Dallas school district provided fake ID numbers for bilingual teachers, years after being told to stop

The Dallas Independent School District continued to provide foreign citizens with fake Social Security numbers, years after being advised by a state agency to stop the practice. Some of the numbers were real Social Security numbers already assigned to people in Pennsylvania.

The practice took place generally for those hired to teach bilingual classes, and was described in a September report by the district's investigative office. The report said the Texas Education Agency learned of the of the practice in 2004 and told DISD at that time that it was illegal.

It continued, however, until this summer. The investigation found that ‘the inappropriate procedure of assigning false SSNs has been systemic for several years' within DISD's alternative certification program, which prepares new teachers for state certification when they don't have traditional credentials.

The numbers were assigned to expedite the hiring process, and were supposed to serve as temporary identification numbers until employees received real Social Security numbers. In some cases, criminal background checks were run on the stolen numbers.

This July, investigators discovered that some of the false numbers were still in use. DISD officials said they did not know whether the practice had caused problems for anyone holding the legitimate numbers.