No teachers in Hawai'i have lost their licenses for disciplinary reasons since 2001 — not even those who were imprisoned for criminal offenses like child molestation and drug abuse.

Although misbehaving teachers can get fired, Hawai'i authorities haven't revoked their licenses, meaning there's little to stop these teachers from getting jobs elsewhere.

"You could lose your job in Hawai'i, but you could always go to another state and get another job," said Sharon Mahoe, executive director for the Hawai'i Teacher Standards Board, which oversees the state's 12,000 active licensed teachers.

Educators struggled to explain why teachers rarely lose their licenses in Hawai'i, despite several well-publicized cases.

No other state had so few teachers lose their licenses from 2001 to 2005, the period examined in an Associated Press investigation of teacher discipline.

The standards board doesn't have any pending revocations, nor have any complaints been filed since it took over licensing from the state Education Department in 2002, Mahoe said. Unlike boards in other states, she said, the Hawai'i group doesn't have a staff of attorneys or investigators to assist with disciplinary investigations and relies on the state attorney general for legal advice.

In all, seven teachers have lost their licenses since 2001, all for failure to pay licensing fees normally deducted from paychecks because they were no longer employed by the Department of Education. One of those seven lost his license in 2003; the other six came in 2006.

Hawai'i's figures were gathered as part of a seven-month investigation in which AP reporters sought records on teacher discipline in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Across the country, sexual misconduct allegations led states to take action against the licenses of 2,570 educators from 2001 through 2005. That figure includes licenses that were revoked, denied and surrendered.

There are about 3 million public school teachers in the United States.

Licenses are often required when teachers transfer from one state to another. If a teacher's license hasn't been revoked, there's little stopping him or her from moving to a new state and starting over.

"If the Hawai'i Teacher Standards Board does not revoke a license for a criminal conviction or termination for cause by the Department of Education, then the teacher could present a valid Hawai'i license to another state," said Bruce Shimomoto, personnel director for the department.

At least two former teachers imprisoned for molesting school-age girls are not licensed in Hawai'i, but it doesn't appear their licenses were revoked for disciplinary reasons. Their names weren't among those provided by the standards board and the Education Department of teachers who have lost their licenses.

Not on the list were: