Bill upping disclosure of Kentucky educator sexual misconduct fails to pass despite support

A bill that would require more disclosure of teacher sexual misconduct, ban nondisclosure agreements and require teachers to tell prospective employees about prior investigations of misconduct failed to pass the Kentucky General Assembly despite unanimous support.

House Bill 275, a sweeping educator sexual misconduct bill, would help stop a “revolving door of sexual predators” in our schools, said Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, in late March.

The bill passed unanimously in the Senate March 27. It had passed unanimously in the House in February. The Senate made some tweaks and changes to the bill. The House never concurred or addressed the changes on Monday, the last day of the legislative session.

This is the second year the bill, despite not receiving any “no” votes, failed to pass the Kentucky General Assembly.

Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, the sponsor of HB 275, was not immediately available for comment Monday night.

The bill would require schools complete investigations into teacher sexual misconduct. Sometimes teachers resign before an investigation is completed and the school district does not know the teacher has been under investigation, Tipton said.

The bill also requires teachers to disclose those investigations to prospective employers. The bill bans nondisclosure agreements between an educator and a school district. It also requires school districts have all employees pass criminal background checks every five years. It would also up teacher and staff education to include training on appropriate boundaries between students and adult staff. That training would be required every five years.

The Lexington Herald-Leader’s September 2022 investigation highlighted just how significant the problem of teacher sexual misconduct is in Kentucky, West said April 10. The newspaper obtained 194 cases of teachers who voluntarily surrendered or had their license revoked or suspended from 2016 to 2021. Of those, 118 — 61% — lost their license due to sexual misconduct. The overwhelming majority of those cases involved male teachers and teenage girls.

The Herald-Leader also found instances where teachers who had previously been accused of sexual misconduct moved to other school districts and were accused again of misconduct.

In February, the Kentucky Education Standards Board revoked the license of Eric Smart, a Bourbon County teacher, for his inappropriate behavior to students and staff. Smart, who resigned from the school district in June 2023, resigned from the University of Kentucky in 2012 after university and federal officials found he had fabricated research. Smart had been disciplined for sexual harassment in 2009 at UK but that disciplinary record never made it into Smart’s personnel file, records show.

Tipton filed a similar bill in 2023 but the measure never made it to the full Senate for a vote despite passing unanimously in the House and the Senate Education Committee.

This story may be updated.

This story was originally published April 16, 2024 at 6:00 AM.

Beth Musgrave

Lexington Herald-Leader

Beth Musgrave has covered government and politics for the Herald-Leader for more than a decade. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has worked as a reporter in Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois and Washington D.C. Support my work with a digital subscription

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Valarie Honeycutt Spears

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-379-4967

Staff writer Valarie Honeycutt Spears covers K-12 education, social issues and other topics. She is a Lexington native with southeastern Kentucky roots.  Support my work with a digital subscription