SAFE SCHOOLS
Maryland State Department of Education 

According to the 1998 Annual Report on School Safety, written by the United States Departments of Education and Justice, American schools are becoming increasingly safer. However, due to the recent spate of violent incidents, there is a perception that our schools are more dangerous places than ever. The reality is that our schools are safe. There has been no significant increase in violent incidents in Maryland schools over the past several years and decreasing disruptive behavior continues to be a focus of the Maryland State Department of Education and all twenty-four school systems.

The horrible tragedy in Littleton, Colorado, focused attention once again on the subject of school safety and the potential for violence. The discussion of school safety must be put into a framework that involves two separate but related issues. The first issue is the broad issue of disruption and the second issue is that of crisis situations and crisis intervention.

The majority of students enrolled in public schools in Maryland routinely adhere to school policies and graduate to become productive citizens. However, a small percentage of students engage in disruptive behaviors, which negatively effect the safety and learning environment for all students. The recognition that disruptive behavior seriously impedes the learning process has encouraged educators to take a proactive approach. A number of policies, programs and strategies have been implemented in Maryland schools to address the needs of all students. A complete listing of these programs is provided in the backup materials in the folder. Some examples of such actions are:

• Changes to the Education Article, §7-305, 7-307, and 7-308, which strengthen consequences for violations of the code of conduct,

• 
  Development of the Maryland Guidelines for a State Code of Discipline,
  

• Implementation in all school systems of a continuum of programs and services to meet the needs of all students,
  

• Implementation of proactive skills programs such as Second Step and Character Education,
  

• Increasing the availability of peer mediation and conflict resolution programs,
  

• Development of alternative programs, and
  

• The September 1998 Safe Schools conference.
  

• The Youth Summit in November 1999
  

• Maryland Institute 2000:  Positive Behavior Interventions.

The second issue, crisis situations, is much harder to address. According to experts in the field, the types of students who commit these acts are very different than the students for whom the programs described above address. As described in Dr. James McGee’s article, The Classroom Avenger, these students are average or above average students and are not generally known to either the mental health or law enforcement systems. They tend to not have been in trouble in school and are probably not known to the administration. According to Dr. McGee and others, it is almost impossible to determine which students are likely to commit such acts. Therefore, it is necessary to put crisis prevention measures in place to ensure the safety of students.

In Maryland, all school systems have had pupil services teams in place for over ten years. The purpose of these teams is to address the emotional, social, mental and physical health needs of students and remove the barriers they encounter so that all students may achieve to high levels. The teams accomplish this goal through both individual case management of students and proactive planning and intervention to address the needs of groups of students.

School systems have also had crisis teams in place for approximately the same length of time; these teams were trained to deal with individual loss and grief issues. Systems are currently expanding their crisis plans to include community and school-wide crises and the involvement of other agencies and groups, such as emergency services and law enforcement, in the management of the crisis. The Department, in conjunction with several school systems, created draft guidelines for developing crisis plans. A copy of the draft is attached to the report to the State Board of Education. The Department also created a Speakers Bureau.  The persons listed are experts in crisis planning and student disruption and are available to speak to school and community groups on such issues. As additional speakers are identified, they will be added. The third measure that the Department has undertaken is a media literacy campaign. The Discovery Channel is partnering with the Department to offer an assembly on media literacy to each school in the State.

THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS/INITIATIVES RESPOND TO THE NEED FOR CRISIS PLANNING AND COORDINATION.

The Interagency Steering Committee on School Safety – Co-chaired by Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Dr. Nancy Grasmick, this committee coordinates new and existing initiatives focused on enhancing Maryland's safe schools strategy. The committee is comprised of members from each of the agencies that have membership on the Cabinet Council for Criminal and Juvenile Justice. Workgroups will be comprised of representatives from the committee and from appropriate stakeholder groups and will address issues identified by the Steering Committee.

Crisis Plans - Have existed in every school system, as a result of the Youth Suicide Prevention Program, for the past 10 years. These teams have focused primarily on loss and grief issues relating to individual deaths. Most systems are currently expanding their programs to include school and/or community-wide crises. MSDE, in conjunction with public information officers from several jurisdictions, has created guidelines for developing a crisis plan. These guidelines will be further expanded as part of an interagency committee chaired by the Maryland State Police to include responses to all types of crises.

School Crisis Management Plan Review Committee: Lt. Governor Townsend and

Dr. Grasmick, State Superintendent of Schools, established the Safe Schools Interagency Steering Committee to enhance the State’s School Safety Strategy. The Maryland State Police chaired the Crisis Response Workgroup charged with the enhancement of school crisis plans. This group developed criteria to be minimally included in local school system plans.  A flipchart, Crisis Management Plan, addressing specific incidents and action to take was also developed and disseminated for classroom teacher use pending the arrival of response team. An anonymous, toll free, Safe Schools Tip Hotline was established and is in operation. A seven-step poster, In the Event of a Code.., was distributed to every school in the State of Maryland for posting in every classroom.

