One Tri-Cities school district saw a 200+ student enrollment bump this fall
Richland School District is seeing a small jump in enrollment as students returned to classes earlier this month in the Tri-Cities.
The district added more than 200 students this fall, a sign welcomed by administrators after many public schools saw a sluggish rebound in enrollment following the COVID pandemic.
Other local school districts, however, haven’t seen the same gains.
School building administrators started their first head count of the 2023-24 school year on Sept. 7.
Roughly 13,990 students were counted in Richland and 18,276 were counted in Pasco.
Districts count heads on the first school day of each month. The next count will be Oct. 2.
Enrollment is important because it’s tied directly to public education funding. For each full-time pupil sitting at a desk, schools receive thousands of dollars in general education apportionment from the state.
Districts also receive funds from other sources, such as the federal government, local taxpayers and from fees and other programs. But that enrollment apportionment makes up a large chunk of the total revenue that local school districts receive to operate.
As of Monday, the Kennewick School District was still working to finalize enrollment data from this month’s count and couldn’t provide a projected enrollment.
The school district has budgeted for 18,450 full-time students in the 2023-24 school year budget, which is about the same as last year.
Vic Roberts, Kennewick’s executive director of business operations, previously told the Tri-City Herald over the summer that the district is still missing about 300 full-time students when compared with pre-COVID enrollment.
Change in enrollment
Here is the year-over-year change in enrollment as compared with fall 2022 headcounts.
- Richland: +215 students, or +1.6%.
- Pasco: -114 students, or -0.6%.
- Kennewick: Data not available.
Pasco staff are actively reaching out to parents whose children are currently enrolled but have not yet attended classes, said Anna Tensmeyer, the district’s director of public affairs.
“Our primary objective is to ensure that every student within our district has the opportunity to benefit from the exceptional educational resources and supports we offer,” she said.
This school year, Pasco has budgeted for 14 fewer certificated general education teachers and added five special education teachers. Enrollment has not fully rebounded back to pre-pandemic levels and the district continues to adjust staffing to align with enrollment.
Meanwhile, the number of certificated general education teachers in Richland schools has mostly stayed the same, said Shawna Dinh, the district’s public information officer.
It’s too early to tell what Richland’s enrollment gains mean for the medium-sized school district, Dinh said. It’s the first school district among the Tri-City “big 3” to return to pre-pandemic enrollment levels.
State and national trends
Public schools around Washington state have nearly 67,000 fewer students than they did four years ago.
Enrollment dropped nationwide by about 1.2 million students during the pandemic, with the largest declines seen among kindergartners, and states are still trying to catch up.
At the same time, enrollment at private schools, home schools and other alternative learning arrangements went up.
In Washington, more than 10,000 students enrolled in private school during the pandemic, an increase of about 17%, while 7,000 more students enrolled in home schooling, an increase of about 34%.
By some measurements, public school enrollment is expected to continue its decline.
By 2030, enrollment of students prekindergarten through 12th grade is expected to be down 5.4% from fall 2023 in Washington, according to the Seattle Times, which cited data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
That projection of declining enrollment appears consistent with nearly every state in the nation, except for Utah, North Dakota, Arizona and Tennessee.
Some demographics, including a decline in fertility rates across much of the country, are likely key factor when it comes to declining school enrollment, the Times reported.
This story was originally published September 19, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
