What children need now and when schools reopen
Public schools are playing a vital role in helping families through the current crisis and in the recovery period to come. The pandemic and school closures have made it clearer than ever that public schools are the center of our communities and our children’s education.
Read moreApril's News You Can Use: What's needed until and when schools reopen
Forty-three states, including Illinois, have closed K-12 schools for the remainder of the year. Mass closures and a sudden switch to crisis schooling from a distance have prompted reflections on the crucial role of schools for children and communities. It’s also prompted speculation about what changes might take place longer term as a result of the closings and the pandemic.
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Read moreMarch's News: Schooling in the time of COVID-19
“The unprecedented shutdown of public and private schools in dozens of states last week has illuminated one easily forgotten truism about schools: They are an absolute necessity for the functioning of civic culture, and even more fundamentally than that, daily life. Schools are the centers of communities. They provide indispensible student-welfare services, like free meals, health care, and even dentistry. They care for children while parents work. And all those services do much to check the effects of America’s economically stratified systems of employment and health care on young students.” --When Schools Shut Down, We All Lose Education Week March 20, 2020. |
February’s News You Can Use: the Right to Play; Google sued over student privacy; Pritzker's K-12 school budget
In this Issue:
- The Right to Play Every Day bill, SB3717
- New Mexico's AG sues Google for violating student data privacy protections
- Gov. Pritzker’s inadequate budget for K-12 schools
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Read moreIt's Data Privacy Day: Help us stop the College Board from selling our kids' data!
January 28th is Data Privacy Day, an international annual day of awareness to promote protection of our personal data.
Illinois has a state law to protect student data privacy, the Student Online Personal Protection Act---a law that will be even stronger when the amendments we worked to pass last year go into effect.
But, even as it stands now, vendors cannot legally sell, rent or lease student data they collect in Illinois' schools.
Read moreJanuary's News You Can Use: the Right to Play; College Board lawsuit
In this issue:
- Our newest campaign: the Right to Play Every Day!
- Keep pressure on the College Board to stop illegal data sales
- Graduated income tax on the ballot in November
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Read moreThe Right to Play Every Day
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” --Fred Rogers
Play is fundamental to the human experience. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 190 nations, recognizes play as a basic right for children.
Play is a crucial component of education and development, enhancing a child's social, physical and emotional health along with academic achievement and abilities.
Illinois has no requirement for time devoted to play during elementary school, including no requirement for outdoor recess.
Illinois Families for Public Schools is currently working to pass SB654, the Right to Play Every Day bill. This bill after its amendment would require public schools to provide a 30 minutes of daily play time for all students in kindergarten through 5th grade. You can download a fact sheet about the bill here. (And you can read about why 60 minutes of play in full school day makes sense here.)
We are thrilled to have the support for this bill from Access Living, Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, Chicago Teachers Union, Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI), Defending the Early Years, Illinois Association for the Education of Young Children, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Optometric Association, Legal Council for Health Justice, National Association of Social Workers - IL Chapter, Northern Illinois Nature Preschool Association, Northside Action for Justice, Parents 4 Teachers, POWER-PAC IL, Raise Your Hand, Sierra Club - IL Chapter.
★ LEGISLATIVE UPDATE August 2021 ★SB 654 passed in both chambers in May and was signed into law by Governor Pritzker in August! Thank you to all the parents, teachers and other advocates around the state (and beyond!) that helped us pass this law! To help with further policy and legislative advocacy for play in IL public schools, please sign up below. |
Help us pass this bill
- Sign up below to get action alerts and to connect with others in your district!
- Contact your IL state representative and ask them to sign on as a sponsor of SB654.
Resources: why we need play in school
BOOKS
- Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive. Sahlberg and Doyle. 2019
- Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life Gray. 2013
- Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children. Elkind. 2007
- A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play. Paley. 2004
ARTICLES
- "A proposal for what post-coronavirus schools should do (instead of what they used to do)." Sahlberg and Doyle. Washington Post. April 2020
- "Kids Need Play and Recess. Their Mental Health May Depend on It." Hynes. Ed Week. Aug. 2018
- "From Playing to Play Advocacy: An Interview with Olga S. Jarrett " Journal of Play. Winter 2019
- "A Research-based Case for Recess." Position paper from the US Play Coalition, American Association for the Child’s Right to Play (IPA/USA) and the Alliance for Childhood. 2019.
PODCASTS
- FreshEd Podcast: Let the Children Play (Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle) Dec 2 2019
- WBAI's Talk Out of School: "Whole Child Education and the importance of play" Feb 5 2020
- KQED Mindshift: "Childhood As ‘Resume Building’: Why Play Needs A Comeback" Sept 3 2019
[Image used via Creative Commons]
Sign upNovember - News You Can Use: College Board, Cullerton retiring; & more
In this issue:
- College Board’s data sales — Ask your legislators for a subject matter hearing;
- FTC looking at changing privacy rules for schools — Submit comments;
- President Cullerton retiring — One of the biggest obstacles in the ongoing fight for an elected board for Chicago is stepping down in January;
- Quick links — What’s in the new contract for Chicago teachers; ISBE budget hearing & board meeting; delay on effective date for new law on IEP paperwork.
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Read moreChicagoans, cure those Ninth-Day-of-the-Strike-Unelected-School-Board Blues
It’s nine school days into a Chicago teacher and staff strike, the second day of fall veto session in Springfield, and a great time to call your state senator and ask why Chicago families are still waiting for an elected, representative school board. (Find your state senator’s phone number here!)
Read moreOctober news you can use: Veto session; testing & privacy; #RedforEd in IL
In this issue:
- Veto session — Call your legislators about HB256 & SB453;
- Standardized tests and student data privacy — College Board’s data sales and Pearson’s massive breach;
- #RedforEd — Teachers’ fight for resources around the state
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