Enrollment stayed steady or shrank slightly in public school systems across the Washington region this academic year, suggesting schools have so far failed to rebound from pandemic-era drops — with possible repercussions for funding.
pandemic led to a stark plunge in public school enrollment nationwide, as families with resources opted for in-person learning offered by private schools or undertook home schooling. School districts in the D.C. area experienced student-body declines of between 2 and 5 percent in the 2020-21 school year, a loss of thousands of children that threatened millions of dollars in budgeting and spurred promises from educators that they would work to re-enroll students and attract new families.
county Board of Education on Dec. 9. “At that time, the CEO will outline a full plan for addressing the budget deficit inclusive of enrollment-driven revenue decreases,” school system officials said in a statement. Then, this past spring, the family faced the same decision a second time, as they looked ahead to their son’s second-grade year. Boyd said she and her husband had lost trust in the Montgomery County school system, which was slow to move to in-person learning.They also worried public schools had fallen so far behind private ones that, if their son returned to Montgomery classrooms, he would be bored or his learning would lag.“It makes me sad that it’s gone this way,” Boyd said.
“During the pandemic, Virginia held divisions harmless from enrollment losses by providing additional funds to offset any reductions,” Moult said. “Moving forward, the Virginia General Assembly will decide whether to continue holding divisions harmless, but their next session does not begin until next year so the impact is currently unknown.”