Planning the HCPSS School Attendance Areas

The Office of School Planning is responsible for projecting student enrollment, planning for infrastructure needs, developing school boundary studies and studying attendance area adjustments, and writing the school system’s annual feasibility study

Every year, the Office of School Planning produces an enrollment projection, compiling updated data including projected housing, construction, historical and projected births, housing resales and student population characteristics. Learn more about the Enrollment Projection Methodology

To ensure school capacities are balanced based on actual and projected growth in Howard County’s and added school infrastructure, the Office of School Planning facilitates the school boundary adjustment process. The Board of Education approves all changes in Attendance Areas.

School boundary adjustments can be considered by the Board of Education based Policy 6010. Considerations include the following

• A new school or addition opening in the district
• School attendance area populations are outside the target utilization
• An existing facility is significantly damaged, deemed unusable or otherwise scheduled to close.
• The program capacity of a school building is altered.
• An unforeseen circumstance necessitates an adjustment to promote efficiency or provide for the welfare of students.

Process Overview

Learn more about the Redistricting Process →

Planning Process Study completed on January 18, 2016 by DeJONG RICHTER (now known as Cooperative Strategies). Report contains evaluation of: enrollment projection methodology, school capacity, redistricting scenario testing, adjustment to feeder system, and income disparity among schools.