Building upon Senate Bill 7, authored by Senator Paul Bettencourt, from the 85th Legislative Session, he has filed Senate Bill 1476 to ensure the Texas Education Agency has a clear path on how to respond when an allegation about an inappropriate student-educator relationship is found to be unsubstantiated.
"The Legislature made it clear that inappropriate student-educator relationships and 'passing the trash' from school to school will not be tolerated in Texas," said Senator Bettencourt. "Moving forward, we continue to set clear set of guidelines on how to proceed if an investigation clears an accused educator."
SB 1476 providers a superintendent or director of a school district, district of innovation, open-enrollment charter school, regional education service center or shared services arrangement is not required to notify the State Board for Educator Certification or file a report with the Board if the superintendent or director completes an investigation into an educator's alleged incident of misconduct or before the educator's termination of employment or resignation, and determines the educator did not engage in the alleged incident of misconduct.
In addition, a "Do Not Hire" registry bill will be filed by Friday.
"Another important development is my office will be filing a 'Do Not Hire' registry that creates a database for public, charter, and private schools to use in daily operations,"Senator Bettencourt continued.
SB 7 was filed in response to a 65 pecent increase in reported cases of these relationships over just a two-year period between 2015 and 2017.
Testimony showed in some cases school districts simply quashed subpoenas and "passed the trash," allowing teachers who engaged in these actions to quietly transfer to another school district and face no consequences. The legislation passed in the Texas Senate unanimously, 31-0, and was co-authored by every member. It was also passed unanimously in the Texas House by a vote of 146-0.
"Senate Bill 7 was an important step during the last Legislative Session to stamp out the growing plague of inappropriate student-educator relationships," continued Senator Bettencourt. "The Texas Education Agency needs to the tools to ensure that students are adequately protected from this type of predator but also to ensure that a teacher's career is not ruined over a false accusation. SB 1476 will enhance the protections from Senate Bill 7 to ensure this is the case."
