How does Wisconsin keep track of teachers accused of misconduct?
That’s the subject of a recent yearlong investigation by Cap Times reporter Danielle DuClos. Between 2018 and 2023, she found that nearly 200 school employees were investigated for sexual misconduct and grooming.
Records provided by the state also made it impossible to categorize the allegations for around around one-fifth of the investigations. In total, the Cap Times reviewed 450 educator license investigations over five years.
While the state of Wisconsin provides information online about the status of an educator's license, that website contains no information about why that person was investigated or why they voluntarily gave up their license. One-third of those investigated over the five-year term voluntarily surrendered their teaching license, the Cap Times analysis found.
This can leave the door open for educators who lose their licenses to get new jobs with little scrutiny, Billie-Jo Grant, a researcher in educator misconduct prevention, told the Cap Times.
“You only need a license to teach, but you can serve in other roles in a school or a youth-serving organization and not require a license,” Grant said. “By having information publicly about why your license was … revoked, it can help to deter youth-serving organizations from hiring someone that has a history of misconduct.”
Internal records obtained by the Cap Times show the department investigated allegations of sexual assault, educators soliciting nude photos from children or initiating sexual relationships immediately after students graduated.
'Categorically false:' State supt. responds to reporting on educator misconduct investigations
Following the publication of the article by the Cap Times, Wisconsin State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly released a statement criticizing the reporting.
"Student safety is the foundation of everything that we do in education. Every allegation of educator misconduct is treated with the highest level of seriousness and is thoroughly investigated by the Department of Public Instruction," Underly said.
"Any suggestion that the DPI withholds information from the public is categorically false. Records are released in accordance with open records laws, and educator license statuses are publicly available to anyone on the DPI’s website."
The Cap Times reported on the statement, adding that Underly declined to be interviewed for the story. The Cap Times also challenged Underly's statement on educator license surrenders.
"(Underly) also called these license surrenders a 'binding, legal agreement to a permanent, lifetime ban on their ability to teach in Wisconsin,' contradicting her own department’s records," the Cap Times reported. "At least eight educators since 2018 have been allowed to surrender their licenses and maintain their ability to reapply after a defined time period — typically one to three years."
Cap Times reporter Danielle DuClos shares reporting on educator misconduct investigations
WUWM education reporter Katherine Kokal spoke with DuClos of the Cap Times about her reporting.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Katherine Kokal: This investigation took just over a year, and you found that our Department of Public Instruction investigated 200 school employees who were accused of sexual misconduct and grooming. Can you tell me, why didn't we know about this before your investigation?
Danielle DuClos: I think it's because no one had asked the question, "How often is this happening across Wisconsin?" And that's the question the Cap Times set out to answer in its reporting by obtaining public records and reviewing more than 450 license investigations conducted by the Department of Public Instruction. Even then, after reviewing those cases, we were unable to determine the nature of the conduct under investigation for about one-fifth of the cases reviewed. That's about 100 investigations. Ultimately, the reporting showed a lack of data and consistent tracking of these behaviors. I think that's one of the reasons why this wasn't previously known
Information is kind of the whole crux of your story. The lack of detail available about these cases was startling to me, as a reporter. Can you explain what information members of the public can see when an educator gets into trouble?
Yes, so the Department of Public Instruction does have a public online license status lookup where you can search an educator's name and see if they have an active license, if they're currently under investigation, or if they have surrendered their license or had their license revoked by the department. Any other information, such as why an educator lost their license or gave it up, like the circumstances under which that happened, that is not included on that website.
So if you wanted to get more details about why that happened or why an educator was investigated, you would have to file an open records request for that investigation file with the department. And so the Cap Times did do that to see how long it would take to get just 10 educator files for specific educators. We filed that request with the department in April, and we didn't get those records until September, so over four months later. Just to put that into perspective, the Department of Public Instruction said it's investigating on average about 113 licenses a year. So ten files is less than 10% of their annual caseload.
You point out that educators can give up their license in Wisconsin in lieu of a more thorough investigation. Your reporting found that one-third of educators gave up their licenses voluntarily. What did experts say about why that is and what that means?
So the prevention advocates and researchers I spoke with about voluntary surrenders said it's more the transparency around those surrenders that's important, specifically why an educator surrendered their license.
The reason why they said it's important is in case that person tries to work with children again in a non-licensed role. So whether that be a summer camp counselor or private youth sports coach. Right now getting access to the "why" around an educator's license surrender or why they're was revoked by the state would require you to file an open records request with the Department of Public Instruction. As the Cap Times experience shows, just to get ten of those files, we waited over four months to get a response.
This reporting is already making changes. I understand that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has weighed in on the issue, and state Rep. Amanda Nedweski is drafting legislation to address this. What would legislation on this matter do?
So since Rep. Nedweski is drafting those bills, it's unclear without seeing the introduced version exactly how her proposed changes would look in practice. So I'm interested to see when those are introduced, what other lawmakers and stakeholders have to say. But one of the bills she said she is drafting is to prevent educators from being able to voluntarily surrender their education licenses to close a Department of Public Instruction investigation.
Danielle DuClos is an investigative reporter for the Cap Times. Email story ideas and tips to Danielle at dduclos@captimes.com or call (608) 886-9166.
Katherine Kokal is the education reporter at 89.7 WUWM - Milwaukee's NPR. Have a question about schools or an education story idea? You can reach her at kokal@uwm.edu
