Board-approved policy allows promotional fliers to be sent home with students

The board of Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has approved a policy that allows parent-teacher groups and government agencies to have teachers send promotional fliers home with students whenever the groups choose. The new policy will permit other nonprofit groups to distribute flyers at least two times, but no more than four times, a year. Businesses and other community organizations will be barred from distributing materials through teachers and students but will be allowed to display them on tables in schools. Other school groups, such as booster clubs, may distribute materials on an unlimited basis as long as the distribution is part of a joint effort between the group and a parent-teacher organization. Otherwise, they must comply with rules for other nonprofit groups. MCPS began considering a new distribution policy after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that its prior policy was unconstitutional because it gave officials unlimited power to accept or reject certain materials. Shortly after the court’s decision, MCPS announced a temporary ban on distributing take-home flyers from any outside organization. The ban raised the ire of the PTA, which led Superintendent Jerry D. Weast to propose that PTAs be the only community groups allowed to send communications home with students throughout the academic year. Mr. Weast says a limited policy is needed because staff members at individual schools could be inundated with materials if all groups had unlimited access.