Publications and Reports
We invite you to explore our recent publications and reports.

Chicago Connected: A Year in Review
Launched in June 2020, Chicago Connected provides free, high-speed internet to Chicago families. One year later, we reflect on how the program is serving Chicagoans and how to expand to better serve students and families.

Our Digital Search Tool
In the fall of 2016, Kids First Chicago (K1C) launched its first school search tool designed to help K1C enrollment specialists support families as they navigated Chicago’s decentralized application process. At the time, families in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) had the choice of 172 high schools with nearly 500 additional program choices, making selecting schools daunting at best.

Annual Regional Analysis
For the fourth year in a row, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) released its Annual Regional Analysis (ARA)—a transparent source of data on student choice, district enrollment, and school performance information.

User Guide: Annual Regional Analysis
This handy user guide gives you “food for thought” as you navigate the Chicago Public Schools’ Annual Regional Analysis (ARA), and provides questions for consideration and/or discussion.

Parents Talk GOCPS
Kids First Chicago is committed to putting parent feedback at the heart of all that we do. In order to understand how parents experienced the new GoCPS application process, Kids First Chicago, in partnership with CPS’ Office of Access and Enrollment, conducted nine focus groups with 65 parents of CPS 8th graders across the city.

Community-Driven Response to Covid-19
Like many, as our world began to rapidly shift as a result of COVID-19, our team hunkered down to do what we do best — ask parents what they need.

Digital Equity in Education: In the Coronavirus Era
On Friday, April 17, 2020, Illinois joined over 30 other states, and counting, in extending its mandated statewide school closure through the remainder of the 2019-20 school year, in response to the public health crisis surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

2018-2020 Impact Report
2020 has been one of the most challenging years in our lifetimes. The pandemic exposed and deepened every inequity embedded in our society’s fabric. It is hard to find clarity and optimism when we look at the hardships that Black and Brown families endure during this painful, uncertain time.

2016-2018 Impact Report
In August 2018, New Schools for Chicago adopted Kids First Chicago as the name for all that we do. This name better embodies our new strategic direction introduced in 2015.

Who is Sitting in those Seats?
In late 2016, we began a comprehensive review of school quality and performance data of all Chicago Public Schools with the aim of both highlighting areas where the district has improved in recent years and calling on all stakeholders and Chicago residents to take renewed action to improve quality and equity within Chicago Public Schools.

Parents Discuss Public School Choice in Chicago
In January 2017, we organized 10 parent focus groups with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), and the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice.