SB 571
Mandatory Reportini & Notification
Educator Misconduct Reporting & Do Not Hire Provisions
2 Investigation Registry & Re uirements
32
• Requires court clerks to notify SBEC when an educator is convicted or receives deferred adjudication for improper student relationships, harmful material distribution, or similar offenses in other states
• Directs principals to notify superintendents within 48 hours of evidence that an educator engaged in abuse, illegal acts, inappropriate relationships or communications, or boundary violations with a student or minor as defined by SBEC
• Requires superintendents to notify SBEC within 48 hours of learning of such misconduct and upon the educator ' s termination
• Tasks TEA with developing an internet portal for reporting misconduct to SBEC
• Extends the same reporting duties to non-educator staff and service providers, but requires reports go to TEA instead of SBEC
• Requires TEA to immediately place an educator on the Do Not Hire registry upon receiving a notification of an alleged incident of misconduct and include information indicating the they ' re under investigation for alleged misconduct
• Directs TEA or SBEC to decide within 30 days whether to add misconduct notices to educator records or registry listings for non-educators based on a preliminary review of the report
• Requires job applicants for public schools to: o Submit employment record release and re-service affidavit disclosing prior misconduct investigations, registry status, whether they ' ve been employed by a service provider for a school and whether they ' ve been terminated, discharged or have resigned in lieu of termination o Provide relevant details if they answer yes to any questions above
• Requires districts to employees who failed to disclose required information and authorizes SBEC to revoke certification of administrators who knowingly hire non-disclosing applicants
• Prohibits SBEC from accepting certificate surrendered while under investigation for reportable misconduct
• Requires districts to terminate employees listed on the Do Not Hire registry and requires districts to annually certify compliance with misconduct and registry rules