She is currently teaching as a teacher of the deaf (hard-of-hearing) at Willmar Senior High School in Minnesota.
She was a special education teacher at New London–Spicer Senior High School from 1985 to 1986.
When she left her job later that year, she started working in Willmar Public Schools as a learning disability teacher until 2018.
[1] Sawatzky was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2012.
Sawatzky was one of two Democrats in the Minnesota House to vote against a same-sex marriage bill on May 9, 2013.