>> Wow.

And thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

>> Elaine, the budget would be a catastrophic district.

>> Will they or won't board members for Chicago Public Schools consider a vote on the district's proposal.

A live report on the latest.

A one-stop shop for early childhood programs.

We sit down with the head of the new State Department.

The fires in the last 3 years.

Why that is and what's being done to prevent it.

It's really important that young women and young girls also learned to lift each other inspires the next generation.

>> softball stars in Mexico who are coming to Springfield to play Pro Baseball Wt VW.

Morgan highs in gas.

First off tonight, it's been a long dramatic and passionate day at the Chicago Board of Education meeting.

>> Where board members are considering voting on a budget proposed by Chicago Public Schools.

Superintendent Macklin King for the coming school year.

Our Nic Lumber joins us now with the latest.

Nic.

>> Brandis, it has been a long day indeed.

And will they or won't they is still up in the air.

We got started a little after 10, 30 this morning and the board is still in there.

I had to step out so I could talk with you.

Fine folks, but they are still going back and forth over the budget as proposed by CPI, CPS Superintendent Macklin King and her staff.

The day started off with King making an impassioned plea to board members saying it is urgent that the budget passes today, CPS is facing a cash crunch.

And if they don't pass this budget and agree to some short-term loans, they're worried they may miss the first check of the school year.

So she said it is time to get this done.

Let's take a listen to Dr King.

>> If we pass a budget today, finance team expects that they will have funds will have the funds we need to make payroll by September.

2nd, just 2 days before the deadline.

The blame the budget would be a catastrophic district.

It would be a de facto shut down right when students are returning to school.

We cannot let that happen.

>> So after some 30 public speakers followed by a handful of politicians as well.

The board voted to take a 2 hour recess after coming back from that recess.

We heard from some top budget officials going through in more detail the budget that King is proposing, but they are facing some sharp questions from board members.

There's been some talk of an amendment to change this budget and assume that some state revenue is going to come through.

There's some hope about that, which we'll get to later.

But it's no guarantee.

So there's a lot of questions about why are we assuming that we're gonna get a certain amount in tips surplus from the city, but not assume that we're going to get certain amount in additional funding from the state.

There's questions about whether passing a budget that some call unbalanced with that amendment would violate the school code would violate state law of this budget, of course, has been a tough one with the more than 700 million dollar gap.

There's a proposal for that 1600 layoffs.

You know, teachers, support staff, a few assistant principals, but King says the goal here is to keep things the way as best as possible from affecting the classroom.

And Nic, there's also been a lot of discussion about during his budget budget cycle about more state funding, as you said, for CPS to help close budget gap, including.

>> Advocating for a special session in Springfield.

Did they mention that during those discussions today?

>> They've mentioned little else.

It feels like, you know, King acknowledged the calls for a special session.

She says that district leaders are committed to working to advocate funding.

You know that the CPS is do more under the state's own evidence based formula.

But she said it's a mistake to pass a budget to assume more state funding that might not materialize.

She recalled when that happened back in 2017 and there were mid-year layoffs and furloughs and cuts as well as debt.

That CPS is still saddled with.

can you can.

>> We know and we will continue.

To advocate at all levels of government.

Where the funding that our students.

I don't but they buy fully deserved.

And we also need to learn from our mistakes instead of repeating them.

Passing this budget does not include us from advocating for additional funding from the state.

I am there with you in the fight for more revenue.

>> But a lot of folks say that doesn't go far enough, including plenty of the folks who are still debating the budget in the board room behind me right now.

We also heard from Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis.

Gates at a rally before today's board meeting even got started.

Like we said, it's been a long day.

Davis Gates says it all comes down to dollars and cents.

>> Governor Pritzker.

billionaire governor.

>> And Davis Gates said she doesn't understand how there can be layoffs and slate changes to the student teacher ratio without increasing class sizes.

She also pointed out, too comments from state House Speaker Chris Welch yesterday who told the state Board of Education that he would lead the fight for more CPS funding in the fall veto session.

But he stopped short of proposing a special session saying there wasn't necessarily the appetite.

Their Welsh, of course, currently facing his own firestorm over harassment allegations against former State Rep Sherry Benton as well as questions about his own conduct toward women.

And the speaker said, you know, he might add again, he's going to advocate this for this in the fall, but there is no guarantee.

So that's why there's so much pushback right now.

So much back and forth right now over the question of whether they should amend this budget to assume state revenue that isn't guaranteed.

The debate is not over yet.

Brandis.

It could be a long evening ahead of here.

>> A lot going on.

A lot to figure out.

Nick, thanks for your reporting.

>> Up next, we ever secretary of the Illinois Department of Early Childhood.

