DENVER—A bill giving school districts 24 hours to report allegations of sexual misconduct by teachers won unanimous approval in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
House Bill 1344 would also require the state Department of Education to pass that information on to other school districts inquiring about teacher applicants.
School districts would be required to report any teacher who is fired or who resigns because of allegations of illegal behavior involving a child, if the claim is supported by significant evidence, even if there is no conviction.
The measure now goes to the full House.
A report to the state Board of Education showed there were 293 disciplinary actions against Colorado teachers from 1998-2007, including 51 sexual assaults on a child and four sexual assaults involving adults, with the number of incidents increasing sharply the past few years.
Board member Bob Schaffer said the frequency seems to be increasing dramatically that they become aware of or hear about in the news.
“I can tell you that the level of concern from parents about unfortunate events taking place in schools today seems to me on an anecdotal basis to be reflected in these statistics,” Schaffer told the board.
Schaffer said he was told the only time the board investigates is when a complaint is filed against a teacher.
“Which ones are not getting investigated, or which ones may take place that don’t receive the scrutiny of the media. I’ve had administrators, teachers, others tell me these events are just dealt with locally and never actually make their way here,” Schaffer said.
Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden, said teachers have resigned after sexual misconduct with students and then molested other children at other schools because the state and school districts failed to conduct proper background checks.
The bill gives the state Department of Education 10 days to do a preliminary background check on a teacher candidate and report any problems to the school districts. Green said a full background check could take two to three months, potentially allowing teachers who fail to report their criminal histories to get classroom jobs before the results come back.
She said some districts weren’t reporting violators as required by state law.
“We’re talking about negligence,” Green told the committee.
Green’s bill revokes a requirement that children report abuse within 180 days because some children are traumatized by the abuse.
It requires settlements that allow teachers to avoid a license-revocation hearing to be made public.
Ted Thompson, president of the National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children, said current law allows offenders to go from school to school without being fired. He said parents have a right to know if a sex offender was in their children’s school, but often they are not told of settlements involving offenders.
“(The bill) assures that offenders won’t be able to go from school to school with confidentiality agreements,” he said. “I think we can all agree we don’t want inappropriate individuals move from one area to another. The current law essentially restrains the victim and allows those responsible to essentially have an out.”
The committee killed another measure, House Bill 1011, that would have lifted the statute of limitations on lawsuits against private schools over sexual assaults on children. Lawmakers said it would remove incentives for people to come forward immediately with allegations of abuse.
