Maryland public schools have lost more 11,000 students since last school year, a much steeper decline than early estimates showed.
State school board members learned Tuesday afternoon that the number of students enrolled in Maryland schools dropped to 880,231 this school year. It amounts to a 11,322-student loss, nearly double what local superintendents reported last month.
The unofficial count by the Public School Superintendents’ Association of Maryland predicted school districts would lose 6,210 prekindergarten through 12th grade students. It’s bad news for superintendents, since state funding is tied to how many kids are enrolled. School systems could be in for another year of tough budget decisions.
Baltimore County Superintendent Myriam Rogers, for example, had been warning the community of budget challenges ahead. The county lost more than 2,000 students this year.
The pandemic was the start of consistent enrollment declines across the state and country. Maryland lost over 26,800 students between fall 2019 and fall 2020. The state’s public schools now enroll nearly 30,000 fewer students than they did five years ago.
The drop in enrollment reflects a decline in birth rates starting in 2016 and a 51% increase in homeschooled students since the pandemic. There were 27,754 homeschoolers in 2020; now there are 42,151.
Kent County, a small school district on the Eastern Shore, was the only one of Maryland’s 24 districts to see a slight enrollment increase — 0.3% gain. It’s the first time Kent has gained students since at least 2021, state data showed.
Cecil County saw the largest loss in students this year, a 2.7% drop.
Montgomery County, the state’s largest school district, also faced steep declines, according to data presented Tuesday.
Liliana López, spokesperson for Montgomery County Public Schools, said in a statement that the decrease reflects a demographic shift “that requires both immediate attention and long-term strategic planning.”
Superintendent Thomas Taylor, she said, attributes the loss of about 2,600 students to both drops in international student enrollment and “to a sustained reduction in resident births in the county, which translates directly to smaller incoming kindergarten classes.”
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