The Particular Commissioner of Investigation for the New York Metropolis Faculty District (SCI) launched the workplace’s 2025 Annual Report.
Photograph through Getty Photos
The Particular Commissioner of Investigation for the NYC Faculty District (SCI) launched on Thursday its 2025 annual report, detailing corruption, fraud and misconduct inside NYC Public Faculties, the nation’s largest public faculty system.
The report revealed that final 12 months, SCI obtained practically 12,000 complaints of fraud, legal exercise, monetary misconduct and abuse in regards to the metropolis’s Division of Schooling (DOE). The workplace initiated 471 investigations, closing 393, and finally substantiated wrongdoing in over 150 instances involving a whole lot of people or entities.
Notably, the watchdog group recognized practically $2 million in monetary losses to the DOE and metropolis retirement techniques—double the quantity recovered in 2024.
“SCI plays a vital role in protecting students and safeguarding taxpayer dollars,” mentioned Particular Commissioner Anastasia Coleman. “Our investigators, intake staff, attorney and support personnel work every day to root out corruption, expose fraud and ensure accountability in the nation’s largest school system, and when wrongdoing occurs, whether financial misconduct or inappropriate conduct involving students, we investigate it thoroughly and will not allow it to go unchecked.”
Many investigations centered on worker misconduct, theft and inappropriate relationships or communications. SCI carried out 157 investigations involving allegations of inappropriate or sexual misconduct and substantiated allegations in 62 instances.
The report confirmed that 23 instances concerned DOE personnel initiating or sustaining inappropriate relationships with college students through private cellphones or social media.
Daniel Matuk, a trainer at William Cullen Bryant Excessive Faculty in Lengthy Island Metropolis, engaged in a multi-year sample of grooming and inappropriate communications with a feminine pupil. Individually, paraprofessional Sidney Jackson was substantiated for inappropriate conduct involving two feminine college students, in line with the report.
In each instances, SCI beneficial termination and the position of downside codes to forestall future employment with the DOE or its distributors.
SCI additionally helped regulation enforcement final 12 months involving critical legal conduct. In a single instance, a former center faculty trainer at M.S. 256 on the Higher West Facet, Ross Lanvin, was federally charged with possession of kid pornography after investigators recovered express photos involving minors from digital units.
Taxpayer cash used for private cheerleading
A case that made headlines final 12 months concerned Abi Corbin, a group affiliate at East-West Excessive Faculty of Worldwide Research in Flushing, the place she labored as a group affiliate in control of processing work orders.
In keeping with the investigation, she stole over $415,000 from the DOE by submitting fraudulent invoices to learn her private cheerleading firm. Corbin resigned from the college and was indicted in October on prices of grand larceny and identification theft for scamming taxpayer funds supposed for varsity supplies.
In a separate case, Alfredo Mateo, a doorman at a residential constructing, stole $477,685 from the retirement accounts of a deceased member of the New York Metropolis Academics’ Retirement System (TRS). Mateo diverted pension and annuity funds into accounts he managed and impersonated the account holder in communications with TRS.
Investigators mentioned they traced dozens of fraudulent transactions via financial institution and telephone information. Mateo later pleaded responsible to grand larceny and identification theft prices.
SCI additionally launched a report final 12 months inspecting procurement rule violations on the faculty degree, highlighting rising compliance considerations.
“I am confident that SCI’s work this year has strengthened accountability and helped improve the quality of life for students, families, and educators across New York City,” Coleman mentioned.