>> W t Tw News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by the Joyce Foundation.

>> Illinois's youngest residents as well as their parents and caregivers have a new arm of the state government to turn to for resources.

The Illinois Department of Early Childhood officially opened at the beginning of this month after a 2024 law that created it.

Now all of the state's early childhood programs are under one roof.

And while building a brand new state agency is one thing planning for federal funding, uncertainty and regulatory rollbacks is a challenge all on its own.

Joining us to talk about it is Teresa Ramos, the first ever secretary of the Illinois Department of Early Childhood.

Thanks for joining us.

Welcome to Chicago tonight.

Thanks for having So less than actually 30 days on the job so let's talk about your work because your department combines the early childhood functions that were formerly under the Department of Child and Family Services.

Dcfs it just Illinois Department of Human Services and is be the Illinois State Board of Education as well as on the governor's hit the office that was in his office Early Childhood education.

What do you all think it was necessary to pull all of these together under one department?

Yeah.

It was a huge decades long endeavor.

Really?

We have some of the best advocates and partners across the state who said.

>> We need one place.

One person, one agency in charge of programs that have been in 3 agencies.

When you have programs and 3 agencies, all serving families with young children, you have to navigate that complexity.

That complexity is borne by providers and families.

And we said to make it simpler and better and fairer for families across the state, we need one place to go.

A one-stop shop to navigate those service services and those earliest years of life, folks like, you know, about the importance of early education, early learning for childhood development.

Do you think this new departments, its formation is also a reflection of everybody else sort of going?

Oh, yeah, this is important.

We should invest.

I governor has long been a a.

>> A champion for early childhood education and care.

Not only because in those first 5 years of life, 90% of all of our brain development happens.

It is where you get.

>> The biggest return on investment as a family to have supports to set your child and family up for success.

Long term.

But it's also true at the state level.

When we invest early, we see that pay dividends in preschool and k 12 and post-secondary and kind of all life outcomes.

And so the goal here really is to how do we make sure we can drive equity and efficiency in those services for families across the rich diversity of the state?

What are some of those programs than that now fall under your right.

So those are programs like preschool on preschool.

For We have Child Care Assistance Program which provides financial assistance for families from lower incomes.

We have early intervention programs which support families with children 0 to 3 who might need speech, therapists or developmental therapists.

The whole kind of kit and caboodle of those services and home visiting that supports families as they are caring for their children from his earliest prenatal, through the age of 5.

So for parents and what does this mean if they are, for example, looking for early intervention services or any other sort of services for that matter for the kiddo?

Well, first, we're 30 days.

And and what what we mark of our success is if you're a parent and you who were connected in those services.

>> 30 days ago or 60 days ago, nothing changed, right?

You services seamlessly.

You're still a relationship with the provider with the family, with the the research that you were before.

If your new family or an aspiring provider.

Now there's one place to go to get your questions answered it get connected to the right person.

Information previously.

As you mentioned, they were at 3 agencies, DHS, the state Board of Education, DCFS, you had to navigate.

What who do I talk to finding this?

How can know know if I haven't getting quality care if this is license, what are my options now?

It's cry.

And then for child care how does this make life easier for them?

I imagine can apply to one agency for state grant funding rather than >> 3.

What?

a day on the green light to.

There's a lot of work to do.

We talked about this transition really has in phases the work to pass the legislation and get ready to transition what he's now hundreds of people, thousands of process and about 100 technologies over to the agencies as part of that transition for providers.

They were prying for funding at the Department of Human Services and also at the state Board of Education to different platforms kind of the same questions.

Now we have one platform for managing those grants and at the Department of Early Childhood, there's still work to do on designing more seamless and simplified system for providers.

Right now there are 12 funding streams that come into Illinois that serve providers that they can apply for.

Some are competitive.

Some arts summer vouchers, some R r, you know, different ways of coming in.

We still have work to do with our partners in the General Assembly to say, hey, how can we simplified ease this burden over time on the funding side?

How much would you say of your budget comes from these already existing programs and how much new is being appropriated for?

>> organization sake, but also a new programming that you're starting.

I think we're really lucky and Illinois that we have had a.

>> Governor, JB Pritzker in office since he came into office.

He has added about a billion dollars just under a billion dollars to early childhood education and care services across programs at these 3 agencies and the agency itself allows us to really say where that where the dollars going.

How do we drive equity and efficiency over times that we more families can be served across the state.

So after recent federal rule change states are no longer required to cap copayments for child care.

>> a lot.

And and that allows states to switch from enrollment based funding to attendance based funding.

What does it mean for families in Illinois?

I we get, you questions about what the implications are for federal changes all the time.

In fact, a year ago we stood up a committee as part of our early Learning Council to say how do we connect directly to providers and families understand?

