CHICAGO — A Chicago Public Schools agency has investigated more than 500 cases of student-on-student sexual violence since early September.

The school district created the Office of Student Protections and Title IX this summer following a Chicago Tribune investigation documenting broad lapses in the response to sexual abuse by the third-largest district in the U.S.

District deputy general counsel Douglas Henning told the City Council's education committee Wednesday that the glut of abuse reports reflects a "new reality" and that it's not OK to ignore sexual abuse allegations.

Most of the 624 misconduct cases reported from Sept. 4 to Monday involved allegations of student-on-student assault. Henning says 133 cases related to alleged misconduct by adults, with roughly half of those involving people who do not work for the roughly 361,000-student school district.