K-12 schools

Howard County school officials said 11 out of 20 bus routes have been restored.

A summer program that integrated artistic activities into learning enhanced student engagement and created a more positive mindset among those who participated, says Elaina Gomez-Alcala, a Baltimore City Public Schools teacher.

“We haven’t lost anything,” Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said. “And the thing we’ve gained is not having the victim have to testify in a courtroom in front of people.”

Black youth suicide rates increased 144% from 2007 to 2020, with data showing that Black LGBTQ+ youth are particularly at risk, according to a new report from the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins.

The bus contractor that abruptly canceled the routes will offer $8,000 signing bonuses to attract new drivers, the Howard County schools superintendent said Thursday.

Despite its ambitions to transform student transportation with top-of-the-line technology and better pay for bus drivers, Zum seems to be suffering from the same labor shortage that’s hampered school districts across the U.S.

The superintendent of schools has pledged a forensic audit to ensure transportation problems will never happen again.

How many Howard County students have been affected by late and no-show buses? Is it school officials’ fault, or the contractors’? Here’s what we know.

Zūm, a California-based school bus contractor that just took over about half of the district's routes, said it could not cover 20 routes for the rest of the week. And parents have reported widespread problems with buses arriving nearly an hour late or not at all.

So many school buses showed up late, or didn’t show up at all, that Howard County schools Superintendent Michael Martirano apologized to families in an email.

Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises are challenging students to attend school daily.

The schools affectionately known as City, Western, Poly and Douglass are next in line for renovations. But the city school system doesn’t have the funds to match what parents and alumni want.

Zūm, a Silicon Valley-based company, is taking over half of the Howard County school district’s routes and hopes to transform student transportation in Maryland.

Turning your children over to someone else requires trust. You put your kids on the bus for the first day of kindergarten or watch them drive off for the start of senior year and believe they’ll come home safe and ever-so-slightly better educated. Yet, as school starts next week for most Maryland students, it’s no longer a given that parents have that trust.

Back to school is about more than buying classroom supplies. It’s about getting children back into the mindset of being able to learn (and wake up early).

If the system detects a gun, an alert gets sent to professionals trained to identify guns. Once verified, school officials and police are notified of the threat within seconds.

Baltimore County high school students living within 1.7 miles of their schools may have to walk this year.

With the first day of school right around the corner, here’s a primer on the Baltimore area’s new school leaders, bus changes, COVID policies and more.

Three quarters of Maryland public school students failed the state’s math tests in grades three through eight this spring, an indication of just how much math students didn’t learn during the year of Zoom classes, and how difficult it has been for teachers to catch them up.

Despite policies that limit when students can use their phones, teachers say confiscating them can lead to unnecessary battles — often involving parents — that take even more time away from instruction.