L.A. Now Live: LAUSD slow to report 144 teacher misconduct cases
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An audit released Thursday sharply criticized Los Angeles school officials for failing to promptly report nearly 150 cases of suspected teacher misconduct -- including allegations of sexual contact with students -- to state authorities as required by law.
Times education reporter Howard Blume will join L.A. Now Live at 9 a.m. to discuss the audit’s findings and the Los Angeles Unified School District’s response.
The findings come 10 months after the LAUSD was rocked by the arrest of a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School for allegedly spoon-feeding semen to students in a classroom.
At the time, district officials acknowledged that they did not swiftly send all serious misconduct allegations to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which keeps a database that school systems use to verify teaching licenses.
The audit found that L.A. Unified submitted at least 144 cases of alleged teacher misconduct more than a year later than required, 31 of them more than three years late.
As a result, the commission was unable to ‘determine promptly whether it was appropriate to revoke the teachers’ certificates and thus prevent the individuals from working in other school districts,’ according to the report.
In one case, the district reported an alleged sexual relationship between a teacher and a student in March -- 3 1/2 years after the teacher left the district over the incident, the audit said. The ‘lack of timely reporting’ prevented the commission from taking steps to keep the teacher from working elsewhere, it said.