Students bear brunt of CPS special ed cuts
Good morning, Chicago. ✶
???? Below: Chicago Public Schools is making major changes to how it provides special education. That has parents, principals and teachers worried.
????️ Plus: A coal plant demolition plan stokes fears of 2020's Little Village fiasco, Leo Catholic High School makes the "America's Got Talent" finals and more news you need to know.
???? Keeping score: The Cubs reached the playoffs with an 8-4 win over the Pirates; the White Sox lost to the Orioles, 3-1.
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⏱️: A 9-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
Sunny with a high near 86.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
CPS special ed staff cuts and shuffling leave students lost, behind and unserved
Reporting by Sarah Karp
Education cuts: Last spring, Chicago Public Schools cut about 250 special education teachers and 673 aides as part of districtwide budget cuts, according to a WBEZ analysis. CPS then added back hundreds of positions, most of them weeks after school started Aug. 18, leaving many principals scrambling to fill the new openings.
Open roles: On Monday, CPS officials said about 200 special education teacher positions and some 400 classroom aide positions were vacant. The vacancy rate for special education teachers grew since the beginning of the school year, from 2.6% to 3.9%, but CPS officials say it's below the 5.3% rate of the same time last year. In the past decade, CPS provided nearly all positions to principals in early spring, which would help them fill roles by the start of the school year.
The impact: It can be unsafe for students who need these supports in some situations without the proper number of aides, school staff say. And learning for all students can be disrupted when a teacher isn’t available to differentiate lessons for students of varying abilities.
Big question: Will principals be able to fill new positions they just received — and when? The principals’ and teachers’ unions and advocates say they doubt applicants are out there. Already, there’s a shortage of special education teachers and aides. Every year, hundreds of these positions go unfilled.
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Pilsen coal plant demolition puts pressure on city not to repeat Little Village fiasco
Reporting by Brett Chase
Demolition risk: Midwest Generation, owner of the former Fisk coal-fired power plant at 1111 W. Cermak Road, wants to demolish more than a dozen structures around the facility. The project will require added city scrutiny because of environmental and public health risks.
Listening session: A virtual public meeting is planned 6-7:30 p.m. Sept. 24. City public health and building department employees are expected to explain the operation and answer questions from the community. Register for the meeting here.
Key context: The environmentally complex demolition process was developed after the 2020 botched implosion of the Crawford plant, which was taken down to make way for a warehouse now being used by Target.
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30 arrests reported in Trump’s Chicago deportation campaign — but feds won’t provide full tally
Reporting by Sophie Sherry, Jon Seidel and Tom Schuba
Aggressive campaign: The feds say immigration agents are arresting "the worst of the worst" during an aggressive deportation campaign launched earlier this month in the Chicago area. President Donald Trump’s administration has named dozens of immigrants who've been swept up — along with some who were arrested in other states.
Arrests made: At least 30 immigration arrests have been announced in the Chicago area in recent weeks, mostly through the feds’ social media posts and news releases highlighting the criminal backgrounds of those arrested. Some arrestees have violent criminal histories. Others were previously deported.
Feds unclear: The full scale of the operation remains unclear, and federal immigration officials won’t provide a full accounting of arrests. About half of the names and alleged charges released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security couldn’t be definitively matched by the Sun-Times to court records.
GAMES AND CROSSWORDS ????
This week's Chicago-style crossword theme is: Museums.
Here's your clue:
24D: "City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago" museum (abbr.)
MORE NEWS YOU NEED
- Berwyn shooting: A gunman who fatally shot Lincoln Middle School Assistant Principal Nerissa Lee, 46, and another person turned the gun on himself outside the school Tuesday in suburban Berwyn, officials said.
- Inmates sue officers: Seven women filed federal lawsuits Wednesday against Logan Correctional Center staff members who they said sexually assaulted them while they were incarcerated.
- Mexican president condemns shooting: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday condemned the death of a Mexican immigrant fatally shot by an ICE officer last week in Franklin Park, demanding a thorough investigation.
- Lawmaker’s home fired on: A person is in custody after allegedly firing a gunshot at the Shorewood home of Democratic state Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel on Tuesday.
- West Nile virus: A suburban Cook County resident in their 60s has died after contracting West Nile virus, the first virus-related death reported this year in Illinois, health officials said.
- Police chief’s budget view: Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling vowed to resist any attempt to eliminate 984 police vacancies, even as Mayor Brandon Johnson struggles with the city's $1.15 billion shortfall.
- Jimmy Kimmel suspended: ABC has suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely after comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s killing.
