State reports multi-thousand student enrollment decline; some absences unexplained
Summary
The State Department reported a multi-thousand drop in fall public-school enrollment — the largest such decline in decades — and told the State Board that about 3,000 students appear to have left public rosters to use scholarship or choice funds for private or home schooling while roughly 2,100 students who were enrolled last year are not found in this year—s public or private enrollment counts.
The State Superintendent briefed the State Board of Education on preliminary fall enrollment figures and warned of a multi-thousand drop in statewide public-school enrollment that will affect staffing and budgets.
The department provided board members with district-level draft enrollment data (not yet finalized) and said districts have a week to resolve flagged enrollment records. The department said the statewide head-count reduction will be the largest in about four decades and currently estimated at roughly 5,700 but subject to adjustment as districts correct flagged records. Staff said approximately 800 flagged records remain under review.
Department staff said a portion of the decline is attributable to families who used state scholarship or school-choice funds to enroll children in private or home schooling. The superintendent said "a portion" of the decline — about 3,000 students by the department's estimate — are students who used scholarship dollars and enrolled in private school or home school (language used in the briefing: "took CHEESE Act dollars and went to a private school or home school").
In addition, staff identified about 2,100 students who were enrolled in Alabama public schools last year but were not found in this year's public or private enrollments and had not been reported as transferring out of state. The superintendent said superintendents told the department many of the unaccounted-for students appear to be Hispanic, but the department said it cannot require districts to collect or publish immigration or documentation status and will not ask that question. Staff said the department is monitoring the situation and urged families to enroll students promptly so districts can provide instructional services.
The superintendent cautioned that final district counts will not be public until districts resolve flagged errors and that staffing and budget planning decisions will follow the finalized counts. He said the projected enrollment decline could lead to reductions in teaching positions statewide in the next budget cycle.
