FORT COLLINS — The state hasn’t been fully complying with a law intended to alert school districts to teachers who have been arrested.
The law passed in 2008 requires the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to notify the Department of Education whenever a teacher is arrested. The department is supposed to notify every school district and charter school in the state.
However, a Fort Collins resident found the education department has been forwarding information only about felony arrests or arrests for sexual misconduct, child abuse or domestic violence partly due to lack of funds.
Jami Goetz, executive director of the department’s Office of Professional Services and Educator Licensing, said the department has been “tossing or shredding” information about all other arrests. She said the department doesn’t always know where the arrested educator works. Making sure the department is passing the correct information on to the right school districts is time-consuming, she said.
The department refused to release details about the alerts it has issued, saying they are confidential.
Poudre School District officials say they haven’t received any alerts, even though two educators there were arrested last year. A counselor was arrested and convicted of a sexual assault on multiple children, and a physical education teacher who provided alcohol to two students pleaded guilty to a felony contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Education department spokesman Mark Stevens said the department has hired several additional employees to help review records and send out alerts.
