Wichita ? Nearly two dozen Kansas teachers have lost their certificates since 1998 amid allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with students or other children, records show.

Authorities attributed the prevalence of the cases to an increased awareness of the problem and a relatively new state law.

The 2001 law makes it a crime for a teacher to have consensual sex with a 16- or 17-year-old student. The “unlawful sexual relations” law was originally written to prevent prison guards from having sex with willing inmates, but teachers now are bound by it as well. A conviction can carry a sentence of five to seven months in prison.

Four school employees in Wichita have lost their jobs since November amid allegations of sexual contact with students. Of the three who have been charged, two were charged under this law. The investigation continues in a fourth case.

“It used to be that a 16-year-old could have sex with a schoolteacher,” said Lt. Roy Mitchell of the Wichita/Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit. “While it was in poor taste, it was not a crime. Now it is.”

But even before the law was passed, the State Board of Education always made it a policy to revoke the license of any teacher caught having sexual contact with a student, said board attorney Kevin Ireland.

State records show that since 1998, the state has taken action in 22 cases where Kansas teachers lost their licenses or were denied a new license because they had been convicted of sex crimes involving children. He said a handful of those cases involved teachers in Missouri or Oklahoma who also had licenses to teach in Kansas.

Though troubling, the number of cases came as no surprise to experts.

“It’s aberrant behavior, but it’s not aberrant in terms of what’s happening across the country,” Kansas State University professor Bob Shoop said. A report delivered to Congress last year, he said, claimed nearly one in 10 children will be subjected to some form of sexual misconduct by school employees.