“Passing the Trash” is a term used to describe the practice of allowing educators who have committed acts of sexual misconduct or other serious offenses to quietly leave their current employment and find new jobs in other school districts without the new employers being informed of their past misconduct.  

This practice enables these educators to continue working with children, often putting students at risk in their new positions. It is well known that this practice was widespread globally, and recently several US states have enacted specific laws targeting the practice of “passing the trash.”  

However, here is what a study on the subject found in May 2022: 

• While all states require prospective employers to conduct criminal background checks on educators, only 27 states require prospective employers to also check applicants’ employment history, eligibility and disciplinary status, according to a report published by the U.S. Department of Education. 
  
  
• Of those 27 states, 19 require employers to request information like personnel files and employment history from applicants’ current and former employers prior to hiring. 
  
  
• Only 11 of the 27 states require applicants to share any history regarding investigations or disciplinary actions related to sexual abuse or misconduct.  

So, “Passing the trash” is a term used in the US education system, but the problem cannot be addressed when it is sporadic, and also when there is actually no requirement in most states to obtain references and disciplinary status. The US federal/state system is perfect evidence of where complexity of different rules, makes it incredibly easy for mistakes to be made and for people to cross state borders and obtain new jobs in a school 2 miles over a state border, with no checks being made. 

We can parallel this complexity with the international education system, where there is ZERO requirement to obtain licensing information for example from the UK Teacher Regulation Agency register, or for that matter the regulatory authorities of any country.  

Data and statistical analysis is not available for many countries but we know from personal experience and anectodal examples from senior leaders in one large K-12 organisations who reported that out of 20,000 employees, at least 50 educators a year are dismissed for safeguarding breaches. Extrapolated across just the UAE education sector, that means over 300 employees a year could be leaving employment for safeguarding reasons, then obtaining new employment without the new employer knowing about previous allegations.