City officials defend Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s school reopening plan at City Council hearing

Aldermen pressed city officials to justify their plan to start reopening Chicago public schools Monday as some students began returning to classrooms. The City Council Education Committee heard from Health Department and Chicago Public Schools officials on the same day preschoolers and some special education students were welcomed back into school buildings across the city for the first time since classes were suspended last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.