Public schools in Wake, Durham and across NC see steep drop in students during pandemic
Wake County and Durham Public Schools have seen sharp drops in their student enrollment this school year, mirroring a statewide decline during the coronavirus pandemic.
Newly released average daily membership figures for the first month of this school year show North Carolina school districts had 5.05% fewer students than in the first month of last school year, EducationNC reported Thursday.
In Wake County, the district had 3,953 fewer students than the first month of last school year. The 2.47% drop left Wake with 156,389 students, still making it the largest district in the state.
Durham Public Schools saw its enrollment drop 5.35% to 30,739 students. Enrollment had gone up last year for the first time in five years. But now Durham is 1,737 students down from the same time last year.
“COVID-19 has had an unexpected effect on enrollment this year,” Chip Sudderth, a Durham Public Schools spokesman, said in an email Thursday. “The hardship on Durham families has been evident.
“We’re committed to serving our students well during remote learning, providing a safe path to reopening our schools with our community’s support, and winning back our families.”
Also in the Triangle, the enrollment drop was 4.6% in Orange County to 6,986 students, 4.49% in Chapel Hill-Carrboro to 11,732 students, 3.31% in Chatham County to 8,654 students and 2.18% in Johnston County to 35,721 students.
Enrollment drops predicted
Education leaders across the state had feared that enrollment would drop as some parents might not enroll their children due to the pandemic. It resulted in state lawmakers agreeing not to reduce state funding this school year for districts that had fewer students.
Wake County school officials acknowledge there are fewer students than last school year. But they say the drop isn’t as stark as the initial numbers indicate.
Lisa Luten, a Wake County school spokeswoman, said the first month figures reflect how some families didn’t participate in the opening two weeks of the school year that were used as an orientation period. Luten said figures from the second month, which haven’t been officially released, will be much higher in Wake.
A spokesperson for Guilford County schools told EducationNC that the district expects its second month’s enrollment will be higher than the first month. Guilford had the largest drop in the state, according to EdNC, at 16.47%
Wake’s drop was not as steep as Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, which had 7,477 fewer students for a 5.13% decline. CMS has 138,356 students, second only to Wake County in North Carolina.
Most school districts started school online
The majority of North Carolina school districts, including Wake and Durham, began the school year in August with only online classes due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19. But a growing number of districts are now sending their children for at least a limited amount of in-person instruction.
Wake will send its first group of students back for in-person instruction on Monday with PreK-3 students and students in K-12 special education regional programs. Those students have not had in-person instruction since March 13.
But some districts like Durham are keeping students on online classes only into January.
At the same time public schools were going virtual, many private schools have been open for the past two months with in-person classes. Additionally, the state has seen a spike in interest in homeschooling.
Nearly all districts lose students
Statewide, EducationNC said the drop was 71,122 students, although a few schools hadn’t reported in their figures yet.
Only two of North Carolina’s 116 school districts saw an increase in their first month enrollment from the prior year, according to EducationNC. Of the other 114 districts:
▪ 10 districts had a decrease of more than 10%.
▪ 41 districts had a decrease between 5% and 9.99%.
▪ 63 districts had a decrease between 0.1% and 4.99%.
In contrast, EducationNC said statewide enrollment had only dropped 0.2% between the first month of the 2018-19 school year and last school year.
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 4:57 PM.
