{"id":1744,"date":"2026-08-01T09:36:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1744"},"modified":"2026-08-01T09:36:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:36:46","slug":"california-fails-to-pass-teacher-misconduct-database-bill-propublica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1744","title":{"rendered":"California Fails to Pass Teacher Misconduct Database Bill \u2014 ProPublica"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"California<\/div>

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A last-ditch legislative attempt to help California school districts keep problematic teachers out of the classroom has collapsed following opposition from unions and the state teacher licensing agency that a proposed searchable database would violate privacy and subject educators to unfair treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposed database, introduced by a Democratic member of the State Assembly in June, would have allowed schools to see if applicants for public school teaching positions had been reported to the state after they were fired or resigned over claims of misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The California Federation of Teachers pushed back, warning that teachers could land in the database even if schools had not determined they committed serious misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would support legislation that targets substantiated reports of egregious misconduct,\u201d said Tristan Brown, a lobbyist with the California Federation of Teachers. \u201cWe live in a state with Silicon Valley. The state should be able to support a system that is up to date and tracking substantiated reports of misconduct.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi had proposed to make it easier for schools to screen teacher applicants after a KQED-ProPublica investigation published in May. The news outlets revealed how delays and inaction, combined with a lack of transparency, allowed educators to get new jobs after school districts reported them to the state teacher licensing agency for sexual harassment or other misconduct.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A similar effort by Republican lawmakers to address the issue also hit roadblocks earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the safety of a child does not meet a legislative priority, that\u2019s a head-scratcher for me,\u201d said Republican Assemblymember Tom Lackey, who co-authored the first attempt to create the teacher database. \u201cI think being sympathetic to the offender is on the wrong side of this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both bills were modeled on a law the Legislature passed in 2025 mandating the creation of a database by next summer that will allow employers to search the names of school support staff, such as bus drivers, custodians and teaching assistants, who are under investigation by their schools or have substantiated complaints of egregious misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The database for school support staff passed after months of tense negotiations. Under that system, employees\u2019 names would be removed from the database if school investigations fail to substantiate claims of egregious misconduct. The bill passed despite opposition from unions, but the system that will be put in place is still being refined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that law explicitly does not apply to public school teachers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The system currently in place for public school educators is a patchwork with a fair number of gaps. School districts have long been required to report to the state any teacher who is fired or who resigns due to misconduct. But the state\u2019s teacher licensing agency, which collects all of those reports, is restricted by state law in what information the agency can share while it investigates. The state\u2019s disciplinary process typically takes one year, and teachers could be hired during the investigation period without schools knowing about the claims against them.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s publicly accessible online database of credentialed educators does indicate, with a red-flag icon, whether those public school teachers have been disciplined by the state. But it does not explain the reason for the sanction or provide a link to any documents. It is only after the state licensing agency recommends an educator be disciplined that prospective employers can request a summary of the case and the agency\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

Without such details, California school administrators must rely on teachers themselves or their previous employers to provide key information. A law passed in 2024 requires teacher candidates to share their complete job history in education and mandates that school districts ask every previous employer whether a candidate had been reported to the credentialing agency for credible or substantiated complaints of egregious misconduct. If so, previous schools must share the relevant information. But that law keeps bad actors out of schools only if teachers and schools keep \u2014 and provide \u2014 accurate records.<\/p>\n

For more than a year, California school administrators have lobbied lawmakers for a better way to protect students from those with a history of misconduct. \u201cA database is needed to provide more complete, timely information so that schools can fulfill their responsibility to put trusted adults in positions that work with students,\u201d said Dorothy Johnson, a lobbyist with the Association of California School Administrators, whose members include superintendents, principals and human resources officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the original bill<\/a> authored by Muratsuchi and sponsored by the school administrators association, teachers would be added to a new database if their school districts have reported them to the state for misconduct. Before making job offers, schools would be required to check the database, accessible only to employers, for names of teachers with substantiated and credible complaints of egregious misconduct. Then, schools would be required to request records about misconduct from the districts that reported them.<\/p>\n

