5.18.26
“Tools To Identify Teacher Misconduct in Texas”
From Donna Garner
[COMMENTS FROM DONNA GARNER – I was a Texas educator for more than 33 years.
In days gone by, sometimes lazy students would get together to try to get a “hard” teacher fired.
School administrators and school boards had to be very insightful to figure out whether the allegations made by the students were fabricated or legitimate.
Unfortunately, much has changed now; and because of the high incidence of child abuse and molestation in our society today, any and all allegations against school personnel have to be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.
Yes, there are still innocent, hard-working school personnel who are being accused falsely; and they must be protected from lies, misunderstandings, and/or false claims made against them.
Thankfully, the Texas Legislature has passed some good laws which lay out structure and added funding to protect the innocent but also to ferret out offenders.
Texas Commissioner of Education Morath and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) have now put legitimate, new systems, and personnel in place to evaluate each complaint.
Please read the following Texas Scorecard article very carefully.
The article contains various internet links to websites that lay out the careful, well-thought-out procedures through which the public can provide their information in a timely manner to designated personnel.]
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5.6.26 – Texas Scorecard
“Texas Unveils Expanded ‘Do Not Hire’ Tool for Teachers”
The new search engine combines misconduct data from multiple state agencies to streamline background checks of prospective school employees.
By Erin Anderson
Excerpts from this article:
https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-unveils-expanded-do-not-hire-tool-for-teachers/
The new search engine combines misconduct data from multiple state agencies to streamline background checks of prospective school employees.
Another new tool is now available to help protect Texas children from educator misconduct.
As of May 1, the Texas Education Agency is now connected to the Search Engine for Multi-Agency Reportable Conduct (SEMARC), a pre-screening tool that incorporates data from multiple sources including the state’s Do Not Hire Registry of individuals ineligible to work in a Texas public school.
The centralized database is designed to streamline background checks for previously reported abuse, neglect, exploitation, or other misconduct.
SEMARC information can be used to determine an individual’s suitability for employment, volunteer roles, contracts, certifications, or licensure.
“By bringing together reportable conduct data in a single, secure system, SEMARC strengthens how participating Texas agencies protect children and other vulnerable populations,” a news release stated.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) was the first agency to use SEMARC in live operations earlier this spring, followed by TEA’s launch this month.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the Health and Human Services Commission will be added in the coming months.
SEMARC was created in response to legislation enacted in 2023 as Senate Bill 1849.
…there was no centralized source of data to ensure Texas schools do not hire “bad actors” with demonstrated histories of harming children.
By integrating the four agencies’ reportable conduct registries into a single system, SEMARC fills a gap to ensure that “individuals with a substantiated history of misconduct in one system cannot gain access to vulnerable populations elsewhere.”
EXAMPLES FROM VARIOUS SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Several recent examples demonstrate how an integrated system can benefit school districts.
Coach Jonathan Cruz worked in Fort Worth Independent School District when he was reported to CPS in January 2024 for alleged abuse.
Since the report, Cruz was hired to work in Arlington ISD and then Round Rock ISD.
Cruz was arrested on May 4 for injury to a child, elderly, or disabled person—just weeks after Round Rock hired him away from Arlington, as noted by local education watchdog Mary Bone.
The arrest warrant was issued in April 2026 pursuant to the CPS complaint made two years earlier.
Elgin ISD hired Turran Cortez Fennix as a middle school teacher and dance coach without discovering he had been barred from working at TJJD facilities after being accused of misconduct while a youth development coach.
In 2025, Fennix was arrested and charged with improper relationship between educator and student after allegedly touching and video-recording a male student during sleepovers at the teacher’s home.
According to a report by Bayliss Wagner, Elgin ISD said the district followed “all appropriate steps” when hiring Fennix but would not have hired him if they knew about his past.
Atlanta ISD hired teacher and coach Taureaus Maxwell, even though he had been fired from his job as a county probation officer due to allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior.
Maxwell lied on his application, yet the district did not verify with his past employer.
In 2024, Maxwell was sentenced to 60 years in state prison for sexually abusing multiple male students in the district.
District officials there also said they would not have hired the teacher if they had known about his past.
With SEMARC in place and properly utilized for reporting and hiring, incidents like these can be avoided.
NEW WEBSITE TOOL FROM TEA
Last month, the TEA rolled out another new transparency tool: an interactive Educator Misconduct Reporting Dashboard.
The dashboard displays publicly available data on the number and types of misconduct reports submitted to TEA, cases under review, SBEC disciplinary actions, and the number of individuals placed on the Do Not Hire Registry.
“It’s one of the big projects that we’re doing to increase transparency,” said TEA’s new Inspector General for Educator Misconduct Levi Fuller.
“We don’t want to hide anything.”
MORE THAN 10,000 MISCONDUCT REPORTS IN 2025-26 SCHOOL YEAR
The dashboard shows that so far in the 2025-26 school year, TEA has received more than 10,000 misconduct reports—an average of 1,550 a month.
The largest number of reports involve in-school violence—adult staff physically harming students.
The second-largest number of complaints accuse educators of sexually abusing or grooming students.
VERY HELPFUL LINKS
Texas Scorecard has reported on hundreds of Texas school employees accused of sex crimes involving students and other children and maintains a map of known educator sexual misconduct arrests.
Thousands of Texas educators have been reported to the TEA for physical and sexual misconduct.
TOOLS FOR REPORTING TEACHER MISCONDUCT
SEMARC -- https://semarc.texas.gov/
TEA PUBLIC REGISTRY SEARCH -- https://tealprod.tea.state.tx.us/ECOS-External/DNH
TEA EDUCATOR INVESTIGATIONS IN TEXAS -- https://tea4avcastro.tea.state.tx.us/edconduct/reporting.html
TEXAS SCORECARD’S -- ACCUSED OF SEXUAL CRIMES -- https://texasscorecard.com/tag/bad-apples/
TEXAS SCORECARD’S EDUCATOR SEXUAL MISCONDUCT MAP -- https://texasscorecard.com/educator-sexual-misconduct-map/
MORE INFORMATION
2.4.26 – “Texas Appoints First Inspector General for Educator Misconduct” -- By Erin Anderson – Texas Scorecard -- https://donnagarner.org/2-4-26-tx-appoints-first-inspector-general-for-educator-misconduct-by-erin-anderson-texas-scorecard/
6.20.25 -- SB 571 –EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY -- https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB571