Acknowledging the problem of predatory teachers
After hundreds of incidences of sexual abuse by educators, state policymakers are finally beginning to pay attention. They're tightening many of the background check laws, but loopholes still exist that allow teachers who molest their students to slip away from the law:
In 42 states, applicants for state certification are required to undergo criminal-background screenings that involve fingerprint checks through the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state police, according to the survey. While experts say many shortcomings remain in state background-check policies, that number is far greater than the handful of states that were performing checks 15 years ago.
Some states have also taken steps to curb the problem known as "passing the trash": the practice of allowing employees suspected of wrongdoing to leave quietly for new jobs, often to abuse more students. In the Education Week survey completed this year, 17 states reported that they required local school officials to inform the state if educators leave their jobs amid suspicions of sexual misconduct.
The same number of states said they had laws shielding school officials from defamation suits based on job references given for current or former employees. Such laws grow out of a fear that officials will face lawsuits if they are candid to prospective employers about questionable conduct by former staff members.
Seventeen is better than "zero", but that still means that less than half of the states require local officials to contact the state if sexual misconduct is found, and less than half give school officials enough protection to be able to tell other schools if a teacher is an abuser.
This is the first of a two-part series; I'll post a link to the next part as soon as it becomes available.