Critical Incident Response Simulations: Some local school systems have been working with other agencies to develop and enact simulations that will enable them to assess the degree of preparedness currently available. Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Charles County Public Schools have held multi-agency drills. Some systems are in the planning stages to expand their response capability from fire drills to other types of emergency incident drills.

THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS/INITIATIVES FOCUS ON PREVENTION AND/OR INTERVENTION.

Special Programs for Disruptive Students (Section 7-304, Education Article, Annotated Code of Maryland) - Passed by the 1996 Maryland General Assembly, this regulation requires each local board of education to provide a continuum model of prevention and intervention activities and programs that encourage and promote positive behavior and reduce disruption. Provides funding to all 24 local school systems to support the development and expansion of special programs for disruptive students in schools or school clusters.

Monitoring of Discipline Data by Maryland State Department of Education Staff - Annually, each local school system gathers suspension and expulsion information by type of offense from each school, aggregates the information and submits it to the Department. The Department aggregates the information and reports the data by system and category. The Department continues to monitor this information and work with the local school systems to analyze the data, identify problem areas, and implement initiatives to address needs.

Annapolis Road Middle School (ARMS) - Is a regional school designed to provide educational and support services to middle school students identified as habitually disruptive in their current placement. The school operates under the management of the Prince George's County Public School System and can serve students from six of Maryland's 24 local school systems. Students are screened for appropriateness for admission by a multi-jurisdictional committee. Students are placed in the school for a minimum of 6 months; the average attendance is a year and a half. Upon successful attainment of the goals of their educational plan, students are transitioned back to either their sending school or another appropriate placement. ARMS was developed as a pilot for the State, and the successful practices developed in this program are shared across school systems. Teachers at ARMS are selected for their ability to work with disruptive students and staff development is a major component of the program. The ARMS staff is available to provide training and consultation to school systems in the State as they further develop their continuum of alternative programs and strategies. The school is funded through a grant from the Maryland State Department of Education.

1998 Safe Schools Conference – The conference was conducted in Baltimore, Maryland. The purpose of the conference was two-fold: to provide information on programs and activities that encourage and promote positive behavior and reduce student disruption; and to provide work session time for teams to incorporate the information and to develop action plans for use in their local school systems, schools, and communities. The conference served as a catalyst for school/community teams to shape safe and orderly learning environments where teachers can teach and students can learn. School teams from all 24 local school systems were invited to attend the conference and to hear from national experts and school system personnel about effective programs and promising practices for dealing with disruption, discipline, and violence. More than 600 team members, parents, agency personnel, and community members participated.

Special Initiatives for Safe Schools Grant - School teams that participated in the Safe Schools Conference were eligible to submit proposals for a competitive grant to implement effective strategies in their schools. Each school chosen had to analyze the school climate and discipline information within their school and create a plan to address identified needs. Approximately $200,000 was awarded to 22 schools to support local initiatives.

Character Education - In collaboration with parents, teachers, and community members, each school tailors character education to meet the unique needs of the school and local community. Character education focuses on the core ethical values that form the foundation of a democratic society: respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, caring, justice, fairness, and citizenship. Character education has proven to be a positive force in reducing disruptive behavior, alcohol and other drug abuse, and teen pregnancy. Character education also contributes to parental and community involvement, safe and orderly schools, greater academic achievement and higher student and staff morale.

Second Step - A preschool through grade 9 program designed to reduce impulsive and aggressive behavior in children and increase their level of social competence. It does this by teaching empathy, impulse control, and anger management. MSDE, in partnership with the Prince George's County Public Schools, offered training to 10 local school systems who are implementing this program. Preliminary data indicates the numbers of referrals to the office and suspensions decrease in participating schools.

Peer Mediation/Conflict Resolution Programs - Every school system has implemented one or both of these programs in selected schools. Both programs teach students appropriate ways to resolve conflicts or disagreements, often with the support of trained peers who manage the mediation.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program - Established in 1987 in all 24 local school systems. Provides funding to support programs that prevent violence in and around schools and to strengthen programs that prevent the illegal use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, involve parents, and are coordinated with related federal, State, and community efforts and resources. Maryland's Comprehensive Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program consists of: Kindergarten-grade 12 Drug Prevention and Education; Student Assistance/Early Intervention; Peer Leadership; Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Drug Policy; Middle Grades Tobacco Prevention Initiative; and the biennial Maryland Adolescent Survey.

