BLOOMINGTON - School officials who suspect a teacher may have engaged in inappropriate behavior will be required to pass along those concerns with full immunity from legal action, if state Rep. Dan Brady has his way.

The Bloomington Republican is working on several proposals to protect children from predators, including a law that could open the door for school officials to share suspicions about a teacher with officials in another school district that is considering hiring that instructor.

"We're pulling out all the stops on this one. I suspect it will be controversial, but that's OK. I am certainly willing to be controversial when it means protecting a child," Brady said.

The measure, House Bill 3170, would require school officials to report any suspected abuse of a minor by a current or former employee to a school district that requests job performance or qualification information. Failure to do so could lead to criminal and civil penalties: The first offense is a Class A misdemeanor that could mean a year in jail; subsequent failures would be Class 4 felonies punishable by up to three years in prison.

The abuse outlined in the bill, which is pending in the General Assembly, includes sexual offenses, physical injury and giving a controlled substance to a minor.

"We're not talking about suspicions of being late for work or suspicion of being a bad teacher. We're talking about improprieties with a child," Brady said.

Brady said he took into consideration comments from parents concerned about allegations made against Jon Andrew White, a former Unit 5 teacher accused of molesting two Twin City first-graders during the 2004 school year, and later with molesting nine students at the Thomas Paine School in Urbana.

"Parents out there want to know, 'How do these things happen? Explain it to us,'" he said.

A Unit 5 school district official acknowledged the current environment in the education community makes it difficult if not impossible to pass along concerns about a teacher. Sometimes what is left unsaid can be as important as what is said during employment inquiries, said John Pye, assistant superintendent of operations and human resources for Unit 5.

"In the majority of cases, we would tell them what position the teacher held and how long they were employed by us. Depending upon the circumstances with the individual, our review of them as an employee would stop right there," Pye said.

When asked if experienced administrators sometimes are forced to read between the lines during employment checks, Pye said "in some cases, yes," adding the threat of a lawsuit also is a consideration.

"I think probably litigation is in the back of people's minds all the time," Pye said.

Unit 5 Superintendent Alan Chapman said he has discussed the proposed bill with Brady, but the school board has not taken a position on it.

"Our concern is always for student safety, and anything that would promote safety is something we would be in favor of," Chapman said, noting the language in the bill's final version should protect students and teachers.

"I don't think anyone wants to be required to pass along suspicions that are either unfounded or proven to be unfounded,'' Chapman said.

Two other pieces of pending legislation address what Brady considers loopholes in the existing child protection system.

w House Bill 3512 would mandate court and police records relating to the arrest of a school employee for a sex offense be forwarded to the school district where the employee works. It was drafted after consultation with local police, prosecutors, Bloomington's Children's Advocacy Center and school officials, he said.

According to Brady, the proposed notification law was sparked by the arrest last year of a Unit 5 bus driver on sex charges unrelated to his job. After his arrest, the driver continued working his school district job for about a month before he was suspended.

w A parole agent suggested the provision in House Bill 572, said Brady. The measure, which has passed the state Senate, would allow agents to obtain the names of victims in sexual abuse cases as part of their job of keeping offenders away from the children they abused.

The challenge of staying one step ahead of predators is a difficult one.

"There have been initiatives, but it seems that no matter what is done, there's an incident where someone, someway circumvents the system," Brady said. "Trying to outthink a predator is a very difficult place to find yourself in."