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Chicago Public Schools is on track to see a rise in its official student enrollment this year, according to preliminary data revealed Thursday.
More than 324,000 students were enrolled as of the 15th day of school compared to the same time last year – an increase of almost 2,800 students, according to data Bogdana Chkoumbova, chief education officer for CPS, shared during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.
The district typically uses enrollment and demographics on the 20th day of school as the official data for the school year. If the numbers shared Thursday hold or increase, CPS will have seen two consecutive years of modest rises in its enrollment — after more than a decade of declines.
Chicago Public Schools is the nation’s fourth largest district. It had been the third largest district in the country, but lost that title in 2022, as enrollment continued to dip.
Enrollment may shift as the school year progresses, such as if families move. By May of the last school year, enrollment had grown by roughly 7,000 students, growing to a total of more than 328,000 students in CPS schools, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of preliminary enrollment data.
Most of the increase officials have seen recently is in grades K-5, which saw a 2% increase compared to the start of last school year, while other grades remained relatively flat.
The share of Black students dropped by 1.3% – the only major student group by race to see a decrease. Hispanic students saw the largest increase, by 1.6%. Among different student groups by need and income level, the largest increase has been among English language learners, who grew by more than 12% compared to this time last year, Chkoumbova said.
That could be linked, at least in part, to an increase in migrant students who have settled in Chicago. Many schools enrolled more English language learners over the course of last year as migrant families arrived in Chicago. Many of those families settled in majority Black, low-income neighborhoods where schools had not previously set up bilingual programs.
Chkoumbova said it’s hard to pinpoint one reason for the rising enrollment, given that it’s growing across most student groups. But the rise in the early grades is on trend with last year, she said.
The number of students with disabilities, those who are unhoused, and those living in low-income households also went up. Notably, the number of unhoused students – about 10,900 – increased by just under 3%, after a more than 50% increase last school year.
Districts across the nation have seen dips in public school enrollment, which have become more pronounced in recent years after the pandemic. In Chicago, the change has been attributed to dropping birth rates and people leaving the city over the last decade, including Black families. Population shifts have also impacted the demographics of the city.
Chkoumbova also said attendance is up by .7%, to almost 93%, a modest increase but one that comes after virtually no change last year and a struggle since the pandemic with chronic absenteeism.
In a letter to families Friday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said rising attendance is “important, because we know that attendance can be an indicator of how connected students feel to their school communities.”
The district’s recently approved five-year strategic plan sets a goal to reduce chronic absenteeism – when a student is absent for 10 or more school days – by 15%.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org .