- Film fest lineup: The Chicago International Film Festival announced its lineup of nearly 120 feature films and 70 shorts from more than 60 countries that will screen Oct. 15-26. These include a documentary on Chicago’s Jackie Robinson West Little League and an Elizabeth Olsen afterlife comedy.
RIOT FEST ????
Must-hear bands on this year’s Riot Fest lineup
Reporting by Selena Fragassi
Beyond big-name acts like Jack White and Green Day topping the bill at this year's Riot Fest, there are several artists on the rise you should keep on your radar, even if you aren't headed to Douglass Park this weekend.
Here are three must-know acts on their year's lineup. Find our full list here or via the button below.
La Rosa Noir
La Rosa Noir is one of the hand-selected local bands pulled from the fest’s own backyard in North Lawndale and Little Village. Packing an eclectic mix of post-punk, surf rock, rockabilly, horns and Latin music, the DIY quartet invokes Siouxsie Sioux and The Cramps on "Pax" and "Chicano Stomp," and a bit of Mazzy Star on "Lavender Warm."
Dehd
For the last decade, this Chicago DIY trio has been winning hearts with their wanderlust spirit, reverb-drenched effects and unique vocal play. They're somewhere in the Venn diagram of surf rock, garage rock and dream pop, with fuzzed-out riffs and catchy hooks
Lambrini Girls
If you’re not jumping around and throwing fists in the air at Lambrini Girls, you may want to check your pulse. The UK punk rock duo is a brass knuckle punch of fireball energy, big charisma and take-no-prisoners tongue-lashing — true to the spirit of Riot Fest.
FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚾????????
- Cubs make playoffs: For the first time since 2020, the Cubs clinched a postseason berth with an 8-4 victory against the Pirates on Wednesday. "It’s important to feel this," a champagne-soaked Ian Happ said amid the team's post-game locker room celebration.
- Sox build again: The White Sox' offseason is shaping up to once more focus on rebuilding rather than big free-agent spending.
- Kaiser contract: Blackhawks sign Wyatt Kaiser to a two-year contract, avoiding a training-camp holdout.
- Williams reflects: As both try to move on, Bears QB Caleb Williams says his time with former coach Matt Eberflus "wasn't wasted."
BRIGHT ONE ✨
Leo Catholic High School advances to finals on ‘AGT’
Reporting by Ambar Colón
The Leo Catholic High School choir's "America's Got Talent" journey continues after the teens learned Wednesday that they made it to the show's finals.
The results of the choir’s semifinals performance from Tuesday were broadcast during Wednesday’s live results show. The finals will take place next week, when 10 acts compete for the $1 million grand prize.
At a watch party at the teens' school in Auburn Gresham earlier this week, cheers and screams erupted when the boys took the stage on the semifinals episode.
Supporters at home were on their feet, dancing, clapping and cheering for the choir members as they put their spin on "Centuries" by fellow Chicago crew Fall Out Boy.
Michael Moore was at the watch party cheering on his 16-year-old son, Blake, who's among the 18 boys in Pasadena, California, for the show. Outside the choir, Blake is a power tumbling state champ and plays football. He’s an actor, too. His father told the Sun-Times how proud he is.
"Seeing him up there is, it’s the best thing ever, and that’s what he likes to do … It’s so good to see your kids doing what they love to do," Moore said.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
For yesterday's daily question, we asked you: What's one of your defining memories of going to the mall when you were younger?
Here’s some of what you said…
"Cutting school to go to the Water Tower Place with my friends in the late '80s."— Tony Moore
"I remember Ford City Mall. This was in the early '70s. It was the place that I went with girlfriends. We would ... shop, go to Orange Julius, go to a movie or just hang out. It was a big deal taking the bus and going with your friends. You were no longer a little kid!"— Joan M. Roe
"My first time smoking dope was 1975, [the] summer before college, and going to Lincoln Mall in Matteson on Route 30! Was a wonderful time."— Frank Mandros
"Girlfriend had to see Rick Springfield after his hit song "Jesse's Girl" [in the 1980s]. We drove from Hammond to Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. The drive was long, but the wait was longer as the line was 200 yards to see him."— Stephen Luba
"The Brickyard in the '80s. My father finally decided to retire his black wool winter coat ... after wearing it for more than a dozen years. He upgraded to a brown leather jacket from Berman's. It was a defining moment because I never saw him wear anything else."— Tami Goldmann
"So many hours, and quarters, spent at the Games America arcade at Hawthorn Mall in the early- [to] mid-'80s. I think I still have the plastic coin pouch."— Eric Friedman
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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