FAIRFIELD, Calif. — When a Fairfield school district fired veteran math teacher Jason Agan after an independent panel concluded he had sexually harassed female students, administrators believed they had protected students and permanently removed him from the classroom. Instead, California suspended his teaching credential for only seven days, allowing him to continue teaching at other schools.
That case became the centerpiece of a joint KQED-ProPublica investigation produced as part of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network that uncovered broader weaknesses in California’s educator disciplinary system, revealing that dozens of educators retained their credentials after school districts found they had engaged in sexual misconduct.
The reporting has prompted renewed calls for transparency in California, attracted the attention of state lawmakers and triggered a forceful response from the Trump administration, which has warned states that failures to address sexual misconduct could jeopardize federal education funding.
For communities across Northern California—including Fairfield, Davis, Sacramento and dozens of other school districts operating under the same credentialing system—the investigation raises broader questions about whether California’s laws adequately protect students while giving parents and hiring districts enough information to make informed decisions.
In an interview with the Davis Vanguard, KQED reporter Holly McDede and Senior Editor at ProPublica Tracy Jan described how a local investigation evolved into a statewide examination of California’s confidential teacher disciplinary process.
“Essentially that article came about as the result of this big push to get public records from school districts as part of a effort to understand how the state handles complaints of misconduct that are sent to them,” McDede said. “Within that batch of records, I got these records about a teacher named Jason Agan, a math teacher, a longtime math teacher at the school in the Bay Area in Fairfield.”
According to McDede, the Fairfield case stood out because the district prevailed in a difficult teacher dismissal proceeding after determining Agan had sexually harassed female students. An independent panel also found him unfit to teach.
“He ultimately was hired at two other schools,” McDede said. “I looked up his credentialing information on the teacher credentialing website and saw that his license had been suspended for seven days.”
The former superintendent who led the dismissal process told McDede she was stunned by the outcome after the district invested significant time and resources to remove the teacher.
McDede said the superintendent described “both her amazement and shock of being able to fire a teacher to go through this dismissal process because that is rare for a district to win.” After the state imposed only a brief suspension, McDede said, “she said that she was flabbergasted and she just couldn’t believe it.”
Agan did not grant an interview to ProPublica.
McDede said she and a photographer attempted to contact him at his residence but were unsuccessful.
“But in public records that we got, he does say that when he touched students, there was no sexual motivation and he only touched students to offer support and encouragement,” she said.
Although the Fairfield case served as the starting point, the reporting expanded well beyond one educator.
“What got me interested in this topic was in part because when it comes to teachers, like advocates for victims and people who’ve done work around protecting students, they’ve described this phenomenon as passing the trash,” McDede said. “That essentially refers to a problematic teacher resigning, getting rehired elsewhere. So that’s kind of been described by people, but I wanted to see if this was actually playing out in practice among teachers.”
After reviewing records obtained from approximately 300 of California’s largest school districts, the journalists found numerous examples suggesting that it was.
“Out of these records we had amassed from these school districts, we were able to find at least 67 cases where the state has not revoked the professional licenses of educators after school districts determined they had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct,” McDede said. “And within that, we also found that at least 14 of those educators had been rehired at other schools.”
Jan cautioned that the findings almost certainly understate the size of the problem because California’s licensing system provides little public access to disciplinary records.
“The 67, this is not a finite number obviously because that’s only the number of schools that responded to Holly’s records request to 300 of California’s largest school systems,” Jan said. “But even though we found at least 14 of them were actually rehired, the others have their educator’s license so they could presumably have the license to work.”
The reporters said California’s confidentiality laws create one of the largest barriers to understanding how educator misconduct is handled.
“The state licensing agency is prohibited by state law from releasing records,” McDede said. “There’s no central place where I can get these records. So it’s really a school by school effort.”
Jan described the situation as an unusual contradiction.
“It is ironic that the state law prohibits the teacher licensing agency from releasing the very records that Holly … filed public records requests with school systems and got,” she said.
