DENVER—Concerned over reports of schoolteachers involved in sexual misconduct with students and other illegal behavior, lawmakers transferred a bill giving school districts a 24-hour deadline to report violations to the state from the House Education Committee to the Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
“I think the issues on this bill are much more legal than educational,” said Education Committee chairman Mike Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs.
No testimony was taken and no date for the new hearing was set.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden, would give the state Department of Education 24 hours to do a complete background check on teacher applicants and require school districts to report any teacher who is dismissed or who resigns as a result of unlawful behavior involving a child if it is supported by a preponderance of the evidence.
If the board or school district fails to do a hiring background check, a parent of a child victim could sue.
Green said teachers involved in cases of alleged sexual misconduct should be forced to go through a license revocation hearing to determine the facts, and parents should be told the outcome, especially if a teacher is being returned to the classroom by the Board of Education. Currently, teachers are allowed to withdraw their licenses voluntarily and avoid a hearing.
From 2001 through 2005, the Colorado Department of Education suspended, denied or revoked licenses for 151 teachers. Fifty-one of those cases involved sexual misconduct, according to an analysis of Colorado records by The Associated Press last year that formed part of a national project on teacher sex abuse.
