The deal came after weeks of contentious negotiations, but Willie Preston said his 4-year-old daughter did a "happy dance" when the pre-K student found out. He's also happy.
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"This is the start of Chicago coming back from COVID, and I'm really, really excited about that," Preston said.
Can schools safely reopen without teachers vaccinated for COVID-19?
Can schools safely reopen without teachers vaccinated for COVID-19?
Under the plan, students, teachers and staff will have a staggered return to their physical classrooms.
Pre-K and cluster students will return Thursday. Kindergarten through fifth grade returns on March 1 and sixth through eighth grade goes back on March 8.
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So far, no date has been set for high school students to return.
Ebonie Davis and Tequila Singleton have children in CPS cluster programs. They say in-person learning is crucial to their kids' development.
"She has goals and benchmarks that she needs to attain," Davis said.
"He would have more of a hands-on type of learning environment," Singleton said.
For families that didn't opt in for in-person learning, there will be another opportunity to opt in before the fourth quarter starts in April.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson toured William H Brown STEM Magnet School in West Town Thursday morning and discussed how prioritizing students was the only way to keep moving forward through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Lightfoot discusses CPS' return to in-person learning
"Our public is the spine of our city; every neighborhood in our city revolves around the ecosystem of the local neighborhood schools, and a healthy, vibrant, stable and nurturing public school system is a key barometer of the present and future outlook for our city," Lightfoot said.