NYC School Enrollment Declines Among White and Wealthy Students

(Bloomberg) -- Fewer new families enrolled their children in New York City public schools during the pandemic and the city is struggling to retain young, white and affluent students, according to a report by the New York City Independent Budget Office.

A range of conflicting trends kept the overall retention rate -- the number of students who return from one year to the next -- in the nation's largest district mostly unchanged in 2020-2021 from the previous year, the report released Tuesday shows.

Retention fell for younger students and rose for those in high school grades, the non-partisan city agency found. At the same time, the number of white students in pre-K through third grade who returned dropped more than four percentage points. Charter school retention was little changed.

The report offers a look into the demographics of New York's student body as the city recovers from the pandemic, and sheds light on district enrollment figures that have been falling for years. New Mayor Eric Adams and his education chancellor, David Banks, took over as the pandemic exacerbated longstanding inequities in school system.

Declining enrollment presents a financial challenge for Adams -- school budgets are calculated partly through per-pupil funding formulas -- as well as a social challenge as the city faces pressure to better integrate its schools along race and income lines.

Poor NYC Schools See Twice the Attendance Hit From Covid Surge

Retention declines were steepest among students moving from pre-K to kindergarten, and among white students, where retention fell in all grades from pre-K through eighth, according to the Independent Budget Office report. Higher-income students also saw declines in many younger grade levels, whereas low-income student retention rose mostly across the board.

A Stanford University research paper from March 2021 found growing disparity in test scores between poor and non-poor students, and the strongest predictor of those gaps was racial and economic segregation within districts.

The report found Covid-19 hampered New York City's ability to attract new students. New enrollees as a share of total enrollment fell in every grade, with a steep drop-off in students entering the ninth grade, when high school starts.

“The past two years were tumultuous for families nationwide, and they made the best decisions suited to their unique needs and circumstances,” said Sarah Casasnovas, a spokesperson for the city's Education Department. “While the trends we saw in New York are no different, we are confident that families will return to classrooms as we turn the corner on Covid.”