Alaska raised the age of consent, and school districts have new duties

Conduct between a school employee and a 16-year-old student that was not a crime in June is now a felony sex offense in Alaska. Districts have to report it to law enforcement, notify the student's parents, and file a crime-of-violence report with the state.

The change came from an omnibus crime bill that took effect July 1, raising from 16 to 18 the age below which sexual conduct with an adult is criminal. It passed the Legislature nearly unanimously. Prime sponsor Rep. Chuck Kopp told a Senate committee the accompanying changes reflect "protecting children under the age of 18 rather than just children under 16," across more than two dozen criminal provisions.

The age gaps matter. Generally an adult commits an offense with a 16- or 17-year-old who is at least six years younger, and a new provision reaches an adult three or more years older. Where the adult holds a position of authority, which covers school staff, the gap narrows to two years. Conduct between students is not affected unless there is a six-year difference.

Attorney Clinton M. Campion laid out what this means for districts in a commentary for the Association of Alaska School Boards, naming a teacher's aide, a substitute teacher and a coach as the kinds of employees now covered. Staff who learn of such a relationship must report it under the state's mandatory reporting law, and students and staff could be interviewed and required to testify. Conduct on school grounds counts as a violent crime, giving parents the right to transfer the student and requiring the district to report it to the state education department.

The law also broadens the grounds for permanently revoking a teaching certificate and expands the offenses that disqualify someone from a school bus driver license.

How it will be enforced is an open question. Campion wrote that it is "unclear how Alaska's law enforcement agencies will enforce" the new age of consent, and told districts to update their reporting policies, student handbooks and staff training now.

Twenty-two fiscal notes were filed on the bill by the judiciary and by the departments of public safety, administration, law and corrections. The Department of Education and Early Development filed none.