Original Research by School Decision on Central Edlp at Loch Raven High School
Central EDLP at Loch Raven High School is an alternative high school serving grades nine through twelve, located in Towson and operated by Baltimore County Public Schools. It functions as an Educational Day Learning Program, a setting designed for students whose needs are not being met in a traditional comprehensive high school. The school has zero enrolled students in the reported data, meaning its enrollment count was either suppressed or reported as zero, which often reflects that the program may operate on a fluid, referral-based model where students are assigned on a case-by-case basis rather than counted as a stable cohort. The grade-by-grade breakdown also shows zeros across the board.
Because this is an alternative school, a range of standard academic metrics are not available. There are no state assessment results, no graduation rate, and no chronic absenteeism data in the record. This absence is typical for alternative programs, which may serve a transient population or operate outside the conventional testing and accountability framework that applies to traditional public schools. A parent looking into this program should expect that the usual measures of school performance, such as proficiency rates or four-year graduation rates, will not provide a meaningful picture here. Instead, the relevant questions are about the school’s specific mission, referral process, and the wraparound supports it offers to students who need an alternative pathway.
Towson, where the program is based, is an unincorporated community and the county seat of Baltimore County. It is a mixed-use suburb immediately north of Baltimore City, with a downtown core anchored by the Baltimore County Courthouse complex, a large enclosed regional mall, and the campuses of Towson University and Goucher College. Residential neighborhoods—Rodgers Forge, Stoneleigh, West Towson, Idlewylde—surround the commercial core with single-family homes on tree-lined streets. The population has grown steadily but modestly over recent decades, and the area retains its character as an administrative and educational hub. The Towson Loop, a free circulator bus launched in 2021, improves local mobility. Major employers include the two universities, Baltimore County government offices, the county school system headquarters, and the nearby Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
The broader district, Baltimore County Public Schools, has been implementing several changes that could affect a family considering any of its programs. The district adopted a new elementary literacy curriculum aligned with the science of reading in the 2023-2024 school year. A new district-wide cell phone policy restricting phone use during instructional time took effect in 2024-2025. Boundary changes affecting the Hereford, Dulaney, and Loch Raven high school feeder systems have been approved for the 2025-2026 school year to address enrollment imbalances. The district is also implementing the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a multi-year state plan that is expanding pre-K, raising teacher salaries, and increasing college and career readiness funding, with additional state dollars flowing to the district. Voters approved a bond issue for school security improvements, funding upgrades such as secure entrance vestibules and access control systems.
For a family considering Central EDLP at Loch Raven, the decision is not about school rankings or test scores. It is about whether a student requires the kind of targeted, alternative academic and behavioral support that a program like this is designed to provide. Parents would need to contact the program directly to understand the referral process, the structure of the school day, the nature of the curriculum, and what post-graduation pathways the program supports. The setting offers a fundamentally different educational experience from a large comprehensive high school, and it serves a specific population of students for whom that difference is necessary.
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