Teachers in Chicago have claimed that they are being told to give illegal immigrant children a passing grade of “C” or 70 percent, according to a local radio station. Since 2022, Chicago, a sanctuary city, has welcomed approximately 50,000 illegal immigrants, many of them Venezuelan, who were bussed or flown from the southern border. Many of these individuals were placed in predominantly Black neighborhoods, as reported by WGN AM720.

Journalist Sylvia Snowden shared in an interview that she has spoken to multiple Chicago Public School (CPS) teachers, all of whom reported being instructed to pass illegal immigrant students, even if it meant altering grades.

“We’ve had multiple Chicago Public School teachers come forward to us at WGN News and exclusively tell us that they were instructed to give these students passing grades in their classes, regardless of academic performance,” Snowden said during the interview.

She added that this issue extends beyond regular classes to standardized testing. “It’s not just the classes but the academic testing, the standardized testing that the students do every single year. We had one teacher tell us … that her student simply was not at [passing] grade level based upon the tests that were taken,” Snowden explained.

Radio host Jon Hansen expressed surprise, noting that standardized testing is usually managed at the state level. Snowden clarified that while the tests are state-administered, teachers still have access to the scores and, despite students falling short, were instructed to assign them passing grades. “Teachers were instructed to give them 70 percent in every single class, which is the minimum C, and pass them on to the next grade,” Snowden said.

Snowden also pointed out that the city isn’t providing sufficient support to help these students succeed, as they are being sent to schools in predominantly Black neighborhoods, many of which lack adequate English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.

In response to these claims, Chicago Public Schools issued a statement: “Chicago Public Schools aims to provide a rigorous, welcoming, inclusive pre-K through 12 environment for all students, including those who are newly arrived in Chicago with their families from around the globe. As a district, we have high expectations for all students and policies and promotion guidelines in place that are modified to serve the specialized needs of our English language learners. We offer in-school, after-school, and year-round interventions developed with the principal/counselor/teacher and parents to target the students’ described deficiencies.”