School Locator
Use our online map application to locate your address within the county, find your planning polygon number, and view adopted attendance areas.
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.
Boundary Review
The Howard County Public School System will soon begin a systemwide school boundary review, which could potentially impact any or all of the 74 comprehensive schools in our system beginning in the 2020-2021 school year.
Steps taken during recent years to adjust school boundaries to relieve school crowding affected a limited number of schools and families. HCPSS has now reached the point where it must comprehensively review boundaries, taking a more system-wide approach to finding solutions.
Enrollment Projections
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 →
The Projection Accuracy Report is presented to the Board annually in the beginning of each calendar year.
Feasibility Study
The Feasibility Study:
- Provides a comprehensive review of school boundary options, focused on capacity utilization targets as defined by Policy 6010
- Presents student enrollment projections and trends, and
- Develops capital improvement plan strategies
2019 Feasibility Study (Updated: June 19 / 173 pages / 18 MB)
Previous Feasibility Studies: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014
Measuring Program Capacity
Utilizing our facilities to their fullest.
As defined by Policy 6010 – School Attendance Areas, Program Capacity is the number of students that can be reasonably accommodated in a school, based on the permanent school facility (relocatables are excluded) and the educational program offered.
Capacities can change over time based on system wide review/recalculation of capacities or individual school reviews due to specific needs (additions, renovations, or movement of regional programs). Some rooms are excluded from capacity calculations including Prekindergarten and Regional Special Education rooms.
Details are included in the most recent capacity studies.
Current School Assignments
Planning Area Map
The map below is provided as a PDF document.
Attendance Area Planning Area 2017-18 (2.4 MB)
Attendance Area Maps Available for Purchase. You can now purchase prints of the current Attendance Area Maps and Planning Area Map.
2019-20 Attendance Area Maps
The maps below are provided as PDF documents.
Capital Planning
The annual Capital Budget development and review process is supported by both county and state funding.
The school system considers construction projects carefully as each project goes through a myriad of stages from concept to completion. Parents and community members may follow each of our major construction projects as they move through the stages of the process.
View currently active and recently completed construction projects →
Contact Us
Office of School Planning10910 Clarksville Pike
Ellicott City, MD 21042
410-313-1554; 410-313-6890 (F)
Email: SchoolPlanning@hcpss.org