| Cincinnati Inquirers
Ashley Pearce’s daughter was scheduled to go to kindergarten in the Maryland school system in Montgomery County last year. But when it became clear that the year was going to start online, Pearce found a nearby Catholic school that offers face-to-face tuition and switched.
Now Pearce is concerned with a big question: should your child return to the local public school? She is reluctant to uproot her daughter after making friends, and Pearce fears the district will go fully virtual again if coronavirus cases rise.
“It will be fine if we stay where we are and this stability for my family is probably the path we will go.”
With many parents in the U.S. sharing the same concerns, school districts, including those in Ohio who lost enrollment during the pandemic, look forward to the fall to see how many families stick with the educational choices they made last year hit. In hopes of attracting students, many districts have made fresh efforts to connect with families with young children, including covering communities with courtyard signs and recruiting bus drivers to call parents.
There are early signs that enrollment may not fully recover and much is at stake. If enrollment does not recover, public schools that are losing students could eventually experience funding cuts, even though the pandemic aid money increases budgets for the time being.
A persistent decline in enrollment could also change the demographics of America’s public schools. A unique analysis by Chalkbeat and Associated Press found that the decline in enrollments varied based on the race and ethnicity of the students. Pre-school enrollment through 12th grade declined 2.6% in 42 states last fall, and the decline was greatest in white students, whose enrollment fell more than 4%.
The decline in Ohio almost mirrored what was happening in the nation. The drop in school enrollment in all schools was 2.94%, or around 50,000 students, while the non-public schools fell by 2.01%. The decline in white students was 3.81%, according to the Chalkbeat / AP analysis. The number of students who were not eligible for free or discounted lunch was 3.8%, compared with a 1.8% decrease in students who were eligible for free or cheaper lunch.
Not all counties saw decreases or as large as the national average. For example, Cincinnati Public Schools, the third largest district in Ohio, saw a decrease of 0.006%. Some counties suffered greater losses. Columbus City Schools saw a 4.8% decrease, or about 2,300 students. Akron’s schools saw a drop of 3.5%, or 700 students.
The more dramatic decline was in Ohio kindergarten enrollment, which fell 8.38%, or about 13,000 students. The sharp drop was slightly smaller than the national drop in 44 states of 9.1%.
No data were available for Kentucky.
The choices made by white families appeared to be particularly influenced by whether their child’s public school offered face-to-face learning. Countries where more students were virtually fully compliant tended to show larger declines in white students, the Chalkbeat / AP analysis found.
Meanwhile, the country’s Hispanic student population saw the largest shift from pre-pandemic trends, with enrollments falling 1.5% last fall – a significant change as Hispanic students were the fastest growing student group in the country. This could be related to some of the disruptions Hispanic families experienced during the pandemic, including higher job loss rates and higher death rates and hospital stays due to COVID-19.
In Ohio, the decline in enrollment among Hispanics was 1.43%, or about 1,600 students.
The data underscores the complicated task facing schools trying to reconnect with families who, for various reasons, have left public schools and ended up with a variety of alternatives.
“Districts could have these kinds of ‘different lines for different people’ policies,” said Richard Welsh, an associate professor at New York University who studied student mobility. “‘We’re open to business and committed to personal learning’ could be more focused on white families.”
On the flip side, Welsh said, “If you have districts that offer tours through their safety protocols, these might be more geared towards their Black and Latinx families,” whose communities have been harder hit by the pandemic.
One such effort is underway in San Antonio, where the predominantly Latino school district saw its school enrollment decrease by just over 5%. Officials there expect school enrollment to rise this fall, but not to pre-pandemic levels.
To build trust with families concerned about personal learning, district officials have hosted town halls where families can ask experts questions about COVID-19 vaccines. The district will continue to offer a fully virtual school facility.
School officials are working to get in touch with any family who abandoned their child in preschool or kindergarten or who failed to enroll, whether by phone or through a home visit, Superintendent Pedro Martinez said. The district has even hired bus drivers to call families between routes to encourage them to register their children.
And while Martinez focuses on the early grades, where enrollment has declined the most, he’s also keeping an eye on older students. Almost every student in the district comes from a low-income family, and many have jobs helping their families weather the pandemic. He worries that so many teenagers are studying remotely all spring so they can keep working, even though he understands the financial pressures.
“It’s so easy for a 16- or 17-year-old to prioritize work over school,” he said.
Certain pandemic-related school options, like placing young children in childcare instead of kindergarten, are likely to fall by the wayside. But some families can stick with private schools, especially if, like Pearce, they see them as a way to avoid insecurity.
It remains unclear exactly how many students have accepted these schools. In some states that are tracking it, like Delaware and New Hampshire, private school enrollments rose 5% or more this year, according to data from Chalkbeat and the AP. But in several others, including New York, Louisiana, Indiana, and Colorado, private school enrollment fell 3% or more, suggesting families haven’t switched en masse.
Remarkably, it wasn’t just the rich who left public schools. In the 35 states that provided data, there has been a significant decrease in enrollments among students from low-income families and more affluent families.
Other families could continue to homeschool their children – a practice that has skyrocketed in the few states that have prosecuted it. For example, in New York and Virginia, home schooling increased more than 50% that year, but remained a relatively rare choice.
Regardless, the districts are now stepping up their recruiting efforts in hopes of building on the small upward trends they have seen over the past few months as face-to-face learning became more widely available.
In Spokane, Washington, enrollments fell nearly 7% last fall, with the largest declines being seen in Asian, black and white students. District officials have reached out to families via text messages and mailers, as well as through community groups.
They emphasized the district’s plan to downsize class this fall, which they see as a selling point for families who want more individualized attention for their children and for those who are still afraid of the coronavirus. The district assures families that it will offer both full-time on-site teaching and a virtual option.
“We want to create as much predictability as possible and try to mitigate the feeling of the unknown and fear as much as possible,” said Superintendent Adam Swinyard, “and just let our families know that we are ready and eager to return. “
Researchers tracking student demographics are also keeping a close eye on who is returning. By autumn it will be clearer whether the postponements will have any longer-term effects.
Some circles are already expecting the pandemic to have a lasting effect.
In Denver, officials estimate the school enrollment rate will decrease by 6% in the coming years – a rate almost double what it was before the pandemic. Falling birth rates and rising house prices, which are driving families away, are big factors, but officials believe the pandemic has exacerbated these losses, especially among the youngest grade levels. Registrations for the kindergarten have fallen sharply for the coming school year.
District planning director Sara Walsh said the overall decline could be “quite significant”. But she has not given up on the U-turn: “I hope that maybe tons of children suddenly appear.”
Chalkbeat’s Kalyn Belsha and Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee shared the story with Annie Ma and Larry Fenn of the Associated Press. Chalkbeat’s Melanie Asmar and Samuel Park contributed to this report, as did Enquirer Research and corporate editor Mark Wert.
source https://collegeeducationnewsllc.com/dips-in-ohio-school-enrollments-mirrored-the-nations/
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