Nurses assigned to CPS students still sidelined, awaiting background results
Summary
Of the 43,332 CPS employees whose backgrounds were reexamined over the summer, 255 staffers — including 47 teachers — still aren’t allowed back in schools while officials gather more information about them, spokesman Michael Passman said. An RCM health worker who showed up to work at West Ridge Elementary Tuesday had to be sent home because her background check hadn’t cleared, Geovanis said. Over the summer, on advice of an outside attorney, CPS tightened a number of its policies to safeguard against sexual abuse, including requirements that all adults working in schools get their backgrounds rechecked by a single agency. Parents reported that staffers from the Neighborhood Boys and Girls Club, who have passed separate background checks to work with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, are not yet allowed to enter the three North Side schools where they have long run after-school care programs. Werstein said CPS’ new stiffer rules required the club to file more paperwork and pay for additional insurance, which took longer than expected.