Credible Investigations of Employee Wrongdoing

LEGAL BRIEF

You receive an e-mail that puts a pit in your stomach. A beloved school district employee has been accused of misconduct that may warrant serious discipline. You know a quality investigation will be needed to determine what happened and to defend the district’s subsequent decisions.

Even if you do not perform the investigation yourself, you can still play an important role. You’ll want to stay engaged with the process to make certain the investigator proceeds in a manner that will serve the district’s needs. If you become aware of an investigation’s glaring weakness, be sure the issue is addressed before getting stuck with an unhelpful investigative report.

Here are four key steps to ensure a school district investigation is useful and defensible, no matter who performs it.