URBANA – Despite the precautions that will be taken when the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reopens this fall, campus officials acknowledge outbreaks could still occur. In a webinar Wednesday, campus officials provided more detail about reopening plans as they pertain to housing, in-person and online instruction and other aspects of campus life. Precautions to…
SPRINGFIELD – Prospective and currently enrolled college students may be eligible for additional financial aid if their economic circumstances have changed significantly since they first filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Jacqueline Moreno, managing director of college access and outreach for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), says her office has…
SPRINGFIELD – K-12 schools and colleges in Illinois now have state guidelines to reopen under Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) released new guidelines Tuesday to help schools safely return to in-person classes in the fall. Gov. J.B. Pritzker…
Researchers estimate there are more than 200,000 students with temporary legal protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled against an effort by the Trump administration to end the program, but the court left open the possibility that the program could still be rescinded. …
URBANA – The University of Illinois system, including its campuses in Urbana, Springfield and Chicago, will welcome back tens of thousands of students this fall. In an announcement Thursday, university officials laid out plans to offer a mix of in-person and online instruction. The announcement comes days after staff at the U of I’s Urbana…
A list of health and safety guidelines for getting students back in classrooms is scheduled to be released before the end of the month. It will provide…
URBANA – Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a saliva-based COVID-19 test. During a webinar hosted Tuesday by U of I Chancellor Robert Jones and other university staff, Martin Burke, a U of I chemistry professor, announced that they had the capacity to test up to 10,000 people per day. He…
With police brutality in the news, parents may be wondering how to talk to their children about racism and White supremacy. These conversations are familiar to Black families, but University of Illinois Professors Shardé Smith and Helen Neville say all families should be having them. Illinois Newsroom education reporter Lee Gaines recently spoke with Smith,…
URBANA – The union for graduate student workers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign wants most instruction to stay online through the fall semester — as a precaution against the coronavirus. U of I officials released a report last week produced by a university-appointed task force that outlines possible scenarios for the fall semester,…
SPRINGFIELD – In the months after the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools in Illinois to be closed, calls to the state’s child abuse and neglect hotline dropped significantly. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services said in a statement June 1 that calls to report suspected abuse and neglect are down by 57% compared to…
CHAMPAIGN – As the state moves through Phase 3 of the Restore Illinois plan, officials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say it’s unlikely that full in-person classes will return in the fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, a task force in charge of planning out strategies for a return to campus is…
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to clarify the Campus Faculty Association’s role at the University of Illinois. A previous version of this article described the group as a labor union. It is not. The CFA is an advocacy group. URBANA – As University of Illinois officials deliberate over how to reopen the Urbana…
Illinois school districts will receive more than half a billion dollars in federal stimulus funds as a result of the CARES Act. School districts across the state are now applying for about $512 million dollars that the Illinois State Board of Education will distribute based on how many low-income students districts serve. The money is…
Joseph Horton is overwhelmed and stressed because he’s struggling to keep himself and his cell clean. Horton is incarcerated at Menard Correctional Center in southern Illinois. He says safety measures have improved in the prisons since the pandemic began, but he says more could be done to protect inmates. “I’m in a cell with another…
URBANA – Dennis Austin is frustrated. Austin, 26, transferred to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earlier this year. He has kidney disease and high blood pressure, and is quarantining at home with his immunocompromised mother in Chicago. He says he felt like he put himself and his family at risk when he traveled from…