Maryland’s governor is getting involved after the state school board mandated how students’ criminal history is shared.

Gov. Wes Moore this week ordered the Department of Juvenile Services to lead an interagency review of how information about Maryland public school students who have been charged with or convicted of violent crimes is shared, according to a Friday news release.

The state board decided on Tuesday that superintendents must be notified if new students have committed serious crimes while attending their previous Maryland schools. Before the emergency vote, the regulation called for law enforcement to notify the school system of an arrest of one of its students for certain offenses. It allowed, but did not require, a school system to notify another school system of the offenses if that student were to transfer. The change now makes that mandatory.

The rule change comes after a Howard High School student with a prior criminal record was charged with first-degree murder. Howard County Superintendent Bill Barnes said at a press conference last week that the 17-year-old had transferred from a neighboring school district, and that Howard had “no record” of the nature of his offenses.

The 17-year-old was under supervision of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services and wore an ankle monitor for a previous incident in another jurisdiction, police said. Barnes said last week the school’s staff knew he was receiving support from the Department of Juvenile Services but did not know any other details until a bail hearing last week.

The student had previously shot someone who is now paralyzed, according to the hearing. If the school system would’ve known about this, Barnes said last week, the 17-year-old wouldn’t have been approved to attend Howard High.

The arrest prompted a letter from state lawmakers sent to State Superintendent Carey Wright on Monday. The letter called for the education department to, among other things, instruct all 24 public school systems to transfer records of students with reportable offenses who are transferring school districts or transferred in the last year.

Wright told news media on Tuesday that all the lawmakers’ requests were followed with the regulation update.

Barnes announced at a Thursday school board meeting that cases of some 48 currently enrolled Howard County students with DJS contact will be reviewed by school staff, according to WJZ, and that, among other things, a student’s family will be interviewed if a reportable offense is noted.

The news release from Moore’s office states an initial review was conducted that included the state’s education department, Office of the Attorney General and the Maryland Center for School Safety. That review resulted in the regulation change the state school board approved on Tuesday.

The rule, which needs approval from state legislatures before going into effect, applies to students who transfer from one Maryland public or nonpublic (an independent, publicly funded school for students with high needs) school to another, and does not address students who come to Maryland public schools from independent educational programs, out-of -state programs, private schools or others.

It only impacts students who have been arrested for a “reportable offense,” including murder, arson, armed carjacking and sexual offenses.

The procedures under review are not intended to punish justice-involved students, the news release states, but to help provide information that may affect safety in school communities.

The ongoing review, according to the release, will inform the work of the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging Best Practices, a statewide commission to review and report on juvenile services, facilities and programs in Maryland. The commission’s first meeting will take place in the coming weeks, the release said.

“The action we take today will help us make Maryland safer, as we continue to work with all corners of society to meet the needs of our schools,” Moore said in the news release. “And I will be closely studying this interagency review upon its completion.”

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