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Boy Scouts organizations had always relied on Frederick County Public Schools to help recruit members, but now leaders say a new school policy is stifling efforts.

The policy went in effect in this year, and ended the school system's longtime practice of sending community groups' fliers home with students. As of this fall, fliers will not be sent home automatically — parents may only pick them up at school.

The new practice is hurting the Boy Scouts, who count the fliers as their best tool for reaching out to students and their families.

For the few months that the new policy has been in effect, recruitment for Boy Scouts has dropped by almost 50 percent, said Fred Broadrup, an assistant Scout master for Troop 371 and a committee member representing the Catoctin Mountain District for the Boy Scouts in Frederick County.

"The only people who are going to pick up the materials at school are people who already know about us," he said. "With the materials not going home, it's hurting the youth, it's hurting the Boy Scouts," he said. "...The goals of the Frederick County Public Schools system are very similar [to the Scouts' goals]. We are trying to help youth engage in positive activities."

Broadrup, who spoke against the new policy before the school board last week, said the Boy Scouts' recruitment numbers dropped significantly as soon as the fliers stopped going home with students this year.

Frederick County has two Boy Scout districts: The Appalachian Trail District and the Catoctin Mountain District. Recruitment for the Appalachian Trail District dropped from 200 to 100 students, compared to last year. Recruitment for the Catoctin Mountain District sank from 320 new members last year to 160 members this year.

The drop could have a negative effect not only for the Boy Scouts, but also on communities they serve, Broadrup said. On behalf of the two Boy Scout districts in Frederick County, Broadrup urged the board to revise its policy as soon as possible.

"Time is critical for us," he said. "The sooner the policy is changed, the sooner we can repair the damage."

It is not clear if the school board will respond to Broadrup's request.

School board president Jean Smith said changing the policy or reverting to former practices may be difficult. The board spent an entire year debating the change, and considered a number of factors before adopting the new policy this year.

"I don't know if we are going to reopen this," she said. "We really agonized over that decision."

There were a number of problems that led the board to change the policy on fliers — particularly the workload created by distributing fliers for nearly 250 groups.

And since a 2004 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit allows the school distribution of fliers by religious groups, school officials were also searching for a way to appease one parent who argued that such notices violate the separation of church and state.

Since schools are not legally allowed to stop distribution of only religious groups' fliers, officials decided in August to cut out the home distribution of all community groups' materials.

Frederick County schools now are required to post fliers at designated school areas four times per year, when parents are expected to be at school. The few exceptions are notices from governmental agencies, booster clubs and PTAs, which continue to go home with students.

Since the change in policy, only the Boys Scouts has reported a negative effect.

Lidia Soto-Harmon, deputy executive director for the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital, said the Frederick County staff had to double efforts to advertise to prevent a significant impact on recruitment.

However, Soto-Harmon said the group supports the efforts and shares the concerns of the Boy Scouts.

In Frederick and other counties where schools have adopted similar changes, the ones harmed the most are children who could benefit from the Scouts' services, she said.

Immigrant and low-income families are typically the ones that don't know about Scouts and have less time off work to come to school and pick up the fliers, she said.

Meanwhile, Broadrup remains optimistic that the board will look into his request. He said he hopes the board could exempt the Boy Scouts from the policy, especially since the values they teach students parallel the Character Counts program taught in schools.

"Community service is a large part of what we do," he said. "We are both on the same team here. We are trying to help youth."

E-mail Margarita Raycheva at mraycheva@gazette.net.