Chicago school board sues feds

Alleges unlawful halting of grant funds over abuse

The Chicago Board of Education sued the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos in federal court on Friday for revoking millions of grant dollars over the school district’s alleged failures to protect students from sexual violence.

Alleging a “radical departure” from past government practice, the district’s lawsuit said federal authorities unlawfully halted a $4 million payment meant to help transform three neighborhood Chicago Public Schools campuses into citywide magnet programs.

According to the district’s lawsuit, federal authorities denied the district an opportunity to dispute the halted funding, offered CPS no justification for the move and did not comply with procedural requirements before setting out the decision.

“Chicago Public Schools is filing suit in an effort to restore millions of dollars in funding that was abruptly and unlawfully taken from low-income students without providing the district with the opportunity to appeal the decision,” CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said in a statement. “The district has made, and will continue to make, significant improvements to how it prevents and responds to allegations of abuse and, even more importantly, how it supports victims.”

Elizabeth Hill, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Education Department, said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

The Education Department moved in September to withhold the grant dollars, following a Tribune investigation into the way CPS has handled allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct.

In an internal memo justifying the funding cutoff, the department’s civil rights office said it had “identified serious and pervasive violations under Title IX,” the federal law that protects students from gender-based discrimination and from abuse and harassment that interfere with schooling.

That memo also expressed frustration with the district’s slow and incomplete responses to federal investigators who are looking into student complaints filed in recent years.

The school board’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, asks a judge to reverse federal authorities’ decision and to keep the government from sending the money to other school systems until the case is settled.