{"id":468717,"date":"2026-10-17T10:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T10:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468717\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T10:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T10:32:09","slug":"texas-teacher-misconduct-reports-are-skyrocketing-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468717\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas teacher misconduct reports are skyrocketing. Here’s why."},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands more Texas educators<\/a> are being reported for misconduct,<\/a> but just how much of the surge is justice being served-and how much could overwhelm the system?<\/p>\n

Earlier this month<\/a>, the Texas Education Agency’s Inspector General for Educator Misconduct said misconduct reports more than tripled after the state’s 89th Legislature tightened reporting requirements. The law shortened the deadline to report suspected child abuse to law enforcement and the Department of Family and Protective Services to 24 hours and requires superintendents to report certain educator misconduct to TEA within 48 hours.<\/p>\n

Misconduct reports jumped from 5,707 in fiscal year 2024-25 to 19,766 in 2025-26. TEA also received 27,655 criminal-history hits, bringing the total number of reports and alerts the agency was dealing with to 47,421.<\/p>\n

The agency also said 1,079 people were placed on the Do Not Hire Registry in fiscal year 2025-26, up from 589 the previous year. The agency is asking for more staff as it works through the influx and warns that without additional resources it could eventually have to “triage” cases.<\/p>\n

This also comes just a few months after the Texas Education Agency launched its Educator Misconduct Dashboard<\/a>, giving the public a clearer look at how misconduct reports and investigations are being tracked across the state. The dashboard was part of the agency’s implementation of SB 571.<\/p>\n

Why are the numbers so high?<\/p>\n

The short answer from TEA: Texas schools are reporting far more.<\/p>\n

Levi Fuller, the agency’s inspector general for educator misconduct, told the Senate Education Committee that 14,630 of the 19,766 misconduct reports came from superintendents, compared with 3,140 the year before.<\/p>\n

“The superintendents are getting the message across the state of Texas that they have to report to the TEA,” he said. “They have to report to law enforcement, they have to report to DFPS. That’s an important number and we should be celebrating it. But that being said, this number’s high.”<\/p>\n

SB 571 took effect June 20, 2025<\/a>, after Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law. The law expanded reporting requirements, created a temporary suspension and Do Not Hire process for certain cases and expanded TEA’s authority over some non-certified school employees.<\/p>\n

That means the spike in reports should not be read as proof that Texas suddenly has more than three times as many educators committing misconduct.<\/p>\n

TEA says educator misconduct can include allegations of physical or sexual abuse, inappropriate relationships, boundary violations, inappropriate communications, criminal conduct, violence involving students and other violations. Each case is reviewed based on its facts and available evidence.<\/p>\n

More reports also mean a bigger backlog<\/p>\n

Of the 47,421 reports and criminal-history alerts TEA was handling, Fuller said 6,587 proceeded to formal investigation. Of those, 1,177 were completed, 714 were in suspense (usually because of criminal proceedings) and 4,696 remained under formal investigation.<\/p>\n

Fuller told senators the agency expects roughly 550 of those cases could ultimately require a trial rather than a settlement, potentially doubling the caseload his office currently handles.<\/p>\n

And that’s where the concern about “triaging” comes in.<\/p>\n

“I think the worst case scenario is that we will have to triage,” Fuller told senators. “We’ll have to find settlement opportunities, and we’ll have to prioritize certain cases.”<\/p>\n

Fuller said the most serious cases would be prioritized, including sexual abuse, severe violence and direct harm to students.<\/p>\n

Not every report becomes a confirmed case<\/p>\n

David Rodriguez, TEA’s executive director of investigations, told senators that schools are now required to send information quickly, sometimes before their own investigations are complete. He said some classroom-violence cases are later found to be unfounded, while allegations involving grooming, inappropriate communications, boundaries and sexual misconduct are pursued when the evidence supports prosecution.<\/p>\n

Fuller told senators the process is not supposed to be the punishment.<\/p>\n

“The process is not meant to be the punishment,” Fuller said. “Sometimes it can be, but what we’ve seen is sometimes something doesn’t get investigated, whether that be through the school district or through the allegations that it’s not being investigated through the TEA.”<\/p>\n

Under SB 571, certain employees can be temporarily suspended or placed on the Do Not Hire Registry when specific criminal triggers are met. But being under investigation does not automatically mean an educator has been found guilty of misconduct, and some people remain eligible to work while an investigation proceeds.<\/p>\n

And that’s the bigger question behind the eye-popping numbers: whether Texas’ tougher reporting rules are exposing more misconduct that previously went unreported-and whether the state has enough resources to follow all those reports through to the end.<\/p>\n

More News<\/p>\n

TV<\/a> | KPRC’s Cathy Hernandez returns to the Texans sideline<\/a>
Lawsuits<\/a> | Houston developer sued after blind employee fired on first day<\/a>
Jobs<\/a> | Texas layoffs hit Benchmark Mortgage, Hello Bello during Thanksgiving<\/a>
Courts<\/a> | Houston man’s Pakistani divorce rejected by Texas Supreme Court<\/a><\/p>\n

For the latest and best from Chron, sign up for our daily newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Texas teacher misconduct reports are skyrocketing. Here’s why.<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands more Texas educators are being reported for misconduct, but just how much of the surge is justice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-468717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}