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NJ Spotlight--Closing Loophole in Law Protecting Students Against Sexual Predators
Right now, teachers accused of sexual misconduct can change schools without a report about their behavior following them
Your child tells you they were abused by their teacher, a sexual predator, and you bring this to the school administration. The school system immediately takes action by suspending the teacher but also agrees to a nondisclosure agreement that allows the teacher to resign and find a job elsewhere without informing their new employer about the allegations.
That’s the situation currently in New Jersey due to a loophole in the laws regarding sexual misconduct and sexual assault in Garden State schools.
The Assembly Education committee debated the issue for nearly two hours on Tuesday, as legislators considered what wording would lead to always supporting the child, rather than the adult, and if that was appropriate. The committee was considering a package of bills addressing sexual misconduct and sexual assault in New Jersey schools, and they were split over language, but eventually voted to release the bills to the floor.
Carly Sitrin | February 14, 2018
Education Week--D.C.'s Scandal and the Nationwide Problem of Fudging Graduation Numbers
The headlines made a big splash, and yet they were strangely familiar: Another school system was reporting a higher graduation rate than it deserved.
The most recent scandal—in the District of Columbia—is just the latest example in a growing case file of school systems where investigators have uncovered bogus graduation-rate practices.
Those revelations have unleashed a wave of questions about the pressures and incentives built into U.S. high schools, and fueled nagging doubts that states’ rising high school graduation rates—and the country’s current all-time-high rate of 84 percent—aren’t what they seem.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/02/09/dcs-scandal-and-the-nationwide-problem-of.html
Catherine Gewertz| February 9, 2018
