The Utah State Board of Education voted 8-7 to ask state lawmakers to scrap the requirement that teacher misconduct complaints be investigated twice. The change would affect Granite School District, where state law currently requires allegations to go to both the district and a statewide review panel.
Under current law, when a misconduct allegation is filed against a teacher, both the local school district and the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission (UPPAC) review it independently. The board's narrow vote asks the Utah Legislature to eliminate that "double investigation" structure, leaving districts as the primary reviewers.
UPPAC is an 11-member panel of nine educators and two community members that investigates misconduct allegations statewide and recommends discipline to the state board, according to state education records. Penalties can range from written warnings to license revocation.
Board member Amanda Bollinger supported the change, citing a backlog of cases and wasted resources. "We absolutely want to make sure that we're investigating any reports from parents … but we want to make sure that we're using our money where we have a process that doesn't slow things down," Bollinger said, as reported by the Millcreek Journal.
Critics say the change would remove a safety net. Monica Wilbur, a former Utah teacher who ran for the state board, told KUTV that UPPAC's review catches cases that stall at the district level. She described a pattern of districts protecting their own employees, calling it "a circling of the wagons."
The vote followed a report published in April by board member Joseph Kerry, who chairs the board's law and licensing committee. Kerry found that UPPAC staff sometimes play multiple roles in a single case, with investigators who gathered facts later advocating against the educator in disciplinary hearings.
His report also found that UPPAC does not notify teachers when a complaint is filed, does not always record or transcribe investigative interviews and lacks a formal standard for deciding when to open a case.
"UPPAC is in need of reform and I believe that this report will inform not only the Board, but the Legislature, of the due process deficiencies within UPPAC," Kerry told the Salt Lake Tribune in April when the report was released.
More than 150 misconduct complaints have been filed with the state board over the past decade, the Millcreek Journal reported. Allegations have included verbal abuse, threats, racist and sexual comments and gender discussions without parental consent.
The board cannot repeal the law on its own. The request now goes to the Legislature. No hearing date has been announced. A separate UPPAC audit the board authorized in February 2026 was expected to take about 10 months, putting its expected completion around December.
