12K kids have left Broward schools

About 12,000 students have left the Broward County school system in the past 18 months, moving to other districts, private schools, home-schooling — or just missing without explanation.

The drop surprised school officials who expected enrollment to rise as students returned to buildings after months of learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. And it contrasted with Palm Beach County, which lost a relatively small number of students.

A total of 256,021 students are attending public schools in Broward this year, down 4,694 from last year. That’s the second-highest drop in the past 15 years, surpassed only by last year, when enrollment plummeted by 7,255.

The trend could eventually lead to discussions about whether to close schools and

lay off teachers. A drop in enrollment usually means a drop in funding, which forces districts to make painful cuts. However, the effects may be blunted in the short term since Broward is receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief aid.

A January planning document projected enrollment to increase by 5,500 this year. Last year’s drop, which was largely elementary students, was attributed partly to the district’s decision to start the school year online only.

With the district back to 100% face-to-face learning this year, district officials are trying to figure out where students are and how to get them back.

“Through my community work, I am learning that many of our students have relocated,” School Board Chairwoman Rosalind Osgood said. “I’m also concerned that many are at home and not in school at all.”

Although the net difference between new students arriving and others leaving is about 12,000, the district has actually identified more than 13,000 students who they have lost during the pandemic.

A review found that 3,015 students are enrolled in another district in Florida, 2,929 are enrolled in another state, 1,400 are enrolled in private schools and 717 are being home-schooled, said Antoine HIckman, a top district administrator who oversees enrollment.

Some 5,100 students are just missing. Their families never said they were leaving.

The district is partnering with the Broward Teachers Union and other employee groups to try to find those lost students.

Administrators, teachers and School Board members plan to knock on the doors of families to find out why the students aren’t in school and what they can do to persuade them to return. They plan to make the case that schools haven’t been large spreaders of COVID-19; there are plenty of mental health resources available; and a return to school is crucial to students’ academic success.

“I will listen to why the kids are not in school,” Osgood said. “We need to listen and help. I believe many families are grieving.”

Lack of a vaccine

Major declines were common statewide last year with enrollment dropping 67,265. This year, at least one South Florida county, Palm Beach County, is showing signs of stabilizing. After dropping by 5,000 students last year, the district lost only 194 students this year. Enrollment figures for Miami-Dade County and the state weren’t available.

One issue is parents’ concerns about a lack of a vaccine for children under 12.

Last year, parents could keep their kids at their regular school as remote learners. This year, their only options were attending special virtual programs, such as Broward Virtual School or Florida Virtual School, where students work at their own pace and don’t have hours each day of teacher-led instruction time like schools offered last year.

Those who attend Florida Virtual School are no longer students in the Broward School District, which created a painful dilemma for Lindsay Poveromo Joly, whose two children attended Coral Springs elementary schools.

“I’m super attached to Broward County Public Schools. It’s where I attended and graduated, and where I served as a room parent and PTA parent,” she said. “But ultimately, at the end of the day, there’s no vaccine for my children.”

She said her daughter was twice hospitalized with the flu before the pandemic, so she wasn’t going to take any chances. She enrolled her children in Florida Virtual School

So did Tamarac parent Vania Sotolongo, who enrolled her kindergarten son Oliver and second grade daughter Sabryna in the online program.

Last year Sotolongo sent her daughter to Summit Academy Charter School in Coral Springs, where she learned remotely. But she was too nervous to send them back to the brick-and-mortar school this year. She said she saw one teacher remove her mask during online instruction last year, while she had students in her physical classroom.

“I’m not going to risk my kids getting COVID,” she said.

Elementary grades once again lost the most students this year, about 2,000, followed by middle schools at 1,600. Alternative, pre-K and charter schools constitute the rest of the declines. High schools were the exception, gaining 68 students.

Broward County School Board member Debbi Hixon said she knows of some students who stayed with the district’s online programs last year despite no longer living in the area. That’s no longer an option since schools must teach students in person.

“I think there are still a lot of parents nervous about sending their students back, especially in Broward where the COVID numbers are still high,” Hixon said. “I get a lot of people asking me about a virtual option.”

Florida Virtual School’s enrollment exploded during the 2020-21 school year from 5,193 the previous year to 13,480 statewide and from 443 to 993 in Broward. This year’s numbers won’t be available until the end of the school year, a spokeswoman for the virtual school said.

Home schooling

Another option that boomed during the pandemic is home-schooling, which can be similar to virtual programs, although usually less reliant on students being in front of a computer for long periods. Last year, the number of children learning this way surged to 143,431 in the state, an increase of more than 37,316, Home-schooled children in Broward increased by 2,000 to 8,782 last year.

Numbers for this year aren’t available, but experts say the growth is continuing.

Time4Learning, a Fort Lauderdale-based company that offers educational materials to parents who homeschool, saw its business triple last year and it’s gone up another 20% this year, CEO John Edelson said. He said home-schooling, which was long popular with Christian conservative families, has grown popular with a diverse group of families.

These include those who don’t want their children to have to wear masks at school as well as those who believe districts aren’t taking enough steps to keep children safe from COVID., he said.

“Remote schooling was very painful for so many students. They had a hard time getting in front of a computer and paying attention all day, so many tried home-schooling,” Edelson said. “People tried it and found it’s pretty good. Children can work on their own schedule, their own rhythm. Now it’s become very mainstream.”

Coconut Creek parent Kara Rutherford withdrew her son Hewitt from Liberty Elementary in Margate in 2020 and home-schooled him with Time4Learning because she wasn’t satisfied with the online options offered.

Now, she said, regardless of what happened with the pandemic, she plans to keep him at home.

“My son’s progress was the deciding factor in keeping him home,” she said. “He’s in the third grade, but he’s actually matriculated through the fifth grade in some areas. He’s adapted quite nicely.”