Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against CPS

A complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights by a local parents group charges that the Chicago Public Schools flunking policy disproportionately affects African-American and Latino students.

The school system's policy of holding back students who fail to meet minimum standardized test scores in third-, sixth- and eighth grades eventually leads to students giving up and dropping out of school, according to Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), a non-profit organization representing parents of CPS students.

Pure filed a similar complaint in 1999 and CPS addressed some of their concerns. They decided to file the new complaint because the schools system still flunks "thousands of children every year:"

"They drop out at an early age because they're so discouraged," said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of PURE. "It's like you have a bureaucratic door shut in your face, and then you're left with a child who is unhappy and doesn't want to go to school."

CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond counters that the schools would be doing students a disservice by allowing them to move forward without a basic education.

"This is about ensuring that a student is actually prepared before they advance to the next level," said CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond. "Race is not a factor. Our main factor is that every child be prepared and ready to advance."

The PURE complaint contends that CPS has flunked 100,000 students since 1996.