CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools Office of the Inspector General is urging district officials to reform travel policies amid “questionable, excessive and even exorbitant” spending on overnight trips, according to a report released Wednesday.

CPS travel expenditures, including airfare and lodging, more than doubled between fiscal year 2019 and 2024, surging from $3.6 million to $7.7 million, the report said.

Over and over, CPS staffers exceeded spending limits, bypassed required preapprovals and expensed activities “of dubious necessity or value to students.”

“Many taxpayers would find some excursions described in this report objectionable and even excessive — especially in tight budget times,” the report said.

The Office of the Inspector General is the independent oversight body for CPS, charged with investigating allegations of financial mismanagement, fraud and employee misconduct. Its recent findings come on the heels of the district’s protracted budget battle — a saga that left officials cash-strapped and scrambling to prevent classroom cuts. CPS faced a $734 million deficit before passing a $10.2 billion budget in August.

In response to the findings, CPS has issued a temporary freeze to district-funded staff travel, except for travel tied to student activities. The district also said it’s developing new policies to tighten the guardrails on spending.

“We take seriously the findings and recommendations … and will continue to ensure our District policies and procedures support the highest ethical standards and that our employees act in the best interest of our students, the District, and our city,” a district spokesperson told the Tribune.

The soaring spending levels were fueled in part by federal pandemic relief money and the district’s “severely deficient” travel expense procedures, the report said.

For example, eight schools spent more than $142,000 to pay for 15 international staff trips for professional development. That included tourist activities like a game park visit, a hot air balloon ride and camel rides. Thirteen of the trips were never preapproved as required.

“Why can’t this be done in the United States?” a high-ranking CPS official told the OIG, according to the report.

As a general practice, public-facing OIG reports do not name individuals or schools. “In this case more than others, it was important not to emphasize specific individuals because it was a systemwide failure to enforce rules,” Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht told the Tribune.

Another OIG investigation found that a professional development conference in Las Vegas was attended by more than 600 employees between 2022 and 2024. Collectively, they spent more than $1.5 million in district money, and nearly 90% stayed in hotel rooms exceeding CPS spending limits.

Interest in the conference had “spread like wildfire,” yet few staff members attended the event when it was held in Chicago or offered virtually, the report said. Overall, the OIG found that about 40% of all CPS conference attendees traveled without receiving approval.

The report lists a swath of other spending abuses, including a teacher’s $4,700 trip to a Hawaiian luxury resort, a suburban spa retreat for elementary school staff and limo services to and from Chicago airports.

While CPS vets small reimbursement receipts such as meals, the district paid far less attention to big-ticket items like airfare and hotel rooms, according to the OIG. And most scrutiny of expenses often stemmed from whether paperwork was filed — not if the trip was worth the cost, the report said.

“As CPS moves to implement reforms in reposes to our recommendations, it’s very critical that those reforms apply to all travel expenses,” Wagenknecht said.

CPS also has no written spending limits on international travel for employees or students. While there are additional layers for review for travel outside of the continental U.S., that process could be easily bypassed, according to the report.

“To be blunt, there was nothing that said, ‘If it goes over this amount of money, it shouldn’t happen,’” one CPS official told the OIG.

The report notes an “enormous” variation in spending across schools and departments, the OIG said. During the previous fiscal year, eight schools and departments incurred expenses exceeding $100,000 for overnight travel, with two departments spending more than $200,000 each. But 197 CPS schools didn’t use any district money for trips.

Although the OIG primarily focused on staff spending, nine of the 10 most expensive travel purchase orders involved students. One trip to South Africa, averaging $5,274 per person, cost the district a total of $142,410. The report doesn’t list the names of employees and schools involved.

Meanwhile, some travel agencies had been tacking hidden fees of up to 20% on CPS travel. The district neglected to use its bargaining power to strike better rates, according to the OIG.

After the report was issued to the Chicago Board of Education in June, CPS said it would commit to several of the OIG’s recommendations. That includes upgrading the district’s travel databases, updating its travel manual and requiring travel agencies to provide the lowest available rates.

CPS will form a Travel Review Committee this month to implement those changes by June 2026, according to the OIG. The district is also considering two disciplinary actions in the wake of the report.

The staff travel freeze remains in place indefinitely, and “reflects our continued commitment to responsible financial stewardship and to prioritizing resources that directly support classrooms and students,” CPS CEO Macquline King wrote in a memo to staff last month.

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