Chicago Public Schools announced layoffs of more than 1,400 district workers, including over 400 teachers, on Friday.
In their statement, CPS said layoffs usually happen in June, their timing this year shifted due to “delays in the budgeting process.”
A total of 1,458 employees were laid off, a 3.2% increase from 2024’s 1,410 layoffs, CPS said.
The layoffs include 432 teachers that are members of the Chicago Teachers Union, including 132 special education teachers, representing 1.8% of the teaching force, CPS said. Last year, 480 teachers were laid off.
An additional 311 paraprofessionals and school-related personal like teacher assistants, restorative justice coordinators and tech coordinators, were also laid off, the district said.
Other layoffs include 677 special education classroom assistants, 33 security officers and five parents workers, all of whom are members of SEIU Local 73, the district said.
CPS also said historically more than 80% of impacted workers have been able to get another position within CPS before the start of the next school year, and said they will host hiring fairs to “hep affected employees connect with new opportunities.”
CBS News Chicago Investigators sat down with interim CPS CEO Macquline King Thursday for a one-on-one discussion about the district’s looming budget woes and her plans to navigate them.
With a $734 million budget shortfall, King said she was looking at all options to help fill the funding gap for the nation’s third largest public school system, including Mayor Brandon Johnson’s previously floated idea of a high-interest, short-term loan.
A CPS spokesperson noted that the layoffs happen every year and “are not related to the deficit and should not be framed that way.”
The Chicago Teachers Union responded to the layoffs in a post on their Facebook pagecalling the layoffs part of a “cruel cycle” and blaming Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois lawmakers for refusing “to fully fund schools according to their own Evidence-Based Funding formula.”