Duval County Public Schools is taking measures to ensure student safety on campus

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — UPDATE at 5:23 p.m.: Action News Jax reached out to DCPS for a statement regarding the approval. Their response:

There are three important facts to remember about the issues identified in the grand jury report.

It should be clear to families and the community that we:

• Self-reported the errors prior to the grand jury investigation.
• Corrected both the errors and our procedures.
• Requested that the FLDOE Office of Safe Schools review our policies and procedures to ensure compliance with state law. That joint review was conducted earlier this year.

While we were just recently reviewed by the Office of Safe Schools, in the spirit of “trust but verify,” the board approved for a third-party law firm to further review, provide any additional feedback, and give assurance to the community.

The reporting compliance position in our police department has been created because of the increasing responsibilities for tracking and reporting information to the state. As an example, we must also monitor the validity of charter school reporting, even though those schools are not managed by the district.

ORIGINAL STORY

This after a grand jury report found the district had not reported thousands of criminal incidents to the state. The school board recently announced a new position supervisor of school safety compliance and on Monday night, the school board approved a resolution to hire a third-party law firm to review the findings.

DCPS Superintendent Dr. Diana Greene endorsed the resolution aimed at hiring a third-party law firm, Sniffen & Spellman, P.A. to review the findings of the critical grand jury report. It passed.

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“This is just about dotting every I, crossing every T and making sure Duval will not be a district as ever being thought of as not reporting this correctly,” said Greene.

“Just review those items let us know as a board things we haven’t done that we need to do and also review the letter from safe schools to make sure that everything is coached in moving forward,” said Dr. Kelly Coker, vice-chairman and school board member of District 1.

But not all school board members felt there is a need for the independent review.

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“I just think that we have taken a lot of steps as a district to ensure if any practices weren’t working, that has been changed and adjusted,” said Elizabeth Andersen, school board member of District 2. “I am not convinced this is something we need.”

A grand jury report found DCPS staff failed to report over 2,000 crimes to the state database, as well as under reported incidents of “gang activity or expression.”

It came after Gov. Ron Desantis petitioned the State Supreme Court in early 2019 to empanel a grand jury to investigate whether Florida school districts were complying with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act.

“We have a responsibility from this document, this 121 page document, to ensure to review and determine if more needs to be done,” said Lori Hershey, school board member of District 7. “That is the reason why I support this resolution.”

The law firm is expected to give its findings and recommendations to the school board no later than November 14.

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