2. I am requesting any records within HCPSS that indicates data collected about the number of calls to dispatch for police to come to a school, purpose, and disposition of the event.
3. I am requesting suspension data from 2019-present (1/22/2023) for all students pk,k,1st,2nd grade deaggregated by gen ed/special ed and deaggregated by schools.
Responsive to this request, in addition to the records provided below, no data is collected regarding the total number of calls to dispatch for police to include the purpose and disposition of the event. Please note, under the MPIA process, and as advised in the Sixteenth 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. Briefing reports used by schools to inform administration and security staff of incidents will often note whether the matter required calls to police, however they would require review of each individual report to determine responsiveness and creation of new data to pull counts from such records. Additionally, dispositions of individual incidents and resulting actions would require access to and review of private student files, which are confidential under 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.
For reference, while HCPSS has provided calls for service to the Howard County Police Department (HCPD) for HCPSS middle schools previously under MPIA 2021-187, those were in the possession of HCPSS for a review at the time, however, no such reports have been received by HCPSS Security for the current school year. These could be requested from HCPD as the custodian of such records if they have available. You can find information about submitting an MPIA request to HCPD at this site: https://www.howardcountymd.gov/PIA.
In regard to suspension data under number three above, our staff indicates no existing reports of suspensions include both grade and special education services combined by school. For reference, publicly available reports include several of these data points: https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DCAA/SSP/Student/20212022.aspx Specifically, under: https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Documents/DCAA/SSP/20212022Student/2022_Student_Suspension_Expulsion.pdf table 4 includes totals by grade for all suspensions and expulsions in Howard (with subsequent tables in this report including breakdown by in-school vs. out-of-school). Alternately, under: https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Documents/DCAA/SSP/20212022Student/2022_Student_Suspensions_BySchool_OutOfSchool.pdf and https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Documents/DCAA/SSP/20212022Student/2022_Student_Suspensions_BySchool_InSchool.pdf the Howard sections include totals by school with a breakdown for students with disabilities. These charts can also be found within reports for 2020-2021: https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DCAA/SSP/Student/20202021.aspx and 2019-2020: https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DCAA/SSP/Student/20192020.aspx.