Boston school numbers sagging
There are 2,000 fewer students enrolled in public school in Boston compared to last year despite state figures remaining the same, the latest enrollment report from the Department of Education shows.
There are currently 46,196 students enrolled in Boston, according to the data released Thursday, compared with 48,112 students during the 2020-2021 school year.
Before the pandemic, 50,480 students were attending school in Boston. The decline appears to have come from across most grade levels with no large drop in one area.
Will Austin, founder of Boston Schools Fund, noted that enrollment has declined at Boston Public Schools for eight straight years, which COVID-19 accelerated. Austin said federal and state funding is tied to enrollment and BPS distributes funds on a per pupil basis. “Enrollment declines create budget issues. They just do,” Austin said.
He said several factors are driving the decline including lower birth rates, smaller home sizes, increasing housing costs and the impact of the pandemic.
An outlier to the issues have been private and Catholic schools.
Catholic schools in Boston initially saw a dip in enrollment early in the pandemic, but there was a surge when schools shut down and the Boston Archdiocese kept its doors open.
About 31,000 students were attending schools in the Boston Archdiocese last year and 32,500 are enrolled this year which is on par with pre-pandemic figures.
Coronavirus has had significant impacts on student enrollment in Boston and statewide, and the latest report shows state enrollment has stayed the same since last year. There are 911,529 students enrolled in Massachusetts schools this year, nearly the same figure as last year which was 911,465, according to the data.
Some areas such as preschool and kindergarten enrollment have seen small upticks. Preschool enrollment is up about 6,000 students since the 2020-2021 school year and kindergarten students have increased by about 5,000.
Enrollment in Massachusetts is still down significantly — about 37,000 students —since before the pandemic. In a normal year, enrollment usually declines by 3,000 students.
During the 2019-2020 school year, there were 948,000 students enrolled in Massachusetts schools.
The departure of nearly 40,000 students was mostly driven by families switching over to private school or homeschooling during the pandemic, as previously reported in the Herald.
The largest decline in enrollment during the pandemic was seen in preschool and kindergarten students.
During a Nov. 2020 meeting, DESE Commissioner Jeff Riley said, “The loss here is for the pre-k and kindergarten students, and we expect that many of those children will be back in our system for next year,” but that rebound has not happened.
The report also shows a majority of students in Massachusetts are considered high needs, about 55%, which could encompass students with disabilities, those learning English or those on individualized education plans. That figure has increased from 51.6% last year.