PGCPS officials say Blueprint for Maryland will shift school funding; districts must ensure 75% of state dollars reach schools

Prince George's County Public Schools officials on Oct. 9 gave the Board of Education an overview of the Blueprint for Maryland, the 2021 state funding law that changes how K-12 state aid is calculated and requires that a minimum share of state funding be attributed directly to schools.

"This historic legislation represents a bold promise to our children and families," said Dr. Joseph, the interim official who introduced the presentation. Chief of accountability Dr. Doug Strader and a team of district staff then reviewed the law’s five pillars, current county progress and the practical challenges the district faces implementing the new funding rules.

The nut of the discussion was the Blueprint rule that most state dollars must "follow the students" and that a district must attribute at least 75% of certain state funds directly to school budgets. "The State dollars that we receive through Blueprint have to follow the students," Dr. Strader said. "And 75% of the dollars that are shared have to be attributed to the schools." He told the board that 144 Prince George’s County schools met that requirement this year, while 42 did not; 10 of those were funded at under 70% and required adjustments.

Why it matters: the formula moves funding away from a single, flat distribution and instead weights per-pupil funding by student needs such as poverty, multilingual status and special education. Under Blueprint, schools with higher concentrations of students with greater needs receive more state dollars; other costs that the law does not explicitly fund — transportation, athletics, arts, small-school premiums, technology and centrally managed or “locked” positions — must be paid from the remaining local and district-level funds.

What the district reported

- Five pillars: the district summarized Blueprint’s pillars as (1) early childhood expansion, (2) a teacher career ladder and higher minimum pay (including a $60,000 minimum salary requirement noted in the law), (3) college-and-career-readiness (CCR) definitions and pathways, (4) targeted resources such as concentration-of-poverty grants and community schools, and (5) strengthened accountability and an implementation board.

- Prekindergarten and tiers: the district reported roughly 4,062 public pre-K students currently enrolled. It said there are about 8,500 kindergarten students in the district and that about 65% of those kindergartners qualify as students in poverty. Staff noted the tiered pre-K funding model (tier 1 fully funded, tier 2 partially funded) and said the district may need to absorb costs for open seats if demand and eligibility change.

- Per-pupil examples: the presentation used three hypothetical 100-student schools to show how the per-pupil weights change total allocations. The district cited approximate per-pupil values used in its model: a foundation (base) amount near $9,000, compensatory education roughly $8,000, multilingual learners roughly $9,000 and special education roughly $9,500. In the example, total state funding for the modeled schools ranged roughly from $1.3 million to $2.0 million depending on student needs.

- College and career readiness: Dr. Strader said 43.7% of the district’s cohort exiting 10th grade met the state’s CCR measure under the initial rules referenced in the presentation. Staff noted CCR can be earned through a range of measures (unweighted GPA, certain standardized-test thresholds, industry-recognized credentials, passing AP/IB exams or dual-enrollment credits), and that later additions to the CCR definition will expand the count when statewide data are finalized.

- Staffing and teacher development: the district reported 5,719 teachers engaged in the career-ladder program and that roughly 5% of the workforce is working toward National Board certification. Staff described challenges, including affordability of the certification process and the lack of cross-district commonality in career ladder definitions.

- Community schools and clinicians: the district said 147 schools participate in its community-school efforts. Staff described operational challenges putting supports into schools and noted clinician contracts and clinician pay as a retention issue: the district said it still pays clinicians at rates set five years ago and uses a hybrid funding model in some non-community schools to preserve access to mental-health services. One staff member said 11 organizations currently contract with the district to provide clinicians.

Attendance and funding

Board members asked whether chronic absenteeism affects state funding. Dr. Strader said state funding is based on the district’s enrollment as of the Sept. 30 count: "Our funding is based on our enrollment count as of September 30," he said. Dr. Liz Faison (department staff) explained that the district uses early intervention, pupil personnel workers, school attendance/intervention teams and an interagency council (including the county department of social services) for students who accumulate extended unlawful absences.

Prekindergarten logistics and private providers

Andrea Searcy, director of early learning, described how the district assigns pre-K seats: families first apply at their boundary school; when boundary sites are full, students can be placed at an identified early childhood center (ECC). She said the district leaves at least two ECC seats open to accommodate special-education child-find placements. On private-provider participation, staff said participation in the state pre-K expansion grant is required for providers to be included in the mixed-delivery model; the district offered grant-writing support through WestEd, and a small number of private providers applied and received awards.

Tiers and counts (district-provided figures)

- Tier 1 (full funding): 3,802 students were submitted on the district AIB survey for the referenced year (with an addition of 162 students moved from tier 2 to tier 1 because they are in special education or multilingual learner programs).

- Tier 2: 127 students (with 162 later counted under tier 1 for program-related reclassification).

- Tier 3: 133 students in 2024 (those at 600% of federal poverty guidelines or above who are nonetheless enrolled in pre-K or related programs).

Other operational points and concerns

Board members raised concerns about specialty-program lotteries: several members said public understanding of the funding shifts is limited, and that specialty programs with different demographic mixes can create perceptions of budget cuts when Blueprint funding reassigns dollars based on student need. District staff emphasized that some school budgets include "locked" centrally funded positions or specialty-program staffing that make comparisons complicated.

Several board members asked about recruitment of low-income children into pre-K and about using a sliding fee scale. The district said it had chosen not to implement a sliding scale for the year and instead prioritized open seats for income-eligible students through Sept. 19; if seats remain, the district enrolls other families at no charge.

Career and technical education (CTE) and CCR access

Staff described CCR pathways that include AP, IB, dual enrollment and industry-recognized credentials (IRC). The district said most comprehensive high schools offer multiple CTE pathways that begin in ninth or tenth grade; a few specialized programs (for example, culinary or cosmetology) have elements that begin later. The district also described state-level changes that will allow initial access to post-CCR pathways (for example, the first two courses of a CTE sequence, AP or dual enrollment) for students who are not CCR by the end of 10th grade, and previewed a flexible model that pairs foundational courses with "career-connected learning" beginning in the 2027–28 school year.

Board members requested further data and follow-up

Board members asked for more school-level detail and for outreach and communications that explain why funding moved between specific schools. Staff agreed to return with additional numbers and clarifications, including the tier counts and the number of students used to calculate CCR funding for the district.

Ending

District staff framed the Blueprint implementation as a multi-year, operational transition requiring tighter alignment between school plans and budgets, improved data flows and active recruitment of early-childhood and specialized providers. "This is a generational opportunity," Dr. Joseph said in his introductory remarks. The presentation closed with staff offering to provide deeper dives and follow-up materials at the board's request.

Sources: presentation and Q&A at the Prince George's County Board of Education business work session, Oct. 9, 2025 (Prince George's County Public Schools).