If a complaint has been filed against a licensed teacher, the Ethics Department of PELSB will conduct an inquiry which includes writing out to the licensed teacher to provide them an opportunity to respond to the allegations. A licensed teacher does not have access to the underlying, pending investigative file as that is confidential under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

Yes. Your license is still valid unless and until PELSB adopts disciplinary action that may affect the validity of your license.

It depends. If you are currently charged with an automatic-revocation offense, you are not able to be placed into a position that requires a teaching license until the criminal matter is resolved. Otherwise, if an Ethics inquiry is pending into an incident outside of a pending automatic-revocation charge, you are still eligible to be in the classroom while the inquiry is pending.

As part of this inquiry you are entitled to present your version of the facts surrounding the matter, any reasons or justifications for your actions, or any other documentation you care to offer before a decision is made. This can include a personal narrative, letters of recommendation, proof of completion of training or programming, or anything you believe the Ethics Committee should know when reviewing your file.

No. The Ethics Department cannot provide you with any legal advice and can only advise of the ethics processes generally. If you need legal advice, you may wish to seek our private legal counsel or legal counsel provided through relevant teaching union memberships.

It depends. PELSB may take action against a licensee for failure, without justifiable cause, to teach for the term of the teacher's contract. The first hurdle to this is whether or not the district the teacher leaves makes a report; some districts always report contract violations, some never report them. PELSB will not know if someone fails to teach for the term of their contract unless we receive a report, which is when the Ethics Department inquiry begins.

The second hurdle is what the language of the actual contract says. We solicit the contract from the district for the Ethics Committee's review. Terms vary about when and how notice can be given.

Finally, the statute has a failsafe for the licensee to show the Ethics Committee what justifiable cause they had to leave their contract. Some justifiable concerns may be the health and safety of the licensee but all purported justifiable reasons are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

The Ethics Committee then will review everything in the investigative file and make a recommendation. Every case is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. In the past, the Committee has recommended a wide range of disciplinary action for contract violations, which includes: (1) dismissing the complaint without discipline, (2) a stayed suspension (probation), or (3) a full suspension. The Committee also may issue a letter of censure or revoke a license. But every recommendation of discipline depends on the facts and circumstances of the specfic case. There is nothing in statute that requires PELSB to take a specfic kind of disciplinary action if someone violates the contract language of statute.

Keep in mind that this process can take over a year before any potential discipline would be final and the license would be valid during the pendency of any investigation.

Finally, there is no such thing as a district being able to "hold" or suspend a license. Districts have no ability to discipline a license or prevent a teacher from using their license. Only PELSB has that authority.