Requestor
Howard County News and Opinion blog
Requested Information
Howard County News and Opinion (HCNO) is requesting, for school years 2016–2017 through the present, the following public records for Oakland Mills High School and Centennial High School:
A. Disciplinary Recidivism & Referral Data (Aggregated)
1. Annual, school-by-school aggregated counts and percentages of students receiving multiple (2 or more) Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs), out-of-school suspensions, or in-school suspensions within a single academic year.
2. Disaggregated aggregate disciplinary counts of 2 or more ODRs by student demographics (race/ethnicity, gender, English Learner status, and Special Education status).
3. For any and all students in each category listed in (1), the total number of electronic database extracts or reports of all Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs) coded with alternative, non-exclusionary, or restorative interventions (e.g., restorative conferences, circles, peer mediations), and the specific code used.
4. Aggregate data submitted by HCPSS to the Maryland State Department of Education pursuant to MD Code, Educ. § 7-306 regarding alternative school discipline practices for each school year listed above.
B. HCNO is seeking statistical, aggregated, and de-identified data only. HCNO is not requesting personally identifiable student information (PII) protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or MD Code, Gen. Prov. § 4-313.
Thank you for your time and effort.
A. Disciplinary Recidivism & Referral Data (Aggregated)
1. Annual, school-by-school aggregated counts and percentages of students receiving multiple (2 or more) Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs), out-of-school suspensions, or in-school suspensions within a single academic year.
2. Disaggregated aggregate disciplinary counts of 2 or more ODRs by student demographics (race/ethnicity, gender, English Learner status, and Special Education status).
3. For any and all students in each category listed in (1), the total number of electronic database extracts or reports of all Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs) coded with alternative, non-exclusionary, or restorative interventions (e.g., restorative conferences, circles, peer mediations), and the specific code used.
4. Aggregate data submitted by HCPSS to the Maryland State Department of Education pursuant to MD Code, Educ. § 7-306 regarding alternative school discipline practices for each school year listed above.
B. HCNO is seeking statistical, aggregated, and de-identified data only. HCNO is not requesting personally identifiable student information (PII) protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or MD Code, Gen. Prov. § 4-313.
Thank you for your time and effort.
Date Received
Status
Complete
Responsive Documents
Responsive to this request, for A1-3 above, staff is not aware of an existing report going back to 2017 that identifies students receiving multiple ODRs and suspensions in a single year. Under the MPIA process, and as advised in the Nineteenth Edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual created by Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General, an agency is only obligated to produce existing records and is not required to generate new data or summarize data.
Per clarification you are instead seeking Aggregate Office Discipline Referral (ODR) data and reports—as referenced in request 2025-059—specifically for Oakland Mills High School and Centennial High School for the 2024–2025 (SY25) and 2025–2026 (SY26) school years, please find those reports attached. HCPSS must protect against the potential disclosures of personally identifiable information about students as required by both the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students. In accordance, given this report contains information on an incident-specific level about individual student discipline, the addition of demographics has the potential to reveal educational records. As such, we have included these data points on separate sheets. HCPSS has made substantial efforts to ensure the accuracy of this information; however, data collection and reporting is consistently subject to change. Please be mindful when comparing data as many variances can occur between reports based on date pulled, parameters used, categories included, etc. Please note, there could be multiple violations of the code of conduct represented in a single student incident/referral, therefore entries represent each violation. Total counts of incidents and students can be found within the report.
Per clarification you are instead seeking Aggregate Office Discipline Referral (ODR) data and reports—as referenced in request 2025-059—specifically for Oakland Mills High School and Centennial High School for the 2024–2025 (SY25) and 2025–2026 (SY26) school years, please find those reports attached. HCPSS must protect against the potential disclosures of personally identifiable information about students as required by both the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students. In accordance, given this report contains information on an incident-specific level about individual student discipline, the addition of demographics has the potential to reveal educational records. As such, we have included these data points on separate sheets. HCPSS has made substantial efforts to ensure the accuracy of this information; however, data collection and reporting is consistently subject to change. Please be mindful when comparing data as many variances can occur between reports based on date pulled, parameters used, categories included, etc. Please note, there could be multiple violations of the code of conduct represented in a single student incident/referral, therefore entries represent each violation. Total counts of incidents and students can be found within the report.
Responsive to A4 above, no aggregate data is submitted to the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). This is a survey completed by staff regarding general practices. Per clarification you would instead like copies of all completed survey responses, questionnaires, and accompanying documentation submitted to MSDE by HCPSS to the for the Alternative School Discipline Practices Survey (conducted pursuant to MD Code, Educ. § 7-306) for all available years from School Year 2019–2020 through the present, please find the most recent submission attached. Staff is unable to locate prior year submissions; however you may be able to request this record from MSDE if they maintain. Information regarding their MPIA process can be found on this website: https://marylandpublicschools.org/programs/pages/superintendent/communications/pia/index.aspx.