PHOENIX — The number of educators being disciplined by the state continues to rise, according to a new report.
Every year, the Arizona State Board of Education releases a report of the number of educators investigated and those that saw enforcement action for any type of misconduct.
Most recently in 2024, the report shows that there were more than 1,800 cases tracked. Some are still being investigated, but of the more than 1,800 in 2024, 325 enforcement actions took place, which is an increase from 272 in 2023 and continued growth from previous years.
“The reason for some of these increases is increased funding by the legislature for investigative staff and administrative support as well as counsel and legal representation from the assistant attorney general’s office,” said Jessica Mueller, a policy and research administrator with the Arizona State Board of Education. “Additionally, there’s increase purview over those non-certificated persons again in 2022 and has grown significantly over the years in 2023 and 2024.”
Cases investigated vary from sexual misconduct allegations to assault, substance abuse and more. Looking at the data, the number of assault cases disciplined grew significantly, whereas the number of disciplined for sexual misconduct cases decreased.
In a meeting with the State Board of Education earlier this week, Mueller said the assaults did not necessarily mean something happened on campus, but it could be outside classroom behavior.
ABC15 spoke with the executive director of the board, Sean Ross, about the process of these investigations in April of 2024 after multiple high-profile arrests of educators for sexual misconduct allegations. Ross told ABC15 that those types of cases are generally pushed to the top of the list to be investigated. Those allegations are typically being investigated by police as well.
While the numbers in 2024 show an increase, Mueller and Ross have said it’s a small number of educators being disciplined compared to how many educators are doing great work in the classroom and have no issues.
“The rate we track for discipline still remains as less than 1% of all certificated educators that have ever been disciplined by the board,” Mueller said in the meeting.
The full report can be found here.
