Legislation that will make it easier to track non-teaching school staff accused of abusing children has easily passed out of a state House committee.

House Bill 3261, by state Rep. Derrick Hildebrant, requires the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) to create and maintain a school-support employee database. Under the bill, each school-support employee will be issued a permanent identification number that will be included in the database along with the name, employing district, and position of the employee. School districts would be required to provide data for newly hired or newly terminated support employees within 30 days.

“Right now, there’s no way to consistently identify or track school-support employees statewide when they leave one district to seek employment at another,” said Hildebrant, R-Catoosa. “House Bill 3261 solves that problem by creating a single identification number issued by SDE for each support employee, allowing the same individual to be accurately identified across school districts.”

He noted that this will make it easier for investigators to track employees accused of misconduct.

“In my conversations with the lead investigator from SDE, there was no way for them to track support employees if they were to resign and move to another school,” Hildebrant said. “All teachers have a number that’s associated with their teacher certification, and that’s the number that’s used to track them. Support employees do not.”

By assigning school-support employees a similar ID number, Hildebrant indicated that state officials can keep track of accused or convicted abusers and prevent them from obtaining employment at multiple school districts.

In the past, there have been numerous instances where school officials have allowed teachers or staff to resign while under investigation for abuse of children. Because the resignation effectively ends a school’s investigation, the accused abuser was then able to obtain employment at another district without officials at the receiving district having any awareness of the prior allegations.

Hildebrant is among the lawmakers working to end that cycle.

In 2025, Hildebrant authored a similar measure, House Bill 1075, which requires schools to submit to the State Board of Education the findings of any investigation into a teacher or superintendent accused of student abuse, even if the teacher resigns mid-investigation. Any investigative findings substantiating abuse claims will be kept part of a teacher’s state record and can be referenced by other school districts when doing background checks.

While that bill became law, it did not address support employees because there was no system in place to track those employees, such as coaches, bus drivers, and janitors. HB 3261 addresses that loophole.

HB 3261 passed the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Education on a 10-0 vote. The bill now proceeds to the full House Appropriations and Budget Committee.