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Montgomery County Public Schools Response Plan to Safety and Security

Our Schools, Our Students, Our Responsibility

Montgomery County Public Schools is committed to providing for the safety of all persons on Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) property and to creating and maintaining safe, peaceful schools and workplaces where students and staff can do their best work, achieve, and thrive.

As we actively engage the community through several feedback opportunities and the launching of a Safety and Security and Student Well-Being Advisory Group (this Spring), below we are providing our most recent immediate, short-term, and long-term strategies to ensure school safety and security. This plan contains foundational elements of collaboration, vital resources, and monitoring\ and accountability measures through student and staff expectations and identified guidance. Collaboration, particularly, is critical to implementing this plan, and MCPS is working closely with stakeholders, including staff, students, parents, and the broader community, which is aligned with our ongoing "All Together Now" approach to all issues facing MCPS.

students

Road Map to an MCPS Safety & Well-Being Framework

time IMMEDIATE

Immediate actions the district has in place to address concerns for safety and well-being that are done or about to be done. They include:

On Saturday, February 25, 2023, Northwood High School will host a Fentanyl Family Forum to raise awareness of the deadly consequences of illegal Fentanyl currently affecting many youth in our community. In January, MCPS hosted a Fentanyl Family Forum at Clarksburg High School.

Additional immediate strategies include:

  • Deploy additional security assistants to secondary schools to assist in prevention measures and respond to safety incidents.
  • Share ongoing student, staff, and family messages about safety, (Safety Message from Feb. 10, 2023—Fentanyl Awareness from Dec. 9, 2022)
  • Host a series of listening sessions to hear the various perspectives of stakeholders regarding current safety and well-being and potential enhancements
  • Establish an MCPS Safety and Security and Student Well-being Advisory Group.

Also of Immediate Interest to Families / A School Restroom Safety Plan

Our restrooms must be safe places for students and cannot be places where activities that violate our code of conduct, such as drug and tobacco use, occur. Staff are increasing the frequency of their visual monitoring and checks inside restrooms throughout the school day, between class periods and during lunch periods. Latches are being installed on exterior restroom doors in secondary schools to ensure doors remain open, while balancing privacy and safe use. Schools may also limit access to designated restrooms during transition periods and more unstructured times, like before school, after school, and during lunch periods. However, restrooms in areas of the school that are in regular or frequent use will remain accessible to students

These measures, along with additional support from the Department of Systemwide Safety and Emergency Management, are being implemented to enhance the level of security. Schools will continue to keep this a priority.

 
 

timeShort-Term

Short-term strategies include evaluating and examining particular practices, policies and procedures that directly impact student safety and well-being. These short-term strategies include:

  • Review of the MCPS Student Code of Conduct
  • Piloting student badges in select secondary schools.
  • Evaluating the CEO 2.0 memorandum of understanding (MOU) implementation with all county allied police partners.
  • Providing training refreshers for staff related to Emergency Preparedness that emergency lockdown, evacuation, shelter-in-place drills, and parent-child reunification drills will continue.
  • Review of student attendance practices
 
 
 

timeLong-Term

Long-term strategies include ongoing examination of the effectiveness of the already mentioned additional strategies and, by the beginning of the next school year, implementation of an MCPS Safety & Well-Being Framework, which will include:

  • Placing standardized safety and security signage in all facilities
  • Revising student attendance practices
  • Revising the Student Code of Conduct
  • Reviewing and possibly revising Community Engagement Officer (CEO) 2.0 MOU
  • Adding student assemblies specifically to educate on matters of safety
  • Adding district staff training on matters of safety, and
  • Adding an emergency & safety compliance module to required annual employee training