Recently, it has been brought to the forefront by local activists, parents, and citizens that the GA Professional Standards Commission has not been doing their job...
Recently, it has been brought to the forefront by local activists, parents, and citizens that the GA Professional Standards Commission has not been doing their job.
The GA Professional Standards Commission is the State appointed body that oversees ethics complaints against the education system, such as current complaints by several parents regarding abuse of special needs children.
Parents are concerned that the PSC doesn't enough investigators, doesn't meet in a timely manner, and doesn't handle the complaints which have been brought to them in a timely fashion. The questions is who’s time frame? That of the activist group, and parents or that of the PSC's time frame, which happens to be governed by the law.
Well, curiosity got the best of this writer, so I called the office of the PSC, requesting an interview. To my surprise I was granted an honest and open discussion with Gary Walker, Ph.D., Director, Educator Ethics Professional Standards Commission. I was expecting that with some of my questions that I would be considered hostile and turned down. Quite the contrary - It was a pure pleasure to talk with Mr. Walker.
Now for the story.
Question:
"As you know sir, there have been some Forsyth activists and parents expressing their opinions that PSC is just not getting the complaints investigated in a timely manner, that you have a limited staff, some of your staff is listed in a legal proceeding against Forsyth County School System, and PSC doesn't meet enough to handle all the cases presented to your office by the schools in the state of Georgia. (Breathe). What do you have to say about these charges?"
Walker, with a little laughter, "let’s start by me explaining the process of handling complaints..."
A school board or any resident of the state of Georgia can file a complaint against an educator. The rules are "If you feel a violation has occurred you should file a complaint."
Complaints are things like hitting a child, educators convicted of a crime, or testing issues, as well as many other things. Once the claims are received and dated they are reviewed, placed in separate piles by complaints and information redacted i.e.. School District, educator’s name and students name, made ready for the next meeting of the Commissioners.
The Commissioners meet once a month on the second Thursday of the month, except in the month of August there is no meeting. There are 18 Commissioners all who are appointed by the Governor. This group of 18 includes educators, school board members, and business leaders.
Once each complaint is reviewed by the commissioners, they make the decision on how it should be handled. A complaint can be sent back to the school board for handling or for more information, found to have no merit or probable cause can be found to sanction the educator. Cases to be investigated are assigned to one of the seven investigator by the PSC Chief Investigator.
An investigation can take up to two months. Some cases take longer due to the complexity of the claim. After the investigation is completed the report is brought back to the commissioner for determination of whether or not action should be taken against the educator’s certificate.
Various punishments can be handed down from a warning or reprimand to a suspension of two day to 3 years or revocation. Educators do have a right for an appeal. If there is no probable cause to the claim the complaint is sealed and expunged. Walker stated, he is hoping to get approval to shred the sealed and expunged complaints as they take up a lot of space and cannot be used.
An interesting note is that there are two sub-committees, an Educator Ethics Review Committee and an Educator Preparation Committee. Each committee has nine members and they recommend actions to the full commission. Cases involving a sanction that is appealed are forward to the State District Attorney’s Office.
Walked said, "there are complaints pending against educators in the Forsyth County School System and other school systems in GA." He also, confirmed that an investigator has been listed in a case against the local school system, but could not make anymore comments regarding that case due to it ongoing litigation. He added, "the department is handing the complaints within the appropriate time frame, what the parents don’t understand is if the complainant isn’t getting the right information in on the complaint, it is very hard for the commissioners to get a clear picture of the charges.".
Walker finished by stating that the most important thing to remember is that the department is here for the children.