Over $23 million in tech devices missing from Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Public Schools Inspector General’s report showed 77,505 devices were lost or stolen during the 2021-2022 school year. At 36 schools, every single student device was gone.

A report by the Chicago Public Schools Inspector General shows the district is missing thousands of technological devices after students learned remotely in the 2021-2022 school year. The missing devices cost the district more than $23 million to purchase.

A top official from CPS’ inventory vendor with experience in many of the largest school districts said a lost or stolen rate of more than 10% indicates “a serious challenge.”

In CPS, nearly half of schools have a lost or stolen rate higher than 10%. At 36 schools, audits showed 100% of student devices were lost or stolen.

Some students in CPS schools lost multiple devices in the same school year, up to five devices for some students.

CPS spent nearly $2.6 million on services to help the district recover lost or stolen devices. The inspector general estimates that 60,000 devices could have been recovered. Instead, according to the inspector general, CPS used the services to track only 11 devices in the 2021-2022 school year and recovered none at that time.

“The district spends about $2.5 million on software that’s meant to track and locate devices, but the district just wasn’t using that software,” CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher said.

The more than $23 million in missing equipment wasn’t CPS’s only mismanagement cited in the IG’s report. It also noted a CPS assistant principal stole $273,000 from money paid by parents for an after-school program. The inspector general’s office first began investigating the allegations in 2019.

The lack of effort by CPS to track and recover lost or stolen student devices is irresponsible stewardship of Chicagoans’ tax dollars.

CPS released the following statement:

“In a District of our size, some device loss is expected, but we remain concerned about the loss of any public asset. Our CPS team will work to streamline our system for tracking resources, including devices, while enforcing compliance with Board policy. We are working to do both by changing the process, enhancing our systems, and holding our school leaders, department chiefs and designated faculty and staff accountable to the Asset Management policy.  In a district where more than 72 percent of students are from economically disadvantaged families, it is crucial that we are sensitive to our families as we conduct any device recovery efforts.”

More than 125,000 devices remained listed on CPS’ online list of lost and stolen items as of April 2023.