A Standard of Care for the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct by School Employees

ABSTRACT

This article describes the development of a standard of care for the prevention of adult to student sexual abuse in pre K-12 schools. Standard of care is not a phrase often used in educational practice, and yet, it is a legal concept that may be useful for school administrators. A sample of administrators, child sexual abuse specialists, and attorneys with experience in school employee sexual misconduct responded to 101 items that the literature indicates should be included in a standard of care. There was agreement on 94 of these items by sample participants. Categories of the standard of care were policies, hiring process, hiring screening, hiring interview, training, and reporting. Where there was disagreement by role of respondent, attorneys, child sexual abuse specialists, or both rated the item as more important for inclusion than did administrators.     

Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of PreK-12 Students by School Personnel

ABSTRACT

The abuse of students by PreK-12 school personnel continues to be a multifaceted issue that affects students, staff, parents, and communities at an alarming rate. This two-part special issue builds on the dated and limited literature in this topic area and includes qualitative and quantitative research on prevalence, victim and offender characteristics, barriers to prevention, and frameworks and standards for prevention. Together these articles highlight the need for systematic data collection, policy implementation, accountability, and training and awareness. The findings from these articles provide specific practices that schools can adopt and follow to prevent school employee sexual misconduct.