Texas Senate bill seeks to expand access to state misconduct records after KXAN investigation

AUSTIN (KXAN) – A group of Texas lawmakers filed a bill on Thursday to expand access to state misconduct records. The move is in response to a KXAN investigation uncovering a former juvenile corrections officer who was able to work inside a Central Texas high school after a state agency investigated him for sexual misconduct.

Senate Bill 571 – filed by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston – will give contractors whose employees work on school campuses access to a state search engine with misconduct data from the Texas Education Agency, Juvenile Justice Department, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Family Protective Services. The search engine, which was greenlit by lawmakers in 2023, is still not complete. 

KXAN uncovered records showing by the time Isaiah Xavier Smith began tutoring on an Austin ISD campus in Sept. 2023, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General had already confirmed he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a youth. 

Smith is now facing indecency with a minor charge out of Travis County, related to his time tutoring at an Austin Independent School District campus, and charges out of Lee County related to his time at Giddings State School. 

AISD did not hire Smith. According to the district, he worked for the nonprofit Austin Partners in Education (APIE).  APIE’s director told KXAN Smith did not disclose his job history at TJJD or the on-going investigation. 

KXAN found the database where TJJD flags misconduct, including employees who are not eligible for rehire, is only accessible to other juvenile justice facilities. The Texas Education Agency, public and private schools, and educational nonprofits do not have access. 

“There’s been issues where contractors that have a really negative background, maybe even pedophilia, or whatever else, have been able to get access to school. We are trying to put an absolute halt to that,” Bettencourt said. “The reporting that you had [makes] it even more clear that we have to plug that gap.”

It’s not entirely clear what would have been in TJJD’s database following the agency opening an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Smith. 

Records show in 2022, weeks after being terminated Smith appealed the decision, and following a mediation, settlement agreement records show the Texas Juvenile Justice Department agreed to change Smith’s “termination,” which made him ineligible for re-hire, to a “resignation for personal reasons.”

The agency also agreed to reclassify Smith as “eligible for hire” in its Integrated Certification Information System, or ICIS — a database accessible to other county juvenile facilities that use it to check certification eligibility and other misconduct records.

TJJD officials told KXAN the settlement did not stop the investigation into Smith’s alleged sexual misconduct by its Office of Inspector General and that Smith was still “flagged” in the agency’s database. 

TJJD officials said the agency “would have been able to tell prospective employers Smith’s dates of employment and other information, depending on what they asked.”

Records show TJJD made Smith ineligible for rehire again in December 2023 after Smith was arrested and charged with indecency with a minor related to his time tutoring on an Austin ISD campus.