California later cleared Jodi Smith and issued her credential, but weeks of lower-paid work and classroom disruption followed.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Commission on Teacher Credentialing denied special education teacher Jodi Smith’s license last school year after a background check linked her to a 2009 DUI in Tulare County. Smith said the case belonged to another person with the same last name, and the state ultimately agreed.
Smith, a recent arrival from Minnesota, said she passed a fingerprint screen but lost her credential anyway when a Department of Justice report lumped together people named Smith. Oak Grove School District reassigned her as a teacher’s aide and later as an emergency substitute, roles that preserved classroom coverage but cut her pay. She filed a dispute, asking the Justice Department to revisit its “soft” search that matched on names and numbers instead of fingerprints.
“They said I lied,” Smith recalled of the first meeting with human resources. She was told to retrieve Tulare County court records and reapply with a new fee. The rap sheet that followed included three separate individuals with the last name Smith, according to Smith, along with a disclaimer that it was not based on fingerprints. She said she spent weeks trying to reach officials who would not take calls, then waited for a written determination.
By December, the Justice Department concluded the DUI belonged to someone else. Records also showed that in 2009 Smith used her maiden name, Stanton. The commission issued her credential after the correction. Smith estimated about $24,000 in lost wages and said the episode left her hiding in her classroom to cry while keeping lessons moving for students under temporary titles. “I still showed up to work,” she said. “When you saw me, I was dying inside.”
The Attorney General’s office said state law requires the Justice Department to provide all potential matches to licensing authorities, not only fingerprint-confirmed entries. The commission said applicants must resolve any inaccuracies that appear in their files. Neither agency provided data on how often common-name mismatches occur. The Justice Department performs roughly two million checks each year and maintains a process to challenge errors.
Smith’s family moved 2,000 miles for jobs in the Bay Area—her husband joined Apple, and her salary helped balance the budget. Instead, they absorbed reduced income while the case inched forward. “How on earth do you do a name background check with a name like Smith?” she said. “There’s no protection for people with common names.”
With her credential in hand, Smith is back in her role. The next question for California’s schools is procedural: what districts should do when a name-based hit contradicts a clean fingerprint check, and whether the commission will adjust its approach during disputes. The agencies that handled Smith’s case are largely immune from civil damages, leaving policy changes—not payouts—as the most likely result.
Author note: Last updated November 15, 2025.