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City schools: multilingual enrollment dipped by ~300; attendance and absenteeism trends mixed
Summary
BCPS staff told council multilingual enrollment fell by about 300 students year-to-year (fewer newcomers, concentrated in high school), while attendance for current multilingual learners remains higher than the district average and chronic absenteeism for that group has declined.
Baltimore City Public Schools presented school-by-school multilingual learner data at a City Council committee hearing, saying the district recorded roughly 300 fewer multilingual students in the most recent year and that declines were concentrated among newcomers and high-school–age students.
"We have a small decrease about 3% in this last year of 300 students enrollment," the district27s enrollment lead said, adding that multilingual learners have nearly tripled over the last decade and that 91% of schools have at least one multilingual student. The district reported multilingual learners comprised about 14.7% of enrollment previously and 14.4% in the presented year.
BCPS also said multilingual attendance rates have been higher than the district average for several years; for the 25-26 reporting period multilingual attendance was about 2 percentage points higher than the district average and had increased 2.2 percentage points over the prior year. The district reported chronic absenteeism at 41.7% overall and 35.1% for multilingual learners, and noted a large recent decline (an 8.3 percentage-point drop in chronic absenteeism for multilingual students across grade bands).
Officials cautioned that they do not track immigration status and use the multilingual learner indicator as an imperfect proxy for populations that might be affected by enforcement. MCAP (state assessment) results for 2026 were embargoed by the state and not released at the hearing.
Council members and staff asked for updated, finalized 2025-26 data after MSDE sign-off; district staff said they would return once the data were finalized.
