CPS INSPECTOR: 163 BARRED FROM CPS NOW WORK FOR CHARTER, CONTRACT SCHOOLS
Former Chicago Public Schools staffers caught abusing students or stealing from the school district later landed jobs in the city’s privately managed charter and contract schools, the schools inspector general has found.
That includes three employees who’d been given a permanent “Do Not Hire” designation at CPS following reports of sexual abuse of students.
Atotal of 163 former CPS employees permanently banned from working for the district were hired by 33 different charter or contract school operators as of December, Inspector General Nicholas Schuler said in a report published Tuesday, his first publication that relied on analysis by his office’s relatively new data team.
And 5 percent of all former CPS workers who were barred from employment in the last five years found new jobs at district- authorized charter and contract schools.
Those charter and contract schools, which are public schools operated by taxpayer dollars, didn’t know they had been hiring banned employees because, Schuler found, no system existed to inform them.
That apparently is changing, as district officials are developing a plan for the prospective employers to check candidates and employees against CPS’ no- hire list , Schuler said, adding, “We’re encouraged that they’re taking it so seriously.”
In an email, CPS spokesman Michael Passman said applicants must consent to have their DNH status disclosed. He urged all the privately run schools to let the Board of Ed run their background checks, as most already do. For the rest, CPS is still figuring out how to collect the necessary consent.
“While charter and contract schools have autonomy under state law to hire and manage their own staff, CPS will do everything in its power to ensure all Chicago students attend a school staffed with the highest- quality personnel,” he said in a statement.
Schuler would not name any of the schools or employees and only would say that larger operators tended to employ more problem employees.
After receiving Schuler’s report in June, CPS informed the schools who’d employed the three sex abusers and a fourth who’d committed an enumerated offense— one on the state’s list of crimes that makes working with children illegal. The accused sex abusers have since been removed from those schools, Schuler said.
One had been fired for abusing two students at his home and touched a third in class. A second had resigned following allegations “he hugged a student and made explicit sexual advances toward the student.”
Two more slipped through background checks because they had their records expunged: One man was arrested for carrying on a sexual relationship with a 17- year- old student — an arrest the charter school knew about but hired him anyway after he presented expungement paperwork showing a clear criminal record. And a woman convicted of a felony cocaine charge also had her conviction cleared.
Passman wouldn’t say whether any other charter staffers dinged by the IG have lost their jobs. Neither would Kelley Quinn, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, who said member schools wanted the hiring information, too.
“Safety and high- quality staff at charter schools are top priorities for our students — just like they are for CPS,” she said. Absent access to the DNH list, charters have run “independent background checks” on all staff.
“WHILE CHARTER AND CONTRACT SCHOOLS HAVE AUTONOMY UNDER STATE LAWTO HIRE AND MANAGE THEIR OWN STAFF, CPS WILL DO EVERYTHING IN ITS POWER TO ENSURE ALL CHICAGO STUDENTS ATTEND A SCHOOL STAFFED WITH THE HIGHEST- QUALITY PERSONNEL.” MICHAEL PASSMAN, CPS spokesman