CHICAGO—Thousands of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students returned to school on Monday morning, the second—and largest—wave of students to go back to classrooms after almost a year of remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic. CPS did not immediately provide any details on how many of the 37,000 students in kindergarten through fifth grade who signed up for in-person learning actually showed up. Roughly 5,000 pre-kindergarten students and special education students returned to the classroom when in-person learning became available for them last month. Next Monday, another 18,500 students—sixth, seventh, and eighth grades—who opted in for in-person learning in the nation’s third-largest school district will be allowed back into their schools. On Monday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson welcomed students back to Hawthorne Elementary School in the Lakeview neighborhood on the city’s North Side. Lightfoot and Jackson spoke of happy students—some literally skipping to school—and of the …