CPS board, Springfield could hold dueling votes on school cops

The University of Chicago Urban Labs' Education Lab was cited in a May 22, 2024 piece from The Chicago Sun-Times on the debate around school police currently underway in Springfield, ILL.

The piece by Nader Issa reads: 

"Instead of a blanket removal of officers, CPS has reduced the cost of the deal and allowed local school councils to vote on removing cops from their schools. Most have done so — only 39 high schools still have at least one officer. As schools removed their cops, they developed alternative safety plans and were given resources to pay for new restorative justice coordinators, deans and other programs aimed at addressing the root causes of conflicts and students’ trauma.

Many schools have reported positive results.

The University of Chicago Education Lab worked with CPS to analyze the effectiveness of the restorative practices that replaced policing and found student arrests dropped 35% in schools and 15% outside of schools while decreasing out-of-school suspensions by 18%."

Read the full article here.