President Barack Obama is sending Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to Chicago next week to discuss the recent beating death of a 16-year-old honors student.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says Holder and Duncan will meet Wednesday with school officials, students and residents and talk about school violence.
Earlier this week, Gibbs described as "chilling" a cell phone video showing the fatal beating of Derrion Albert.
Chicago prosecutors have charged four teenagers in the beating of the sophomore honor roll student. Officials say Albert was walking to a bus stop when he got caught up in street fighting.
The violence stemmed from a shooting early Thursday morning involving two groups of students from different neighborhoods, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor's office. When school ended, members of the groups began fighting near the Agape Community Center.
His death was the latest addition to a rising toll: More than 30 students were killed last school year, and the city could exceed that number this year.