16 public K-12 schools in Bel Air from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Bel Air has more public-school enrollment than 86% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Bel Air sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.
Bel Air's list includes 4 elementary, 3 middle, and 4 high-school campuses, plus 5 combined-grade records. The city average spans every major grade stage, so the ranked table is more informative when read within level than as one interchangeable queue.
The 18-point gap between Prospect Mill Elementary and Bel Air Middle shows the range hidden by Bel Air's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.
Bel Air school enrollment ranges from 141 students (lowest) to 1,341 students (highest), a spread of 1,200 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Bel Air's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Bel Air is typically wider than the Bel Air-aggregate figure suggests.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Prospect Mill Elementary | 55 |
| 2. | Red Pump Elementary School | 53 |
| 3. | Bel Air Elementary | 53 |
| 4. | Patterson Mill Middle School | 49 |
| 5. | Harford Academy at Campus Hills | 48 |
| 6. | Fountain Green Elementary | 46 |
| 7. | Ring Factory Elementary | 43 |
| 8. | Homestead/Wakefield Elementary | 42 |
| 9. | Patterson Mill High School | 42 |
| 10. | C. Milton Wright High | 41 |
| 11. | Hickory Elementary | 41 |
| 12. | Emmorton Elementary | 40 |
| 13. | Bel Air High | 39 |
| 14. | Southampton Middle | 38 |
| 15. | Harford Technical High | 38 |
| 16. | Bel Air Middle | 37 |
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
Prospect Mill Elementary has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Bel Air schools in this federal-data comparison at 55/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Bel Air has 16 public schools with a total enrollment of 12,624 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 14.5:1.
Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Maryland →
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