According to McDede, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing told the reporters it is prepared to implement whatever changes lawmakers adopt but emphasized that existing confidentiality requirements are established by state law. The agency also argued that school districts already possess the tools necessary to make sound hiring decisions if they consistently use them.
The issue has begun attracting attention in Sacramento.
“There are efforts by lawmakers underway related to improving background checks,” McDede said. She noted that state Sen. Josh Becker publicly responded to the reporting and “said this is a problem and he’s going to see what he can do to change it.” She also said “the two leading candidates for governor have described this as a problem in response to our reporting.”
The investigation also caught the attention of the Trump administration.
On July 10, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued a seven-page “Dear Colleague” letter to state education leaders nationwide citing the KQED-ProPublica investigation and warning schools that failures to address sexual misconduct may violate federal law.
“Sexual predators who operate within the walls of American schools depend on institutional silence and complacency,” McMahon wrote. “Such silence is not only a moral failure but also violates federal law designed to protect our most defenseless class of citizens—our children.”
The guidance specifically referenced California.
“Recent reporting found at least 67 cases in California where the State has not revoked the professional licenses of educators after school districts determined they had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct,” the letter states. “According to the reporting, 12 of those teachers remain working in education.”
The Education Department warned that educational institutions receiving federal funding must comply with federal laws governing sexual misconduct investigations and stated that schools failing to meet those obligations could risk losing federal financial assistance.
McDede said she did not anticipate the investigation would become part of a national policy debate.
“Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, she sent out a memo to state school chiefs citing our reporting, specifically the 67 cases,” McDede said. She added that the administration “announced a crackdown on how schools handle misconduct around the country.”
Jan said many observers support stronger protections for students while questioning whether the administration’s response also serves broader political goals.
“I think there’s definitely outrage among the students and the parents of the victims,” Jan said. “But when I was reporting on the McMahon letter, there are a lot of people who think that the letter was an effort at political grandstanding … because who can argue against trying to crack down on predator teachers?”
Jan also described a concern raised repeatedly by sources she interviewed during her reporting.
“It is also ironic that the Trump administration is highlighting this issue while at the same time gutting the education department’s enforcement arm for civil rights cases,” she said.
The reporters noted that California differs from many other states in how much disciplinary information is made public.
“In California, there is no transparency,” Jan said. “Once you’re dinged, once you’ve been disciplined by the state teacher licensing agency, there’s a red flag that goes next to your name in the database, but there’s no details that show the public what happened.” She added that “there are at least 12 states” that publicly disclose the reasons educators have been disciplined.
McDede said the Commission has consistently pointed to California law as the reason for the secrecy.
“There are confidentiality restrictions and there is a process that’s specific to teachers in California that is different than other licensing agencies,” she said. “The teacher licensing agency has said to us … it would be a misdemeanor offense for them to share details related to that investigative process.”
Jan noted that other licensed professions are generally subject to greater public disclosure.
“If you’re a doctor or a nurse or police officer in California and you’re being disciplined, that is treated very differently than if you’re a teacher in terms of what details could be known to the public,” she said.
For parents, the lack of information can be unsettling.
“There was one parent who said something like, ‘Should I just look up all teachers’ credentials at my school and check if they have this red flag and then try to figure out why?'” McDede recalled.
“I think … more transparency would be helpful in that sense of not knowing is part of what is alarming.”
The reporting also prompted immediate responses from some families.
“There were two parents who had filed complaints with the school the same week the piece published, and one of those parents filed a Title IX complaint over it,” McDede said.
McDede encouraged parents to make use of California’s Public Records Act if they have concerns.
“Anyone, including parents, can request records from school districts,” she said. “If they have concerns about a teacher … parents can request those records.”
She also noted that California law requires school districts to ask previous employers whether an applicant has been the subject of complaints involving egregious misconduct.
“There is a state law in California that does require schools to ask every single previous employing school district if the teacher has had a complaint of egregious misconduct,” McDede said. “Schools are required to share those records.”
Jan questioned whether those requirements are consistently enforced.
“And no one seems to be enforcing this law,” she said.
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