We expect teachers to be good role models for their students. Most teachers fit that bill and more. Yet the system that's supposed to keep bad apples out of the classroom doesn't always make the grade.
A joint USA Today/KING 5 investigation found some teachers who commit misconduct are able to stay in the classroom by moving from district to district and state to state.
Daniel Garcia is a passionate educator with a troubling track record in two states. He said he always expected his students to be honest and not to cheat.
“I expect them to tell the truth, even if it's going to be painful and there's a consequence and that's exactly what I've done," Garcia said.
But Garcia admits he’s had lapses. “I've made mistakes, I'm never going to deny that," he said.
Garcia began his teaching career in Colorado in the late 1990s. According to the Colorado Board of Education, Garcia deceived five school districts over nearly a decade by embellishing his qualifications, forging a doctor's note for unexplained absences, borrowing money from a teacher (and then writing that teacher bad checks), even hitting up parents for thousands of dollars for an adoption that didn’t happen.
Anne Albeck's son was in Garcia's 5th grade class in Denver in 2007 and 2008. She remembers being shocked when she saw Garcia’s e-mail asking for money.
"It was, ‘I need this $6,000 and the banks won't let you borrow more than this amount,’” she said. “I thought it was really strange, inappropriate and unprofessional."
In August 2008, Garcia pled guilty in Arapahoe County District Court to one count of issuance of a bad check, a misdemeanor for the check he’d written to the teacher.
According to Colorado Board of Education documents, Garcia was given a one-year deferred judgment and sentence. One of the conditions was to pay $27,488 in restitution, and the charges were dropped.
Garcia said his attorney requested the court record be sealed and advised him he would not be required to report the case on any employment applications.
Garcia said that he eventually repaid all of the money he’d borrowed from fellow teachers and parents and now agrees that his actions were inappropriate. He blames his lapses on a bipolar disorder that hadn’t been diagnosed and wasn’t being treated.
"I wish I could go back and start from when the onset of my mental illness started and the lies, quote, unquote the untruths, started happening. I could go back rewind and start fresh from that day, I would," said Garcia.
But Garcia DID get a fresh start. After being forced to resign again and again in Colorado, he moved to Washington State in late 2010 and within months was teaching at Northgate Elementary in Seattle. By August 2011, he was a dean of students at Franklin High School.
The Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) would award Garcia four different certifications as a teacher and administrator, taking Garcia at his word when he falsely answered "no" to questions about whether he'd ever been investigated for misconduct.
Catherine Slagle, director of the Office of Professional Practices for OSPI, said the state relies on teachers to tell the truth when they answer the character and professional fitness sections of the online application.
"And it's a given if they've not answered yes (to past discipline or misconduct investigations) to any of the questions on the character and fitness supplement and there's no criminal history, they're approved for certification as long as they meet academic requirements," Slagle said.
OSPI does look for red flags when they review applications for certification. In Garcia’s case, like most others, the state consulted the NASDTEC Clearinghouse--a national database of disciplined teachers run by the nonprofit National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification.
That database had no hits for Daniel Garcia. David Kinnunen, director of certification for OSPI, said the state relies heavily on NASDTEC to alert them to problems.
"We rely on that source to give us anything outside of our state. So it's a very important source and resource that we use," Kinnunen said.
It's a resource with some gaping holes because it’s up to each state to decide what to report to the clearinghouse.
"We have 50 states. We have 50 sets of rules, regulations and laws that govern these certificates for educators," said Phillip Rogers, NASDTEC’s executive director.
NASDTEC says it wants to know about all teacher discipline, including reprimands. But under Washington state law, only teacher suspensions and revocations can be reported.
By comparing OSPI's list to NASDTEC's database, KING 5 counted over 600 teachers reprimanded for wrongdoing who will never be flagged. KING 5 also found OSPI failed to report a half dozen teachers who'd surrendered a license or had it revoked for serious wrongdoing like sexual misconduct. There were nine names entered incorrectly.
And dozens more names were not reported because in each case, the teacher's certificate expired during the investigation and the agency no longer had jurisdiction. (That changed in 2005, when OSPI was granted authority to continue investigations even if the educator’s certificate had been revoked or voluntarily surrendered).
Lapses like these have some groups pushing for a federal law to mandate immediate reporting of disciplined teachers.
Teri Miller is with a group called S.E.S.A.M.E. -- Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct and Exploitation.
"Our schools are funded by federal dollars and we want to make sure that the federal government is doing everything they can to make sure that our children are being protected while they're in these schools," said Miller.
When school districts or states fail to report discipline to the NASDTEC Clearinghouse, or do it too slowly, teachers can simply cross state lines and get a new job.
Daniel Garcia's name didn't show up in NASDTEC until early 2013, when Colorado finally revoked his license--two years after he'd begun teaching in the Seattle schools. By that time he'd been forced to resign from Franklin High over allegations of dishonesty and a lapsed credential.
Garcia was never accused of harming students. Instead, he was repeatedly accused of misrepresentation and of lying and omitting unflattering information on his employment applications.
After losing his credential in 2013, Garcia successfully fought it in court and, after completing a set of court ordered criteria, won it back in August 2015. Soon afterwards complaints surfaced about Garcia falsifying information. In December he agreed to end his teaching career.
"(He) voluntarily surrendered his certificate and has agreed not to apply for an education certificate here in the state of Washington or any other state," said OSPI’s Slagle.
But Garcia doesn't sound like a man who's given up.
Asked if he was still hoping to be a teacher, Garcia responded: “Absolutely, teaching to me is something that comes so natural."
USA Today and TEGNA Broadcasting, a network of 42 local television stations including KING 5, graded all 50 states on how well they assess prospective teachers before granting them a credential.
Washington State earned a “B” grade – recognition that OSPI does background checks on all applicants and has laws on the books mandating that teacher misconduct be reported.
But Washington was faulted for not sharing all misconduct information with other states, and for not posting all information about teacher disciplinary actions online.
Oregon, meanwhile, earned an “A” grade, while Idaho got a “D” and Alaska received a “C.”