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Enrollment in New York City’s public schools stayed flat this year, falling by 0.1% from last year, according to preliminary figures shared Friday by the city Education Department.
About 815,000 students were enrolled in grades K-12, the data shows. That’s about 100,000 fewer such students than in the 2019-20 school year.
The numbers mark the second straight year in which enrollment declines — which began before the pandemic and accelerated during the COVID-19 crisis — have leveled off, a welcome development for the city’s school system. Funding for the system as a whole and for individual schools is based on enrollment.
Last year, enrollment in city schools increased for the first time in eight years, ticking up by 0.6%. That shift was due in large part to an influx of migrant students, some 40,000 of whom have entered city schools over the previous two school years. The pace of new arrivals to New York City has slowed in recent months, however, which may in part explain why the slight upward trend didn’t continue this year.
Still, schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos called the new enrollment numbers “strong,” crediting “the continued efforts by this administration and our schools to provide a world class education to every child.”
Enrollment in the city’s free preschool program for 3-year-olds edged up year-over-year, while there was a slight decrease in enrollment in the prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds. The long term trend for Pre-K enrollment was less rosy: It fell to about 55,000 from roughly 70,000 before the pandemic.
It’s unclear how long the current trends will last. Enrollment projections from the city’s School Construction Authority, which take into account declining birth rates and higher levels of out-migration from the city, are bleak, predicting student numbers will fall by hundreds of thousands over the next decade.
The enrollment update comes as the city faces a pivotal year in its efforts to comply with a state class size law. Under the state law, the city must bring at least 60% of classrooms under the caps by September 2025, or risk hundreds of millions of dollars in withheld state aid. Grades K-3 should have no more than 20 students, grades 4-8 are capped at 23, and high school classes are limited to 25 students.
Currently, 46% of classrooms are under the caps, according to an update shared Friday by city officials. That’s an improvement from the roughly 40% of classrooms under the caps last year, and it means the city is in compliance with the law for now.
But the city will still have to bring an additional 14% of classrooms under the caps by the start of next school year. So far, the city Education Department – which has pushed back forcefully against the state mandate – has refrained from issuing any sweeping citywide mandates, asking superintendents of local school districts to each try to increase the number of classes under the caps by 3% this year.
Officials also recently introduced a program where principals can apply for additional money from the city to hire teachers or pursue other strategies to lower class sizes.
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org
