Can You Be a Teacher in Arizona With a Misdemeanor?  | Arizona Teachers

Can a teacher teach in Arizona if they have a misdemeanor conviction? 

The answer is potential. 

First, suppose you were arrested, convicted, or sentenced for a misdemeanor. You will have to disclose this on your employment contract with your school—any application or renewals for a certificate or license to teach in Arizona.

Say you’re arrested and convicted during a school year after receiving your teaching license. You’ll need to also report that to the State Board of Education and your school district.

So, can you teach if you have a misdemeanor? The answer is potential.

However, if your misdemeanor includes:

• Abuse of a child
• It involves a child
• The child was in danger
• The child was a victim of the crime

Anything like that, no, you’re not likely able to teach. The state board would open an investigation. They may conduct a hearing with the Professional Practices Advisory Committee, but certain specifications exist.

Consequences of Offenses Involving a Child

The State Board of Education stipulates that you receive a conviction for a crime if there are findings. A conviction that a child was a victim or endangered because of your offense. Then no, you cannot teach. You will likely undergo revocation of your teaching license or grant, which will be impossible for you to teach. 

The other thing to consider is if you get convicted of a misdemeanor involving a child in a different state. Then, you still must disclose that.

Arizona does not acknowledge expungement. It would help if you kept that in mind. If it was a state and got deleted, it could still affect you here in Arizona.

Suppose that the state statute for the crime or your misdemeanor conviction specifies anything where you:

• Endangered a child
• Abused a child, the victim of the crime

Then no, you won’t be able to have a teaching certificate. They would not grant you one here in the state of Arizona. Suppose you currently have one. Then, it would likely go to a hearing with the Professional Practices Advisory Committee. And if they found that that was the case, certainly there’ll be revocation of your license.

Disclosing Offenses that May Affect Your Teaching Certification

Suppose this misdemeanor did not involve children. They were not the victim. It wasn’t a violent crime, and it’s something you want to disclose. As I said, Arizona does not recognize expungement. That’s even if you were in another state where it gets deleted. 

So, it’s likely that it could come up on a background check. So, you need to disclose all of that. Again, the board would open an investigation if it got concerns about its considered immoral or unprofessional conduct.

There may be a hearing or discipline, or they may not grant your teaching certificate. You want to be careful whenever you’re filling out your applications. Suppose you’re ever arrested or charged. In that case, you want to let the state board, the school you’re applying for, or currently working at know.

Mainly, at the school level, your employment contract or teacher policy handbook will specify that you must inform the school if you are:

• Ever arrested
• Convicted
• Charged with a misdemeanor.

Other Blogs of Interest

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• Arizona Teacher Certificate Discipline Options
• Disciplinary Actions for Arizona Teachers

Arizona Teacher Unprofessional Conduct Dismissal

What is unprofessional or immoral conduct for a teacher in Arizona?

School districts and the State Board of Education often use it when deciding to discipline a teacher.

So, what is unprofessional or immoral conduct? Arizona regulation R7-2-1308 defines what unprofessional or immoral conduct is. There are 15 things listed. They’re a catchall. The last item on there is number 15. It says any conduct that would harm the teaching profession is unprofessional.

I can go through each of those, but we could start with misappropriating funds. Suppose you’re using money given by the state or federal government. You’re not using them as you should or taking them for your gain. In that case, that’s unprofessional or immoral conduct. 

Then you can go into any alleged abuse against a student. That could mean: 

• Verbal
•  Emotional
•  Physical
•  Sexual abuse

Any of those that would fall in that category is unprofessional or immoral.

One popular thing I see from clients nowadays is when a teacher breaks the contract mid-year. They ask to be released. The school district says no, there’s a requirement to stay, but they break their contract. It can be immoral or unprofessional conduct.

Unprofessional Conduct for Teachers

It also includes substance abuse issues, even outside of the classroom. Suppose it would affect students’ well-being, safety, or health. Then, it would be unprofessional or immoral conduct.

Next, getting impaired while at school under the influence of alcohol and drugs is on the list. You may not consider if you misrepresent or lie on any documents, records, or applications. That comes into consideration. 

Unprofessional conduct mainly focused on students. However, staff, parents, and fellow teachers could commit unprofessional conduct. So, you want to keep that in mind. Again, the catchall is anything that would endanger or discredit the teaching profession. That’s the presentation of the statement of the regulation. A school district can investigate if they reasonably suspect that unprofessional conduct occurred. 

They get a mandate to report. It makes them disclose any of that to the following:

• Legal authorities
•  Child protective services
•  State Board of Education

The latter would then conduct their investigation.

Examples of Arizona Teacher Misconduct

What are the different types of teacher misconduct within the state of Arizona?

