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Education Secretary Linda McMahon announces federal crackdown on school staff sexual misconduct
The Department of Education threatens to pull federal funding from school districts that reassign rather than terminate staff accused of sexual misconduct.
The short version
- Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced a federal effort to penalize school districts that reassign rather than fire staff credibly accused of sexual misconduct.
- McMahon warned that schools failing to meet federal safety and disclosure standards risk losing federal assistance.
- The policy shift follows federal scrutiny of the Los Angeles Unified School District over its reassignment procedures during sexual misconduct investigations.
Key facts
- Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced that the federal government is targeting school districts that reassign rather than terminate staff accused of sexual misconduct.[Fox News]
- McMahon cited a 2004 federal literature review indicating that approximately 10% of students in eighth through 11th grades reported experiencing sexual misconduct by an educator.[Fox News]
- Reporting by ProPublica and KQED showed that California's Commission on Teacher Credentialing did not revoke the licenses of at least 67 educators found by districts to have committed sexual misconduct between 2019 and 2025, leading to at least 14 being rehired by other districts.[Fox News]
- The Department of Education opened a Title IX investigation into the Los Angeles Unified School District regarding an agreement with the teachers union concerning staff reassignment procedures during misconduct probes.[Fox News]
- Schools that do not comply with federal requirements under Title IX and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act face potential loss of federal funding.[Fox News]
What remains uncertain
- The Department of Education and local officials dispute the definition of reassignment; LAUSD and the United Teachers of Los Angeles state reassignment involves removing employees from contact with students by sending them home while investigations take place, rather than moving them to other classrooms.[Fox News]