Maryland Guidelines For A State Code of Discipline - The 1996 Maryland General Assembly charged the Maryland State Board of Education to establish guidelines that define a State code of discipline with standards of conduct and consequences for violations of the standards. The guidelines were developed and disseminated to local school systems in January 1997. These guidelines provide a framework for local school systems to use in updating disciplinary policies and in developing new policies which include appropriate and progressive discipline and incentive measures that result in school environments that are conducive to learning.

Development of Alternative Schools - Each local school system is in the process of implementing a continuum of alternative programs. All 24 systems currently have an alternative program in place for high school students and most are working on programs for middle school students.

21^st Century Community Learning Centers - Program established by Congress to award grants to rural and inner-city public schools, or consortia of such schools, to enable them to plan, implement, or expand projects that benefit the educational, health, social services, cultural, and recreational needs of the community. School-based community learning centers provide a safe, drug-free, supervised, and cost-effective after-school, weekend or summer haven for children, youth, and their families. Four school systems in Maryland (Baltimore, Charles, Dorchester, and St. Mary's Counties are implementing 21^st Century programs.

Spotlight on Schools - This is a collaborative initiative among the Office of the Lt. Governor, the Department of Juvenile Justice and the school systems in Maryland. Through this program, 37 probation workers service over 80 schools. Probation workers provide supervision to students on probation, provide intervention to referred students, participate in appropriate committees in their assigned schools, and consult with the families of students on probation to provide both prevention and intervention services.

Sheppard Pratt - MSDE Forum - Tough Kids, Tough Times: Building the Capacity of Schools to Meet Challenges Through Early Behavioral Intervention - School teams from nine local systems attended a two-day forum during July 1999. The forum focused on violence prevention strategies for elementary schools. This was followed by a week-long institute during Summer 2000 for teams from all school systems. Through skills and information gained at these sessions, schools will increase their capacity to address disruptive behaviors and foster a positive school climate. Dr. George Sugai, a leading researcher on school safety and climate from the Oregon Center for Positive Interventions, was the principal speaker at the July 1999 forum and was the primary trainer for the July 2000 institute.

Protecting Students from Harassment: The Law, Its Implications and Implementation – In order for students to be academically successful, they must be able to attend school in a nurturing and safe environment, one that is free of harassment and other barriers that inhibit learning. MSDE sponsored a workshop on September 23, 1999 for over 230 representatives from local school systems to give systems information they need to help create harassment free environments.

Assignment: Media Literacy is a comprehensive elementary, middle, and high school media literacy curriculum designed to teach students and their parents how to become informed consumers of the media. This initiative addresses the issues of media violence, advertising and consumerism, media and the message of beauty, ethics and character values, celebrities and role models.  Through a partnership with the Discovery Channel, state of the art training materials have been developed and a Maryland Media Literacy Team was trained during Fall 2000 to provide staff development to the local school systems.

Alternative Education Task Force – The Task Force to Study Alternative Programs for Chronically Disruptive Students began meeting in October 1999. The purpose of this task force was to identify ways of addressing the needs of disruptive students and the types of programs and services that are needed.  The Task Force presented its preliminary recommendations to the General Assembly in January 2000.

Youth Summit – The Youth Summit was held November 1, 1999 at Martin’s West. Planned in conjunction with the Office of the Lt. Governor and the Governor’s Office of Volunteerism and Service, approximately 600 students attended and identified ways of making schools safer. Student groups created action plans that they will implement within their system and schools.

Spring Summit 2000: The Maryland Safe Schools Interagency Steering Committee awarded grants for safe school proposals developed at the November 1999 Youth Summit.  The Spring Summit recognized individual students, adult advisors, and student organizations dedicated to making their schools and communities safer for everyone.

Maryland Institute 2000: Positive Behavior Interventions: This Institute was a follow up to the Tough Kids, Tough Times… 1999.  Presented in two parts, April 25-26 and July 17-21, 2000, training was expanded to include additional elementary school teams and selected central office staff. Emphasis was on prevention and capacity building at the school level to support safe, nonviolent environments that optimize the potential for learning and provide an opportunity for school teams to critically examine the strengths and the needs of their schools. Also, the teams established priorities for change.

Mental Health in Schools: Primary Prevention Through Coordination, Cooperation, and Collaboration Conference – This conference was conducted on May 3, 2000, by Dr. Howard Adelman and Dr. Linda Taylor. State and local school system personnel were provided strategies to address barriers to student learning and identified ways for schools to work with communities to eliminate barriers. Participants also developed clusters of programmatic activities that address barriers to learning and enhance healthy development.

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