According to a just released report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the criminal histories of more than 12,000 Montgomery County Public School employees have not been added to the FBI’s Rap Back and therefore are not being monitored.
The 25-page report, Review of MCPS Background Screening Office, notes that Maryland law requires the school district conduct criminal history checks for all employees when they are hired. The applicants must undergo a Child Protective Services (CPS) check and submit fingerprints through the Rap Back program.
Inspector General Findings
Besides the 12,000 employees not added to the Rap Back list, 4,900 people who “potentially have access to students have not received Child Protective Services queries,” according to the OIG report.
Also, some contractors and volunteers began working with MCPS before their criminal history checks were complete, according to the report.
County Council Reacts
Council President Kate Stewart and Vice President Will Jawando said they were “deeply alarmed and concerned.” They also said, “This is unacceptable, and the urgency with which these issues must be corrected cannot be overstated.”
Stewart scheduled an oversight meeting for Sept. 26 to discuss the matter and why MCPS did not take “all appropriate actions to safeguard students, teachers, administrators and support staff.”
Also up for discussion is “the apparent lack of coordination among agencies including Maryland’s Department of Health and Human Services and the County’s Child Welfare Services that led to the gaps in screening that could put our students and staff at risk. This was a systemic failure, and there must be collective accountability,” Stewart and Jawando wrote in a joint statement.
They requested a written update from Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor before the start of school “on immediate remedial action taken and benchmarks for the future.
School System Response
MCPS issued a news release, noting the district “regrets” the problem, which it said “should have been addressed years ago. MCPS has released a Background Screening Action Plan Monday “to correct systematic failures in our employee background screening systems.”
While accepting responsibility, MCPS stated that the report “contains significant inaccuracies and mischaracterizations that have, at times, hindered the urgent work need to protect students and maintain public confidence.”
Taylor said there were “persistent issues in the background screening process that the previous administrations failed to correct. While MCPS fully owns the need to address these failures, the district also stands by its criticisms of certain findings in the report, just as the OIG stands by its conclusions.”
According to MCPS, all employees are required to complete a criminal background check before beginning work. No one can start before that is completed.
Filling the ‘Gaps in the Process’
However, the school district officials noted, “longstanding gaps in the process – particularly regarding CPS checks and post-hire monitoring – were not addressed for years by previous administrations.”
According to the new Action Plan, MCPS launched a real-time cross-agency clearance tracker to ensure nobody begins work without completing all background checks.
The district switched from a paper-based system to online submissions with a tracking portal used by the Maryland Department of Human Services.
MCPS will re-fingerprint all employees not currently in Rap Back. All employees will receive new ID badges once they are cleared.
