Karen Ann Cullotta – Page 17

Chicago resident Lana Waters at Ada S. McKinley Community Services, July 23, 2021. Waters, who has two children, is one of many who will be receiving the newly expanded child tax credit.

Child tax credits bring relief to Chicago families, but critics worry some are left out. ‘It doesn’t actually reach many of the most vulnerable.’

July 23, 2021 at 4:16 p.m.

For Chicago resident Lana Waters, the recent arrival of her first $550 child tax credit check will ease the pinch to her pocketbook when shopping for back-to-school supplies and uniforms...

Head Start students Summer Anderson, left, Miya Candelaria, center, and Serenity Peters, right, search for tree insects with their teacher at the Nia Family Center in Chicago on July 20, 2021. The center started in 1993 and currently has 95 students at its early education center.

Millions in federal Head Start funding is now going straight to Chicago’s neighborhoods. Here’s what it means for local families.

July 23, 2021 at 3:26 p.m.

When Shontae Johnson's 5-year-old daughter, Serenity, steps into a kindergarten classroom at Chicago Public Schools this fall, the Humboldt Park mother said five years' worth of experiences in a neighborhood...

Weber Arch at Northwestern University in Evanston on Nov. 13, 2020.

New COVID-19 guidance calls for all Illinois college students to be vaccinated: ‘Science is showing us that vaccines are the best way to protect our students’

July 21, 2021 at 5:25 p.m.

Illinois higher education officials are urging all colleges and universities to require students get vaccinated ahead of returning to campus next month for in-person learning in the wake of new...

Maryann Zaleski, center, listens while members of the board present possible COVID-19 restrictions and mitigation in District 25 schools for the fall during an Arlington Heights School District 25 board of education meeting on July 14, 2021.

Surging number of suburban school districts will let parents decide if their students will be masked in the fall: ‘We’re getting kids their freedom back’

July 16, 2021 at 4:45 p.m.

Seven-year-old Elise Corcoran stepped up before the Arlington Heights School District 25 board of education Thursday night to deliver her top five reasons why she believes students should not be...

Prairie-Hills Junior High's Sheena Birgans-Wright is one of 10 teachers from across the U.S. to be named an outstanding STEM educator.

COVID-19 has magnified disparities in STEM education, but students are determined to prevail: ‘By the time they graduate, they are rock stars’

July 6, 2021 at 8:07 a.m.

When COVID-19 abruptly shut down Prairie-Hills Junior High School in Markham, teacher Sheena Birgans-Wright was determined to see that the crisis would not derail the robust STEM program she'd built...

A student's temperature is checked before entering Saucedo Scholastic Academy on March 1, when Chicago Public Schools opened to tens of thousands of kindergarten through fifth grade students.

How CPS will spend $525 million to get at-risk students back on track after ‘unprecedented’ stresses of COVID-19 and remote learning

June 30, 2021 at 5:00 a.m.

Targeting more than 100,000 students considered the hardest hit by COVID-19 and months of remote learning, Chicago Public Schools has launched an initiative aimed at reengaging at-risk students and ensuring...

Catalina, a 5-year-old kindergarten student, attends class during remote learning at the Boys & Girls Club in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood on May 27, 2021.

With Illinois schools fully reopening in the fall, Chicago Public Schools and some suburban districts will offer distance learning for kids at risk of COVID-19 exposure

June 25, 2021 at 4:52 p.m.

As Illinois school districts prepare for a return to fully reopened classrooms in the fall, officials in the city and suburbs are now reviewing applications for "medically vulnerable" students whose...

Deshaun English, 12, of Calumet City, receives his HPV vaccine from Ashley Murry, a registered medical assistant, at Friend Family Health Center in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood on June 24, 2021.

As childhood vaccinations plummet across the US during pandemic, Illinois public health officials warn of possible outbreaks in the coming school year

June 24, 2021 at 7:06 p.m.

Alarmed by a steep decline in routine childhood vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cook County Health officials are urging parents to ensure that any missing shots get in kids' arms...

Fourth grade students practice before taking the Illinois Assessment of Readiness test at Lakewood Falls Elementary School in Plainfield in 2019.

Parents slam state board’s proposal to triple number of annual standardized assessments for students: ‘We must keep testing at the absolute minimum’

June 22, 2021 at 5:36 p.m.

A state plan that could triple the number of federally mandated tests Illinois students must take in the coming years is being slammed by some educators and parents who say...

Vice President Kamala Harris leans in for a photograph with Stella Quatrini, after Harris spoke about the child tax credit at Brookline Memorial Recreation Center, June 21, 2021, in Pittsburgh.

Child tax credits arriving next month, but study finds pandemic likely erased post-recession gains for Illinois families

June 23, 2021 at 9:20 a.m.

As the White House spreads the word this week about the new child tax credit slated to begin next month, a study released Monday finds that post-recession gains for struggling...

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