Linda Chapa LaVia

State lawmakers voted Tuesday to create a top-level task force that would address truancy in Chicago elementary schools, a long-ignored problem that especially affects disadvantaged African-American youth and children with disabilities. The Senate's...

Illinois has put a one-year moratorium on new online charter schools outside Chicago at the urging of a handful of west suburban school districts. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the legislation Friday. It also directs a state commission to study issues such as...

Valley View School District board members have rejected a proposal for an online charter school in the district. The Virtual Charter School @ Fox River Valley has recently submitted proposals to about 18 districts throughout the south and west suburbs....

Plainfield school officials lined up Monday with neighboring districts to reject a proposal for an online charter school. The virtual school would serve students from 18 school districts, including Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202....

Naperville District 203 school board members rejected a proposal for an online charter school in the district at Monday's school board meeting. "There are many reasons to deny the application of the Illinois Virtual Charter School," said board member...

School districts in the western suburbs are lining up against a proposal to open an online charter school that they say is not in the best interests of students or taxpayers. That might leave a state commission to decide whether students will be signing...

To address a devastating pattern of elementary-grade absenteeism in Chicago Public Schools and across the state, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn have thrown their support behind legislation to lower Illinois' compulsory attendance age from 7 to 6 or...

As authorities move to address K-8 absenteeism and truancy in Chicago schools, where tens of thousands of elementary students miss a month or more of school each year, they may not have to look far for workable strategies. Government agencies and...

At a West Side town hall meeting Saturday, a panel of elected officials and community activists decried Chicago’s crisis in elementary grade truancy and absenteeism, and vowed to work on reforms that could save countless children from failure in...

Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett vowed Monday to move forcefully to address the city's crisis in K-8 truancy and absenteeism, declaring: "We must work to shut down the dropout pipeline." She said that "while the district has not fully...

A top state lawmaker and the head of the Chicago Public schools on Monday vowed to support a high-level task force aimed at combating the crisis in K-8 grade absenteeism and truancy exposed by a recent Tribune series. Speaking at a drop-out prevention...

State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia today introduced legislation to create a task force to "address the truancy and excessive absences epidemic" in Chicago's public elementary schools. The resolution creating the panel would have to be approved by the state...