RJ Wolcott

Lansing State Journal

LANSING — A name, a list of approved teaching subjects and verification of a teacher’s license. That’s all the information available on the Michigan Department of Education’s credential verification website for parents who want to know the background of their child’s teacher.

Discipline records aren't available, even for teachers who’ve had their licenses challenged or revoked because of criminal convictions. And Michigan only challenges the licenses of teachers for certain types of crimes.

In Michigan, the burden of backgrounding teachers falls on local school districts.

These practices, among others, resulted in Michigan being ranked among the worst states nationally at keeping misbehaving teachers out of classrooms in Michigan and elsewhere, according to a USA Today investigation.

Michigan is one of 12 states to get a failing grade in the investigation that found fundamental defects in how teachers are screened during the hiring process to ensure the safety of children in schools in almost every state. It also found examples of teachers who were able to get licenses and jobs despite having documented misconduct and disciplinary issues in another state, although none in Michigan. Each state was assigned a letter grade ranging from A to F.

The absence of misconduct information, as well as having no law requiring schools to report teachers who resigned during misconduct investigations, dragged Michigan to the bottom. In contrast, Ohio was rated an A, among the best in the country.

Michigan’s system puts struggling districts in a position to fail, according to Josh Cowen, a professor at Michigan State University. Districts with small staffs or those with high teacher turnover are most susceptible to the current system.

“The problem is disadvantaged districts, (especially those) with large populations of at-risk and special needs students, are the ones where you’re more likely to have slip-ups,” Cowen said.

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Searching Ohio’s online licensing database nets a host of results for public review, including discipline letters given to teachers regardless of licensure status.

In Michigan, database users are directed to call the Department of Education's Office of Professional Preparation Services if they want information on teachers with suspended or revoked licenses. Staff there will confirm whether a teacher's license is suspended or revoked and will provide the reason why if asked, said Bill DiSessa, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education. But staff will not disclose personal information about teachers, including their hometown or the district where they previously worked.

Last year, 13 Michigan teachers had their licenses suspended.

The list of offenses that can call a teacher’s certification into question includes all felonies as well as myriad sexual conduct and drug and alcohol violations. Breaking and entering, assault and battery and indecent exposure also are included. State law also allows for similar offenses outside of Michigan to be considered.

“The authority to take action against a Michigan educator's certificate or state board approval is predicated upon a felony or enumerated offense,” wrote DiSessa.

Lawmakers and school administrators say the current system does the job. Michigan in 2006 mandated that teachers and other contract employees undergo background checks.

Expanding the information the state already makes available could be problematic, according to David Crim, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association.

“The MEA supports the need for quality public education and the safety of our students and staff,” he wrote. “It does not support efforts to publicly humiliate former public school employees any more than it would support efforts to publicly humiliate individuals who had been terminated from any other occupation by publicly displaying their name and reason for termination on a website.”

It's not clear, however, whether Michigan's system goes far enough in protecting children.

Former Lansing teacher Lester Duvall taught special education full time in the Lansing School District from 2002 until 2014. He routinely received positive job evaluations and twice had his license renewed by state officials, the last time in 2014.

Yet a federal lawsuit filed last year alleges that Duvall abused students in his classroom during his tenure in the district. District documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show a history of reports of Duvall abusing students throughout his tenure in the district.

Those documents show that between 2003 and 2014, district officials were warned about Duvall's interactions with students, which included allegedly pushing, slapping and choking students.

In one instance, Duvall was seen by a pair of teaching assistants grabbing a student by the throat and sustaining the grip for between 10 and 15 seconds. That incident prompted a letter from the Community Mental Health Authority of Clinton, Eaton and Ingham Counties, asking that a student with special needs not be placed in Duvall's classroom.

The Lansing Police Department launched an investigation of Duvall after an incident with a student in October 2014. A student with autism was allegedly using a pencil sharpener against Duvall’s instructions. He pushed the student to the floor and into a bookcase in response. That student’s mother is now suing Duvall and several district employees in U.S. District Court.

Duvall was originally charged with fourth-degree child abuse, one of the listed misdemeanors that the department of education could use to open an investigation of his certification. He later pleaded no contest to a lesser charge that does not put his teaching certificate at risk and he remains licensed to teach in Michigan.

