It was a good day for young people in Annapolis on Tuesday.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed bills into law that will make it harder to charge juveniles as adults, will expand funding for child care scholarships and will create a commission to study the treatment of Black youth in the 19th and 20th centuries at the old House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children, just some of the 274 bills signed into law at the final bill-signing of the year.
They also included new laws on school rankings, on prohibiting law enforcement agents from wearing face coverings while on duty, and restricting cell phone use during the school day starting in the 2027-28 school year.
But the day began with a “pleasant surprise” when Moore highlighted the importance of early childhood education and offered the first ceremonial pen of the day to Cristy Morrell, executive director of Critchlow Adkins Children’s Centers in Talbot County.
“They’ve been the place that our mid-shore families have leaned on, and that our families trust with the people that they love the most: Their children,” Moore said. “Cristy’s team lets a parent go to work, knowing that their child will be safe and their child will be OK. That they will be cared for, and also that they’re learning.”
The youth charging bill, Senate Bill 323, was one of the top measures signed Tuesday, a new law that was more than a decade in the making.
The law, which will take effect Oct. 1, would raise the age from 14 to 16 when a youth could be tried as an adult for most crimes. It would still send 14- and 15-year-olds to adult court for first-degree murder or rape charges, but specifies that 16-year-olds charged with offenses such as first-degree assault and some firearms offenses would start in juvenile court.
The bill incorporated language from Senate Bill 296, sponsored by Sen. Sara Love (D-Montgomery), that prohibits youth charged as adults from being “detained or confined” in an adult prison unless no “secure juvenile detention area” is immediately available. In that case a youth could be processed in an adult jail, but not be held for more than six hours.
It’s measure criminal justice reform advocates such as former state Sen. Jill P. Carter of Baltimore City said was sorely needed in a state that ranks second behind Alabama for the number of 14- to 17-year-olds sent to adult court.
“I’m very happy something got done. I do think that the General Assembly should have gone further,” said Carter, who sponsored the measure for several years as a legislator and was on hand for the signing.
“A child that’s charged as an adult can’t even have a jury of their peers because children can’t serve on juries,” she said. “I think it takes education [because] many of the legislators don’t know children that are involved in the system, have never been in a court of law, don’t understand how either the juvenile system works or the criminal justice system works. We have more to do.”
During debate on the bill, advocates said an estimated 500 children annually would benefit from it.
“Children are children and that’s how they should be treated,” said Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel), who sponsored a House version ofthe bill. “They should never, ever, ever be in adult detention, especially pretrial before any guilt or innocence has been determined. Doesn’t make sense.”
‘Investing in children’
Several early childhood education measures were also signed, including a bill allocating $20 million for the state’s popular child care scholarship program, where enrollment has been frozen since May 1, 2025. The funding aims to cut the current waiting list of 5,000 families by more than half starting next fiscal year.
Companion bills signed into law Tuesday included House Bill 1321, sponsored by Del. Julie Palakovich Carr (D-Montgomery), implementing a partial scholarship system that would cap child care payments at 7% of a household’s income. Also enacted was House Bill 849, sponsored by Del. Bernice Mireku-North (D-Montgomery), codifying current state Department of Education scholarship exceptions based on income and other factors, such as temporary cash assistance, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or having a sibling enrolled in the program. The bill also added scholarship eligibility for “a child who is homeless.”
Palakovich Carr and Del. Aletheia McCaskill (D-Baltimore County) sponsored House Bill 561, that adds almost $5.7 million a year to the state’s child care credential program for fiscal years 2028 though 2030.
All three bills go into effect July 1.
“I always say when you invest [and] make a donation to support Critchlow, you’re really investing in children. You’re investing in the families,” Morrell said after the event. “You’re investing in the community, but what you’re really truly investing in is the future by establishing a strong foundation.”
Education measures
Other bills that will affect children include:
House Bill 1582, allowing the state to develop a new school rating system to replace the current one- to four-star system that officials have said does not adequately reflect the quality of a school and shortchanges schools with high numbers of low-income students. A new system could be ready for the 2027-28 school year “based on 2026-27 data.”
The department-requested bill adds a couple of other school-quality indicators to assess accountability, including school staffing measures that make sure schools have adequate personnel and completion of a “well-rounded curriculum” that doesn’t simply focus on reading, writing and arithmetic.
Also taking effect July 1 is Senate Bill 311, which made minor revisions to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan, such as extending the “hold harmless” provision to fund programs for multilingual learners, students in poverty and those in special education through fiscal 2028. That provision protects those students from any per pupil funding cuts that come along.
The bill. which was requested by the department, would also add five years to the time teachers who want to become principals have to receive National Board Certification, from July 1, 2029, to July 1, 2034.
“The department has been working so hard to support our teachers and leaders across the state,” said State Superintendent Carey Wright, who attended Tuesday’s signing ceremony. “Maryland can take a lot of pride in the progress that we’ve made because not all states are where we are. There’s more to come and more work to do, but we are heading in the right direction.”