Guidance and Resources Regarding New Presidential Administration

CPS will continue to be a welcoming District for our LGBTQ+ students and staff.

We are committed to ensuring that every CPS school provides a safe, inclusive, and welcoming educational environment that embraces and celebrates everyone in our diverse school communities.

For a complete set of information and resources to ensure LGBTQ+ supportive environments, please visit this page.

The District's non-discrimination policy, which is in line with the Illinois Human Rights Act, provides students and employees protection from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, and many other categories. The District’s policies are also aligned with the City of Chicago’s Human Rights Ordinance.

In addition, the Chicago Board of Education has established specific guidelines for schools to follow on everything from preventing bullying and bias-based harm to connecting students with healthcare services, supporting students' mental health needs, protecting bathroom access, athletic participation,  ensuring staff training, and more.

CPS will continue to rely on state law, local ordinances, and our District’s own strong guidelines to ensure vital protections remain in place for our LGBTQ+ students and staff.

Below is a collection of resources specifically geared towards LGBTQ+ students and their families. We also want to remind families that there are mental health resources available at every CPS school to help students who may be feeling concern and anxiety. Please reach out to your school principal or counselor to access these resources.

• Supporting LGBTQ+ Young People: Tips for Parents and Caregivers [ English | Spanish ]
• Mental Wellness Guides:
  • Taking Care of Your Feelings (for elementary school students) [ English | Spanish ]
  • Taking Care of Your Mental Well-being (for middle school and high school students) [ English | Spanish ]
• Chicago Services Resources Guide
• The Trevor Project (For LGBTQ+ Support, contact (866) 488-7386.
• Resources and Organizations for Supporting LGBTQ+ Young People Experiencing Homelessness or Housing Instability

CPS is committed to keeping our students and staff healthy and safe. The District maintains strong minimum health requirements for attendance, provides access to healthy meals, vaccines, vision, hearing, and dental services, comprehensive sex education, and assistance with helping families access vital programs like Medicaid. 

Please visit our Office of Student Health and Wellness web page here for complete information and resources.

Please visit CPS' Children and Family Benefits Unit (CFBU) page or call the Healthy CPS hotline at 773-553-KIDS (5437) for assistance with enrolling in:

• Medicaid, which provides free or low-cost health coverage
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides nutrition benefits to families so they can purchase healthy food
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which provides families with financial assistance and related support services, which may include child care assistance, job preparation, and work assistance
• Family Planning Program (FPP), which provides a range of reproductive health and family planning related services to eligible Illinois residents regardless of age or gender.

We will continue to adhere to these important protocols to keep our students and staff healthy and safe, especially in the face of any attempt to restrict access to vital health care services for students or remove minimum health requirements for attendance to schools

CPS is committed to ensuring that our schools remain safe, inclusive, and welcoming educational environments that embrace and celebrate everyone in our diverse school communities. CPS has compiled a list of additional resources and guidelines on supporting the mental well-being of staff, students, and families.

During times of big changes and uncertainty, it is more important than ever to ensure that we maintain our mental well-being and take care of ourselves. Doing this allows us to recharge, process difficult emotions, and feel strong enough to tackle challenges. 

• Taking Care of Your Mental Well-Being [ ENGLISH | SPANISH | Polish | Chinese | Urdu | Ukrainian | Arabic ]
  For resources tailored to middle and high school students, refer to these documents.
• Taking Care of Your Feelings [ ENGLISH | SPANISH | POLISH | CHINESE | URDU | UKRAINIAN | ARABIC ]
  For resources tailored to elementary students, you may refer to these documents.
• School Avoidance [ ENGLISH | SPANISH | POLISH | CHINESE | URDU | UKRAINIAN | ARABIC ]
  There are many reasons why students may feel like avoiding school. With upcoming changes under the new presidential administration, it is understandable that it may cause some disruption in routines. Check out the School Avoidance Resource for more information.

When it comes to subject matter, CPS remains deeply committed to ensuring that all students experience holistic, robust, culturally-responsive curriculum and instruction, and that their identity is valued, celebrated and incorporated into their learning. CPS has enacted policies to ensure that every teacher implements standards-aligned, culturally-responsive curriculum, and to protect the free and respectful discourse around ideas within the classroom. 

CPS’ guidelines around curriculum reflect many State laws and guidelines that protect important subject areas like Black history, Native American history, Asian American history, disability rights history, civics, holocaust/genocide education, women in history, character education, media literacy, violence prevention and conflict resolution, and LGBTQ+-inclusive instruction.  

Furthermore, the Board has passed important policies guiding the selection of texts and materials in schools to ensure content is "by and about a wide array of people and cultures to authentically reflect a variety of ideas, information, stories, and experiences."

These policies can help protect the District from federal or state limitations on our academic freedoms, book bans or limitations and restrictions on our curriculum. The District will continue efforts to ensure every student has a more inclusive understanding of literature, history, and the impact of traditionally marginalized populations.