Committee on Education and Child Development
October 5, 2016 City Council Meeting
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Chicago boasts a diverse array of thriving and rich immigrant communities, with families from more than 140 countries and more than 100 languages spoken in our public schools;
WHEREAS, 17.6 percent of enrolled Chicago Public School (CPS) students are English Learners (ELs) - the highest percentage in the state; which, according to the CPS Policy Manual, means that the English speaking, reading, writing, or understanding of 392,285 students may be insufficient to allow them the ability to: (a) successfully achieve in classrooms where the language instruction is in English; (b) participate fully in the school setting, or (c) meet the State's proficient level of achievement on state assessments;1
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago reaffirmed its commitment to serve as a sanctuary city and protect the rights of immigrants when it adopted the Welcoming City Ordinance in 2012;
WHEREAS, there has been an increase in xenophobic (anti-immigrant and refugee) and Islamophobic rhetoric nationally, targeting Arab Americans, Middle Easterners, South Asians, Muslims, refugees, and undocumented immigrants, including Governor Rauner's announcement of his intent to ban Syrian refugees, and;
WHEREAS, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders issued a report in 2016 stating that English Language Learner students were less likely to report experiences of bullying based on language barriers;
WHEREAS, a 2009 study by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education discovered that Asian American Pacific Islander youth are the most frequent targets of bullying in schools, with 54% of Asian American teenagers reporting experiencing bullying in the
: Chicago Public Schools. (2016). Bilingual Education Policy, Section 603.1. Retrieved from
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classroom, and a study by the Bay Area Sikh Coalition determined that 74 percent of...
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