Dallas ISD Pays $1 Million to Settle Claims It Failed to Report Teacher

Dallas Independent School District has agreed to pay $1 million to settle federal allegations that it falsely certified it was following Texas reporting law while it failed to report a special education teacher accused of sexual misconduct with minors, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced Tuesday.

Of that amount, $145,000 is a penalty and $855,000 must go to reforms, including reporting audits, law enforcement protocols and mandatory training, U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould’s office said. The district denies the allegations, and the settlement is not an admission of liability.

What the government alleged

According to the federal release, the district opened four separate investigations from 2022 to 2024 into allegations that former special education teacher Michael Roell had engaged in sexual misconduct involving minors. It did not report him to the State Board for Educator Certification.

Instead, prosecutors said, the district used its Title IX process and a higher standard of proof than state law requires to find the allegations “unfounded,” let Roell resign in lieu of termination in April 2024 and put him on an internal “Do Not Hire” list that only Dallas ISD could see. Roell later taught in Plano and Forney, where he was arrested and charged with child abuse and grooming offenses, the release says. A federal grand jury indicted him in September on a wire fraud charge tied to how he obtained a teaching job.

Because the district took federal special education money while certifying compliance with state law, the government brought the case under the False Claims Act.

“If you take federal funds and ignore state reporting laws; If you allow an accused educator to resign quietly instead of alerting the proper authorities; We will discover it and we will act without hesitation,” Raybould said. “Student safety must always come before institutional convenience.”

What the district must do

Under the agreement, Dallas ISD will seek agreements with local police and the Texas Rangers on reporting, require disclosure forms from applicants, contractors, substitutes and volunteers, post signs on child abuse reporting duties and train its Title IX and personnel staff every year on state reporting requirements. It must also review every sexual misconduct allegation since 2022 and report the results to the Texas Education Agency.

The settlement is the second under Project Safe Schools, an initiative Raybould launched in August aimed at what his office calls “passing the trash,” the practice of letting educators with known misconduct move between schools without disclosure.

The state law at issue

Texas law required the district to report to the State Board for Educator Certification when it had evidence of covered misconduct, regardless of the Title IX outcome, according to the federal release. The Legislature moved and tightened that requirement in 2025 in Chapter 22A of the Education Code, which now requires a report within 48 hours and makes failing to report with intent to conceal a state jail felony.