The filing of a complaint against an educator by any interested
party triggers the Department's review and investigation into the
misconduct. The complaints must be in writing on a form created by the
Department and must be made subject to the penalties associated with
unsworn falsification.
Educator Misconduct Complaints are filed with the Department of Education, which is responsible
for investigating and prosecuting the matter before the Commission.
Anonymous complaints are not accepted. It is the filing of the Notice of
Charges by the Department with the Commission that initiates the formal
adjudicatory process.
The Educator Discipline Act also requires local school entities to file
mandatory reports with the Department on: (1) any educator who has been provided
with notice of intent to dismiss or remove for cause, notice of removal
from eligibility lists for cause, or notice of intent not to reemploy
for cause; (2) any educator who has been arrested or convicted of any
crime that is graded a misdemeanor or felony; (3) any educator against
whom there are any allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual abuse or
exploitation involving a child or student (no longer requires
administrator to have reasonable cause to believe the allegations before
reporting); (4) any educator where there is reasonable cause to suspect
that he or she has caused physical injury to a child or student as the
result of negligence or malice; (5) any educator who has resigned or
retired or otherwise separated from employment after a school entity has
received information of
alleged misconduct under the Educator Discipline Act; (6) any educator
who is the subject of a report filed by the school entity under 23
Pa.C.S. Ch. 63 (relating to child protective services); and (7) any
educator who the school entity knows to have been named as a
perpetrator of an indicated or founded report under 23 Pa.C.S. Ch. 63.
All reports must be filed with PDE within 15 days of discovery.
In addition, all educators under the jurisdiction of the Commission
must file a mandatory report with PDE whenever they know of any conduct
or inaction of another educator which may constitute sexual misconduct
or sexual abuse or exploitation. The educator must also report the
misconduct to their supervisor and to the chief school administrator.