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Committee advances bill creating grooming offense, expanding reporting and look-back window for school investigations
Summary
The committee recommended House File 3489, which would create a crime of grooming, require licensing boards be notified of criminal charges against teachers, expand mandatory-reporter training, and allow the Department of Education to investigate grooming reports beyond three years; an amendment included about $1.2 million to add investigative capacity.
The Senate Finance Committee on May 12 recommended passage of House File 3489, a bill the sponsor described as a response to a high-profile case and years of advocacy. The measure would create a criminal offense for grooming, require licensing boards be notified when a teacher is criminally charged with grooming, and update mandatory-reporting training to address higher-risk environments.
Sponsor Senator McQuaid said the A9 amendment clarifies grooming’s definition and narrows the bill’s extended look-back authority to grooming — allowing the Department of Education to investigate alleged reports of grooming made beyond the current three-year window. “In section 4, we will add language to say that the Department of Education can investigate alleged reports of grooming made after 3 years,” the sponsor said.
Eric Naumann, committee fiscal staff, said the amendment contemplates an additional appropriation of about $1,200,000 to the Department of Education; department witnesses told the committee they expect grooming investigations to be more time intensive and estimated the amendment would require approximately 5–6 additional investigators (the original fiscal note’s estimate was 5.5 FTEs). Department staff described current workloads of roughly 60 active cases per investigator and said best practice for complex grooming investigations is closer to 30 cases per investigator.
Senators asked how the appropriation would be used; the sponsor and staff said it would fund additional investigators and intake capacity and that the amendment includes language to prevent duplicate appropriations if the amount is enacted elsewhere.
Senator Friend moved HF3489, as amended, to be recommended to pass; the motion prevailed on a voice vote. The committee record shows adoption of the A9 amendment and the bill advancing to the next stage.
Next steps: The bill was recommended to pass out of the Senate Finance Committee and will proceed to the full Senate for further consideration.
