How to Fill Out and Submit the BCPS Volunteer Hours Form

The BCPS volunteer hours form — officially the Independent Service-Learning Approval Form — is how Baltimore County Public Schools students get credit toward the 75 hours of service learning required for graduation.¹ You fill out the first four sections and get them approved before you start volunteering, then complete the supervisor verification and your reflection after the service is done and return the whole form to your school’s service-learning coordinator. Skip the pre-approval step and the hours may not count, even if the work was real.

Where to Get the Form

The current version is posted on the BCPS Student Service Learning page at bcps.org under Family and Community Engagement.¹ Your school’s counseling office or service-learning coordinator can also give you a printed copy. The form was revised in July 2025 and has seven sections split among the student, a parent or guardian, the site supervisor, and the coordinator.² Make sure you’re using the newest version; older copies floating around online may be out of date.

Before You Fill Anything In: Check That the Service Qualifies

A few rules decide whether your project is eligible at all. Confirming them first saves you from doing hours that won’t count.

The site has to be a nonprofit, faith-based, or educational institution.³ For-profit businesses do not qualify. If you’re not sure about an organization, you can look it up with the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool.⁴

The work itself has to fit one of three categories recognized by BCPS: direct service (face-to-face help such as tutoring or serving meals), indirect service (organizing a food drive, running a cleanup, fundraising), or advocacy (educating the public about an issue, writing to legislators, producing informational materials).¹

Independent projects also come with hard caps. You cannot be paid in any form, including gifts or scholarships. The work has to happen outside school hours. You cannot log more than eight hours in a day or 40 in a week. No more than 25 percent of your project time can be clerical tasks like filing, and more than half of your total time must be in the action phase rather than preparation or reflection.³

Your supervisor cannot be a family member. Maryland guidelines prohibit a parent, guardian, or relative from supervising or verifying an independent service-learning activity.⁵ The supervisor also has to agree to provide preparation and reflection activities, not just sign off on your hours.³

Filling Out Sections 1 Through 4 Before Your Service

Submit the first four sections to your service-learning coordinator for pre-approval before any volunteering starts. BCPS recommends turning them in at least two weeks before your activity date.³

Section 1: Student Information

Your name, student ID number, school, homeroom teacher, and email. Double-check the student ID. That’s how the coordinator matches your hours to your transcript record.²

Section 2: Organization and Activity Details

Enter the nonprofit’s name, street address, your site supervisor’s name, and the supervisor’s phone or email. You also need the organization’s Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN). Most nonprofits will give it to you if you ask, and the IRS search tool shows it too. Describe the activity you plan to do and list the dates you expect to serve.²

Section 3: Parent or Guardian Approval

A parent or guardian signs and dates this section. Get the signature before you turn the form in for pre-approval.²

Section 4: Coordinator Pre-Approval

Your school’s service-learning coordinator reviews Sections 1 through 3, checks the activity against state requirements, and either approves or denies it. If denied, the coordinator notes the reason. Do not start volunteering until this section comes back approved.¹

Filling Out Sections 5 and 6 After You Finish

Section 5: Site Supervisor Verification

Your supervisor fills in the start date, end date, number of days served, hours per day, and total hours. The supervisor signs and dates the section. This is the school’s main proof you did the work. Without it, the form won’t be processed.²

Section 6: Student Reflection

Write a paragraph (or attach a separate document) addressing four prompts: what you did and what community need it addressed, who benefited, what you learned about yourself and how helping others made you feel, and how the experience connected to something from a class at school.² The reflection is a state requirement, not a formality. Maryland requires every service-learning experience to include preparation, action, and reflection for the hours to count.⁵

Turning the Form In

Bring the completed form, Sections 1 through 6, back to your school’s service-learning coordinator or counselor. The coordinator fills in Section 7 with the date and their signature, then enters your hours into Focus, the district’s student information system.¹ You get the signed paperwork back afterward. Keep it. If a discrepancy ever shows up on your transcript, your personal copy is the proof.

Hours should be turned in during the same school year they were completed. Service done over the summer should be submitted when school reopens. BCPS requires all hours to be turned in within one year of completion.³ Seniors should get hours in well before the final grading period ends, since anything not recorded can’t appear on the transcript used to verify graduation eligibility.

Once hours are in Focus, they should appear on your transcript. If you’re not sure how many hours you’ve already banked, your counselor or coordinator can pull the current count. Service completed in middle school may already be on your record, since the state allows districts to start counting then.⁶

Mistakes That Cost Students Their Hours

Starting service before Section 4 is signed. If the coordinator hasn’t approved the activity, the hours may be rejected even when everything else is correct.
Leaving the EIN blank in Section 2. It signals you haven’t confirmed the organization qualifies.
Using a family member as the supervisor, which Maryland guidelines specifically prohibit.⁵
Skipping Section 6. A form without the reflection is incomplete.⁵
Submitting more than a year after the service was completed.³
Logging too much clerical work. If more than 25 percent of your project time was clerical, it fails the guidelines.³

Where to Find a Pre-Approved Site

If you don’t have a site lined up, BCPS points students to two main resources. The Baltimore County Volunteer Center keeps an online list of pre-approved student service-learning agencies. The Baltimore County Public Library’s Be Involved program also runs pre-approved projects like community cleanups, assembling pet toys for animal shelters, and creating care kits for library patrons.¹ Picking a pre-approved site makes Section 4 easier because your coordinator already knows the organization qualifies.

For questions about the process, start with your school’s service-learning coordinator. BCPS publishes a coordinator directory by school on its website, and the district’s service-learning office can be reached at 443-809-4329.¹

1
Baltimore County Public Schools. Student Service Learning
2
Baltimore County Public Schools. Independent Service-Learning Approval Form
3
Baltimore County Public Schools. Service Learning Guidelines
4
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Exempt Organization Search
5
Maryland State Department of Education. Maryland Student Service-Learning Guidelines
6
Maryland State Department of Education. Code of Maryland Regulations COMAR – Graduation Requirements