A substitute teacher who taught in Downers Grove and Hinsdale was sentenced to 20 days in prison Monday for touching children.

Brett Zagorac, 24, of Munster, Ind., pled guilty in October to inappropriately touching a boy’s back. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed not to pursue 12 of the 13 charges of misdemeanor battery based on allegations he had rubbed students over and under their clothing while working at elementary schools between January and March 2005.

DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Cary Pierce sentenced Zagorac to two years probation, counseling and ordered him to have no contact with any of his victims. He only is expected to serve 10 days in DuPage County Jail, said Paul Darrah, spokesman for DuPage County state’s attorney office.

“That alone will mean he won’t be home for Christmas, assuming good behavior,” Darrah said.

Zagorac was a substitute teacher at Pierce Downer School in Downers Grove during the 2004-05 school year, according to Downers Grove Grade School District 58. After he worked there once, the school received a student complaint who said that Zagorac inappropriately touched his back. The incident was reported to the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services, who said the complaint was unfounded.

Zagorac worked as a substitute teacher in Oak, Monroe, Prospect, the Lane and Elm schools in Community Consolidated School District 181 in 2005. No abuse cases were reported.

District 58 officials discovered Zagorac had previously been arrested for two counts of battery in Indiana. Illinois has begun requiring all school district employees have a criminal background check against a national database instead of just for offenses in Illinois.

The incident at Pierce Downer was reported to the Downers Grove Police Department and to families at the school, which resulted in another complaint being lodged. When DuPage County authorities announced charges in October 2005, Zagorac was in prison after being charged with a felony count of molesting children by Lake County. Those charges stemmed from incidents between March 2002 and May 2003 in Indiana.