Office of the Inspector General urges Chicago Public Schools to reform travel policies after expenses spike
CHICAGO (WLS) — A new report from the Office of the Inspector General in Chicago points to what she calls “questionable, excessive” spending on overnight trips for Chicago Public Schools employees.
This includes staff excursions to places like Egypt, Finland and South Africa.
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On Wednesday, the oversight body watchdog urged CPS to reform its travel policies, after the OIG found CPS travel expenditures surged to $7.7 million last year.
That’s more than double what the district spent five years prior, before the pandemic.
The report states CPS staffers repeatedly exceeded spending limits, and expensed trips and activities without approval.
That included a professional development conference in Las Vegas that more than 600 employees attended between 2022 and 2024, during which they spent more than $1.5 million.
Nearly 90% of attendees stayed in hotel rooms that exceeded CPS spending limits.
The watchdog group also found about 40% of all conference attendees traveled without receiving approval.
But city inspectors say they don’t think CPS employees for the most part were trying to game the system.
Phillip Wagenknecht, the Inspector General for Chicago Public Schools, says his office started taking a close look at the district’s travel expenses a couple of years ago, after receiving a few complaints.
“One involving a school that went on a very expensive trip to Egypt for professional development. It was at a cost to CPS of $20K,” Wagenknecht said. “Trips were normally approved simply based on the paperwork provided without asking fundamental question: Is this cost necessary? Even if these trips were beneficial, CPS needs to be making sure that they’re worth the cost.”
This all comes while CPS faced a $734 million deficit this year, before passing a $10.2 billion budget in August.
CPS says the district takes the report findings seriously, saying in part, “Effective October 29, CPS is restricting nearly all employee travel and has formed a Travel Review Committee, effective November 2025. Travel controls, transparency, and auditability will improve with the implementation of the new Enterprise Resource Planning financial system that is currently underway.”
The school district says this new system will hopefully improve automation and implement more restrictions for travel requests and expenses.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office declined to comment on the report.
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