{"id":419351,"date":"2026-07-31T11:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419351\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T11:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T11:31:13","slug":"california-lawmakers-fail-to-fix-warning-system-for-teacher-misconduct-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419351\/","title":{"rendered":"California Lawmakers Fail to Fix Warning System for Teacher Misconduct \u2014 Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was produced for ProPublica\u2019s Local Reporting Network in partnership with KQED<\/a>. Sign up for Dispatches<\/a> to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/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.<\/p>\n

\"\"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.<\/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 Committee of Credentials, a subcommittee of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, meets in Sacramento, California, on March 18, 2026, as part of three days of deliberations. The subcommittee reviews cases involving alleged educator misconduct.<\/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.\u00a0<\/p>\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

A substitute replaced him for the remainder of the school year.<\/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

\"\"A photo of teacher Jason Agan in the Rodriguez High School yearbook from 2005 at the Fairfield Civic Center Library in Fairfield, California, on March 24, 2026. Two schools hired Agan 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.<\/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.<\/p>\n

Muratsuchi\u2019s bill, Howard said, 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<\/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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was produced for ProPublica\u2019s Local Reporting Network in partnership with KQED. Sign up for Dispatches to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-419351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}