AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A newspaper investigation has found the Texas Education Agency doesn’t track if a teacher has been charged or convicted of a crime.

The Austin American-Statesman (http://atxne.ws/2jVclbz ) found that in many cases, school districts keep the information secret and teachers are allowed to take other teaching jobs or positions where they are in contact with children.

“Some of those teachers are not prosecuted and worse . some are shuffled off to other schools to continue teaching in other areas, threatening other kids,” Gov. Greg Abbott told lawmakers in his State of the State address last week. “We are the ones with the duty and the ability to do something about it.”

State lawmakers are now proposing legislation that would stop teachers’ resigning from a school district amid allegations of misconduct with students and moving on to another teaching job.

Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt and Republican state Rep. Tony Dale have proposed bills that would charge superintendents and principals who don’t report allegations of teacher misconduct to the state education agency with at least a Class A misdemeanor. The bills also call for training that would help teachers understand proper teacher-student boundaries, and recognizing and reporting sexual misconduct between teachers and students.

“We have got to stop turning a blind eye to this. Let’s find out what’s going on, and let’s do our best to stamp it out,” Bettencourt told the Statesman.

Currently, school districts are required to alert the TEA of a teacher resigning or being terminated due to being involved in a romantic relationship with a student, among other improprieties.

In the past eight years improper teacher-student relationships have climbed 80 percent.

The TEA is requesting additional funding in 2018-19 budget to hire two more investigators to meet the anticipated rise in the number of teacher misconduct cases.

The Statesman’s investigation found teacher misconduct allegations ranged from sending flirtatious text messages to kissing or having sex in classrooms.

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Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com

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