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Memphis-Shelby County Schools continues to lose students year over year, with over 2,000 fewer enrolled in the district compared to last August.
At an Aug. 25 board meeting, Executive Director of Accountability Bill White said just over 101,000 students were registered in MSCS by the end of the first month of classes. That’s a 2.2% decrease from last year’s count, at 103,280 students.
The decrease is part of a decade-long enrollment drop in the district, by around 9% from 2014 to spring 2025. But it’s not as severe as district leaders estimated before the school year began, White said.
Stacey Davis, the district’s director of enrollment and attendance, said school staff will increase parent outreach in the coming weeks to combat barriers to enrollment.
“Many of our parents are, especially at the beginning of the year, they’re having issues with uniforms and the essentials that are needed for the child to start school on time,” she said in an interview with Chalkbeat Tuesday.
White shared data Tuesday that showed the number of enrolled students grew by 900 between Aug. 25 and Aug. 28.
MSCS enrollment stabilized in the 2024-25 school year, when the district saw a slight enrollment bump. Finalized data for the 2025-26 school year is not yet available. But the Memphis student exodus far outpaces state and national disenrollment trends.
That decrease means the district gets less annual education funding from the state. MSCS leaders are already facing growing facility upkeep costs and closed five schools this year due to chronic underenrollment, with more closures likely on the horizon.
White told Chalkbeat Tuesday that district leaders expected an enrollment drop this year because of an increase in school options, including increased investment in private school vouchers, and declining birth rates in the Shelby County area.
But the early enrollment count exceeds MSCS leaders’ projection of around 99,000 students for this year, White said.
“And when we’re careful with those projections, that allows us to also be fairly conservative and responsible with our budget,” he said. “Because obviously, the count of students drives your funding.”
State funding is based on the previous year’s official student enrollment numbers. But projections help MSCS leaders accurately allocate staffing and program costs during budget season, White said. This year’s $1.7 billion budget falls below last year’s $1.9 billion total, and includes cuts to COVID-era support staff.
White said that enrollment numbers tend to decrease slightly throughout the year, though it’s unclear how much that number could fluctuate. In 2024, for example, MSCS started the year with over 109,000 students, but enrollment fell by the end of the year to nearly 106,000.
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
