Maryland’s overall graduation rate for the Class of 2025 was down just 1 percentage point from the previous year, and officials said the drop was due to Hispanics and English language learners leaving school due to immigration enforcement.

The 1% decline is “primarily due to lower graduation rates for Hispanic students and multilingual learners,” Maryland Superintendent Carrie Wright said in a briefing with reporters before Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting.

School Board President Josh Michael noted a direct connection between declining graduation rates and “increased political tensions, including the presence of immigration enforcement activity that is directly felt within our school communities.”

According to data from the Maryland Department of Education, the 2025 graduation rate was 86.4% and the 2024 graduation rate was 87.6%.

Michael said the graduation rate for Hispanic students decreased by 4.4 percent, and the graduation rate for students classified by education officials as multilingual learners decreased by 5.5 percent.

“We have never seen such large year-over-year declines or increases in relatively large subgroups,” he says.

Wright explained that overall, Hispanic students make up 24% of Maryland’s total student population.

Asked about the data from the previous school year, before ICE enforcement actions ramped up nationally and in Maryland, Michael said, “This is data from May and June of last year, right? Everything that’s happening right now is probably just going to exacerbate the trends that we’re starting to see since the beginning of this year.”

At the same time that graduation rates for Hispanics and multilingual learners declined, graduation rates rose for blacks, students in special education, and low-income students—groups that have historically lagged behind other students.

Maryland Assistant State Superintendent Tim Guy told board members in a post-information meeting that the Class of 2025 is notable in that it is “the first group of students to have four years of uninterrupted learning post-COVID-19,” and that the number of graduates, at 72,702, is higher than in past years.

Wright said in a briefing that the interim director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Baltimore field office met with superintendents last week to discuss concerns about ICE’s enforcement activities. Director Wright said, “The response was very good.”

When one superintendent asked if the agency could prevent ICE officers from using the area around the school for staging enforcement, the director said, “She didn’t know there was staging, so we absolutely would,” Wright said.

WTOP contacted the Baltimore field office to ask about the meeting but did not receive a call back.

Data from Maryland’s largest school system

The 2025 graduation rate for Montgomery County students was 88.7%, higher than the statewide average but lower than the 2024 graduation rate of 91.8%.

Montgomery County Superintendent Thomas Taylor told WTOP, “We’re proud that we’ve really made some ground in some important areas with our African American students, some of our FARM students, and even our students with disabilities.”

FARM refers to students who: You are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.

“We lost out in competition with English learners, and that accounted for our biggest loss,” Taylor added.

State education officials have blamed the current political climate and the Trump administration’s immigration policies for the statewide losses, but Taylor told WTOP, “We cannot directly link the two, and we do not have anecdotal evidence of that.”

He said this will be looked into by county school officials. “It’s certainly a concern for us.”

Taylor noted that Montgomery County has the highest percentage of English language learners and “the highest percentage of newcomers in the state.”

“So when you see the change in (graduation) data, it’s very alarming and calls for action,” he said.

in statement After Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting, MCPS officials explained that the district is “implementing strategies aimed at restoring academic excellence and strengthening core foundations throughout the district” based on the school board’s future-ready strategic plan.

The plan’s goals also include closing achievement gaps among reporting categories, including “students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, multilingual learners, Hispanic/Latino students, and Black or African American students.”

The Montgomery County School System has the following information: Resources for families within the county’s immigrant community.

“We want families to know that we are supporting our students during this very difficult time,” Taylor said.

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