I’m mainly speaking about educators K-12 and the public school setting here in Arizona, also charter schools in some private schools. So, what is teacher misconduct? 

The easiest way to define teacher misconduct is to have you look at your employment contract. Sometimes it specifies it there. Any teacher handbook or policies within your school will likely spell out every scenario you can. They can’t deal with students, staff, and parents outside of school. And so, if you follow those policies and understand them clearly. They will not likely consider you to have done anything that would be misconduct.

Again, start with your employment contract, handbook, or anything the school committee provided you that explains it. You also can look at the State Board of Education here in Arizona. They have regulations on what is unprofessional conduct, what is misconduct, and what you can and can’t do with students. And the list goes on from there. So, those are the first two places to look for examples. 

Misconduct would also be anything that threatens the health and safety of the students. That’s the school’s number one priority, as it should be. 

And so, anything that threatens their safety or security is misconduct. Any of the following: 

• Physical
•  Mental
•  Emotional
•  Sexual abuse

Anything like that. That’s misconduct.

When a Misconduct Gets Confusing

It gets confusing when there are interactions with parents about students’ cultural differences. The area might get a little gray. Again, look at the school’s policies to see if they have guidelines on this type of communication or actions and if that falls within the misconduct range. 

Another thing teachers forget to consider is that misconduct can also be with other staff. Examples of that may be different types of verbal interactions. It could be sexual harassment. Those are forms of misconduct. 

And even further, a teacher’s actions outside of school can also be misconduct. And what I mean by that is the most common examples I would say probably are a DUI, domestic violence, and arrest assault. The list goes on from there. 

But suppose you’re committing severe crimes or arrested outside the classroom, even on time. In that case, it’s still misconduct. So, you want to be careful. I know it’s hard being an educator. You always want to do your best, but you want to ensure you’re familiar. 

Advantages of Being Familiar With School Policies

I keep saying this, but be familiar with all the school’s policies on what you can and can’t do in the classroom. That way, there are no surprises. Suppose a school thinks you have done something classified as misconduct. Then, they’re likely to open an investigation. They’ll give you notice of this. And then you’re likely put on administrative leave. It can be paid or unpaid. Then, the school will investigate whether this misconduct affects student safety or security.

If they find that it rose to the level of misconduct, they may ask you to resign as a teacher. It may terminate you. It may wait until the end of the school year; they may do it immediately. It depends. There’s a scale. 

Also, schools act as mandated reporters, so especially if it’s anything about a student, they are very likely to report you to the State Board of Education. So, there may be an investigation for your license. Local authorities, like local police departments, may open an investigation. The department of child services may also be notified and start to investigate. Again, misconduct is a scale. There are mitigating circumstances around it. 

So, you want to be very careful handling it if there are any misconduct allegations. I always recommend advising an attorney. Suppose you do not have one to represent you during the whole process with the school committee. Then, protect yourself, and know your rights and what you can and can’t do.

Arizona Teacher Discipline Guidelines

What do the discipline guidelines with the Arizona State Board of Education include?

Suppose a teacher undergoes disciplinary action against their license. In that case, there are categorized guidelines from the board for what discipline. 

Immoral, unprofessional conduct is comprehensive, so they break it down. It might be breaking your teaching contract with your school and criminal offenses outside school. It could be DUI or assault, or things like that. Then, it goes even further if you’re impaired while at school, which might be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It breaks those all down into those general disciplinary categories for teachers.

It will also discuss if you come to a settlement agreement, so you agree on finding facts and conclusions of the law.

If you contest the discipline or the accusations against you, you’ll go before the Professional Practices Advisory Committee. They would make a finding of facts and conclusions of law. You would put on evidence. If you would like, you can also examine witnesses, and legal counsel can represent you—this kind of breaks it all down. Then within those categories, it’s going to list what the presumed discipline is. 

The Four Basic Types of Discipline

The state board of education has four basic types of discipline. Those are:

• Letter of censure
• Suspension
• Suspension with conditions, or
• Revocation.

Now, those are the four categories of discipline. However, the board or the Professional Practices Advisory Committee will consider aggravating and mitigating circumstances. 

Aggravating circumstances may be going to count against you. Have you been disciplined in the past? Was it for a similar offense? Things like that. Those are going to be aggravated circumstances. They’ll count charges against you. 

Mitigating circumstances are going to help you. So, have you ever had any prior discipline? If you haven’t, that could be a mitigating circumstance. What were the events around the allegations? If you broke your contracts, why did you do that?

Was there a good reason? Are you leaving the teaching profession or getting hired for a better position? The list goes on and is very vague, but you can use your facts to your advantage to try to help mitigate that discipline. 

Again, these are presumptive guidelines, which means they’re guidelines. So, you will hopefully use all the circumstances and facts to help your case.