BPS 2021-22 Enrollment analysis
Boston Public Schools continues to grapple with long-term enrollment decline, accelerated by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Decline in enrollment creates fiscal pressure and results in BPS schools facing harmful budget cuts year over year, despite historic city education spending.
We seek to make this information public and accessible, so all city stakeholders can grapple with what we must do moving forward.
Key Takeaways from BSF’s 2021-22 Boston Enrollment Analysis
Enrollment in BPS has declined by 8,000 since 2015; declines which accelerated during the pandemic.
Enrollment did not "bounce-back" or stabilize this year, but rather declined another 4% (-1,943 students) which is slightly less than last year's 4.7% decline.
Enrollment declines are diffuse, impacting all but one neighborhood, all racial/ethnic groups, and most grade levels
BPS' Black student population has decreased significantly since 2015 (-5,000), a trend which continued this year with the loss of over 700 Black students.
BPS' number and share of low-income students increased significantly (+8.4%) this year, at least partially due to the broader definition the state is using to classify low-income students
Some enrollment returned in Pre-K and K this year, but the cohorts are still smaller than prior to the pandemic. K in particular is down 24% (-1,000) since 2015, even with the addition of Pre-K feeder pathways over this period.
BuildBPS projections for this year are off by 21% or almost 12,000 students which is equivalent to almost 30 school buildings less students than the capital plan predicted using the avg. BPS school size of 400.
Enrollment in other school options--charters, private, METCO, and homeschool--stayed relatively flat during the pandemic, although since 2015 there has been growth in charters, METCO and homeschool, while private school enrollment has declined since 2015.