Judge: Fired teacher offered students extra credit in return for cash donations

An Iowa high school teacher has been fired for offering students extra credit in return for cash donations to her personal GoFundMe account.

State records indicate that beginning in 2022, Stephanie Mullaley worked as a paraeducator and then as a full-time, long-term substitute high school teacher for the Clinton Community School District.  She was fired on May 29, 2026, for allegedly violating the district’s ethics policy.

According to the findings of Administrative Law Judge Duane Golden, who presided over a recent hearing on Mullaley’s request for unemployment benefits, Mullaley shared her “personal educational goals” with her students during the 2025-26 school year.

In the spring of 2026, Mullaley allegedly told her students that she had set up a GoFundMe account to help pay for her education, adding that if they made cash donations to her account they could earn extra credit toward their grade in her class.

Some of the students in the class did contribute funds to the GoFundMe account, according to Golden’s findings. As Golden described it, the district then discovered Mullaley was “using her position as a teacher to pressure students to donate funds” and fired her.

Golden denied Mullaley’s request for unemployment benefits, ruling that her conduct amounted to job-related misconduct and demonstrated a “willful or wanton disregard” of her employer’s interests, rendering her ineligible for benefits.

Mullaley, Golden concluded, had “promised high school students in her class that they would receive extra credit toward their grade in her class if they donated to her GoFundMe account.  Students felt pressured to donate money to her personal GoFundMe page.”

The Iowa Capital Dispatch was not able to reach Mullaley for comment.

Online records show that a Stephanie Mullaley of Clinton launched a GoFundMe account earlier this year to pay for what she described as “a unique opportunity to travel to Ecuador” with her husband in July 2026. Mullaley indicated on the GoFundMe page she would be “interpreting for a medical mission team (and) helping bridge language barriers so that care and compassion can reach those who need it most,” and that her husband would be “assisting the team in any way he can.”

Donations, she wrote, would be used to pay for “transportation, including flights, buses, and boats, food and hotel accommodations.”

The account had a fundraising goal of $1,800 and netted $140 through six donations ranging from $5 to $50 before activity on the account was paused.