Requestor
Jeannie-Marie Leoutsakos
Requested Information
Please provide restraint data (including counts of restraints and number of children restrained, disaggregated by age, sex, race, and disability) reported by the Howard County School System to MSDE for SY 2023-2024. Please also provide any records of correspondence (letters, e-mails, phone calls) between MSDE and HCPSS regarding reporting of excess use of restraint or other restraint or seclusion-related COMAR violations in School Years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
Date Received
Status
Complete
Response Notes
Responsive to this request, and per clarification for correspondence you are specifically seeking the number of reports submitted to the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) as well as the contents of the corrective action plans that are proposed by HCPSS, particularly if they contain actions such as improved or different training, or other system-level actions, rather than student-specific actions, records are attached below.
Responsive Documents
This Corrective Action Plan for the school system was submitted to MSDE in late August 2024 as required by COMAR 13A.08.04 Student Behavior Interventions. Under MPIA GP § 4-330 which prevents disclosure of sociological information, we have redacted cell phone numbers, and/or information that has the potential to pose a risk to individual safety or privacy.
Available tracking on the number of reports submitted to MSDE for excess use of restraint (as required at 10 or 20 instances) during school year 2023-2024. No reports exist for school year 2022-2023 as this reporting began in 2023-2024. Under 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, we have redacted student names and school location.
For each reporting instance in the tracking above, school-level corrective actions as reported in the MSDE part 2 form is included. Under 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, we have redacted student-specific recommendations and names.
The attached contains SY2023-2024 data on the number of restraints disaggregated by age, sex, race, and disability. 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, HCPSS follows the Maryland State Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics’ guidelines for protecting student privacy in public reporting and suppresses the following from responsive records (see also specific suppression techniques contained within the responsive record): populations that fall below 10; percentages that are less than or equal to 5, or greater than or equal to 95; categories directly related to specific student records; and/or information that can reasonably identify an individual student or reveals information from an individual student’s record or could do so when combined with other publicly accessible data. 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, as referenced in a July 2023 memorandum provided under prior MPIA responsive records (https://mpia.hcpss.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/MPIA%202024-102%20Board%20Memos.pdf), data for SY2021-2022 found in these tables will differ from MSDE’s published restraint report for that year. MSDE has not yet published the aggregated SY2023-2024 report. For reference, these data tables will be part of a broader report to the Board of Education on restraint and exclusion currently scheduled for October 24, 2024.
Please note, as referenced in a July 2023 memorandum provided under prior MPIA responsive records (https://mpia.hcpss.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/MPIA%202024-102%20Board%20Memos.pdf), data for SY2021-2022 found in these tables will differ from MSDE’s published restraint report for that year. MSDE has not yet published the aggregated SY2023-2024 report. For reference, these data tables will be part of a broader report to the Board of Education on restraint and exclusion currently scheduled for October 24, 2024.