>> What any of this uncertainty means for them?

Well, we know now is those changes will make it less affordable and harder to be a child care provider in Illinois.

And we continue to work with our partners providers, families, our sister agencies to understand what we can do to drive more support to providers.

What might that look like?

It's going to harder and what you all might be able to do to support them.

I think it makes the New Department more important than ever before.

A lot of the navigation and time applying to different funding streams submitting the same data going to 12 different people to get a question answered.

Now we're starting to ease that there's one place to go.

We have watch to taking a customer service program that was at the Department of Human Services and made for the whole agency.

So if you have a question, we will navigate you to the right answer means planning and thinking about how do we start to reform our funding system.

So it simplifies the administrative burden right now.

Those told fundings formulas that are coming in we're navigating means compliance monitoring means application.

It means a lot of heavy paperwork and administration.

We can simplify that.

Making it easier for providers head start funding has been uncertain during the Trump administration.

What is the status of that right now?

Head start is a unique program nationally.

It goes directly from the feds to local providers in Illinois, like a Carole Robertson start sale in the Quad cities.

>> So the state doesn't have the same role in supporting it.

Feds directly give money to providers.

We that said we work.

>> Closely with all of those providers to say what is a certainty mean, how coming start to think and plan and prepare for, you know, why any eventuality in the future?

And of course, head start viewers at home for low-income provides that early early education.

You know, 30 seconds left.

Secretary, what goals do you hope it will accomplish in the coming year out so many goals?

I mean, our North star is we want to be on a path to make Illinois the best the fam and in the country.

There is a family with young children.

We've said we want to simplify the process for providers to be come a licensed provider and stay a provider in Illinois.

We want to make it easier for families to get services and those earliest years of their child's life and their 6 weeks old to 3 years old.

We know we need to modernize and evaluate our operational infrastructure to make all that happen.

And so that's what we see over the next couple years 30 days and more to come.

lot of heart.

yes, best of luck to Illinois Department of Early Education, Secretary Trees, Ramos, thank you.

Thanks so much.

And we're back with more right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part by the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> A suburban Chicago prison has seen more than 70 fires in the last 3 years marking 3 per month in 2025. the Jolly a treatment center was designed to provide intensive mental health care to inmates, not even a decade after after it opened its doors in 2017, conditions have reportedly declined.

A new report by the Marshall Project.

Details how the frequency of the prison's fires may have been desperate cries for help.

Joining us now is Shannon Heffernan, a reporter with the Marshall Project.

Shannon, thank you for joining us.

Thank you so much for having And we should also want our viewers at this discussion will include mention of self immolation and self-harm.

Shannon, first, tell give us a sense of what the joy of treatment center is intended to do.

You have the joy of treatment center was designed to provide care to people in Illinois Department of Corrections who have the highest mental health needs.

People with mental health needs are over represent.

>> And the Department of Corrections and when it first opened, you know, I heard from guys inside that they were really believed that what was being provided that they were getting therapy, that they were getting psychiatry, that they would getting time out of their cells.

And then that started to decline around 2020 and people became pretty desperate.

They report that they weren't getting therapy nearly as much as they needed it.

They reported trouble getting physical health care, too.

And one of the most difficult things for a lot of the guys that I heard from was that they were being kept in their cells for long stretches of time as their mental health deteriorate.

It and they do what they could to get attention.

wrote to officials they talked to officials and they just kept escalating what they did and they started setting these fires.

So in your reporting, you found at the amount of mental health treatment they were receiving.

You said decline to the point where they began self-harming setting fires to get any attention.

>> And you tell the story of Jason Stephens who 38 when he died from a fire that he set and we have a body of provided of the 9-1-1.

Call that was made by an officer at the prison after he set that fire in his cell.

Let's take a listen.

>> I want and see.

Hi, my name is off to her village early.

As you mentioned, the fire department year we had cell on fire.

I don't know what is actually set fire that's still on fire.

I we were able extinguish from what I can There's still a >> Rna like a vacuum that has been inmates immediately around around there away from it.

>> We're still dealing with the situation.

I can that.

>> Sharon, what happened?

So after he set this fire, he was left in his cell for nearly 30 minutes.

A smoke-filled sell.

Officers did go to the door of his cell.

The openness lot usually used to deliver food and they put a fire extinguisher and pepper spray inside.

But they didn't let him out.

>> And as speaker just want our audience to know, we're looking at video, we can see the flames inside his cell there.

Yes, and the fire fighters when they arrived, one of them reported that department employees did not tell them that Stephens was in the cell.

Eventually do let him out of the Southeast Asian on immediately tell they do eventually let him out of the cell and he goes to the prison gate and there the prison gate.

