Baltimore City schools dropout rate hits 20.8%, a 15-year high

Baltimore City Public Schools' dropout rate climbed to 20.8%, more than double Maryland's 9.87% average and the highest level seen in 15 years. The figure meant roughly 1 in 5 first-time ninth graders in the class of 2025 did not finish high school within four years, even after transfers in and out were adjusted.

The Maryland State Department of Education publishes the four-year adjusted cohort dropout rate on the Maryland Report Card. The measure tracks first-time ninth graders over four years and adjusts for students who transfer into or out of the system, making it one of the clearest markers of how well a district holds onto teenagers long enough to graduate.

The city's trend moved in the wrong direction fast. Baltimore City's dropout rate rose from 12.5% in 2021 to 20.8% in 2025, a 67% jump over five school years. Baltimore County also saw a climb, from 8.5% to 12.2% over the same period, but neither matched the severity of the citywide spike.

That widening gap matters far beyond school halls in neighborhoods from Park Heights to Cherry Hill. A dropout rate this high means fewer young Baltimoreans are moving into apprenticeships, community college, union trades and entry-level jobs that depend on a diploma or GED. It also leaves more students cut off from the earnings, stability and mobility that a high school credential still unlocks in Baltimore's economy.

Baltimore City Public Schools said the increase was tied in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and said it was focusing on early intervention, strong partnerships and direct outreach. Those efforts now sit at the center of a basic test for the district: whether it can reach students sooner, before absenteeism, disengagement and credit loss turn into a permanent exit.

The state picture showed a very different direction. Maryland's four-year graduation rate reached 87.6% for the class of 2024, up 1.8 percentage points from the prior year, and the statewide cohort dropout rate fell from the year before. Against that backdrop, Baltimore City's 20.8% dropout rate stood out not as a statewide problem, but as a local crisis with long-term consequences for the city's neighborhoods and labor force.