Enrollment in D.C.’s public and public charter schools is up for the third straight year and is continuing to surpass pre-pandemic levels, according to preliminary data released this week.
According to unaudited data released Tuesday, 99,770 students are enrolled in the city’s public and public charter campuses. That’s the highest city enrollment since at least the 2007-08 school year, according to the Office of the State Superintendent for Education.
The growth, Interim Superintendent Antoinette Mitchell said, is enabling the city to invest in career and technical education programs and offer a curriculum focused on early literacy and math.
“Everything is coming together in a way that families are just seeing the opportunities that are available to them in the DC Public School system,” Mitchell said.
This year, 52,036 students are enrolled in a DC Public School and 47,564 are enrolled in public charters. Final and audited data is scheduled to be enrolled early next year.
Enrollment continues to surpass pre-pandemic levels in both sectors. It comes as public school enrollment in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs remained stagnant this academic year.
Enrollment fell slightly in Montgomery County and Fairfax County public schools, the D.C. region’s other largest school divisions.
In D.C., Mitchell said the preliminary data points to growth in the city’s high schools and growth in adult education students.
“We’re particularly excited about this because it means that once students are completing elementary and middle school, they’re choosing to stay within the D.C. public school system, whether they choose to go to DCPS or to one of the charter schools,” Mitchell said.
When enrollment rises, Mitchell said the city is able to expand its programming, such as opening a new Advanced Technical Center in Ward 8, which focuses on health sciences, and complements the center in Ward 5. The centers enable students to participate in career and technical education programs, and earn college credit while remaining enrolled in high school.
“We are delighted to be able to offer internships to our students who seem to really love the opportunity to work in corporations around the area,” Mitchell said. “So as enrollment grows, we think that more students will take advantage of the programming that we’ve been able to put in place with the investments that the mayor has made thus far.”
The enrollment announcement comes ahead of EdFEST, the city’s annual public school fairs. EdFEST for high schoolers is scheduled for Dec. 7, and Dec. 14 for pre-K3 through eighth grade families.
