Inspector General flags gaps in MCPS background screenings; district and DHHS outline remediation plan

The Montgomery County Council Audit Committee on Monday heard a report from Inspector General Megan Lamarzee that found gaps in Montgomery County Public Schools' background screening processes and recommended immediate fixes to prevent inconsistent hiring and monitoring practices.

"This engagement resulted in five findings and eight recommendations," Lamarzee told the committee, summarizing OIG Publication 26-01, a review of the school system's Background Screening Office (BSO). She said the OIG found MCPS was not monitoring the criminal histories of all employees and had not ensured that initial background checks were completed for all contractors and required volunteers before they began work. "As of November '24, 12,655 active staff had still not been refingerprinted and entered into Rapback for continuous monitoring," Lamarzee said.

Those figures and others sparked a detailed response from MCPS Superintendent Taylor and senior staff, who outlined steps the district and the county's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are taking to clear backlogs and strengthen oversight. "This is not a normal inspector general report," Taylor said, adding that the district has treated the findings as urgent and has mobilized teams to complete rescreening and to formalize policy and regulation.

MCPS presented a districtwide rescreening plan that prioritizes school-based staff. Esi (Essey) McGuire, MCPS chief of staff, said a district data scrub showed about 14,000 employees require some form of rescreening (roughly 10,000 school-based and 3,400 non-school-based); McGuire said the system has rescreened more than 1,600 employees since June and completed rescreening at 32 schools. "Our goal is to complete all school-based employee rescreening before winter break," she said.

Kalyn Connolly, MCPS chief of talent management, reviewed the screening process and the legal framework. "Maryland state law specifies 14 disqualifying offenses," Connolly said; those offenses and indicated CPS findings are automatically disqualifying for hiring, she said. Connolly and other MCPS staff also described planned suitability-determination procedures and a December policy package the district will bring to its Board of Education.

DHHS described operational support to clear CPS paper backlogs. Oscar Mason, Montgomery County social services officer, said that as of Sept. 12 DHHS had processed 62.3 percent of the CPS paper backlog (3,052 of 4,900 paper applications) and expected to finish the remaining paper submissions by Nov. 30. Mason highlighted a pilot rescreening event at Seneca High School in August in which teams completed roughly 350 clearances in two days as an example of a field approach the agencies are scaling.

Officials acknowledged the numbers in earlier briefings and the OIG report sometimes reflected different snapshots; MCPS said it had conducted deeper data reconciliation to arrive at its updated totals. MCPS also acknowledged that Rapback removal procedures and record-removal notification protocols were not consistently applied and said it will formalize the process to comply with FBI Rapback policies.

Council members pressed both the district and DHHS on chronology, accountability and safeguards for students while rescreening continues. Council Vice President Giordano sought clarity about when leaders learned the full scope of the backlog; Superintendent Taylor said MCPS received earlier alerts but the full picture emerged during the OIG investigation. Several council members asked for a timeline showing when MCPS will be in compliance with state law and when Rapback and removal procedures will be completed.

Councilmember Friedson and others asked about personnel accountability; MCPS said it has engaged a third party to investigate potential personnel wrongdoing and expects to complete that work this fall, and that any disciplinary matters will follow due process and collective-bargaining rules. MCPS reported that the rescreening effort so far identified one existing employee with a disqualifying criminal conviction and two employees with indicated CPS findings; those cases are under review by MCPS' Department of Compliance and Investigations.

On implementation and budgets, MCPS said the current surge is not budgeted for FY25 and will be funded through reallocations and contracted temporary help; the district said it does not plan to ask the County Council for an immediate supplemental appropriation. MCPS also said it will propose policy and regulatory changes this year to codify suitability review criteria, record removal processes and contractor requirements.

The inspector general said her office's follow-up process includes a 90-day check-in; the committee discussed returning for an update this fall and MCPS committed to provide updated metrics to the Council and to the Board of Education. The meeting ended with a commitment from MCPS and DHHS to continue daily rescreening operations, to formalize procedures, and to return to the Council with specific timelines and policy proposals.

What's next: The inspector general will review implementation progress at the 90-day follow-up; MCPS aims to finish school-based rescreening before winter break and DHHS has targeted Nov. 30 to clear the paper CPS backlog. The Council asked MCPS to provide a written update on onboarding and principal-training changes before the committee reconvenes.