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OPC presents caseload and discipline data; board presses for credential‑level breakdowns
Summary
The Office of Professional Conduct reported 23,533 referrals in FY2025, 1,253 investigations opened and 1,146 dispositions; staff said criminal offenses dominate workload and the office is prioritizing currently practicing educators while Lean Ohio improvements aim to reduce backlog.
Kelly Edwards (Office of Professional Conduct) told the State Board that OPC received 23,533 referrals in the past fiscal year, opened 1,253 investigations and completed 1,146 dispositions. She said applications remain the largest referral source, but Ratback and district referrals are significant and that criminal offenses are the largest investigation category.
"We received a total of, 23,533 referrals, in this past fiscal year. We opened a total of 1,253 cases for investigation. We completed a total of 1,000, 175 investigations, and we had a total of 1,146 dispositions," Edwards said, describing the shift to fiscal‑year reporting to match licensure cycles. (Transcript text contains numeric formatting as presented.)
Key findings: OPC said it opened 409 investigations (snapshot during the presentation) and that 92% of open investigations come from three primary referral sources. The office reported 747 overall criminal offenses investigated (309 violent criminal offenses among them) and highlighted falsification of applications, physical altercations and inappropriate communications as frequent case types.
Policy and operations: OPC described intake protocols, monitoring of consent agreements, and wrapback enrollment and HIT notifications for individuals who interact with the justice system. The office is using Lean Ohio process work to reduce unripe referrals, put more logic into the application intake, and unflag educators in the system to prevent unnecessary case openings.
Board requests and follow up: Members asked for investigation counts broken down by credential group (e.g., teachers, pupil‑activity permit holders, educational aides and substitutes). Edwards said that data were not prepared for today’s presentation but that staff would provide it on request.
Next steps: OPC will return with additional data, continue Lean Ohio phase 2 focused on case management and pursue prioritization that places currently practicing educators ahead of inactive licensees in workload management.
