Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña on Aug. 4 announced a new task force to investigate allegations of cheating and other violations of academic policy in the public schools.

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“Schools violating our academic policies are not giving students the education they deserve, and I have zero tolerance for schools flouting our policies,” she said.

Fariña’s announcement came in the wake of an investigation into a grade-fixing scandal at John Dewey HS in Gravesend, Brooklyn, involving credit-recovery grades.

“Chancellor Fariña has taken an important step to deal with the credit-recovery problems caused by the Bloomberg administration and continued by his appointees — a scandal that school ‘reformers’ chose to ignore when Bloomberg was in charge of the system,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

John Dewey HS Principal Kathleen Elvin was fired in July after investigators found that students had been allowed to receive credit for classes in which they had no substantial instruction and in some csaes no contact with teachers.

Credit-recovery courses allow students to earn credit for classes they previously failed. But the findings of impropriety at Dewey came from a year-long investigation by the DOE’s Office of Special Investigation that was sparked by teacher complaints. William Cullen Bryant HS in Long Island City and Flushing HS have recently been the subject of similar allegations of impropriety.

The new Regulatory Task Force on Academic Policy, which is being led by Phil Weinberg, the deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, will report twice a year on how closely schools are complying with graduation requirements. The six-member task force will include five DOE officials and one who has no connections to the DOE. The DOE hired auditing firm Ernst & Young to review and verify the task force’s findings.

Fariña said the DOE will also provide more training in academic policies for superintendents, principals and guidance counselors. Borough field officers will work with the DOE to monitor credit and graduation trends at specific schools to ensure policies are implemented correctly. Schools that fail to do so must come up with a corrective action plan.