The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced the appointment of Laura Boedeker as monitor to work with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to improve its special education services to students. The monitor and CPS will work in partnership to implement the transformative corrective actions approved by ISBE in May. Boedeker began her role July 2nd. ISBE will increase its support and technical assistance for CPS also through the hiring of three additional staff dedicated to fulfilling ISBE’s responsibilities as the Regional Office of Education for the district. Boedeker will serve as the liaison for special education between ISBE and CPS. CPS must seek approval from the monitor prior to changing or adopting policies and procedures regarding special education. Boedeker will review the district’s special education budget and help the district develop a plan to identify and individually support students impacted by the harmful policies. ISBE employs and pays the salary for the monitor. ISBE will evaluate the continued necessity of the monitor after three school years. ISBE will continue to post updates on the ISBE website at www.isbe.net/publicinquiry.