SAFE SCHOOL FOR FCPS MARYLAND STUDENTS: Better Staffing, Fair Pay & Accountability
The Issue
To the Superintendent, Board of Education, and Central Administration of Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS), Maryland:
We, the parents, families, educators, taxpayers, and concerned community members of Frederick County, demand immediate action and emergency funding to hire and retain Instructional Assistants (IAs) and Special Education Paraprofessionals across ALL FCPS schools, from Pre-K through 12th grade.
Our schools are facing serious staffing challenges. Teachers are overwhelmed, students are not always receiving the individualized attention they need, and families are increasingly concerned about classroom safety and educational quality.
This is not just a special education issue. It affects EVERY family, EVERY student, EVERY teacher, and EVERY school.
- In Elementary Schools: Pre-K and Kindergarten students need consistent guidance with learning, behavior, transitions, communication, and safety. Classrooms without adequate assistant support place enormous pressure on teachers and can leave students’ developmental and educational needs unmet.
- In Middle and High Schools: Students face increasingly complex academic demands, schedules, transitions, and behavioral challenges. Students with disabilities may require individualized assistance, co-teaching, accommodations, and behavioral interventions that must be provided according to their IEPs.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), staffing shortages do not excuse a district from providing the services and supports required by a student’s IEP.
FCPS HAS ALREADY FACED FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT
In December 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement with FCPS following findings of discriminatory restraint and seclusion practices involving students with disabilities, including children as young as five.
Although federal monitoring ended in 2025 after FCPS demonstrated substantial compliance with that settlement, the district’s responsibility to protect students and provide appropriate educational support continues.
Families should not have to wait for another federal investigation, complaint, or preventable injury before staffing concerns receive meaningful attention.
FCPS must explain whether current staffing, funding, and recruitment efforts are sufficient to meet the needs of its growing student population, particularly students requiring special education services.
WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE ACTION:
- 1. Emergency funding and additional staff: Increase the budget to hire qualified Instructional Assistants and Special Education Paraprofessionals across elementary, middle, and high schools.
- 2. Competitive, livable wages: Improve compensation, recruitment, and retention so schools can fill vacancies and keep experienced support personnel.
- 3. Safe, needs-based staffing standards: Establish and enforce transparent staffing guidelines for general and special education, including adequate classroom assistance in Pre-K and Kindergarten and individualized support wherever students require it.
- 4. Protection of students with disabilities: Ensure that every student’s IEP services, accommodations, behavioral supports, and safety measures are delivered regardless of staffing challenges.
- 5. Immediate staffing solutions: Provide qualified temporary coverage and additional resources while permanent positions are being filled.
- 6. Transparency and accountability: Publish staffing levels, vacancies, and resource needs by school, and provide a district-wide action plan with clear deadlines and a public response within 30 days.
- Thorough employee screening, qualifications, and student safety: Ensure that every individual hired, assigned, or transferred to work with students undergoes rigorous background checks, employment history and reference verification, and appropriate qualification and training reviews. FCPS must also establish clear procedures for reviewing documented misconduct, substantiated complaints, and student safety concerns before employees are reassigned to another school, while respecting employee rights and due process. Hiring more staff and offering competitive wages must go hand in hand with ensuring that those entrusted with our children are qualified, properly trained, and held accountable. Given FCPS’s history of federal civil rights enforcement involving inappropriate restraint and seclusion, preventing future harm must remain a priority. Families deserve confidence that every school provides a safe environment and that concerns are addressed responsibly rather than simply transferred from one school to another.
Staffing shortages cannot continue to be treated as isolated problems or explained away solely as recruitment challenges. FCPS leadership must provide concrete solutions.
WE NEED EVERYONE’S SUPPORT — NOT JUST PARENTS!
We call on grandparents, relatives, teachers, neighbors, taxpayers, and advocates throughout Frederick County and Maryland to stand together.
We are not blaming our teachers or school administrators. We are standing WITH them and demanding the resources they need to educate and protect our children.
Our children deserve safe classrooms. Our teachers deserve adequate support. Students with disabilities deserve the services and opportunities guaranteed to them by law.
OUR CHILDREN CANNOT WAIT. STAFF OUR SCHOOLS NOW!
SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION. EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS!
Federal reference: U.S. Department of Justice, December 1, 2021 — Settlement with Frederick County Public Schools regarding discriminatory restraint and seclusion practices.
