Chicago Public Schools sex abuse scandal prompts Durbin and Duckworth to call for reforms

The Chicago Tribune reports:

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth are calling on U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to examine the sex abuse scandal at Chicago Public Schools, calling it a “horrifying situation.”

In a letter sent Thursday to DeVos, the two Illinois Democrats wrote that they were concerned federal education officials may be ignoring systemic child-protection breakdowns that could be “putting Chicago schoolchildren at greater risk of becoming victims of sexual abuse.”

Their letter, which comes in response to a Tribune investigation, also asked for more robust data collection nationally on instances of sexual violence against students, as well as increased transparency and disclosure of the records the federal Department of Education does collect.

As part of their demand for greater transparency, Durbin and Duckworth also asked state schools Superintendent Tony Smith to immediately add reports on sexual abuse of students to the state’s publicly available school report cards. The state does not currently collect that information.

Disclosure of data about student sex abuse would help hold schools accountable for protecting students and “give parents better information about the environment in which their children spend much of their time,” the senators wrote in a separate letter to Smith on Thursday.

Sex abuse by government schooling in Chicago. No word yet on whether Dick Durbin can ask his lobbyist wife Loretta since wifey was a lobbyist for the Chicago Public School system.