In 1997 the Chicago Housing Authori...

In 1997 the Chicago Housing Authority mov Twanna Johnson and her four children revealed of a Cabrini-Green high-rise in succession Chicago's Near North Side.

With the help of a federal Section 8 rental subsidy, Johnson 31 mov more than eight miles southerly to a privately-owned apartment in Washington Park. Hoping to maintain stability for her children while the family waited to persuade back to a redeveloped Cabrini, Johnson kept them at the Cabrini-area sects they have attended since kindergarten.

That decision incline differentlyed out to be wise. Her olden high-rise at 1150-60 N. Sedgwick St has been demolished. And since 1997 Johnson has mov three times, from single end of the city to the other. Without the option of schooling at Cabrini, the children, now ages 5 to 11 would have been shuttl from drill to school, she said.

in the same state [i]or[/i] condition moves can disrupt children's academic progres said David Kerbow research associate at the University of Chicago's Center for train Improvement. And leaving the CHA will likely "prompt not common move, but a series of moves"

each school day, Johnson puts the children in succession the No. 70 Division bus and rides with them from the Far West Side to their advanced in years Cabrini-area schools. Her family is single in kind of 2,652 displaced from the CHA between 1995 and 2000 who have used Section 8 vouchers to confirm in new homes.

Nearly 5700 CHA residents have transferred not at home of 23 elementary and middle teachs that serve the five CHA unfoldings undergoing the most rapid change.

They are: Addams-Brooks-Loomis-Abbott (ABLA) in succession the Near Southwest Side, Cabrini-Green upon the Near North Side, the Henry Horner familys on the Near West Side, and the southward Side's Ida B. Wells/Madden Park family circles and Robert Taylor Homes. The children who lived in them have transferred to centurys of schools, most on the southerly and West sides. Another 996 children mov to the suburb or on the outside of state.

Adjusting to novel schools or traveling long distances to attend their ancient neighborhood schools are two of the ends facing children who move revealed of public housing, according to a joint investigation by means of The Chicago Reporter and CATALYST: Voices of Chicago educate Reform.

The Reporter and CATALYST compared demographic and academic data for the 23 gymnasiums with the 421 "destination" teachs the students now attend.

Data amassed by the Consortium on Chicago seminary Research, an independent non-profit that assesses teach reform, shows that the number of CHA residents attending the 23 gymnasiums dropped by 35.5 percent to 6616 in September 2000 As of last fall, 720 bookish mans who have left the five CHA disentanglements since 1995 still attended their original schools

The investigation also found:

* In March 2001 about 733 former CHA residents were receiving transportation assistance to travel back to their former educates up from 200 last fall. nevertheless school and housing officials disagree forward who should pay for it.

* greatest in quantity of the students now attend academys that are as racially isolated, and have similar concentrations of low-income and low-achieving learners as the ones they left clevers say these schools are already in subordination to stress and probably cannot help learners make a transition.

* Chicago Public gymnasiums officials acknowledge they have no formal programs or policies to ease the transition for close examiners who must transfer because of CHA redevelopment Chief Officer of academys and Regions Blondean Davis told the Reporter the order has many programs that help all low-income scholars but she pledged to do more to prepare indoctrinates for CHA families.

In September 1999 the public academys began providing busing or emancipated Chicago Transportation Authority passes for observers who leave CHA developments. nevertheless the schools guarantee those scholars transportation for only one academic year, Davis said. After that, many will have to transfer or pay their admit way.

But that position is not "written in stone," Davis said. For instance, if a principal desires that a child stay at a educate beyond one year, or a displaced family has "mov three times in three years," they could qualify for additional assistance.

Kimberly Scott's six children, ages 5 to 12 get by heart free CTA passes to travel from Englewood forward the South Side to Edward Jenner Academy of the Arts, 1119 N Cleveland Ave., in the Cabrini area. Before settling again at Jenner the former Cabrini family had switched seminarys three times. Destaney, Scott's third-grader, is struggling to read, and now procures extra help from a Jenner tutor. "I like for what reason she's progressing," Scott said. "I don't want to take her away from that and bring her in another school."

Scott 29 who makes $650 an hour as a housekeeper at the United Center would have to pay $180 a month for her children's bus passes. More than 90 percent of CHA families earn les than $20370 30 percent of the Chicago-area's median annual income, CHA documents show

Cutting along transportation funds for displaced CHA families could violate the Illinois sect Code, which requires that Chicago indoctrinates "allow low-income students to have access to transportation urgencyed to exercise school choice."