SB 8 Maryland Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Education - Maryland Civic Excellence Program - Established

SB 8 establishes the Maryland Civic Excellence Program, a voluntary initiative for public school systems in Maryland to recognize student civic engagement. Starting in the 2026-2027 school year, participating schools must award a "Seal of Civic Excellence" to students who pass a government assessment, earn A or B grades in U.S. history, modern world history, and American government, and complete 75 hours of community service (including at least 30 hours on a civic project). Schools may also earn a "Center of Civic Excellence" designation if 50% or more of their graduating students receive the seal. Participating school systems must submit annual reports on the program starting in 2027.

Issues: ✓ Education

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Aug 2024

Committee Review

Feb 2025

Senate Passage

Feb 2025

House of Delegates Passage

Governor

Introduced Aug 9, 2024 Last action Mar 5, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

First - Education - Maryland Civic Excellence Program - Established → Third - Education - Maryland Civic Excellence Program - Established · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill establishes the Maryland Civic Excellence Program to recognize students and schools for promoting civic engagement. The main changes involve adding new sponsors to the bill, updating formatting and document headers, and reorganizing the statutory language while keeping the core program requirements intact.

Scope change

No substantive change to the program's scope or applicability; the bill now includes additional sponsors and updated committee/senate action information.

TECHNICAL

Added additional sponsors to the bill (Senators Attar, Augustine, Bailey, Beidle, Brooks, Carozza, Ellis, Feldman, Ferguson, Gallion, Hayes, Henson, Hester, Hettleman, C. Jackson, M. Jackson, Jennings, King, Lewis Young, Love, Simonaire, Smith, Sydnor, A. Washington, and M. Washington).

Added committee report status showing favorable with amendments and Senate action showing adopted with floor amendments.

Reorganized the statutory text structure, moving definitions and program requirements into a clearer subsection format while maintaining the same substantive requirements.

Added explanatory notes about formatting conventions (capital letters, brackets, underlining, strike-through) to clarify how amendments are marked.

Floor votes · Senate Feb 4, 2025

How they voted

43–0

Passed · 3 other

Total votes 46

Feb 4, 2025

D Democratic33

30 Yea 3

90% Yea

R Republican13

13 Yea

100% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Feb 14, 2025

Committee

Referred Ways and Means

lower

Feb 13, 2025

Upper · Passed

Third Reading Passed

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Introduced

Floor Amendment {

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

Committee Amendment {

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

Motion Special Order until Later Today (Senator Kagan) Adopted

upper

Feb 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

Favorable with Amendments {

upper

Feb 10, 2025

Upper · Passed

Favorable with Amendments Report by Education, Energy, and the Environment

upper

Feb 4, 2025

Senate · Passed

Senate Vote: pass (43-0-3)

senate

Jan 8, 2025

Committee

First Reading Education, Energy, and the Environment

upper

Aug 9, 2024

Introduced

Pre-filed

upper

27 primary · 0 co-sponsors