Colleges throughout metro Atlanta have been seeing a decline in enrollment since 2020 initially of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enrollment is general going again up throughout the state, however native districts are nonetheless seeing a decline within the variety of college students of their faculty programs, primarily because of the pandemic.

Enrollment over the past 5 years was trending upwards between 2017-2020 throughout the state and was down in the course of the 2020-2021 faculty 12 months. Enrollment, nevertheless, went again up within the 2021-2022 faculty 12 months. 

“The enrollment drop we skilled throughout COVID (from the 2019-2020 faculty 12 months to 2020-2021) was largely concentrated within the early grades, significantly kindergarten – which isn’t obligatory in Georgia,” a spokesperson from the DOE stated. 

Right here’s a breakdown of enrollment from the Georgia Division of Schooling from 2017-2022: 

– 2017-2018: 1,768,642

– 2018-2019: 1,767,178

– 2019-2020: 1,769,621

– 2020-2021: 1,729,966

– 2021-2022: 1,740,875

The enrollment numbers from the state embrace pre-Okay college students in Georgia public colleges.

Right here’s a take a look at enrollment traits in our native faculty districts.  

Atlanta Public Colleges

Enrollment in Atlanta Public Colleges had been going up earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, however has decreased since 2020. 

“Enrollment in Atlanta Public Colleges had been rising marginally for a number of years previous to the onset of the pandemic, which lowered enrollment at school districts statewide,” a spokesperson for APS stated. 

In 2022, APS had a complete of 49,732 college students, in response to the Georgia Division of Schooling’s spring enrollment depend. 

In 2021, APS has a complete enrollment of 49,994 college students and in 2020, the district had 51,012 college students. The 2020 enrollment decreased from 52,416 college students in 2019 primarily based on the district’s fall enrollment counts. 

Metropolis Colleges of Decatur

Because the Decatur Faculty Board was creating the fiscal 12 months 2023 funds, the district was dealing with a number of elements that had important results on the funds, together with reducing enrollment, which implies state funding will even lower. 

The state has held faculty district’s innocent just lately on enrollment for the standard fundamental training components and the quantity of state funding they obtain. Though, the reducing enrollment will begin to be mirrored within the district’s funds quickly. 

“Though we didn’t meet the anticipated enrollment final 12 months that the state had projected us to be at, they didn’t deduct any of that on our QBE components,” Superintendent Maggie Fehrman stated on the July 12 faculty board assembly. “So the cash they despatched us was equal to 2 years in the past, however they are going to be adjusting it this 12 months. Our upcoming funds has mirrored a lower in enrollment and a lower in our QBE allotment.”

On the July 12 assembly, Fehrman stated the district’s whole enrollment is 5,444. 

“The development is we’re underneath enrollment in our decrease elementaries, above enrollment in higher and highschool, and nonetheless a little bit bit under at Beacon Hill [Middle School],” Fehrman stated. “We’re persevering with to get new college students enrolled every single day and a few households are transferring out of our system every single day, so we’re nonetheless in a really flux state of affairs.”

She additionally advised Decaturish that enrollment is influenced by a spread of things, together with COVID-19, a lower in birthrates and different traits the district may be unaware of.

Metropolis Colleges of Decatur noticed rising enrollment numbers from 2017-2019 and has seen a decline since 2020. In 2017, the district had a complete enrollment of 5,317, in 2018 enrollment was at 5,540 and in 2019, enrollment elevated to five,695 college students. CSD’s enrollment started to say no in 2020 and the district had 5,620 college students, in response to an enrollment report from October 2021. 

The Decatur Faculty Board mentioned the district’s enrollment report throughout a gathering in November 2021. Within the district’s October 2021 enrollment depend, the overall enrollment was 5,477 college students, which is 143 college students lower than 2020. 

Earlier than 2020, the varsity system skilled development yearly, however has had decreased enrollment for the previous two years, in response to the report.

Enrollment has decreased essentially the most on the decrease elementary stage, with a lower of 107 college students. The higher elementary enrollment decreased by 44 college students and the center faculty enrollment decreased by 38 college students. Though, the highschool enrollment elevated by 46 college students.

The district added 545 new college students, which was a rise from 2020 when CSD added 421 new college students. Of the brand new college students, 168 have been in kindergarten. A lot of the college students entered the district from personal colleges.

In 2021, all courses from second to eleventh grade had above 400 college students. Eighth grade had the most important variety of college students at 485. The typical cohort in CSD was 421.

In keeping with an enrollment projections report from December 2021, enrollment in CSD is projected to lower over the subsequent 10 years. 

DeKalb County Faculty District 

Following the identical development, DeKalb County Faculty District’s enrollment elevated yearly from 2017-2019 and considerably decreased in 2020. The district noticed slight enrollment development in 2021. 

In keeping with a December 2021 enrollment report from the district, here’s a breakdown of DCSD’s enrollment numbers from 2017-2021:

– 2017: 100,341

– 2018: 99,311

– 2019: 98,957

– 2020: 93,674

– 2021: 93,703

DCSD has not responded to quite a few requests for extra data. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has decreased the district’s enrollment. Enrollment in fall 2021 didn’t bounce again to just about pre-COVID ranges as DCSD had anticipated. Former superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris acknowledged at a December 2021 board of training assembly that the district didn’t anticipate a big improve in enrollment in 2022. The pandemic created a pointy drop in enrollment from 2019 to 2020. 

DeKalb Colleges had predicted enrollment would improve considerably in 2021 to about 95,787. The autumn enrollment depend was at 93,473, in response to the DOE. The depend signifies that the majority college students who left the district didn’t return. 

The enrollment prediction for Fall 2022 is 93,700 college students, with slight decreases in elementary and center faculty enrollment and a slight improve in highschool enrollment.

A discount in enrollment over the past two years is inflicting DeKalb County Colleges to want fewer lecturers than had been employed for the 2022-2023 faculty 12 months. 

Dr.Tekshia Ward-Smith introduced the district’s human sources stories on the DeKalb Board of Schooling’s common assembly on June 6. DCSD had 550 open positions in June, so all lecturers who have been prolonged contract will nonetheless be supplied jobs. They simply may not be on the colleges for which they have been initially employed. 

Author Sara Amis contributed to this text. 

This story was offered by WABE content material associate Decaturish.