Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) will be adjusting its student code of conduct starting with the 2025-2026 school year to emphasize student accountability and to promote safe schools, according to district officials.
“Today’s updates are a part of a broader, intentional approach in raising our expectations,” MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor told the county school board during a presentation at its Thursday meeting in Rockville.
The code of conduct, which Taylor said is updated every school year and has been changed in the past without community input, is based on “levels” of consequence. For example, the code of conduct currently says that a student who threatens an adult or another student could face one of four levels of escalating consequences.
Level one consequences are “teacher-led” and could include detention, restorative practices and/or guardian outreach. Level four consequences are “administration supported and short-term out of school exclusionary responses,” and could include a student and guardian conference, in-school suspension or a behavioral intervention plan.
Peter Moran, MCPS chief school leadership officer, said Thursday the code updates will be focused on school safety, communicating expectations for students, ensuring restorative approaches are used after infractions and improving partnerships with parents so consequences are communicated.
According to the presentation, some expected revisions include increasing the severity of possible punishments for infractions such as drug possession and distribution, theft, bomb threats and attacks on students and staff. For example, students accused of making a bomb threat now face consequences ranging from level one through five. Under the revision, students would face consequences at levels four and five.
Under the current code, students who attack a teacher or support staffer would face consequences ranging from level one to five, “meaning that you’re communicating to a teacher or supporting service member … that if they were to be attacked by a student, it would be appropriate for them to respond themselves,” Moran said. “That’s not the way that our system should run and demonstrates extremely low expectations for the character that we want to see out of our students.”
Moran said infractions subjected to level four consequences were expanded to include recording and posting school fights on social media – an issue MCPS has had to navigate in recent years – among others.
The district will also implement several supports for a student who has been disciplined following an incident for families and students, including: a mandatory re-entry plan and intake meeting, an automatic referral to a student wellbeing team or social worker and a check-in and support with a trusted adult during the first week of return.
“The idea here is to maintain and teach self-discipline, not to punish bad behavior — and there’s a big difference. And so, in order to teach and maintain self-discipline, that usually requires help and some support,” Taylor told the board. “[This is] at least our stab at this, our attempt at getting to this, is by introducing readmission conferences … as an integral part in what we do next.”
Student Member of the Board Praneel Suvarna thanked Moran for bringing the code of conduct to the board and noted that many students feel that there’s a lack of clear expectations regarding their behavior and consequences.
Students have recently advocated for the expansion of restorative approaches to discipline issues within schools, an aspect addressed in the changes. Restorative approaches are a “mindset and philosophy toward school climate” focused on developing relationships and building community and healing the school community when harm has occurred, according to the MCPS website.
Consequences at every level in the updated code of conduct now include a requirement for both a traditional punishment such as an in-school suspension and restorative practices.
Taylor noted MCPS says it often employs restorative justice as part of discipline, but the district hasn’t “institutionalized restorative approaches to the level” that’s needed in order to be effective. Taylor said having one or two staff members with experience in restorative practices at every school isn’t enough.
Moran said the code of conduct updates emphasize restorative approaches as a “central component” of discipline in MCPS.
Board member Brenda Wolff (Dist. 5) raised concerns about the subjectivity of the code, noting that Black boys are often disproportionately disciplined for behaviors other students exhibit.
“Any training is going to have to require a lot of discussion around these categories. And I have to say I’m going to be looking at variance between schools and within schools,” Wolff said. “I remain very concerned about impact here.”
Moran said all school-based staff and administrators will receive training on the updated code, including on restorative practices.
The updated rules will also be discussed with students in schools and will be shared with families in multiple ways, according to the presentation. Cross-functional teams — a group of specialists that will be assigned to school clusters that Taylor introduced in his fiscal year 2026 budget request – are expected to support the implementation of the code and gather feedback, according to the presentation.
