Investigations

More Than 700 CPS Employees Disciplined for Misconduct Over 1 Year, 10 Faced Allegations of Sexual Abuse

More than 700 employees of Chicago Public Schools were found to have engaged in some form of misconduct within a single year, an analysis of district records shows. 

Over the course of four months, WTTW News obtained records that provide a detailed look at how CPS disciplined employees in cases investigated by district staff, outside agencies or the CPS Office of Inspector General.

Between Jan. 3, 2025, and Jan. 6, 2026, Chicago Public Schools sustained misconduct allegations against more than 700 employees, with most cases involving routine workplace violations and dozens involving more serious allegations, including harassment, discrimination and fraud, records show. Among the most serious offenses, 10 employees resigned or were fired after facing allegations of sexual abuse involving a student, and almost two dozen cases overall involved allegations of sexual misconduct or discrimination. 

An analysis of the records by WTTW News provides unique insight into the types of misconduct CPS employees were found to have engaged in and the disciplinary system used by CPS leaders that followed. The records offer an unusually detailed window into a disciplinary system that affects hundreds of CPS workers each year — but one that many employees say remains difficult to understand, navigate or challenge. 

The types of misconduct run the gamut from small workplace matters like sleeping on the job to serious sexual offenses. In 2025, they included:

• A lifeguard at Chicago Agricultural High School was fired in 2022 during an investigation involving pornographic images. The employee’s do-not-rehire status was upheld in 2025 after the OIG completed its investigation.
• An employee at Tarkington School of Excellence received a third warning after findings involving conduct occurring while off-duty from the elementary school were sustained.
• A teacher at Medgar Evers Elementary School was suspended without pay over allegations that included excessive absences and insubordination.
• A principal at Hyde Park Career Academy received a written reprimand over allegations that included failure to perform required duties.
• A security guard at Austin College and Career Academy was suspended without pay for three days over allegations that included using abusive language in the presence of students.

Safe, Respectful, Accountable 

District records identified 723 employees tied to 794 disciplinary cases in which misconduct allegations were sustained. Not all findings and disciplinary actions survived appeal. In 2025, about 3% of these allegations were overturned or reduced by an appeal, and the average case involved three allegations, records show.

Employment separations due to misconduct are one way employees can be removed from the district. Recent financial struggles by the district, including a $732 million budget shortfall, led to layoffs, which this year vastly outnumbered the most recent year of disciplinary terminations from data provided by CPS.

Schools process some discipline reports, while others are forwarded to the CPS Office of Student Protections and Title IX, or the Law Department based on the initial findings, according to a district spokesperson.

The most common violation was repeated absences, tardiness or poor attendance, which accounted for about 12% of cases involving alleged misconduct. Discourteous treatment violations were reported at a similar level, followed by insubordination.

About one in 10 cases included allegations of sexual, physical or verbal abuse of a student or staff.

CPS disciplinary policies group employee misconduct into broad categories with more specific violations listed under each category, records show. The disciplinary system is intended to improve the educational experience and allows the district to suggest corrective action in many cases.

“Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is committed to ensuring safe, respectful and accountable learning and working environments for students and staff,” the district wrote in response to questions submitted by WTTW News. “CPS continually works to improve policies and procedures to ensure the safety and security of schools.”

CPS highlighted the rarity of these cases for staff, saying only 2% of its approximately 40,000 employees go through a disciplinary process.

Case outcomes ranged from verbal warnings and written reprimands to suspensions and Do Not Rehire (DNR) designations from the Chicago Board of Education. According to the district, disciplinary outcomes are determined based on the specific facts of each case, applicable policies, contractual labor partner requirements and employee disciplinary history.

Employees facing serious allegations frequently resigned while dismissal proceedings were pending or in lieu of dismissal, which resulted in an automatic ban from rehire. DNR notices are a recurring accountability tool for the district. Data provided by the district identified 40 employees given a DNR notice in 2025.

WTTW News spoke to dozens of current and former employees who were disciplined in 2025. Many employees placed on DNR status expressed frustration with the difficulty getting the status removed, how it affected their current job prospects or the difficulty contacting the district to have these concerns addressed.