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The Issue
To the Superintendent, Board of Education, and Central Administration of Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS), Maryland:
We, the parents, families, educators, taxpayers, and concerned community members of Frederick County, demand immediate action and emergency funding to hire and retain Instructional Assistants (IAs) and Special Education Paraprofessionals across ALL FCPS schools, from Pre-K through 12th grade.
Our schools are facing serious staffing challenges. Teachers are overwhelmed, students are not always receiving the individualized attention they need, and families are increasingly concerned about classroom safety and educational quality.
This is not just a special education issue. It affects EVERY family, EVERY student, EVERY teacher, and EVERY school.
- In Elementary Schools: Pre-K and Kindergarten students need consistent guidance with learning, behavior, transitions, communication, and safety. Classrooms without adequate assistant support place enormous pressure on teachers and can leave students’ developmental and educational needs unmet.
- In Middle and High Schools: Students face increasingly complex academic demands, schedules, transitions, and behavioral challenges. Students with disabilities may require individualized assistance, co-teaching, accommodations, and behavioral interventions that must be provided according to their IEPs.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), staffing shortages do not excuse a district from providing the services and supports required by a student’s IEP.
FCPS HAS ALREADY FACED FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT
In December 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement with FCPS following findings of discriminatory restraint and seclusion practices involving students with disabilities, including children as young as five.
Although federal monitoring ended in 2025 after FCPS demonstrated substantial compliance with that settlement, the district’s responsibility to protect students and provide appropriate educational support continues.
Families should not have to wait for another federal investigation, complaint, or preventable injury before staffing concerns receive meaningful attention.
FCPS must explain whether current staffing, funding, and recruitment efforts are sufficient to meet the needs of its growing student population, particularly students requiring special education services.
WE DEMAND IMMEDIATE ACTION:
- 1. Emergency funding and additional staff: Increase the budget to hire qualified Instructional Assistants and Special Education Paraprofessionals across elementary, middle, and high schools.
- 2. Competitive, livable wages: Improve compensation, recruitment, and retention so schools can fill vacancies and keep experienced support personnel.
- 3. Safe, needs-based staffing standards: Establish and enforce transparent staffing guidelines for general and special education, including adequate classroom assistance in Pre-K and Kindergarten and individualized support wherever students require it.
- 4. Protection of students with disabilities: Ensure that every student’s IEP services, accommodations, behavioral supports, and safety measures are delivered regardless of staffing challenges.
- 5. Immediate staffing solutions: Provide qualified temporary coverage and additional resources while permanent positions are being filled.
- 6. Transparency and accountability: Publish staffing levels, vacancies, and resource needs by school, and provide a district-wide action plan with clear deadlines and a public response within 30 days.
- Thorough employee screening, qualifications, and student safety: Ensure that every individual hired, assigned, or transferred to work with students undergoes rigorous background checks, employment history and reference verification, and appropriate qualification and training reviews. FCPS must also establish clear procedures for reviewing documented misconduct, substantiated complaints, and student safety concerns before employees are reassigned to another school, while respecting employee rights and due process. Hiring more staff and offering competitive wages must go hand in hand with ensuring that those entrusted with our children are qualified, properly trained, and held accountable. Given FCPS’s history of federal civil rights enforcement involving inappropriate restraint and seclusion, preventing future harm must remain a priority. Families deserve confidence that every school provides a safe environment and that concerns are addressed responsibly rather than simply transferred from one school to another.
Staffing shortages cannot continue to be treated as isolated problems or explained away solely as recruitment challenges. FCPS leadership must provide concrete solutions.
WE NEED EVERYONE’S SUPPORT — NOT JUST PARENTS!
We call on grandparents, relatives, teachers, neighbors, taxpayers, and advocates throughout Frederick County and Maryland to stand together.
We are not blaming our teachers or school administrators. We are standing WITH them and demanding the resources they need to educate and protect our children.
Our children deserve safe classrooms. Our teachers deserve adequate support. Students with disabilities deserve the services and opportunities guaranteed to them by law.
OUR CHILDREN CANNOT WAIT. STAFF OUR SCHOOLS NOW!
SIGN AND SHARE THIS PETITION. EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS!
Federal reference: U.S. Department of Justice, December 1, 2021 — Settlement with Frederick County Public Schools regarding discriminatory restraint and seclusion practices.
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Petition created on October 22, 2026