Legislation boosts state schools’ powers to discipline employees

State lawmakers in both chambers unanimously passed legislation on Thursday that will give Arizona education officials the power to investigate and discipline any school employee accused of sexual or other misconduct.

The Arizona State Board of Education currently has the power to discipline certified educators. But not everyone who works in a school is certified, including athletic coaches and paraprofessionals. And while state law forbids district schools from hiring teachers who are not certified, charter schools may hire noncertified teachers.

House Bill 2023, which awaits Gov. Doug Ducey’s signature, gives the state the power to investigate employees who aren’t certified. The bill was introduced by Rep. Michelle Udall, R-Mesa.

“We want to make sure that’s not happening, so we don’t have people moving from school to school who shouldn’t be around our children,” Udall said at a recent House Education committee meeting.

An investigation in 2019 by The Arizona Republic and KJZZ, Phoenix’s public radio station, found that loopholes like this one in the state’s system to discipline teachers come with devastating consequences.

In one case, a Tucson teacher with an expired certificate bounced from one charter school to another, accused multiple times of inappropriately touching students. No one flagged his certificate because it was expired, and he did not need to be certified in charter schools.

This bill is just one of the reforms experts say is needed in the state’s disciplinary system.

The state’s system to discipline teachers begins at the Arizona Department of Education’s investigative unit, a small department within the education agency with four investigators. The State Board of Education votes on discipline: A teacher’s certificate can be revoked for five years, permanently revoked in the case of a criminal offense, or an educator may face a suspension for a number of years.

With HB 2023, the state now will have the ability to discipline a broader swath of school employees: Anyone who is allowed to make contact with students without the supervision of a certified employee.

bout 40% of all charter school teachers, are not certified, according to 2018 data from the Department of Education.

The new law also would apply to athletic coaches across the state who are not certified teachers but work in schools.