School Planning Overview
Planning for adequate public school facilities is a joint effort between Montgomery Planning and the Division of Capital Planning and Real Estate at Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).
MCPS planners project student enrollment for the near future at the countywide and individual school levels, and develop strategies and long-range facility plans to meet capacity needs appropriately. They also coordinate relevant county and state budgets for the six-year Capital Improvements Program (CIP), and publish the Educational Facilities Master Plan annually.
Montgomery Planning administers the Annual School Test based on MCPS’ projections and scheduled CIP projects, and conducts School Adequacy Analysis for development applications accordingly. Planning staff also produces student generation rates and relevant housing data, which is shared with MCPS to inform their forecasting and facility planning efforts as well.
Adequate Public School Facilities
The Annual School Test, certified by the Planning Board for each fiscal year, evaluates the County’s public school facilities in light of new development. The test establishes an adequacy status for each school service area as prescribed by the Growth and Infrastructure Policy (GIP), which is then used to determine the appropriate conditions of approval during development review.
For each development application, Countywide Planning and Policy Division staff examine the proposed residential units and estimate the impact on the projected utilization of schools serving the project. A School Adequacy Analysis report details these findings and provides the condition of approval to be imposed on the proposed residential units, in the form of Utilization Premium Payment factors.
Utilization Premium Payments (UPP) are fees charged to new residential units when the additional demand from the development on the projected utilization of a school(s) serving the project is found to exceed certain adequacy thresholds. The fee is calculated by applying the appropriate UPP factor, outlined in the School Adequacy Analysis report, to the undiscounted and unexempt school impact tax rate applicable to the project.
For further information on the rules and standards used for determining adequate school facilities, view the Annual School Test Guidelines.
View current and previous Annual School Test results and reports.
View current Utilization Premium Payment rates.
School Impact Tax
Developers pay school impact tax on new residential units regardless of the adequacy status of the schools serving the proposed project. The school impact tax helps pay for the construction or expansion of school facilities countywide. The rates are determined by school impact area classification (Turnover or Infill) and residential unit type (single family detached, single family attached, multi-family low-rise or multi-family high-rise).
View current impact tax rates.
Student Generation Rate
A student generation rate is the average number of students living in a residential unit, often calculated by unit type and/or geography. They are commonly used to estimate the number of students generated from new development. Montgomery Planning updates the county’s student generation rates every other year by School Impact Area and residential unit type.
View current student generation rates.
FAQs
The Growth and Infrastructure Policy defines the adequacy of school facilities by capacity utilization, and uses a combination of two different metrics to determine the adequacy status of a school for new development – utilization rate (calculated by dividing the projected enrollment of a school by its program capacity) and seat deficit/surplus (calculated by subtracting the projected enrollment from program capacity).
Since the Planning Department determines school adequacy in light of development applications, the Annual School Test evaluates the adequacy of each school for four school years in the future, when students from the new units are generally expected to enroll in their schools. When the four-year projections from MCPS (modified by Planning in limited circumstances to serve the purpose of the test) indicate that a school’s utilization will exceed the following thresholds, the school service area is placed in the respective Utilization Premium Payment (UPP) tier by default for the ongoing fiscal year:
|
Default UPP Tier |
Projected Utilization Rate |
Projected Seat Deficit |
||
|
ES |
MS |
HS |
||
|
Tier 1 |
105% |
85 |
126 |
180 |
|
Tier 2 |
120% |
102 |
151 |
216 |
|
Tier 3 |
135% |
115 |
170 |
243 |
Contrary to the perception that large class sizes are a sign of overcrowding, class sizes are determined by staffing ratios following MCPS’ guidelines, and is rarely impacted by the school’s level of utilization. It is not uncommon to see a school with an underutilized facility to operate with large class sizes, or an overutilized facility to operate smaller classes but with the incorporation of portable classrooms.
Each fall, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) releases an updated set of enrollment projections of each school for the next six school years. The Planning Department informs the forecasting process by providing MCPS with updated housing data, including the total number of dwelling units by type in each cluster service area and information about residential projects in the development pipeline. The final projections are determined under the sole discretion of MCPS planners.
Montgomery Planning evaluates a development application for infrastructure adequacy during the preliminary plan review stage. For schools, staff calculates an estimate number of students to come from the new project based on the type and net number of residential units proposed. This estimated enrollment impact is compared against the certified Annual School Test results for each school serving the project. If the impact is found to be at or exceed the thresholds set forth by the Test, a Utilization Premium Payment factor is calculated and applied on the school impact tax rate as a surcharge for funding inadequate school facilities.
MCPS planners capture the impact of new development in their annual enrollment projections. When their projections indicate a school to be overutilized and facing a long-term need for permanent space, they explore a range of options to address the needs appropriately, including classroom additions, reassigning students to nearby schools, or opening a new school.
In general, school infrastructure improvements are funded through a combination of state aid, county general obligation bonds, and tax revenue, including property, recordation and school impact taxes.
Developers help pay for school capital projects through school impact tax, which are imposed on new residential development regardless of the adequacy status of the schools serving the project.
If the impact from a proposed residential development is found to exceed certain adequacy thresholds of a school(s) serving the project, Utilization Premium Payments are charged in addition to the impact tax, in amounts commensurate to the anticipated impact.
Staff Contact
Hye-Soo Baek
301-495-2192
Email