School-Based Arrest Data Request

Good Morning,

Our response was submitted, via email, on Mon, Dec 4, 2023 at 5:14 PM and
sent to k.stathulis@northeastern.edu.

Thank you,
Michelle Towne

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Adam Renda <arenda@asrsd.org>
Date: Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 8:08 AM
Subject: Fwd: Massachusetts Public Records Law Request: School-Based Arrest
Data Request
To: Michelle Towne <mtowne@asrsd.org>

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <requests@muckrock.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 1:00 AM
Subject: RE: Massachusetts Public Records Law Request: School-Based Arrest
Data Request
To: <arenda@asrsd.org>

Ayer Shirley School District
PRL Office
115 Washington Street
Ayer, MA 01432

December 19, 2023

This is a follow up to a previous request:

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Massachusetts Public Records Law
request, copied below, and originally submitted on Nov. 20, 2023. Please
let me know when I can expect to receive a response.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

View request history, upload responsive documents, and report problems here:
https://www.muckrock.com/

If prompted for a passcode, please enter:
••••••••

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 154705
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is
being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share,
and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed
(i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the
department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

---

On Nov. 19, 2023:
Subject: Massachusetts Public Records Law Request: School-Based Arrest Data
Request
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, I hereby request the
following records:

This letter constitutes a request pursuant to the Public Records Act, M. G.
L.c.66, §10, for public records in the custody of your department. Under
the Criminal Justice Reform Act, school districts and law enforcement
agencies must “specify the manner and division of responsibility for
collecting and reporting the school-based arrests, citations and court
referrals of students to the Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education” (DESE). DESE began collecting data on school-related arrests in
the 2018-19 school year. In the 2019-20 school year, DESE has expanded that
collection to include data on all referrals to law enforcement. DESE has
defined these terms as follows, borrowing the same definitions used by the
U.S. Department of Education since its 2009 Civil Rights Data Collection.
A school-related arrest “[r]efers to an arrest of a student for any
activity conducted on school grounds, during off campus school activities
(including while taking school transportation), or due to a referral by any
school official. All school-related arrests are considered referrals to law
enforcement.”
A referral to law enforcement “[i]s an action by which a student is
reported to any law enforcement agency or official, including a school
police unit, for an incident that occurs on school grounds, during
school-related events, or while taking school transportation, regardless of
whether official action is taken. Citations, tickets, court referrals, and
school-related arrests are considered referrals to law enforcement.”
I request the following public records, as defined in M. G. L.c. 4, § 7
(twenty-sixth):
1. An extract of your records management system or database that includes
each school-related arrest and each referral to law enforcement conducted
during the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school year (up
until the day the records are produced). Specifically, we request an
extract of the database to include the following columns:
a. Date of arrest or referral to law enforcement
b. Time of arrest or referral to law enforcement
c. Charge (or charges)
d. Whether the individual(s) was arrested or referred to law enforcement
e. Sex of individual(s) arrested or referred to law enforcement
f. Age of individual(s) arrested or referred to law enforcement
g. Race of individual(s) arrested or referred to law enforcement
h. Ethnicity of individual(s) arrested or referred to law enforcement
i. Disability status of the individual(s) arrested or referred to law
enforcement
j. Whether the individual arrested or referred to law enforcement is a
student at the school.
k. Name of arresting officer, if applicable, and
l. Badge number of the arresting officer or the officer that referred the
youth to law enforcement, as applicable.
2. If such an extract of the database in question 1 is not possible, please
provide police reports and school incident reports on each school-related
arrest conducted during the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022
school year (up until the day the records are produced).
3. Please provide an unduplicated count of arrested students for each
school year including 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school
year (up until the day the records are produced).
4. If such an extract of the database in question 1 is not possible, please
provide police reports and school incident reports on each referral to law
enforcement conducted during the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and
2021-2022 school year (up until the day the records are produced), per the
U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection for that year.
For each referral to law enforcement, please include the school,
demographic, and incident information described in DESE’s School Safety and
Discipline Report Data Handbook v. 20.0.
5. Please also provide an unduplicated counts of referrals to law
enforcement (as defined above) for each school year including 2018-2019,
2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school year (up until the day the
records are produced).
6. A copy of any active memorandum of agreement and/or standard operating
procedures between the police department and local school districts
regarding police placement or activity in schools.
7. A copy of any active standard operating procedures developed with the
police department and/or other law enforcement agencies regarding police
placement or activity in your corresponding school; and,
8. Any records instructing or informing police personnel of, or otherwise
describing, data reporting requirements and procedures for complying with
M. G. L.c. 71 § 37P(b).
As this request involves a matter of public interest and will not be used
for any commercial purpose, we ask that all fees associated with this
request be waived pursuant to 950 C.M.R. 32.07(2)(k). The purpose of this
request is to determine whether your school district and police department
are complying with their reporting obligations under the Criminal Justice
Reform Act. “The public has an interest in knowing whether public servants
are carrying out their duties in an efficient and law-abiding manner.”
It would be ill-advised to impose a fee for data that your department may
have failed to report in violation of statutory and regulatory duty.
Moreover, as you know, municipalities with a population of over 20,000 may
not assess a fee for the first 2 hours of time spent searching for,
compiling, segregating, redacting and reproducing a requested record.
Finally, pursuant to 950 C.M.R. 32.07(2)(i), a records access officer shall
assess no fee greater than the lowest hourly rate of a person capable of
compiling, segregating, redacting and reproducing a requested record. In
the event that a charge is incurred for this request which you will not
waive, please so indicate and include an itemization of estimated good
faith costs.

Please provide public records to a requestor in an electronic format unless
the record is not available in an electronic format. M. G. L.c 66, § 6A(d).
The Public Records Act requires that you comply with this request within
ten (10) business days following receipt. If you believe that documents or
data responsive to any request herein is not public record and thus not
subject to disclosure, please set forth in writing the specific reasons for
such assertion, including the specific exemption or exemptions that you
believe apply. To the extent that you determine that records need to be
redacted in order to be produced under any law protecting the privacy of
named individuals, please do so rather than withholding them in their
entirety.
If you have any questions about this request, or need additional time to
respond, please contact me.

Thank you in advance for your prompt response to this request.

Sincerely,
Katherine Stathulis, Esq.
J.D. Fellow
Center for Public Interest, Advocacy, and Collaboration
k.stathulis@northeastern.edu
614.551.8426

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this
request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the
recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The
requested documents will be made available to the general public free of
charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, and is
not made for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for
screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read
print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for
example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this
request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the
recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The
requested documents will be made available to the general public free of
charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, and is
not made for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for
screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read
print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for
example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform
me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer
the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or
CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I
look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business
days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

MacKenzie Orcutt

View request history, upload responsive documents, and report problems here:
https://www.muckrock.com/

If prompted for a passcode, please enter:
••••••••

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 154705
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is
being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share,
and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed
(i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the
department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

--

*Michelle C. Towne*

*Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools**Executive Assistant
to the*
* School CommitteeSchool Committee Recording Secretary*

Ayer Shirley Regional School District
Phone:
* (978) 772-8600 x1508* Fax: * (978) 772-1863*

Good Morning,

We received an email this morning inquiring about our response to your records request dated Monday, November 20, 2023. Our response was submitted, via email, on Mon, December 4, 2023, at 5:14 PM and sent to k.stathulis@northeastern.edu.

Thank you,
Michelle Towne