school enrollment

The data that can be shared with publicly-funded, privately-run charter schools can include academic histories, disability status and disciplinary records. Beyond the charter operator, the information may also land in the hands of third-party vendors, according to speakers at a recent virtual conference.

Broward has 10,000 fewer students than it did last year, digging a budget hole of $94 million in the district. In five years, Broward County Public Schools is looking at a projected loss of over 25,000 students, according to district data.

Amidst the throes of plummeting enrollment that come at a multi-million dollar financial loss, the Broward County school board analyzed a dozen proposals for multiple schools — with the superintendent set to make his recommendations regarding their future later this week.

Education leaders watching how immigration policies affect schools expect classrooms to get emptier every year, but this year, they were caught off guard by falling enrollment rates in some of Florida’s largest districts.

The dwindling enrollment in Miami-Dade County Public Schools is not because of competition posed by charter and private schools, the district superintendent said, but a waning of new students coming to the Miami area — including from fewer immigrants coming to the U.S.

The Broward school board has outlined 16 elementary schools, 15 middle schools and three high schools as it considers the second phase of a long-term plan to mitigate the district’s chronic under-enrollment problem through closing, repurposing and consolidating schools. The first phase led to the contentious closure of a school in Lauderhill earlier this year.

A decline in the number of babies being born and a boom in private school vouchers and homeschooling have combined to create an enrollment crisis for public education. The threat is so great that some school districts are trying something that would have once seemed unthinkable.

The Miami-Dade school board is considering transforming underused school sites into early learning centers to address dwindling enrollment numbers. The initiative aims to leverage existing infrastructure instead of building new ones and promote fiscal responsibility.