Enrollment in US schools hasn’t bounced back since pandemic, data shows

Lost students, dwindling relief funds and a juggernaut of new schooling options could portend layoffs and school closures

Three years and counting since the pandemic shuttered schools and tethered students to their laptops, new data shows that enrollment in the vast majority of the nation’s largest school districts has yet to recover.

Kindergarten counts continue to dwindle in many states – evidence of falling birth rates and an ever-growing array of options luring parents away from traditional public schools. Experts fear those trends, as well as a possible recession and the looming cut-off of federal relief funds, amount to a perfect storm for US education.