Enrollment crisis? Funding cuts and closures loom as schools lose students

Though families continue to pull students from public schools, there are strategies already being implemented to help reverse the decline.

Drops in enrollment that hit during COVID’s online learning phase are now forcing leaders to permanently close schools and brace for funding cuts.

In many parts of the country, administrators saw families pull students from public schools forced to remain online and enroll their children in private schools, charter systems and homeschools that offered in-person instruction.

Public schools in Kansas are down 12,000 students, or about 2% of their enrollment, from pre-pandemic levels, CJonline.com reported. Wichita Unified School District, one of the state’s largest, has suffered an even larger 5.6% drop in enrollment, the website reported. Kansas law allows school districts to set their budgets based on higher of the previous two years’ enrollment. But two years of drops are now likely to lead to state budget cuts, according to CJonline.com.

California schools, which also are funded on a per-pupil based, are facing a similar financial crunch. The state’s legislature has allowed district leaders over the last two years based their budgets on pre-pandemic enrollment, according to CalMatters.org. Officials at San Bernardino City USD told the site that they lost a few hundred students each year before the pandemic and enrollment then dropped by 2,000 last year. Without additional assistance, the district could lose $27 million in funding from its $971 million budget, the site reported. “The public doesn’t understand,” Lisa Gonzales, the chief business officer at Mt. Diablo USD told CalMatters. “We’re all facing colossal funding decreases next year.”

Three-quarters of New York City public schools lost students this year, with some seeing drops of 10% or more while the district’s overall enrollment has fallen by about 9% since the beginning of the pandemic, Chalkbeat reported.


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Low-income students and students with disabilities accounted for the biggest declines in New York City, according to the website.

In Utah, the Salt Lake City School District may be forced to begin closing schools because of enrollment that began falling prior to the pandemic, KSLNewRadio.com reported. While enrollment is up in high schools, it has dropped in elementary schools, the website says. The decline has already forced Salt Lake City School District to cut 42 teaching positions this month, though officials say more may be required.

Denver Public Schools plans to cut positions in its central office, where hiring has also been frozen because of declining enrollment, The Denver Post reported. “We are positioned to make some organizational changes that will free resources so we can drive more dollars from the Central Office to the school level,” Superintendent Alex Marrero told the district, according to the newspaper.

In a possible sign of where students are going, a website in Wisconsin that allowed parents to sign up for a private school choice program crashed on the day applications opened this week, The Center Square reported.

Is enrollment already rebounding? 

Administrators can find some strategies for reversing the decline in initiatives such as Connecticut’s LEAP, or Learner Engagement and Attendance Program. The initiative, which was launched in spring 2021 with $10 million in COVID relief funds and focused on high-needs districts, added staff members who visited homes to provide direct support to impacted families. The program helped place students in summer school and other learning acceleration programs, and also connected families with housing, childcare and healthcare, among other services.

And there are already signs that districts are recovering even if enrollment remains below pre-pandemic levels. A small increase in Indiana was driven by a nearly 6% jump in kindergarten enrollment, WTHR.com reported. According to that news site, state officials believe more parents enrolled their children in 2021-22 after waiting a year due to COVID.

Matt Zalaznick
Matt Zalaznick
Matt Zalaznick is a life-long journalist. Prior to writing for District Administration he worked in daily news all over the country, from the NYC suburbs to the Rocky Mountains, Silicon Valley and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He's also in a band.

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