Sexual misconduct, misuse of funds and employees under investigation: Details from new Chicago schools report
CHICAGO (CBS) — A newly-released report uncovered hundreds of investigations of sexual misconduct, fraud, and mismanagement within Chicago Public Schools.
The watchdog report was filed by the district's office of the Inspector General.
Recommendations were made for CPS to improve transparency, its handling of high school sports, and its spending.
The report stated 36 former CPS employees classified as "Do Not Hire" were hired as sports officials, despite their misconduct allegations involving students.
According to the report, one of them had a felony conviction for kidnapping and at least eight sports officials had been investigated by CPS for "sexual misconduct with students."
The report says background checks were not performed for those employees.
"CPS said it is currently conducting a background check "refresh" for all 1,752 active officials and will ensure all newly certified IHSA sports officials go through the standard CPS vendor onboarding process and background check before officiating CPS sporting events," the report stated.
Report outlines CPS sexual misconduct complaints, spending concerns, lost electronic devices
In terms of sexual misconduct, there were a significant number of complaints, which the report documented in a graphic fashion.
Complaints alleged sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and inappropriate comments. Those complaints resulted in several arrests, charges, and protective or no-contact orders.
The report details concerns over CPS's $500 million structural deficit. The report questions how CPS used $2.8 billion in federal COVID relief funds to support e-learning.
The report also mentions the district spends more than 55% of the money meant for elementary and secondary school emergency relief to cover the salaries of more than 11,000 new and existing employees.
The Office of the Inspector General received fewer complaints in the 2024 fiscal year than it did the year prior.
The report also said a CPS basketball coach fraudulently enrolled varsity players who were not eligible to play basketball at the schools where the coach worked. The OIG said this kept legitimately enrolled student athletes off the varsity team.
Since many of the fraudulently enrolled players lived in the suburbs, the coach's scheme robbed Chicago students of seats at CPS schools, the report said.
In addition, the report said thousands of electronic devices belonging to the Chicago Public Schools ended up overseas after getting lost or stolen during the 2023-2024 school year. Altogether, tens of thousands of laptops, iPads, and cellphone hot spots were lost or stolen last academic year.
A total of 8,346 devices were detected outside of Illinois. A majority of them ended up overseas in 140 countries—including Azerbaijan, Barbados, China, Ethiopia, Jordan and Nicaragua.
The OIG report found CPS' "entire inventory process suffered from a lack of accountability"—recommending the district resolve asset management issues, since it is paying for geo-tracking services it "barely used."
