School Day Extended In Baltimore County Starting This Fall

TOWSON, MD — Baltimore County plans to extend the school day in the upcoming academic year. Starting in the fall 2018, officials said they will be tacking on five minutes to the end of the school day in Baltimore County Public Schools.

The move is a response to the Maryland State Department of Education, which granted the school system a waiver this school year for not having the required 1,170 hours of instructional time; Baltimore County Public Schools fell eight hours short.

The waiver was contingent upon the school system increasing the number of instructional hours the following school year.

The new start and dismissal times will be communicated by the end of the 2017-2018 school year, according to administrators.

Baltimore County Public Schools closed for seven days this school year: March 2, 21 and 22; on Feb. 5 and Feb. 7; and Jan. 4 and Jan. 17. There were also nine delayed opening and early closing decisions.

"Although this left the school district with 182 days remaining for high and middle school students and 181 days remaining for elementary students, it has resulted in the district falling eight hours short of the required 1,170 high school student contact hours," school officials said in a letter to the state.

Other school systems that requested waivers to be excused for one or two school days had their requests denied, including Baltimore City and Howard County, among others.

School systems can appeal to the state department of education for a waiver if schools have closed for severe weather, natural disasters or civil disasters. They must show they have built in extra days for weather and/or offer plans to remedy the issue.

Baltimore County officials noted that in 2015 the school system was granted a waiver for 15.5 hours as long as it extended the school day the following year.

This time, county school leaders said they planned to make adjustments to the school day to remedy the issue for 2018-2019 and all subsequent years.

Officials noted that the length of a high school day in Maryland’s public school systems ranges from 6.67 to 7.4 hours per day with most high schools having 6.75 hours of instructional time per day.

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