160 Washington teachers lost teaching license over sexual misconduct since 2015: report

Over the last decade, 349 Washington state teachers have lost their teaching licenses. Of those, 160 cases, nearly half, involved sexual misconduct.

That finding comes from a new “by the numbers” investigation by Moe Clark of InvestigateWest, which names every educator included in the total. The cases come from a database overseen by the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, which tracks teachers who have faced disciplinary action for alleged misconduct. Those violations can range from being intoxicated at work or falsifying information on a job application to sexually abusing a student.

But InvestigateWest found that the public-facing system leaves major gaps in what families and communities can actually learn. Although the database identifies teachers who have had their licenses suspended, revoked, or otherwise disciplined, it does not publicly list why a license was taken away. It also omits the school district where the teacher worked, leaving those details buried in individual case files.

Even those files are not always accessible. When a teacher voluntarily surrenders a license, an option many are allowed to take, the records are not publicly available unless someone files a public records request, a process that can take months or longer.

The investigation found that 157 teachers, or nearly 45 percent of all educators added to the database since 2015, voluntarily surrendered their licenses. In doing so, they effectively shielded their case files from public view. “This is how they are being hidden in plain sight without anyone’s knowledge of their wrongdoing,” Terri Miller, board president of the National Center to Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct & Exploitation, told the outlet. The organization advocates for federal and state legislation aimed at preventing and addressing sexual misconduct in schools. “That is deliberate enabling of child predation in our schools,” Miller added.

Among all 349 teachers added to the state database between 2015 and 2025 for having a license revoked, suspended, or voluntarily surrendered, 160 cases, about 46 percent, involved sexual misconduct. But InvestigateWest reports that the number is likely an undercount.

Many teachers who were found to have committed sexual misconduct were not categorized as such in OSPI’s internal database, according to the outlet’s review of disciplinary files. That database of misconduct and disciplinary actions is reported each year to the governor-appointed Washington State Professional Educator Standards Board, which sets the rules governing educator certifications and professional conduct.

The database also only includes school district employees who hold a teaching license. That means other school employees, such as coaches, bus drivers, or support staff, are not included in the system, even if they face misconduct allegations involving students.

InvestigateWest also identified broader issues that can allow educators disciplined in one state to seek employment in another, including gaps in how states communicate about teachers who have faced disciplinary action. In some cases, disciplinary files do not follow educators when they move across state lines, or there can be significant delays in reporting.

Washington’s education oversight agency screens candidates using a national database known as the NASDTEC Educator Identification Clearinghouse. But if other states fail to report disciplinary action or reporting is delayed, school districts may unknowingly hire teachers with serious misconduct on their records.