MCPS 50 school redistricting: How Boundary Changes Could Impact Families – Opinion

October 21, 2024

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In January 2025 MCPS will launch boundary studies for Crown Farm, Woodward and Damascus high schools which will include 50 schools. The 19 high schools and 31 middle schools included in the boundary studies constitute 75% of the County’s middle schools and high schools.

This raises the question of whether the Board of Education intends to use these three high school boundary studies to demographically re balance most of the County’s middle schools and high schools. This was one of the stated goals of the 2019 Countywide Boundary Analysis before it was interrupted by the COVID pandemic.

In November the Board of Education will award a contract for an outside consultant to manage the boundary studies, and then begin the studies in January. There is speculation, WXY Architects will be awarded the boundary study consultant contract because they conducted the countywide boundary analysis, and they have experience with large scale school redistricting in New York and Boston. There are also concerns among PTA members and others about the timeline and community engagement plans for this contract.

As the BOE and MCPS undertake this 50-school redistricting project, there are several issues the public should consider: the impact of redistricting on chronic absenteeism & the youth mental health crisis, the results of the MCPS Countywide Boundary Analysis, and the State Board of Education decision in Van Herksen vs Montgomery County Board of Education. 

Chronic Absenteeism & the Youth Mental health Crisis

It has been widely reported that following the COVID pandemic there has been a  youth mental health crisis and a dramatic increase in chronic absenteeism in schools across the country. In many school districts chronic absenteeism rates have doubled.  Chronic Absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of instruction days in a school year.

According to MCPS’s Attendance Action Plan in the 2022-2023 school year 42,000 MCPS students were chronically absent. This included 35% of high school students, 30% of African American FARMS students, 42% of Hispanic FARMS students, and 30% of Hispanic non-FARMS students.

Reasons given for chronic absenteeism at MCPS include: the ongoing youth mental health crisis, many students don’t feel like they belong at their school, the need to care for younger siblings, and the need to work to help support their families.

MCPS’ fifty school boundary study has the potential to bus thousands of kids further from home and disrupt peer social networks. The concern is this may worsen both the youth mental health crisis and the problem of chronic absenteeism.

Researchers have found that longer bus rides are associated with increased chronic absenteeism.  Researchers have also found increased family involvement in schools helps reduce chronic absenteeism.  Busing students further from home will likely decrease parental involvement. 

Busing kids further from home and disrupting peer social networks may also decrease students’ sense of belonging at a school, a major contributor to chronic absenteeism. Busing may also create obstacles for students who need to care for a younger sibling (such as picking them up at school), and for students who need to work to help support their families.

MCPS attendance action plan can be found here.

MCPS COUNTYWIDE BOUNDARY ANALYSIS

In 2019, MCPS hired WXY Architects to conduct a countywide boundary analysis. As part of the boundary analysis community members were surveyed about their preferences related to school redistricting.

More than 70% of respondents stated that minimizing boundary changes, ensuring students attend the school closest to home, cohort stability and maximizing walkers were extremely important. Only 10% responded that school diversity was extremely important. 

Priorities were surveyed by region. Except for the Southeast region, the overwhelming majority of respondents felt the following were the most important factors in future boundary changes:  ensuring students attend the school closest to home, maximizing walkers, minimizing boundary changes, and minimizing the number of students affected by boundary changes.

The results of WXY’s Countywide Boundary Analysis Report raises the question of whether MCPS will respect the wishes of the majority of the County and prioritize proximity to home and minimizing the number of students subject to boundary changes in the upcoming boundary changes.

The Countywide Boundary Analysis Report can be found here.

State Board Decision : Van Herksen vs Montgomery County BOE

In 2018 the Board of Education modified Policy FAA to facilitate larger scale redistricting.

One of the changes made to the policy was the addition of the statement “Options should especially strive to create a diverse student body in each of the affected schools in alignment with Board Policy ACD, Quality Integrated Education”. The author of this amendment believed this change would require the BOE to prioritize diversity in boundary changes.

The first test of revised Policy FAA was the 2019 Upcounty Boundary Study.  The BOE’s decision in this boundary study was appealed to the State Board of Education. In December 2020, the State Board issued a decision (Van Herksen v Montgomery County BOE Opinion 20-45) which included Administrative Law Judge Stuart Breslow’s Recommended Ruling.

Judge Breslow’s ruling addressed the question of the legal meaning of Policy FAA. He stated:

In the approved Policy FAA, Policy FAA instructed: Options should especially strive to create a diverse student body in each of the affected schools in alignment with Board Policy ACD, Quality Integrated Education” The adopted policy added an adverb to language that by a plain reading is aspirational. Both “strive to promote” and “especially strive to create” is aspirational, rather than mandatory, language

Demographics is one factor among four, and the adopted language in Policy FAA does not make racial diversity the sole and driving factor…. It directs consideration of all four factors.

According to Judge Breslow’s ruling, Policy FAA does not prioritize diversity over other factors. That all four factors must be considered when making boundary changes. The four factors are demographics, geography, stability of boundaries and utilization (percent of school occupied).

There is little dispute the BOE has the right to redistrict students into an under-capacity school and out of an over capacity school. What Policy FAA may not authorize is redistricting students out of an under-capacity school or into an over capacity school to promote diversity unless such a boundary change also addresses the other factors.  As Judge Breslow stated, under Policy FAA diversity may not be the sole or driving factor in a school boundary change.

In the upcoming fifty school boundary studies, the challenge for the BOE will be to demonstrate how each school boundary change addresses the four factors.

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