$23 million worth of Apple iPads, laptops were ‘lost or stolen’ in a single school year in Chicago،
As Amazing Grace says: “Once I was lost, but now I am found” – well, not exactly. Not in Chicago.
Usually when we put words like “lost”, “stolen” and “Apple” together in the same sentence, it's a story with a happy ending that involves AirTag and how Apple's tracker helps many people to get back what belongs to them.
This time, however, the story is a little different: once again, we'll put “lost”, “stolen” and “Apple” in the same sentence, but a happy ending is unlikely.
There is a report from the Chicago Public Schools Inspector General: More than 70,000 laptops and iPads were lost or stolen during the 2021-22 school year (via WGN-TV). This has Chicago City Council members questioning the process that has failed and lost millions of dollars in technology.
What do the numbers say?
The Inspector General's report has the exact numbers: During the 2021-22 school year, 77,505 devices were reported lost or stolen in the Chicago Public Schools system. In total, that's $23 million worth of laptops, hotspots and iPads. For reference, between 2020 and 2023, Chicago Public Schools spent $308 million on 311,000 laptops.
Brother and sister 'lost or found' 9-10 devices
The Inspector General's report notes that there are three dozen schools where every device is missing: “It's just wasteful (and) that's why our office is here and it's is what we do,” said CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher. “Our work revealed an incident in which two siblings, a brother and sister at school, lost 9 to 10 devices between them, (and) there is no record or indication that the district contacted the family and mentioned that this was a problem. trying to figure out what happened.
The Inspector General's report also noted that the district did little to try to find them. The report shows CPS spent about $2.6 million on software to track and recover the computers, but did not use them.
The General Inspectorate also accuses the school management, believing that it should have taken measures after the disappearance of the first “two or three” devices: “This is not doing our young people any favors, because we now have to find out how increase this amount. money. It was a waste.
The district reports having collected 12,000 laptops so far. CPS also estimates the current depreciated value of the devices at $2.5 million, saying the majority of them are now more than five years old, and many others have been “discarded” and marked as lost.
