Moorestown schools report SSDS findings; board agrees to file period-2 submission

Lauren Schmidt, the district’s supervisor of counseling and assessment, presented the Moorestown Township Public School District’s Student Safety Data System (SSDS) report for report period 2 (January–June 2025), explaining how the district records incidents, alleged and confirmed harassment/intimidation/bullying (HIB) cases, and related removals.

Schmidt outlined reporting categories and why numbers can appear inconsistent across columns. “For example, at UES, you’re gonna see 6 HIBs were alleged, 2 were confirmed,” she said, noting that some incidents include multiple students and that reporting-code differences and a change from the older AVVRS system affect tallies. She described district SEL and prevention efforts—including inclusive school weeks, buddy benches, character-education lessons, therapy dogs and classroom group work—tied to the state’s report-card grading rubric.

Board members questioned the scope and purpose of SSDS reporting. Schmidt said both technical incident reporting and the SEL-program documentation are required components: the SSDS provides incident counts while the report-card/SEL component asks districts to document programs intended to prevent HIBs. “They want to see what we’re doing, take the numbers we’re reporting, and do that comparison,” she said.

The board asked how the district measures program effectiveness year to year. Schmidt said administrators use the SSDS data alongside program evaluations and school self-assessments to spot trends and adjust interventions. The district-grade for schools is calculated on a separate timetable and will be available in May, she said.

Following the presentation, the board moved to submit the SSDS period-2 report (the submission was listed in the superintendent’s recommendations and attached to the meeting agenda). The motion for submission carried during the business-consent votes recorded later in the meeting.

What’s next: Schmidt said the district will present updated SSDS numbers again in spring to reflect the second half of the school year and continue using data to guide SEL programming and targeted interventions.