Enrollment In a Hot Vax Summer

As the world returns to some form of normalcy, we’re seeing the impact that COVID has had on school enrollment across the country.

Public school enrollment during the pandemic is down in nearly every community. In my home state of Ohio, enrollment dropped by 53,000 kids over the past year.

While state departments of education are reporting declines in every grade level, the sharpest drop off has been in Kindergarten. We just wrapped up a project in Massachusetts, which has seen a 4% decline in students overall and a 13% decline in Kindergarten students during the pandemic.

Kindergarten enrollment in the districts surrounding Springfield, MA is down almost 20% from pre-pandemic levels.

I haven’t seen anyone researching the kindergarten phenomenon yet, but my own experience as a parent of three tells me that many families across the country opted to keep their would-be kindergartners home for an extra year rather than struggling to manage Zoom classes with a five-year-old.

So what does that mean for enrollment this year? It’s still early days in the recovery and many families, especially those in marginalized communities hit hardest by the virus, remain wary of exposing their un-vaccinated youngsters to additional risk.

Despite the diminished but ongoing risk, an overwhelming number of families are eager to get their children back in school, especially as they need to get back to work. In more traditional recruitment seasons, we generally see a spike in enrollments during July and August. School and enrollment leaders who position themselves to take advantage of this pent-up demand are likely to be very busy this summer!