The district accepted Duvall's resignation and is only required to inform other districts looking to hire him that he resigned.

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Questions of inequality

While MSU’s Cowen said he doesn’t know how every district in Michigan conducts background checks, having them take on that responsibility creates risk.

“Leaving it up to districts always poses the risk that disadvantaged districts will get screwed,” he said. Administrators who spend a significant amount of their time checking into job candidates isn’t uncommon, Cowen said. It’s an expensive endeavor, especially for districts like Detroit Public Schools, which has higher rates of teacher turnover than those with fewer at-risk students and more money to work with.

If the state makes prospective teachers jump through the necessary hoops to get certified, why not background check them during that process, Cowen asked.

Michigan’s certification application does ask candidates to self-disclose any previous convictions, and officials trust applicants are being truthful, said Stephanie Whiteside, a consultant for professional practices at the Department of Education. Lying on that self-disclosure is grounds for challenging a teacher’s certification, she added.

Having state officials conduct background checks on teachers “would require an enormous amount of additional paperwork to be transmitted to MDE, and would likely cause employment backlogs unless the MDE’s staffing is expanded," wrote MEA’s Crim. It could also rob local districts of autonomy, said State Rep. Amanda Price, R-Park Township.

“Local districts are the employers and it makes sense that they do the background checks,” she said.

Putting more information about teacher misconduct online was also an issue for Price, who cited concerns disclosing personnel issues between teachers and districts.

Districts across the state vary widely in vetting potential teachers.

Brighton Area Schools leans on the Livingston Educational Service Agency to fingerprint potential candidates, said Superintendent Greg Gray. LESA officials then run those fingerprints through the Michigan State Police database, which pings officials back depending on the results. The cost to job candidates is about $60, he said.

“We’ve found good success in terms of making sure everyone is appropriate to hire,” he said.

Michigan is among a majority of states that submits information about teachers with revoked or suspended license to the nationwide National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification Clearinghouse. The database contains information on thousands of teachers who've faced challenges to their licenses.

Having checks run through both state and federal criminal databases ensures prospective teachers in Michigan are properly vetted before they take charge of a classroom, Crim said. Failing to do so can result in a state aid penalty, MDE’s Whiteside said, one large enough to ensure districts aren’t likely to skip over bad seeds.

The Ingham Intermediate School District previously ran fingerprints for its prospective employees as well as those of neighboring schools, said Human Resource Director Susan Tinney. That changed in April 2010, when the district’s fingerprinting technology became obsolete and too expensive to replace. She said the ISD now directs candidates to local police departments or Lansing security firm DK Security to get their prints taken. Those prints are then run through the MSP and federal databases and sent to the ISD for review.

Ingham ISD currently assists eight local charter schools with their tests, due to the fact that third-party suppliers can’t receive background check data from police, Tinney said.

Anyone offered a teaching position in the Pewamo-Westphalia School District is asked to go to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office to have their fingerprints taken, said Superintendent Garth Cooper. The results are then sent to the district’s human resources department and the candidate also returns a copy of the fingerprint form for records purposes.

Pewamo-Westphalia hasn’t hired a new teacher since Cooper took the job last summer.

“It’s one of the best qualities about our district,” he said. “We’re stable and consistent.”

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.

Crimes that can impact a Michigan teacher's license

A conviction for any of the following crimes allows the Michigan Department of Education to challenge a teacher's license.

Any felony

First through fourth-degree criminal sexual misconduct

Third or fourth-degree child abuse or attempted child abuse

Any misdemeanor involving cruelty, torture or indecent exposure involving a child

Delivery or distribution of a schedule 1 or 2 narcotic to a person under the age of 18

Breaking and entering

Selling or furnishing alcohol to a minor

Larceny from a vacant building

Assault, assault and battery

The use of the internet or a computer system to solicit a minor for immoral purposes

Possession, promotion or creation of child pornography

Kidnapping or conspiracy to commit kidnapping

Leading, carry, decoying enticing away a child under the age of 14

Distribution of sexually explicit matter to a minor