Chicago readies health care high school

You know this was the first year for a magnet engineering program at Harlan, perhaps in some of our neighborhood schools we could include a health-care profession program as well. Who says we should only institute such programs in newly constructed high schools?

Chicago Public Schools this fall will open the city's first charter high school specializing in health care, a move local hospitals hope will help relieve chronic workforce shortages.

The school, which recently used a lottery system to enroll a freshman class of 160, will have a heavy emphasis on math and science. Juniors and seniors will be able to earn credits by shadowing hospital workers and interning as assistant nurses and in other professions.

Planners aim to prepare students for health- and science-related college programs and certify them for entry-level jobs in health care, such as pharmacy technicians or assistant physical therapists.
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The Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy will set up shop temporarily on the Chicago campus of National-Lewis University, at 122 S. Michigan Ave. It will seek a permanent site in the Pilsen neighborhood.

Instituto del Progreso Latino and the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, a trade group of hospitals and other medical providers, applied to CPS to form the school. It’s one of nearly 100 city schools formed under Renaissance 2010, the city’s six-year-old plan to open innovative schools in poor neighborhoods.