Dive Brief:

• After Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland enacted new policies encouraging people to report abuse toward students, claims skyrocketed and led to a 1,500% increase in costs for administrative leave from the year before, with costs totaling nearly $10 million in staff payments, according to Fox 5 DC.
• The new policies were enacted after several child abuse cases in the school district, though some are concerned that they overstepped boundaries, with the district saying that most of the 625 staff members placed on leave based on charges of abuse or misconduct eventually returned to work.
• Policy changes will be enacted in the coming year, according to a spokesperson for the school district, with the changes expected to be announced sometime this month. Though the money for staff on leave has skyrocketed, the cost for substitutes in the current school year remained stable compared to last year.

Dive Insight:

As social media and smartphones proliferate, instances of abuse that may previously have gone unreported will be brought to light, and with it will come enhanced scrutiny of school districts and principals on how they are addressing incidents of alleged abuse on school grounds. This trend will likely continue as the technology for quick video recording becomes more readily available in the pocket of every student and educator.

However, that smartphone usage, as well as increased school safety measures such as video cameras, can work to the district’s advantage when investigating abuse cases. With increased concerns about school violence and active shooter situations, districts are working to increase security measures, and as administrators increase the amount of classroom and school space covered by video, it becomes all the more likely that there will be documentation districts can cite in abuse cases. It will likely not lower instances or reports of alleged abuse, nor should people who feel they have suffered mistreatment be dissuaded from reporting it, but with more expansive video coverage, these cases could possibly be expedited in a manner that avoids having to pay millions in administrative leave costs.