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California Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat who introduced the teacher accountability bill, said his office was \u201cconfronted with a lot of resistance\u201d over whether it would lead to unfair treatment of the accused.<\/span> Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Muratsuchi said his office was \u201cimmediately confronted with a lot of resistance,\u201d with teachers unions raising concerns over fair treatment of the accused.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brown, the lobbyist for the California Federation of Teachers, said the language in the measure was too broad. He said the union would not object to a database that identifies only teachers with substantiated complaints of egregious misconduct, but the bill also states that reports of \u201cpossible misconduct\u201d would be included.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur opposition is really focused on making sure we\u2019re looking at dangerous conduct that we can definitively say happened,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

Muratsuchi, who pulled language for his bill directly from the previous effort by Republican Assemblymember Kate Sanchez, said his intent was for the database to focus on egregious misconduct reports that were substantiated and credible. Had he had more time, he said, he would have clarified the language through the legislative process and addressed the unions\u2019 concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he introduced the bill with just weeks left in the legislative session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seth Bramble, a lobbyist for the California Teachers Association, the state\u2019s most powerful teachers union, wrote in a statement that the proposed database would lead to \u201cemployment consequences for innocent teachers based on allegations later determined to be unfounded.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCTA unequivocally supports protecting students, ensuring that credible misconduct information is shared with prospective school employers, and preventing individuals who commit egregious misconduct from moving from school to school,\u201d Bramble wrote.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration singled out teachers unions as obstructions to legislative reforms to protect children when it announced a national crackdown in July on how school districts handle accusations of sexual misconduct by teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers\u2019 unions\u2019 demonstrated commitment to shield their members from disciplinary action for gross misconduct cannot trump basic moral and legal responsibilities to students and families,\u201d Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote in the open letter to state school chiefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McMahon cited<\/a> KQED and ProPublica\u2019s finding that California\u2019s teacher licensing agency has not revoked the professional credentials of at least 67 educators who school districts determined had sexually harassed students or committed other sexual misconduct. At least 14 of those educators were rehired by other schools. That included San Francisco Bay Area math teacher Jason Agan, who was hired by two schools<\/a> despite having been fired after an independent panel determined he sexually harassed female students and massaged their shoulders after he\u2019d been warned to stop. Agan was removed from the classroom the day after the story was published. He was replaced by a substitute for the remainder of the school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Agan has denied any sexual motivation in touching students and said during his dismissal hearing at his first school that he touched students only to offer them support.<\/p>\n

The Commission on Teacher Credentialing, California\u2019s educator licensing agency, joined the unions in objecting to the bill to add teachers to the misconduct database. Jonathon Howard, the government relations manager for the credentialing agency, told Muratsuchi in a June 19 email obtained by KQED and ProPublica that complying with the proposed legislation would \u201crequire Commission staff to commit crimes.\u201d Howard cited state laws restricting what information the teacher licensing agency is allowed to share.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Muratsuchi\u2019s bill, Howard warned, would expose the agency to \u201csignificant liability.\u201d \u201cThe Commission does not oppose the goal of ensuring that credentialed educators with substantiated histories of serious misconduct cannot move undetected between schools,\u201d Howard wrote. \u201cHowever, achieving that goal requires legislation that is legally sound, operationally workable, and fair to the educators whose livelihoods and professional reputations are at stake.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anita Fitzhugh, a spokesperson for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, previously told KQED and ProPublica that the agency \u201cstands ready to implement any additional public protections that the Legislature authorizes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within weeks of introducing the bill and following opposition, Muratsuchi scrapped the idea of adding teachers reported to the state for egregious misconduct to the database and instead amended the bill to clarify that the teacher licensing agency may penalize administrators who don\u2019t thoroughly vet applicants. The school administrators association withdrew its sponsorship.<\/p>\n

Muratsuchi, whose term expires in December, said he still supports more access to information about educators disciplined for serious misconduct. But with the legislative session ending Aug. 31, time is running out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried,\u201d Muratsuchi said. \u201cI hope future Legislatures pick up the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tIf you have experience with the state\u2019s opaque teacher disciplinary process, KQED and ProPublica want to hear from you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A last-ditch legislative attempt to help California school districts keep problematic teachers out of the classroom has collapsed following opposition from unions and the state teacher licensing agency that a proposed searchable database would violate privacy and subject educators to unfair treatment.\u00a0 The proposed database, introduced by a Democratic member of the State Assembly in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260730-GettyImages-2231342591.jpg?resize=2000,1333","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1295,3337,3342,3338,3341,3339,81,3340],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bill","tag-california","tag-database","tag-fails","tag-misconduct","tag-pass","tag-propublica","tag-teacher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}