Legislators Aim To Reduce Sexual Misconduct Among Teachers

ALBANY — This legislative session top Democrats, Republicans, and policy makers are making it a priority to reduce the rise in cases of teachers having sex with students.

The chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Stephen Saland, who gave teeth to enforcement of teacher-sex cases in a 2001 law, is supporting several measures for greater enforcement, swifter sanctions, and better training pushed by the state Board of Regents. He is also seeking $800,000 in the state budget to hire more investigators to clear a backlog of cases, just one of the board's priorities.

In some cases, it can take a year or more to revoke the license of a convicted teacher, with several state hearings conducted in prisons.

Nationwide, at least 16 states are now considering tougher laws to punish teacher sexual misconduct and stronger oversight to keep abusers out of classrooms following an Associated Press series on the topic run nationwide in October. The AP searched records in every state and found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered, or sanctioned between 2001 and 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct. Experts who track sexual abuse say those cases are representative of a much deeper problem.

"It is critically important that school employees are investigated when these cases arrive in as timely and expeditiously [a manner] as possible," Mr. Saland, a Poughkeepsie Republican, said.