The head of Minnesota’s teacher licensing board says she’ll ask lawmakers to give the board more power to revoke the licenses of teachers accused of inappropriate behavior and to investigate people applying for licenses. 

Yelena Bailey says there's momentum for change at the Capitol driven by Hannah LoPresto, a woman who shared her story with MPR News.

“The bravery of Hannah … sharing and bringing attention to this, I think, reignites a desire on the part of some of our colleagues to want to come together and work on some of those process pieces,” said Bailey, executive director of the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board. “That at least gives us a platform to do some of that work.” 

Bailey said she’s talked with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office about "gaps in the system" to protect children after meeting with LoPresto.

‘Make it explicit’

The MPR News story examined state laws and procedures designed to prevent inappropriate relationships between teachers and students and raised questions about how well that system works.

In its reporting, MPR News obtained a public copy of an Eagan police investigative report that concluded Eagan High School music teacher Brett Benson had a “pattern of predatory grooming behaviors … with numerous students” going back a decade in two school districts. LoPresto was among those interviewed by the police.

Despite the information gathered during the nearly two-year police investigation, no criminal charges were ever filed. 

Benson, who denied he had behaved inappropriately, kept his teaching license in Minnesota until the end of 2024; he surrendered it after LoPresto contacted the teacher licensing board. In a statement, he denied any allegations of wrongdoing, calling them "replete with mischaracterizations, exaggerations, and false statements.”

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Among the proposed changes she’s seeking, Bailey wants to clarify Minnesota statutes that describe what districts are required to report to state licensing officials. 

Districts now must report to the licensing board when a teacher is fired, let go or resigns because of misconduct. Bailey wants the law to be clearer in stating that districts must also report when they simply choose to not renew the contract of a teacher who’s been disciplined. 

“Make it just explicit so there’s zero confusion about that, because we do see often districts will just not renew a contract, rather than firing someone or putting them on leave,” Bailey said. 

Even though public school districts and charter schools are required to report to the board in certain instances when misconduct is suspected, Bailey said many don’t. 

“It’s to the point where right now, I literally — anytime a news story comes through, I have staff, board members and our lawyers at the (attorney general’s) office all emailing to say, ‘Hey, did you guys get a report of this?’” she added. “That absolutely needs to change.”

That includes consequences “for the people who are entrusted with the power to protect our students,” Bailey said. 

“We see in these news stories what happens when you say, ‘Oh, I’m not going to do that reference check,’ or ‘Oh, I’m not going to report this,’” she added. “Ultimately, students pay the price, and that’s not OK. That’s never acceptable.”

When reviewing applications for licenses, Bailey said the board sometimes uncovers information suggesting a person should not be working with students, but the board isn’t allowed to make that information public. Bailey believes it should be required to do so. 

“We find that many folks, if they don’t get licensed by us, can still then go other places and find jobs in schools or working with children, and we’re not able to share, ‘Hey, we didn’t give this person a license because we found out this information,’ It’s not public,” she said. 

Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, said in a statement that while it couldn't take a position on the proposal without knowing all the details, it was “in discussions with stakeholders” and welcomed “proposals to help educators and administrators identify and report harmful behavior towards students.”

‘Help inform our work’

The Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board meets Friday to discuss its legislative priorities. On Dec. 12 the board will vote to formalize those priorities, which Bailey hopes will give her the support she needs to advocate for changes in the upcoming legislative session.

She said she is taking LoPresto’s ideas seriously and that she has her own suggestions  to help improve coordination with other agencies, including the Minnesota Department of Education and Minnesota Board of School Administrators.

Earlier this month, Bailey asked LoPresto to testify to members of the teacher licensing board’s legislative committee. LoPresto spoke about the changes she believes are necessary to strengthen the safety net of laws and policies designed to protect students in schools. 

She’s also talked to lawmakers about proposed legislative changes.

LoPresto said she wants to see lawmakers adjust statutes that outline what is needed for the licensing board to automatically revoke a teaching license. Currently, state law requires the board to revoke a teaching license if a teacher has been convicted of child abuse.

LoPresto believes the board shouldn’t have to wait for a criminal conviction.

“The important thing to note here is that not all victim-survivors choose to engage with the criminal justice system. Those that do often get their cases turned down,” LoPresto told lawmakers at a recent public meeting.

LoPresto wants the law to allow for automatic revocations when complainants can show substantiating evidence of abuse “regardless of the presence of a police report or a conviction.”

She also wants the teacher licensing board to have the ability to automatically suspend a teacher’s license and keep them out of classrooms while allegations of abuse are investigated. Investigations often take up to a year.

The licensing board receives hundreds of referrals regarding teacher misconduct or discipline in Minnesota each year. In the 2023-24 academic year, the agency reviewed almost 600 requests to revoke a teacher’s license, but fewer than half of those were licensee file reviews the board actually opened. 

In a typical year the board takes action on approximately 200 teaching licenses, a small percentage of the tens of thousands of educators licensed in the state.  

Unlike the Minnesota Department of Education, the board does not have the ability to investigate complaints. Bailey wants her board to have access to investigation data the Education Department has collected, not just the final results of an investigation. 

“If they are able to share their investigation files with us, it would help inform our work,” Bailey said. While the Education Department focuses on statutory definitions of maltreatment, “we might still find that a teacher acted unethically and take action on their license.”