Six New York City Public Schools employees took their children and grandchildren to Walt Disney World and on other trips meant for homeless students, a newly released report reveals.

According to Anastasia Coleman, special commissioner of investigation for New York City schools, the trips also included visits to New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Broadway shows; and colleges. Paid for through grants, they were intended as enrichment for students living in shelters and other temporary housing. (via Associated Press)

Linda Wilson, the Queens regional manager for the office that supports students in temporary housing, is one of the employees named in the report. She also encouraged her employees to take their families on the trips instead of the homeless students.

Wilson told employees to stay quiet, with one quoting her as saying, “What happens here stays with us.”

Wilson reportedly forged permission slips and used an outside agency to book travel to avoid notice by the Department of Education.

Wilson, one of her daughters, and other staff members and their children ate lunch at Syracuse University in June 2018 — a trip intended to be a college tour for homeless students. The group went to Niagara Falls instead of touring the school.

The special commissioner’s office recommended Wilson and other staff members named in the report be fired and required to reimburse the school system for the trips.

Wilson told the New York Post that the investigation was “a witch hunt,” denied bringing her daughters on trips or encouraging other staff members to take their children, and that she was not fired but retired.

Department of Education spokesperson Jenna Lyle said in a statement that all the employees identified in the report are no longer employed by New York City Public Schools.

The investigation was completed in January 2023 and concerned trips between 2016 and 2019. The report was not made public until this month because of pending administrative actions.

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