New report finds deficiencies with background check process at Montgomery County Public Schools

IG report finds flaws in MCPS background check process

A scathing report by the Inspector General's office finds major flaws with the background check process at Montgomery County Public Schools.

Rockville, Md. - The Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report on Monday which states that Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) failed to correctly conduct background checks on employees who have access to students. 

By the numbers:

The report claims that the criminal histories of more than 12,000 MCPS employees have not been added to Rap Back — a service offered by the FBI that provides agencies with continuous updates on the criminal histories of certain individuals. This means that these histories are not being monitored, which is a requirement under state law.

Additionally, the report found that 4,900 individuals who "potentially have access to MCPS students" have not received initial Child Protective Service (CPS) queries, another requirement under state law.

The report also found several instances where some contractors started working for MCPS before their background checks were completed. Similarly, the report noted that some volunteers who may have had unsupervised access to students did not always undergo a criminal history check before beginning their work.

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MCPS is the largest school system in the state of Maryland and is home to 211 schools and employs more than 24,400 employees. Over 160,000 students are served by these individuals.

The report additionally details recommendations aimed at ensuring that MCPS comply with state law going forward. 

What they're saying:

Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor responded in a statement shortly after the report was released on Monday. He said that "these issues stem from gaps in our systems dating back to at least 2019, which were not properly addressed by prior administrations" and that his administration is "now uncovering the full extent of these issues" and is "taking swift and serious action to correct them."

In his statement, Taylor assures parents and guardians that their "children are safe" and that every MCPS employee is required to complete a background check and that every MCPS employee has done so, but admits that the school system needs "to do a better job of continuous monitoring." In order to do that, he says, all employees hired before 2019 will be rechecked and entered into the Rap Back system. 

"This work will move forward through a comprehensive plan to recheck all employees swiftly and on a schedule," Taylor said in his statement. 

The superintendent also admitted in his statement that while CPS clearance has long been required for hiring, the "process for completing these checks— run through Montgomery County’s Department of Health and Human Services—has not kept pace with MCPS hiring.

"We are seeking to fix this, too, but it requires ongoing collaboration between our two agencies," he said. 

Taylor said that part of the reason for these discrepancies is that MCPS stopped re-fingering and Rap Back enrollments in 2020 during the pandemic, and that the system failed to implement the state's online portal for CPS checks after being notified that it needed to be done in March of last year.

The superintendent finished his statement by listing a series of actions MCPS plans to take to remedy the issues raised by the OIG report. He references the new system which launched this month that enables schools to instantly verify that no contractor or volunteer begins work without proper clearance, for example. He added that the school system has also partnered with Montgomery County Child Welfare Services to replace the old paper process with a digital system that allows for quicker, more streamlined CPS background checks. Additionally, all MCPS employees will receive new ID badges once they are re-cleared. 

You can read his full statement and MCPS' action plan here. 

Despite these concessions and plans, Taylor wrote in a letter to Montgomery County Inspector General Megan Davey Limarzi that he was "deeply disappointed in the lack of rigor" of the office's review.

"Nothing is more important to this school system than our duty of care for the students we serve and the families who entrust their children to MCPS," Taylor said. "Our team is already implementing our action plan to close these gaps. While we have concerns with the Inspector General’s report, the underlying issues it raises should have been addressed years ago. This work is our focus, it is important, and it will be done."