Chicago Sun Times | CPS partners with 5 community groups to develop new safety alternatives to in-school officers

Chicago Public Schools has selected five community organizations to lead the development of a new “holistic” program which schools can choose to adopt next year.

By Sophie Sherry Jan 26, 2021, 6:00pm CST

Chicago Public Schools have announced a plan to partner with community organizations to create new “trauma-informed safety approaches,” following a summer of student-led protests against officers in schools. 

Five community organizations were selected to lead the development of the new “holistic” program, which schools will be able to adopt next year as an alternative to school resource officers, CPS announced Tuesday. 

Over the past summer, youth activists called for the removal of the officers and demanded money spent on police budgets be reallocated towards counselors, social workers and other resources. 

Many Black students shared they felt unsafe learning amid a police presence and a Sun-Times analysis found that CPS students who attend a high school with a police officer stationed inside are four times more likely to have the police called on them than kids at high schools without officers.

Despite these demands, Chicago’s school board voted in August to renew its one-year contract with the Chicago Police Department, but submitted alongside a resolution compelling CPS CEO Janice Jackson to create alternatives to the SRO program for the board to vote on this spring.

The organizations, chosen out of 15 applicants, for the “Whole School Safety Steering Committee,” include: Voices of Youth in Chicago Education; Mikva Challenge; Community Organizing and Family Issues; The Ark of St. Sabina; and BUILD Inc.

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