Carroll County schools post modest gains on Maryland report card; district targets chronic absenteeism
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Summary
District staff presented 2024–25 Maryland report card results showing modest score increases at elementary, middle and high school levels and outlined specific attendance interventions — home visits, PPW support, CC Stars and a parent messaging campaign — aimed at reducing chronic absenteeism.
Carroll County Public Schools presented the system's 2024–25 Maryland report card and a plan to reduce chronic absenteeism at the Board of Education meeting on Nov. 12, 2025.
The district's director of curriculum and instruction, Steve Wernick, summarized statewide and local results, saying the county's overall star rating remained at an average of four stars. He reported an elementary-level county average of 66.8 out of 100, a middle-school average of 62.2 and a high-school average of 63.9, with gains in academic achievement and school quality but mixed performance for subgroups including multilingual learners and students with disabilities. "We experienced improvements in all four indicators at the elementary level," Wernick said, while flagging subgroup gaps that continue to affect some schools.
Wernick and accountability staff noted the Maryland report card uses multiple indicators and that some schools lacked sufficient data for particular indicators. They directed the public to the Maryland report card website (mdreportcard.org) for full individual-school reports.
Following the report-card presentation, the board heard a detailed briefing on attendance from the district's attendance team. The district reported a three-year uptick in overall attendance, from 92.8% to 93.3%. But staff cautioned chronic absenteeism (students absent more than 10% of the school year) remains a concern and can materially lower a school's star rating.
Attendance lead Mr. Strickland and student-services supervisors outlined a multi-tiered approach: daily parent notifications and home access tracking; classroom- and school-level incentives; school-based multidisciplinary student service teams that include counselors, psychologists and pupil personnel workers (PPWs); and targeted programs for students with higher absence rates. PPWs conduct home visits, coordinate individualized plans and, when interventions are exhausted, may refer cases to the state's attorney because Maryland requires consistent school attendance.
Two new or expanded interventions were highlighted: CC Stars, a short-term (up to 15 weeks) behavioral-health–oriented counseling program funded through the state consortium to help students in the 10–15% absence range; and MSOP (Mobile Student Outreach Program), which provides intensive in-home supports through Life Renewal Services for students struggling with mental-health barriers to attendance. District staff said both programs work directly with families and school teams to create return-to-school plans.
Board members praised the outreach and prevention work but pressed staff for specifics about which schools or grades show higher absence rates and how home-visit information is communicated to teachers (balancing confidentiality with instructional needs). Staff said elementary attendance generally outperforms middle and high school, with school-to-school variance small (usually within 1–1.5 percentage points), and described a process of sharing non-confidential plan details with teachers while protecting sensitive family information.
The presentation closed with an emphasis on continued community partnerships and parent messaging: the district has run a fall and a November campaign with routines and strategies for families to improve attendance.
The board did not take formal action on attendance at the meeting; staff invited further questions and will continue to report on outcomes as the initiatives proceed.
