Nebraska Adopts Key SESAME Act Protections to Strengthen Student Safety

New law targets "passing the trash," strengthens hiring safeguards, and builds on Nebraska's earlier efforts to address grooming in schools.

For years, survivors, parents, and advocates have asked a simple question:

Why is it so difficult for schools to know when a job applicant has a history of sexual misconduct allegations or boundary violations involving students?

Too often, the answer has been a culture of silence.

An educator resigns quietly. A settlement agreement limits what can be disclosed. References are vague. Personnel records disappear behind confidentiality agreements. The individual moves on to another school, another district, or another state.

The practice has become so common that advocates have a name for it: "passing the trash."

Nebraska lawmakers have taken an important step toward stopping it.

As part of the state's omnibus education bill, LB 937, Nebraska enacted provisions modeled after the SESAME Act, legislation designed to prevent individuals with histories of sexual misconduct from moving undetected between schools. While the measure was not passed as a standalone child-protection bill, it incorporates several of the most important safeguards that advocates have long championed.

The law applies broadly to public schools, private schools, denominational schools, and parochial schools—recognizing that children deserve the same protections regardless of where they attend school.

A Stronger Hiring Process

One of the most significant changes involves employment screening.

Under the new law, applicants seeking positions involving regular contact with students must disclose whether, within the previous seven years, they have been the subject of investigations, disciplinary actions, resignations, nonrenewals, license actions, or other employment consequences related to child abuse, neglect, or sexual misconduct.

Schools are then required to verify portions of that employment history with prior employers and investigate concerns that arise during the hiring process.

The legislation also establishes penalties for applicants who knowingly provide false information. Individuals who intentionally misrepresent their employment history may face civil penalties of up to $500.

These requirements create a more thorough screening process and make it more difficult for individuals to conceal relevant misconduct histories when seeking employment in schools.

Addressing Institutional Secrecy

Perhaps the most important provision is one aimed directly at institutional cover-ups.

The law prohibits agreements intended to suppress, conceal, destroy, or expunge information related to child abuse or sexual misconduct investigations. Schools may not use employment agreements, resignation agreements, severance agreements, or other arrangements to prevent reporting or erase records connected to misconduct allegations.

This provision strikes at the heart of a longstanding problem in child protection.

For decades, institutions across multiple sectors—including schools, religious organizations, youth-serving organizations, and athletic programs—have sometimes prioritized reputation management over transparency. When information about misconduct is hidden, children become more vulnerable.

By prohibiting agreements designed to bury information, Nebraska has taken a meaningful step toward preventing the type of secrecy that allows offenders to move from one institution to another without accountability.

In other words, Nebraska is addressing one of the primary mechanisms that enables "passing the trash."

Building on Earlier Reform

Nebraska's action did not come out of nowhere.

In 2020, the state enacted legislation recognizing grooming behavior as a reportable disciplinary offense for educators. While the law stopped short of criminalizing grooming, it acknowledged an important reality that child protection experts have understood for years:

Sexual abuse rarely begins with sexual abuse. The abuse starts with grooming. Grooming is abuse.

Predators often test boundaries, cultivate special relationships, isolate students, create secrecy, and gradually normalize inappropriate behavior long before sexual abuse occurs.

By making grooming a reportable disciplinary matter, Nebraska recognized that prevention requires intervention before abuse escalates.

The new employment-screening provisions build on that foundation by helping schools identify concerning histories before hiring decisions are made.

Progress—With Important Limitations

Nebraska's legislation represents meaningful progress, but it is important to understand what the law does and does not do.

The employment-history review requirements generally apply to conduct occurring within the previous seven years. While that lookback period is a significant improvement over many existing hiring practices, advocates may continue to debate whether longer disclosure periods would provide additional protection.

Likewise, the law focuses on screening, transparency, and accountability. It does not criminalize grooming behavior or replace the need for robust prevention training, mandatory reporting systems, ethical-boundary education, and strong school cultures that prioritize student safety.

No single law can solve the problem of educator sexual misconduct.

But laws can close loopholes.

They can make secrecy more difficult.

They can help schools make better hiring decisions.

And they can create systems that identify risk before children are harmed.

A Model Other States Should Watch

Nebraska's adoption of key SESAME Act protections reflects a growing recognition that preventing educator sexual misconduct requires more than responding after abuse occurs.

Effective prevention means building layers of protection:

• Better screening

• Better reporting

• Better transparency

• Better training

• Better accountability

When those safeguards work together, schools become safer.

Nebraska has strengthened several of those layers. The question now is whether other states will follow.

Because the issue is not whether educator sexual misconduct occurs. We know it does.

The question is whether our systems are designed to prevent it.

Nebraska has taken another meaningful step toward answering that question with action.

Learn More

NCSESAME continues to advocate for policies that strengthen prevention, improve transparency, and stop educator sexual misconduct before children are harmed.

To learn more about the SESAME Act and other legislative reforms, visit our Legislative Advocacy and SESAME Act Resource pages.