California Public School Data Points to a Drop in Enrollments Due to Pandemic

Students walk to their classrooms at a public middle school in Los Angeles, on Sept. 10, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

California Public Schools are still recovering from the pandemic as schools across the state experience a decline in student enrollment since returning to in-person classes.

The California Department of Education (CDE) released data on Tuesday that pin-points student enrollment trends throughout county school districts.

According to the CDE, the data was gathered from more than 900 school districts, 58 county offices of education, and about 1,300 charter schools.

“For the 2022–23 academic year, preliminary enrollment figures show the statewide total at 5,852,544 students, down 39,696 (or 0.67 percent) from the previous year. In comparison, the academic year 2021–22 showed a statewide decline of 1.84 percent, representing more than 110,000 students,” the CDE report said.

California was the first state to close all in-person classes at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Many students were immediately learning from home over “Zoom school” with local administrators struggling to provide online classes in the best ways possible as the lockdown affected students, faculty, and staff.

Many parents had to stay home from work to help their children with their class assignments, along with many parents who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. This put extra strain on students’ success rate from virtual learning.

A high school teacher holds a class remotely in Los Angeles on Sept. 8, 2020. (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Alberto Carvalho outlined a plan to help students recover from in-person education loss in his 2022–26 Strategic Plan. The plan includes summer school, more available tutoring, and hiring additional counselors and mental health workers to assist students with their educational and mental health needs.

“The Los Angeles Unified community has worked tirelessly over the past few years and endured incredible challenges throughout the pandemic, so this news is truly a bright spot after a period of darkness,” Carvalho said in an October statement last year. “The strategies we have implemented to address learning loss and achievement gaps are working.”

LAUSD had the highest enrollment rate in LA County with 538,295 students, where 74.2 percent of students enrolled came from the Hispanic/Latino population, the highest ethnic group enrolled in LAUSD public schools, according to a Los Angeles County report.

LAUSD reported a 1,313,935 student enrollment rate compared to a 5,852,544 statewide enrollment rate, according to the Los Angeles County report.

In a study done by PPIC research, it was found “that families that were low-income, black, or Latino, or did not have any college graduates were more likely to have lower rates of consistent access to the computing devices and high-speed internet needed for distance learning,” according to the site.

Students and parents arrive masked for the first day of the school year at Grant Elementary School in Los Angeles on Aug. 16, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Improving Enrollment Rates

Carvalho, in an article on Education Week published in December, outlined his approach to improving enrollment rates and student learning outcomes for 2023.

“School districts are still facing a barrage of challenges from pandemic disruptions, and many leaders find themselves in a paralyzing predicament where solutions are no longer straightforward or even accessible,” Carvalho wrote.

Carvalho acknowledged the difficulties brought on by the pandemic while adding that LAUSD has been focusing on attendance for the 2022-23 school year and outlined some of the measures taken.

“We implemented a student outreach and -attendance initiative called iAttend for which we have dedicated staff members calling and visiting families to ensure students are in classrooms learning,” he said.

Carvalho said the initiative “successfully identified reasons for chronic absenteeism and implemented intervention efforts. Just within the past year, this has helped us decrease chronic absenteeism by 5 percent and increased ‘excellent’ attendance by 3 percent over the previous year.”

He also listed fully leveraging pandemic funding, closing the digital divide, expanding tutoring opportunities, and boosting instructional time as areas his district is focusing on.

Returning students walk the hallway at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles on April 27, 2021. (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

Despite the challenges that children faced during virtual learning, Gov. Gavin Newsom insists it was the best decision for children during the pandemic.

“California focused on keeping kids safe during the pandemic while making record investments to mitigate learning loss and transforming our education system,” Newsom said in a statement.

“While California’s students experienced less learning loss than those in most other states during the pandemic, these results are not a celebration but a call to action—students are struggling academically and we need to keep getting them the resources they need to thrive,” he said.

“That’s why we’ve made record investments in education, created a new pre-K grade, implemented universal free meals, expanded before and after school programs, bolstered mental health, and more.”