More than 2,000 reportable offenses involving public school students were reported to Maryland school districts during the 2023-2024 academic year, according to a new report.
When a public school student is arrested and charged with certain offenses off campus, the law enforcement agency making the arrest is required to alert the school system. These reportable offenses include homicides, attempted homicides, assaults and motor vehicle thefts.
The Maryland State Department of Education published the most recent report, which shows 2,088 reportable offenses happened during the last school year. Most of the offenses fell into the categories of assault, illegal firearm possession, malicious destruction of property, car theft and robberies.
The top five jurisdictions include Baltimore County with 881 reportable offenses, 329 in Baltimore City, 156 in Howard County, Frederick County reported 119 offenses and 105 in Dorchester County.
The issue of reportable offenses was thrust into the spotlight after a teen was arrested in Howard County at school. Howard County Public School System Superintendent Bill Barnes noted his frustration with the fact that a 17-year-old was arrested at Howard High School in connection with a homicide investigation and the teen had a previous criminal record that Barnes was never told about.
“If this information and data would have been available to me, prior to yesterday, I assure our community that I would not approve a placement at Howard High School,” Barnes said. “Good decisions are predicated on accurate data, and I now know that there is important data that is not available to the school system that informs our placement.”
The teen was wearing an ankle monitor in connection with a 2023 attempted murder charge. He was enrolled as a student in Anne Arundel County at the time of that investigation. When the teen was arrested in Howard County, he also was found with a loaded gun in his backpack.
The State Board of Education releases an annual report regarding reportable offenses. The most recent one is for the 2022-2023 school year and shows more than 1,200 reportable offenses reported across all Maryland’s jurisdictions.
In October 2024, the Maryland State Board of Education adopted emergency rule changes regarding how school systems share information about students with criminal records. Details of a student with a record of a reportable offense — a specific designation of a crime, such as murder, attempted murder, arson, robbery, or carjacking — must be shared with other school leaders during a transfer.
The emergency rule change is only in place for 180 days. A December hearing held by the Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Rules Committee, came after the Maryland State Board of Education approved emergency rules requiring superintendents of public school systems to share information about students’ criminal records, specifically regarding reportable offenses.
During the hearing, Co-chair Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat, said the committee would not vote on the emergency rules. Rather, he wanted to hear from the school leaders and give the committee members a chance to ask questions.
“We really need to get this right,” Sen. Mike McKay, a Republican representing Allegany, Garrett, and Washington counties, said during the hearing.
When the state school board adopted the emergency policy change, State Superintendent Carey Wright said the Maryland State Department of Education would continue to review laws but said the information sharing was an important step.
Not included, however, is the education system within DJS incarceration settings. It’s called the Juvenile Services Education Program, or JSEP. Superintendent of JSEP Kimberly Pogue said that, while her agency shares students’ education records with public schools when the student goes to re-enroll, their criminal history isn’t included.
“There would need to be some statutory changes that would require or treat JSEP as a local educational agency because we’re currently not considered one in the statute,” Pogue said .
During the AELR Committee hearing, lawmakers also heard about the JSEP communications gap. Wright, Maryland’s Superintendent, noted that a change to information sharing for JSEP would need to come from the General Assembly.
As the General Assembly gets underway in Annapolis, it’s unclear the status of legislation to make the changes outlined in the hearing.
Have a news tip? Contact reporter Mikenzie Frost at mbfrost@sbgtv.com.
