OHIO SCHOOL BOARD COULD RELEASE TEACHER DISCIPLINE

(11/14/2007)
The Ohio State Board of Education has voted to require the education department to publicly release the reason any Ohio teacher is disciplined.

It also wants to create a policy for the automatic revocation of teacher licenses for convictions of serious crimes.

The policies were among nine recommendations that would tighten a teacher-discipline system that has been shrouded in secrecy.

The Ohio legislature must know approve the recommendations.

In West Virginia, virtually all county and state school officials decline to release public information regarding school employees, saying such information is a personnel issue.

They follow the advice of their attorneys.

It is generally not public information whether or not a teacher has been placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation -- or not confirming, as in a Calhoun case a few years ago, that a teacher was in jail, but being released each school day to teach classes.