A state lawmaker wants to allow the state Education Department to maintain an internal list of teachers accused of “boundary violations” with students.

Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, D-Bronx, introduced A.10469 during the closing days of the 2024 legislative session after a 2023 incident in which a teacher accused of inappropriate contact with a student was hired by another school because, at the time he changed jobs, his teaching certification didn’t show there was an open investigation. Benedetto said current state law doesn’t allow for a teacher’s certification to be affected until after a teacher is found guilty of inappropriate contact – which means there is no mandated notification if that teacher changes jobs before a complaint is validated.

“To prevent such situations, this bill would require (the state Education Department) to maintain a registry of active allegations of boundary violations against certified individuals. When schools request background checks, (the state Education Department) would flag the individual if they are currently under investigation. This bill balances due process for certified individuals accused of a sexual offense with schools’ interest in keeping their students safe from sexual predators,” Benedetto wrote.

A.10469 could be discussed when the next legislative session begins in January.

A more stringent bill in the Kentucky state legislature failed to become law earlier this year, for the second consecutive year, despite never having a no vote cast against it because differing versions of the bill were passed in the Kentucky House and Senate. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky House Bill 275 would require schools to complete investigations into teacher sexual misconduct and require teachers to disclose those investigations to potential employers. The legislation also bans nondisclosure agreements between teachers and school districts, mandates school employees pass criminal background checks every five years and increases training on appropriate boundaries between students and adult staff.

The newspaper had discovered that 61% of teachers who gave up their teaching license or had their license revoked did so due to sexual misconduct.

New Jersey passed a similar proposal to Benedetto’s in 2018. Earlier this year, the New Jersey Commission of Investigation found the “Pass the Trash” law hadn’t done what lawmakers expected. The commission recommended New Jersey Department of Education oversight of Pass the Trash law compliance, standardized forms, a statewide database to collect “Pass the Trash” information, audits to make sure schools are complying, create a way to file teacher misconduct reports with the state, standardized procedures for child abuse and sexual misconduct investigations, increase penalties for those who don’t follow the “Pass the Trash” law and remove a 20-year limit on a school employee’s job history disclosure.

“Based on its investigation, the SCI has discovered that the “Pass the Trash” law has been manipulated not only by educators seeking to keep their past misdeeds private, but also by school districts that have either disregarded or improperly followed the law’s provisions,” the March 2024 report states.