wants to bring Chicago Public Schools to the bargaining table over working conditions – including offering remote learning options – ahead of a possible resurgence of widespread federal enforcement in the city later this year.
Union leaders say this is necessary to protect families and ensure students can stay home if they’re afraid of being targeted by federal officials while traveling to or from school.
Jackson Potter, vice president of the union, said the CTU will make a formal demand to bargain soon. He worries the situation will only worsen based on tactics federal agents are deploying in Minnesota, where immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens earlier this month.
“We have got to adapt to this new terrain, which is more vicious and traumatic, and that means all of our systems have to improve,” Potter said at a board of education meeting Thursday. “Ready or not, here they come,” he added.
Labor unions can initiate negotiations when an issue arises that affects their members’ working conditions.
The move is an indication of just how disruptive federal immigration operations have been to schools in Chicago and elsewhere. In October, federal agents released tear gas near Funston Elementary in Logan Square when some students were outside for recess. There were big drops in attendance at primarily Latino schools during days when enforcement was most aggressive.
Alfonso Carmona, CPS’ acting chief education officer, said state law doesn’t allow the district to shift into remote or hybrid learning on its own.
He said the governor would have to declare a disaster due to a public health emergency and the state superintendent would need to lay out requirements or criteria to move forward with remote learning.
But Carmona added that the district is working with the city, labor unions and others to provide “interventions that are needed for students that either have fear to come to our schools or are missing too many days of school.”
This isn’t the first time the district has been asked to allow families to choose online learning due to fears of students or parents being targeted by immigration officers on their way to school. In October, about a month into President Trump’s deportation campaign in Chicago, some board members urged the district to implement remote learning.
Many of the agents involved in the operation left the city in November. But a Department of Homeland Security source told the Sun-Times that its deportation operation in Chicago would continue, with an even larger contingent of agents returning as soon as March.
Potter said the district also should provide clearer guidance for school leaders seeking to be more directly involved in helping students by, for example, participating in a walking school bus.
“Instead we have a lot of bureaucratic red tape where principals can’t do that,” Potter said.“That is not going to be adequate for the conditions we face.”
Multiple school districts in the Minneapolis area have temporarily implemented remote learning for students whose families are fearful of being detained. While that may put some parents at ease, it isn’t viewed as a long-term solution. There are concerns over the quality of virtual instruction, particularly for English learners and students with disabilities.
Still, parents and elected officials urged the board at Thursday’s meeting to consider it.
Caty Bautista, the parent of two children at Chase Elementary in Logan Square, said families and school staff have banded together to get students to and from school since operations began in Chicago, but “it is not enough.”
“No parent or student should fear stepping out of their home,” Bautista said.
State Rep. Lilian Jiménez said there is a lot of fear in the Northwest and West side communities she represents of being detained near a school. Jiménez said that as recently as Thursday morning, someone was detained around the corner from Cameron Magnet School, prompting some parents to keep their child at home.
“Many parents are being forced to answer this question every morning,” Jiménez said. “It’s very chaotic for families, it’s very chaotic for children to not have a Plan B.”