Wake approves student enrollment caps on 22 schools in 2025. See who’s on the list.
Twenty-two Wake County schools will remain under enrollment caps next school year in an attempt to control overcrowding on those campuses.
Wake County school administrators did not recommend adding or removing any schools to the district’s capping list. This leaves caps in place at 17 elementary schools, two middle schools and three high schools, forcing some students to go to more distant schools.
The one change being recommended is that Knightdale Elementary would no longer serve as an overflow school for Beaverdam Elementary. Forestville Road Elementary would be the only overflow school for Beaverdam.
The school board unanimously approved the enrollment caps on Jan. 7.
““This is one of the tools that we use to try to manage growth in the county,” school board chair Chris Heagarty said on Jan. 7. “For some people, capping is very unpopular and for other people they’d like to see more capping.”
Enrollment caps help deal with overcrowding
Enrollment caps are a way to shift the burden of reducing school overcrowding onto newcomers instead of existing families.
When a capped school reaches an enrollment limit, families who weren’t living in the attendance area by a certain date may be assigned to an overflow school that has space.
This school year, 1,057 students have been capped out and sent to overflow schools. More than 600 of those overflow students are capped out of Apex Friendship High, Apex Friendship Middle and Apex Friendship Elementary.
It’s challenging running buses to overflow schools at a time of rampant bus driver shortages.
Wake has blamed the state legislature’s K-3 class size limits for increasing the need to use capping. The law has cost Wake 9,000 elementary school seats
List of capped schools in Wake County
Caps remain in place at:
▪ Abbotts Creek Elementary in Raleigh
▪ Alston Ridge Elementary in Cary
▪ Apex Friendship Elementary in Apex
▪ Beaverdam Elementary in Raleigh
▪ Cedar Fork Elementary in Morrisville
▪ Holly Grove Elementary in Holly Springs
▪ Holly Ridge Elementary in Holly Springs
▪ Hortons Creek Elementary in Cary
▪ Northwoods Elementary in Cary
▪ Oakview Elementary in Apex
▪ Olive Chapel Elementary in Apex
▪ Parkside Elementary in Morrisville
▪ River Bend Elementary in Raleigh
▪ Rogers Lane Elementary in Raleigh
▪ Scotts Ridge Elementary in Apex
▪ Weatherstone Elementary in Cary
▪ White Oak Elementary in Apex
▪ Apex Friendship Middle in Apex
▪ Mills Park Middle in Cary
▪ Apex Friendship High in Apex
▪ Heritage High in Wake Forest
▪ Panther Creek High in Cary
This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 3:56 PM.
