The site was designed to be parent-friendly. Users can put a teacher’s last name—or a particular school district—into a search engine and within a few seconds get a list of the teachers who have been found guilty of misconduct—even crimes—and a description of the punishment meted out to them. Some of the infractions seem minor; one teacher in Miami-Dade was convicted of submitting a cribbed essay as part of a licensing exam. (He was handed two years’ probation, a $250 fine, and required to retake the test.) Others suggest more serious problems: one teacher in Hernando County was convicted of disorderly conduct, carrying a concealed weapon and intoxication. The punishment? A letter of reprimand and a $250 fine.
Are some of these teachers still in the classroom? “The ones who have less egregious complaints and convictions, yes, they may still be in the classroom,” says Florida Department of Education communications chief Jennifer Fennell. Teachers who have been convicted of violent felonies—assault, sex abuse and attempted murder—usually, but not always, have their licenses revoked. Once a teacher has his license revoked, he can no longer teach school in Florida, but is sometimes hired in other states. According to the list, teachers in Florida who have been convicted of stalking, driving under the influence or even indecent exposure are still licensed and technically able to instruct children.
So far, the site has been a hit. Since it was launched on Aug. 20, the day most of the state’s 2.7 million public-school students returned to class, it’s had a whopping 607,000 hits. Pam Stewart, K-12 deputy chancellor for educator quality, says she hasn’t yet heard of any parents requesting transfers for their children after discovering information about their teachers that they didn’t like. “Anytime you can give parents more of the picture of an educator, the better it is. Mostly, parents who find their child’s teacher on the list will want to know more,” says Stewart.
It’s not the first time this information has been pulled together in one place. School administrators who do the hiring for a district usually check out prospective teachers on the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) Web site, a national database of teachers who have misconduct convictions that have affected their licenses. If a teacher has a misconduct conviction on the NASDTEC Web site, usually he or she won’t get hired in another state—although what it takes to get hired varies from state to state. The NASDTEC site is not open to the public.
MyFloridaTeacher.com was launched as part of an effort to comply with the state’s “sunshine law,” which requires that public documents be made more available. In most states the information is technically available to the public, but if parents want to get information about teachers’ misconduct, they have to file forms and traipse from government building to government building. Florida isn’t the first state to post teacher misconduct files on the Web (about 12 states have tucked some form of this information, often sketchy, incomplete and sometimes coded) into obscure corners of their government Web sites. But Florida is the first state to make such a site user-friendly and launch a media initiative inviting parents to take a look. NASDTEC’s Roy Einreinhofer says he expects more states to follow Florida’s lead. “There’s a lot of discussion going on at the state level about doing it,” says Einreinhofer. “All in all, it’s not a bad thing to let people in on it. I would be upset if I was a parent and I inquired and I found my kid’s teacher’s name on the list.”
