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Chicago Parents On The City's South And West Side Juggle Kids' E-Learning, Jobs

CHICAGO (CBS) -- E-learning: it's a challenge for all parents.

But some Chicago community leaders are concerned about families with several CPS students in different grades, and parents who have to leave home to go to their jobs.

CBS 2's Jim Williams talked to one mom.

Madison, age 12. Her brother Maxwell, age eight. Two grades, two computers, one kitchen table. And their mom overseeing it all.

"Regular supervision is needed throughout the day for them," Giles said. "And tending to my newborn, it can be challenging there."

You heard that right. Monique Giles also has a baby, one-month-old Marley.

"Her sleep schedule does not flow with the schedules of the schools. So I'm up pretty frequently during the nighttime," Giles said. "So (I'm) having to extend my waking hours to make sure they're taken care of as well can be a struggle for me."

Madison and Maxwell, like all students here at Paul Cuffee Academy, a CPS school in Auburn-Gresham, are e-learning at home. Home is comfortable, but they can see on their screens, perhaps a little too comfortable, for some of their classmates.

"I think yesterday a student was falling asleep. Today, someone was playing music," Giles said. "So those are the other distractions that they're seeing."

Bishop James Dukes, a longtime community leader in Englewood, said South Side and West Side CPS parents are under enormous pressure, trying to do their jobs outside the home while supervising their kids' school day.

"You need a parent or guardian present to navigate these kids through this process," Dukes said. "We have working mothers with two and three kids, and two or three different e-learning schedules. And some people have to take off work to educate their kids."

Monique Giles's life is about to get much more difficult. She ends her maternity leave next month, even though she'll be working at home.

She said her husband will help and she might enlist her mother as well.

Bishop James Dukes said particularly concerned about special education students. On Tuesday, CPS CEO Janice Jackson showed a special education classroom with teacher, co-teacher and classroom assistant.

She added that CPS is creating smaller groups of students to give them more attention.

 

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