Many were barred from returning to work at the district for serious violations including sexual abuse and criminal conduct. About 27.5% of DNR notices were sent to former employees facing attendance or poor job performance allegations. One former employee, who was barred from rehire due to job performance, said the status would affect future opportunities to volunteer at their child’s school.

About one-third of cases resulted in a warning, while about one in five led to a written reprimand. About 17% of cases resulted in a suspension, the majority without pay. Nearly 140 cases led to suspension, and about 3.5% of suspensions were reduced, records show.

The CPS spokesperson said the small number of overturned cases and punishments highlights that the investigative and disciplinary processes are generally well-supported by the facts and evidence.

The Chicago Teachers Union and Service Employees International Union Local 73, the two largest unions representing CPS employees, did not answer questions for this story.

SEIU issued a statement saying there was a recent increase in disciplinary cases involving custodial staff. CPS did not respond to questions about the increase described by SEIU.

Current employees largely declined to speak on the record, though many expressed strong views about the effects of the disciplinary system.

Some employees disputed the investigative findings from their cases when reached by WTTW News. Others accepted responsibility for the actions they were accused of, but said justice is not always equally applied across the district.

A current staff member said discipline is effective when applied fairly but criticized principals who they said sometimes weigh in before knowing all the facts of a case. Many employees said they believed they were punished because of personal grudges rather than their conduct.

A CPS spokesperson said, “While employees may have differing perspectives regarding individual outcomes, disciplinary decisions are based on the facts of each case rather than job classification, work location, or any single factor.”

Discipline By the Numbers

Benito Juarez Community Academy in Pilsen is pictured on July 12, 2026. The school disciplined 12 employees in 2025, records show. (Victor Hilitski / WTTW News)

Citywide employees accounted for a large share of disciplinary cases. These staff members might work at a single school for a limited time, travel to multiple locations or provide district-wide services.

About 24% of cases involved teachers, clinicians, central office, support staff and other employees not assigned permanently to one school, though citywide employees made up about 15% of district staff in the last school year, records show.

Almost 160 schools had multiple disciplinary cases in 2025, about a quarter of the district.

Schools with the highest number of disciplined employees were Benito Juarez Community Academy in Pilsen, and Curie Metro High School in Archer Heights. Both high schools disciplined 12 employees in 2025, records show. Most cases were attendance related, though there was one case involving sexual misconduct and investigations of verbal and physical abuse at those schools.

Administrators of the schools did not respond to questions about the relatively high number of disciplined employees.

The district said differences in disciplinary cases among employee groups or schools should not be viewed as evidence of unequal treatment because factors such as job responsibilities, reporting requirements, staffing levels and the nature of reported incidents can affect disciplinary totals.

Records also identified additional employees removed from duty during ongoing investigations, including investigations involving alleged sexual misconduct, though some of those cases may have closed after CPS responded to the records request.

Records identified additional employees removed from duty during ongoing investigations including sexual misconduct cases. The disciplinary system also highlighted more serious misconduct allegations.

The CPS Office of Inspector General received 246 complaints involving sexual allegations in 2025, according to its annual report. This category of allegation includes a wide range of activities including inappropriate touching, communication or attention, grooming and sexual abuse. Only a small percentage of the 2025 cases involved allegations of sexual abuse, according to the OIG report.

CPS also issued discipline to 26 employees accused of fraud in 2025, according to records from the district. Most were connected to timecards or residency reporting.

Fraud was a regular focus of the CPS OIG, which highlighted employee pandemic-relief abuse, including fraudulent PPP loans and rental assistance cases leading to criminal charges in the office’s 2025 report.

The OIG identified numerous fraud cases in 2025 and quantified some of the financial losses associated with them.

Previous WTTW reporting identified a former district employee who left the district during an investigation of her billing the district for work while she was simultaneously paid by a contractor for the district. Her conduct was described as fraud by the OIG. The employee was hired by Chicago Transit Authority as a construction project manager following her exit from the district.

The investigation determined the employee was billing the district from far-flung destinations including Colombia, the Dominican Republic and South Africa.

Contact Jared Rutecki: @JaredRutecki | [email protected]

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WTTW News education reporting is supported, in part, by Press Forward Chicago.

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