Child Welfare: Federal Agencies Can Better Support State Efforts to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Abuse by School Personnel
Highlights
What GAO Found
To help prevent the sexual abuse of students in public K-12 schools, 46 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia surveyed by GAO required background checks of applicants--such as teachers or bus drivers--seeking public school employment; however, the methods and sources varied widely. Forty-two states established professional standards or codes of conduct for school personnel, and 22 of those included information on appropriate boundaries between personnel and students. Although experts view awareness and prevention training on sexual abuse and misconduct as another key prevention tool, only 18 states reported in the survey that they require school districts to provide this training. However, two of six districts GAO visited provided training to school personnel, volunteers, and students in response to prior allegations of sexual misconduct by school personnel. These trainings covered a variety of topics, including recognizing the signs of abuse and misconduct.
According to GAO's survey, 46 states have laws that require school personnel to report child sexual abuse and designate the agency that investigates reports (local law enforcement and/or child protective services (CPS)), and 43 establish penalties for not reporting. In addition, school districts may have their own policies, which can sometimes create challenges. For example, three of the six school districts GAO visited have policies requiring suspected sexual abuse or misconduct to be reported to school administrators. Local investigative officials reported that such policies can be confusing, as they imply reports should only be made to school officials. This can result in a failure to report to the proper law enforcement or CPS authorities and interfere with investigations. For example, in one case study GAO reviewed, administrators pled guilty to failure to report suspected sexual abuse of a student by a teacher, who was later convicted of ten counts of abuse. Further, state and local officials told GAO that because different agencies can be involved with investigating reports of alleged child sexual abuse or misconduct for different reasons, each of the agencies' particular goals may lead to potential interference with another agency's investigation. In three of the four states GAO visited, law enforcement and CPS had developed methods, such as memorandums of understanding, to minimize this potential conflict and share information and expertise to resolve cases.
Relevant programs at the Departments of Education (Education), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice (Justice) have supported state and local efforts to address sexual abuse by school personnel through limited training, guidance on boundary setting, and funding for collaboration among entities responding to allegations. Federal internal controls state that agencies should ensure there are adequate means of communicating with and obtaining information from external stakeholders who have a significant impact on agency goals. Yet, more than 30 of the states that GAO surveyed were not aware of available federal resources. No single agency is leading this effort, and coordination among federal agencies to leverage their resources and disseminate information to assist state and local efforts is limited. Further, the prevalence of this type of abuse is not known. Although several federal agencies collect related data, none systematically identify the extent of sexual abuse by school personnel, and efforts to address this data gap are limited. Finally, Education’s regulations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) require schools to have procedures in place to protect students from sexual abuse by school personnel. However, local officials told GAO that Education’s guidance was limited and they are unsure about how to apply these requirements to cases of adult-to-student sexual abuse in K-12 settings.
Why GAO Did This Study
While all child abuse is troubling, sexual abuse by school personnel raises particular concerns because of the trust placed in schools. Federal laws prohibit sexual harassment, including sexual abuse, in federallyfunded education programs and set minimum standards for state laws on reporting suspected child abuse.
GAO was asked to review efforts to address child sexual abuse by school personnel. GAO examined: (1) states' and school districts' steps to help prevent such abuse, (2) their reporting requirements and approaches for investigating allegations, and (3) federal agencies' efforts to address such abuse. GAO reviewed relevant federal laws, regulations, and guidance; surveyed state educational agencies in 50 states and the District of Columbia; and visited four states and six of their districts. States were selected based on actions taken in response to past allegations of abuse. GAO interviewed state agencies, school districts, local law enforcement and child protective service agencies, and experts identified through a systematic literature review.
Recommendations
GAO recommends that Education collaborate with HHS and Justice to compile and disseminate information to states; identify a way to track the prevalence of sexual abuse; and that Education also clarify and disseminate information on how Title IX applies to personnel-to-student sexual abuse in the K-12 setting. Education and HHS provided technical comments and Education concurred with our recommendations. Justice had no comments.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Education | In order to help inform federal, state, and local initiatives to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse by school personnel, the Secretary of Education should lead an effort, in collaboration with the Secretary of HHS and the Attorney General, to leverage resources, expertise, and capacities across the departments to develop a comprehensive package of materials for states, districts, and schools that outlines steps that can be taken to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse by school personnel. For example, this could include compiling, assessing, and enhancing existing guidance, training materials, grant opportunities, and other resources. |
In June 2017, the Department of Education reported that the the Adult Sexual Misconduct (ASM) guide addressing policies and procedures and training related to ASM, among other things, was complete and posted on its Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center website for schools and school districts to use. The training guide is available free of charge and noted to also help support state education agencies in updating their emergency operation plans and/or related ASM policies and procedures.
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| Department of Education | In order to help inform federal, state, and local initiatives to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse by school personnel, the Secretary of Education should lead an effort, in collaboration with the Secretary of HHS and the Attorney General, to leverage resources, expertise, and capacities across the departments to determine the most cost-effective way to disseminate federal information so that relevant state and local educational agencies, child welfare agencies, and criminal justice entities are aware of and have access to it. |
In July 2018, the Department of Education (Education) reported that it took several steps to complete the federal dissemination plan for the new adult sexual misconduct guidance. For example, Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students (OSHS) issued the ASM Training Guide through its Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA) Center. OSHS and the REMS TA Center also hosted a working group with subject-matter expert practitioners and Federal partners to discuss the guidance; develop a new training on its content; and identify related resources and topics. In addition, OSHS and REMS hosted a related virtual training and a web chat via its Communities of Practice (CoP) portal, a collaborative of practitioners. Further, they conducted information dissemination and awareness activities related to the training guide. These efforts will help ensure awareness of available resources among relevant state and local education agencies, child welfare agencies, and criminal justice entities and inform federal, state, and local initiatives to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse by school personnel. GAO considers this recommendation closed.
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| Department of Education | In order to help inform federal, state, and local initiatives to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse by school personnel, the Secretary of Education should lead an effort, in collaboration with the Secretary of HHS and the Attorney General, to leverage resources, expertise, and capacities across the departments to identify mechanisms to better track and analyze the prevalence of child sexual abuse by school personnel through existing federal data collection systems, such as the School Survey on Crime and Safety, the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, and the National Crime Victimization Survey. |
In March 2018, the Department of Education (Education) reported that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was able to fund a 2018 data collection under the School Survey on Crime and Safety. Data collection began and the survey included an item on sexual misconduct between a staff member and a student. They also noted that any report on misconduct between staff and students would include whether or not the incidents occurred at school or away from school.
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| Department of Education | To help ensure that Title IX requirements to prevent and address sexual harassment, including sexual abuse and misconduct by school personnel against students, are carried out appropriately at public K-12 schools, the Secretary of Education should clarify and disseminate information on the roles and responsibilities of Title IX coordinators and more clearly emphasize that Title IX also applies to public K-12 schools and to cases involving school personnel-to-student sexual abuse and misconduct. For example, Education could update its existing Title IX guidance to specifically include information about adult-to-student sexual abuse and the applicability of Title IX to K-12 schools, examples of the types of behavior that may violate Title IX, and instructions on how to ensure school personnel can effectively carry out their responsibilities. |
In April 2014, Education released new guidance that provides answers to frequently asked questions about the role of the Title IX coordinator to oversee a school's response to Title IX complaints and identify and address any patterns revealed by such complaints, the required procedures to prevent and respond to complaints of sexual violence, and the protections afforded under Title IX regarding employee-on-student sexual violence and abuse.
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