Civitas Schools is a non-profit educational management organization (EMO) founded in 2004 that operates charter schools in Chicago. Civitas Schools was originally created as a subsidiary of the Chicago Charter School Foundation (CCSF), a non-profit organization that holds a charter with the State of Illinois for the nine campuses operating under the name of the Chicago International Charter School (CICS).

In 2002, CCSF received a $4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a small high school initiative. This grant was the catalyst for the creation of Civitas Schools which will manage all four small high schools opening under this initiative.