Carroll County Public Schools students may no longer take unlimited free community college classes, and must now be in good academic standing to dual enroll in Carroll Community College, officials told the county school board last week.
“The biggest change is that for students to be eligible to participate in dual enrollment, starting next year, they must meet the college and career readiness standard, which is identified in the Blueprint and by the state,” Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Nicholas Shockney said during a school board meeting Wednesday. “Students who meet that can enroll for up to four courses during the course of the year — two in the fall, two in the spring — at CCPS’s expense. Students could enroll in additional courses beyond that with guidance from their school counselor, but courses beyond that would be at the expense of the student and family.”
Officials announced in December 2022 that Carroll County Public Schools students would be able to dual enroll in an unlimited number Carroll Community College classes for free beginning in the spring semester of 2023. Students who took dual enrollment courses during the fall 2022 semester and who paid tuition and consolidated fees received refunds for the tuition portion of their bill.
Changes to dual enrollment will begin next school year, Shockney said.
Students who pass both English 10 and Algebra 1 exams will be considered college and career ready, as well as those who earn a grade-point average of at least 3.0. Students who do not qualify are considered to be on a “support” path, so they can receive the resources necessary to become college and career ready. Local education agencies receive additional funds for each student deemed college and career ready.
The Blueprint is a multibillion-dollar public school reform effort in the third year of its decade-long rollout.
When the Blueprint is fully implemented, students deemed college and career ready by the end of their 10th-grade year will have a choice from among three pathways: career and technical education, dual enrollment, or Advanced Placement, according to the Blueprint’s College and Career Readiness pillar. Students may choose an International Baccalaureate program instead of AP. Students will have the opportunity to benefit from aspects of each pathway during Blueprint’s phased rollout.
“Students who don’t meet that standard could still participate,” Shockney said, “but it would be at the students’ family’s expense.”
The change is based on a new policy set jointly by the Maryland State Board of Education and Blueprint Accountability and Implementation Board. Assistant Superintendent of Operations Jon O’Neal said Shockney recently contributed to a memorandum of understanding between the public school system and Carroll Community College that will reduce expenses for the public school system, after the state policy was updated to establish new “guard rails.”
“We were chasing those costs for many years in a relationship with Carroll Community College,” O’Neal said.
The district is in the process of developing its early college program, a Blueprint requirement which would provide the framework for high school students deemed college and career ready to earn an associate’s degree through the dual enrollment pathway, Shockney said.
According to a plan to implement Blueprint for Maryland’s Future initiatives in Carroll County released in June, the school system aims to continue providing career and technical education to students who do not meet college and career readiness standards.
The Carroll County Board of Education is expected to adopt a fiscal 2026 budget at its Feb. 18 meeting, so the budget can be forwarded to the county by March 1. Fiscal 2026 begins July 1.
Have a news tip? Contact Thomas Goodwin Smith at [email protected].
