Bianca Fortis is the education reporter at New York Focus. She was previously an Abrams reporting fellow at ProPublica, where she spent 18 months investigating how Columbia University protected a predatory doctor who had sexually abused hundreds of patients for more than 20 years. Following publication, the university publicly apologized, commissioned an external investigation and set up a victim’s compensation fund.
Bianca has also worked for the Brown Institute’s Documenting Covid-19 project, for Columbia Journalism Investigations’ cross-borders fellowship, and with the New York Times team that tracked coronavirus cases across the United States. Her work has also appeared in CalMatters, the Detroit Free Press, VICE, NBC News, and other outlets. She received her master’s degree from the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University.
Hundreds of Child Victims Act cases have been filed against New York schools, some over accused serial offenders that could leave districts with tens of millions of dollars in liability.
We’re collecting stories from teachers across the state.
In rural school districts where doctors are hard to find, in-school telehealth services seemed like a good solution. Then New York state stopped funding them.