Chicago Public Schools
Chicago, IL
see the full file on Chicago Public Schoolsdocumented benefits (4)
| Hours a week to qualify | Special Education Classroom Assistant (SECA) and Teacher Assistant (TA) paraprofessional posts are full-time with full healthcare and paid holidays, and the placement is for the whole school year rather than day-to-day. |
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| No experience needed | Paraprofessional (SECA/TA) hiring is a documented three-step route with no teaching degree: get an Illinois State Board of Education Paraprofessional Licence, apply to the SECA/TA pool, then complete onboarding. CPS states you can be in a full-time post in under 30 days, and frames the job as a start rather than a mid-career move. |
| Pension | CPS support staff - the non-teaching employees - are in MEABF, the Municipal Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, a City of Chicago defined benefit pension fund, rather than in the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund. It does not replace Social Security. |
| Union contract | Every support role is in a named bargaining unit and CPS publishes the contracts. SEIU Local 73 covers custodians, security officers, special education classroom assistants, child welfare attendants and school bus aides (contract 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2027). UNITE HERE Local 1 covers lunchroom employees; SEIU Local 1 covers lunchroom managers (2025-2029); Teamsters Local 700 covers motor truck drivers. Paraprofessional and School-Related Personnel are in the Chicago Teachers Union contract (2024-2028). |
the legal floor where they are
Set by law, not by Chicago Public Schools. It applies to every employer in Chicago, IL.
| IVF cycles the state covers | THERE IS NO FEDERAL MANDATE. No US law requires an employer health plan to cover IVF or any infertility treatment, so coverage comes either from the insurance mandate in the state where the plan is written or from the employer's own choice. And the state mandates reach less far than they look: they bind fully insured plans bought from a state-regulated carrier, while a self-funded employer plan is governed federally under ERISA and is preempted from state insurance regulation. KFF's 2025 employer survey puts 67% of covered workers in a self-funded plan, and 80% of those at firms of 200 or more — so at the size of employer this site mostly covers, the state mandate usually does not apply, and any fertility benefit is a genuine company choice rather than a restatement of law. That is precisely why it belongs on a benefits page here. Perks has not yet read this employer's own state insurance mandate from an official source; the states that have been read carry their own entry. (No federal statute requires an employer health plan to cover infertility treatment or IVF. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) preempts state insurance regulation as applied to self-funded employer plans, which is why a state mandate does not reach them.) |
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| Adoption leave the law gives | 12 workweeks of UNPAID job-protected leave in any 12-month period on the placement of a child for adoption or foster care, and only for employees who meet the FMLA eligibility test. There is no federal paid adoption leave. (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)(B) and 2612(c); eligibility at 29 U.S.C. 2611(2) and (4). Quoted from the 2023 edition of the US Code.) |
| Pay when you are ill | No federal law requires any paid sick leave. The FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, and the FMLA gives 12 workweeks of UNPAID job-protected leave in any 12-month period for a serious health condition, and only for employees who meet the FMLA eligibility test. Any paid sick time comes from a state or city law, or from the employer's own choice. (Fair Labor Standards Act, per the Department of Labor's statement on payment for time not worked; Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1)(D) and 2612(c). Quoted from the 2023 edition of the US Code on govinfo.gov.) |
Every claim above is sourced and dated. See sources on the full page.
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