Maryland Governor Wes Moore orders a review of student crime information sharing

Maryland’s governor gets involved after the state’s school board ruled how students’ criminal histories are shared.

Wes Moore this week directed the Department of Juvenile Services to lead an investigation into how information is shared about Maryland public school students charged with or convicted of violent crimes, according to a news release Friday.

The state administration decided on Tuesday that superintendents be notified if new students have committed serious crimes while attending their previous schools in Maryland. Before the emergency vote, the ordinance called for law enforcement to notify the school system of the arrest of any of the students for certain violations. It allowed, but did not require, a school system to notify another school system of the violations if that student transferred. The amendment now makes this mandatory.

The rule change comes after a Howard High School student with a previous criminal record charged with first-degree murder. Howard County Superintendent Bill Barnes said this at a press conference last week that the 17-year-old had transferred from a neighboring school district, and that Howard had “no record” of the nature of his violations.

The 17-year-old was under the supervision of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services and was wearing an ankle monitor for a previous incident in another jurisdiction, police said. Barnes said last week that school staff knew he was receiving support from the Department of Juvenile Services but did not know other details until a bail hearing last week.

The student had previously shot someone who is now paralyzed, the hearing showed. If the school system had known about this, Barnes said last week, the 17-year-old would not have been approved to attend Howard High.

It prompted a letter from state lawmakers sent to State Superintendent Carey Wright on Monday. The letter called on the Education Department to, among other things, instruct all 24 public school systems to turn over records of students with reportable violations who transferred or transferred between school districts within the past year.

Wright told news media Tuesday that all of lawmakers’ requests had been followed with the regulatory update.

Barnes announced at a school board meeting Thursday that cases involving approximately 48 currently enrolled Howard County students with DJS contact will be reviewed by school staff, according to WJZand that, among other things, a student’s family is interviewed if a reportable crime is discovered.

The news release from Moore’s office said an initial review was conducted involving the state Education Department, the Attorney General’s Office and the Maryland Center for School Safety. That review resulted in the regulation change that the state school board approved Tuesday.

The rule, which requires approval from state lawmakers before going into effect, applies to students transferring from one public or nonpublic school in Maryland (an independent, publicly funded school for students with high needs) to another, and does not include students who come to Maryland public schools from independent education programs, out-of-state programs, private schools or otherwise.

It only affects students arrested for a “reportable offense,” including murder, arson, armed carjacking and sex crimes.

The procedures being revised are not intended to punish justice-involved students, the news release stated, but to help provide information that could impact safety in school communities.

The ongoing review, according to the news release, will inform the work of the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging Best Practices, a statewide commission that assesses and reports on youth services, facilities and programs in Maryland. The committee’s first meeting will take place “in the coming weeks.”

“The action we take today will help us make Maryland safer as we continue to work with all corners of society to meet the needs of our schools,” Moore said in the news release. “And I will closely review this inter-institutional review once completed.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, a community-funded journalism program that gives parents the tools they need to make decisions about the way their children learn. Read more.