WTOP: memorandum detailing the number of cases in which an employee, contractor of volunteer was suspected of abuse or neglect of an MCPS student

WASHINGTON — Montgomery County’s school superintendent Dr. Jack Smith issued a memorandum detailing the number of cases in which an employee, contractor of volunteer was suspected of abuse or neglect of an MCPS student.

The July 20 memo was posted on the school system’s website on Friday. It shows that while 345 suspected cases of abuse or neglect were reported to the county’s office of Child Welfare Services since June 2015, only a handful, five in all, were deemed to show enough “credible evidence”to lead to action. Three of those staffers no longer work for the school system, and two “are on administrative leave pending final action” according to the memorandum.

Responding to a reporter’s questions about the memorandum, Derek Turner, spokesman for the Montgomery County Public Schools said, “We’re being as transparent as possible by posting the memo to the board and information about our child abuse and neglect policy to our website.”
Jennifer Alvaro, a licensed clinical social worker and a certified sex offender treatment provider doesn’t buy that assertion about transparency. A member of the school system’s Child Abuse and Neglect Work Group, founded after the school system was slammed for its handling of accusations of abuse in 2014, says she had to file a Maryland Public Information Act request to get a copy of the memorandum....

 http://wtop.com/education/2016/07/mcps-superintendent-releases-memo-cases-abuse-neglect/