Across the city Monday morning, yellow school buses zipped through streets. Throngs of children in uniform filed into school buildings. Teachers, crossing guards and school staff greeted familiar faces and new ones as students arrived for the first day of class.
More than 300,000 students headed back to class across the city as Chicago Public Schools opened its doors for the 2026-27 school year. For many, it was a welcome return.
Sarai Ellis — whose 9-year-old loves basketball and football — said her family was ready for summer to come to an end.
“He’s a very outdoorsy person. I’ll be wanting to relax and he’ll be like, ‘Mom, can we go outside?’ And I’m like, ‘We were just outside all day,’” Ellis, 29, said with a laugh. “So we’re excited to go back.”
The first day comes as the district faces serious financial uncertainty. CPS is considered only 70% funded under the state’s funding formula. To put pressure on lawmakers, the school board approved a budget in July that includes $150 million in unconfirmed state money. District leaders warned the move could lead to midyear cuts if the funds don’t materialize.
More than 700 teachers were laid off earlier this summer to help close a $732 million deficit. The revised budget directed CPS leaders to restore those positions with the additional funds, a process that is still unfolding slowly across the district. The district has not said how many jobs it will restore.
Still, for some families, those budgetary pressures took a back seat amid the morning back-to-school rush.
In West Roseland, Ellis, 29, seared bacon and flipped pancakes while her son, Liam Moran, got dressed down the hall. Liam, donning khakis and a crisp green polo, blared music from the movie “Moana” in his room. He’ll be starting fourth grade at Tarkington Elementary in Chicago Lawn.
After she drops Liam off, Ellis heads to Wescott Elementary in Chatham, where she works as a special education classroom assistant, or SECA. It’s hard work, Ellis said, but she finds purpose in working one-on-one with students with special needs. She spent all last year alongside a young girl with autism.
“Just seeing her grow, how she would grow in certain subjects, I learned from her sometimes,” Ellis said. “It took her a very long time to say my name. She would always call me ‘mama.’”
Soon after, the family bounded outside of their apartment, with Ellis’ girlfriend, Laura Commings, closely in tow. Liam paused for his first-day-of-school photo — holding a football with a toothy grin — before racing to their car.
‘She is ready to make new friends’
CPS officials touted a 2.2% teacher vacancy rate, dropping from 2.5% last year. Special education classroom assistant vacancies are also at their lowest level in recent memory, at 2.9%, down from 7.3% in 2024. For the second consecutive year, the majority of the district’s new teachers are Black or Latino, according to CPS.
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In East Side, the sound of a train horn rang out as Maria Del Rocio Rodriguez, 34, prepped to wake up her four children.
While Del Rocio Rodriguez’s 3-year-old daughter, Melissa, will go to her usual daycare, 4-year-old Valeria, 9-year-old Ximena and 12-year-old Omar travel a few blocks to Gallistel Language Academy. They’re learning both English and Spanish at the school.
Monday also marked Del Rocio Rodriguez’s first day of sorts at the school. Two hours later, she’d return to Gallistel to start her job as a paraprofessional, a part-time position that helps her learn more about the school system and practice her English while also allowing her to continue studying early childhood education at Daley College.
The school has always felt like a safe, welcoming place for her family. To work there is a little nerve-wracking, Del Rocio Rodriguez said, but “for anything, the first day is nervous.”
All four children were quiet as the family fell into their routine: Omar grabbing bags of school supplies and loading them into the car, Ximena making sandwiches for herself and her siblings, and Valeria sitting at the kitchen counter while Del Rocio Rodriguez meticulously combed and braided her hair.
The family had some activities to do over the vacation period, like summer camps, but also spent a lot of time at home, which bored her children at times, Del Rocio Rodriguez said.
As the clock crept closer to 8 a.m., the family wrapped up their breakfast — scrambled eggs — and piled into the car. They joined the sea of similarly dressed students funneling into the four-story school.
“I’m excited. I think it’s something new in my life,” Del Rocio Rodriguez said. “It lets me see opportunities or improve my English, and the best part is, I’m in the school when my kids are.”
‘Ready for second grade?’
Navy blue glasses came down the twisty green playground slide on the Harold Washington Elementary campus before Ashton Reynolds, 7. The second grader followed after them, sliding on his stomach, dressed in his baby blue shirt and navy blue pants. It’s his seventh pair of glasses, his mom, Ashli Reynolds, said. By 8:15 a.m., Ashton had his Mario Brothers backpack on his back and was walking inside the building with a classroom aide.
Preparation for the first day of school began over the weekend — the ironing of a week’s worth of school uniforms, the bath, the hair braiding. Up at 7 a.m., all Ashton had to do was get dressed, wash up and pack his lunch. His mom had it set up so he could grab what he wanted and pack it himself. She prompted him through the process.
“Get red milk.
“What fruit do you want? Pears, apples, grapes or strawberries?
“Get a cereal … do you want Fruit Loops or Cheerios?
“One fruit cup, juice box, chips?
“Ice pack to keep the milk cold.”
When it was time to leave, Ashton had to be coaxed out of his comfortable summer Crocs in favor of his black sneakers, but the mom-and-son team made it to school early (the duo normally runs on the late side). Amid it all, Reynolds managed to take her first-day photos of her “chicken nugget” with her cellphone to the best of her ability, while juggling bags of school snacks and wet wipes for the classroom.
When asked if he was excited about school, his response was a fast no, but his mom said that feeling is “hit or miss.”
“First he misses his teachers, then as school got closer, he said, maybe I’m not as ready as I thought,” Reynolds said.
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Ashton has Down syndrome and is in the cluster program at Harold Washington in Burnside. This is his third school; he has had the same teachers for the past few years. Ashton’s individualized education program secured his spot at Harold Washington, Reynolds said. Reynolds brought her son to Harold Washington through his IEP. It’s the longest he’s been at one school, Ashli Reynolds said.
“I haven’t been able to pick out any of his schools, which I don’t like since he’s in the cluster program … he has to go where it’s available and where they have space,” she said. Reynolds likes the school because Ashton is familiar with everyone; everybody knows him and he knows where he’s going.
“I try to teach him as much as I can at home, but sometimes when he gets put on the spot, he shuts down, and we’re working on that,” she said. “All I can do is teach my baby, make sure he knows what he needs to know,” Reynolds said of the work she does with him outside of school.
Before she and Ashton left the school playground to go inside for the first day of school, she asked him, point-blank: “Are you ready for second grade?”
“No,” he said.
“You’re not?” she responded. “I think you are.”