They don't let the ambulance out.

They're waiting for paperwork and for a correction officers to follow the ambulance to the hospital.

They're not immediately available in a way that that gate for around 28 minutes before the ambulance is finally let through that they're doing that Will Stephens in the back of the ambulance having Air Force.

was Long's on machines will really serious condition.

And then Stephens died 2 weeks later, OK?

And of course, we know that you found some records showing that the prison cell block slack, sprinklers, fire alarms.

>> Couldn't produce a fire evacuation plan.

Ioc have much say that all >> So the Illinois Department of Corrections responded that they care about the safety of people inside and the employees there, but they provided no answers to any of our questions.

We also reached out to the governor's office who just deferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections.

So we're really eager to answers from the Department Corrections.

But what they've done to fix basic things like the fire alarms or whether or not Great.

Great reporting from Shannon Heffernan.

Your team, of course.

Thank you for joining us and >> viewers can read that full story on the Julia Treatment Center.

You can head to our Web site that's wt tw dot com slash news.

We're back with more right after this.

Women's sports are gaining unprecedented attention in popularity around the world.

>> Softball.

And now women's baseball are starting to take centerfield in Mexico.

Women's teams filled with Mexican stars as well as former American College standouts are drawing big crowds in partnership with Wt Tw news students from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism went on a reporting trip to Mexico City to explore this phenomenon and players will be playing in the inaugural, Women's Pro Baseball League right here in Illinois.

Starting this Saturday.

>> When you can see, >> someone is a full person full woman on a field was a full athlete as a woman.

I think it's really cool.

And I think that is part of the laws.

>> Women softball is on the rise around the world and here to study blows in Mexico City.

The crowd is excited to see 2 top teams face off.

Jasmine Jackson as an outfielder for lows dropping host him until the city's national softball team.

They're the reigning champs and Mexico's professional league.

There's a big need for space.

Is that?

>> Only girls or only young women, too fail and succeed within their own.

>> Groups Jackson was a division, one athlete for Cal Berkley, ranking 3rd in program history, but no plan to go pro.

But after competing with Team USA and in the Netherlands, blows, gave her call was.

that's very funny, like let's do it.

Let's go.

>> And then ended up here.

And it was like one of the best decisions I've ever made for my entire the Mexican softball league was formed in 2023 with a teams representing cities across the country making this the first time that softball players in Latin America, but a league of their own so much as again, that was why want to throw Florida?

that's what but you one that put him and tell us how we is take a Would like to go with that one too many again, you the cold will get them a list >> He went game.

>> When the city and what you see more Biden, I don't want Even the and a filet a 3rd base for those.

blows says she never thought this league would exist but playing problem in sports was always her dream hide in in a supportive thing U.S.

look at it.

gives the last Sunday.

>> the it is.

they look, I mean, oh, yeah, be starting good enough to play professional baseball in Springfield, Illinois, this summer.

But has become, which is set in a study of this.

Those with us.

>> What a difference.

A new and embraced the and those who knew was going with gun.

And with is a look at with some of them.

those it went over to is they got a yeah.

Even with that, it equal.

Then we'll just notice.

>> The Women's Pro Baseball League or is the first woman professional league since 1950, for taking place in the same city of the first ever paid women's baseball game in 18.

75 got a, you know, size is >> With me.

And then a sudden it's gonna make get through it, going to to make it go as they go into was happening at the border of people come the Fed and let know was going need >> will premiere its 7 week season in August.

May is but okay is with president aboard.

a which is what this could been a somewhat funny as can look at them with crime was get them in >> Mostly idols play in the same stadium as the men's team with the same name and fans show up and show out.

According to the World Baseball Softball.

Confederation, mostly adults have the highest team attendance of 2025.

The entire Mexican softball league.

With 12,000 fans.

But the players say the best fans are the young girls.

They me.

>> Seeking make happen in I about They put this exceeds gun back and let me put a system them floods that.

>> Ige in also its own voting Woodlawn love support this.

And the players say they hope their success inspires the next generation of female athletes in eye.

>> Can be my best.

Not because I'm competing with you, but because I just want to be my best.

It also encourages others to do the same really important that young women and young girls also learned to lift each other up for Northwestern's Madill School of journalism in Wt Tw.

This is Morgan cars and Gabriel Hayward.

>> The inaugural season of the Women's Pro Baseball League begins in Springfield on Saturday.

>> Reflecting the people perspectives that make up This story is part of Chicago tonight.

Not the >> And that's our show for this Thursday night.

Join us tomorrow at 5.37, for week in review.

Now for all of us here at Chicago Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Robert a cliff and Clifford law offices, a personal injury law firm, working to preserve the