district-spotlight
Sachem Has Lost Students 14 Years Straight
Long Island's largest suburban districts are in sustained enrollment decline, with Sachem and Smithtown losing students every year since 2013.
New York
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of New York, grounded in New York Department of Education data.
New York Has Lost 395,000 Students in 21 Years
New York enrollment fell from 2.84M to 2.45M since 2005, declining in 19 of 21 years. The 2026 drop of 37,176 is the worst since COVID.
NYC Gained Share of State Enrollment for 14 Straight Years. Then It Stopped.
NYC's share of New York enrollment rose from 36.8% to 40.4% as upstate shrank faster. COVID reversed the dynamic, and the city is now losing ground.
The 9th-Grade Bottleneck That Unclogged Itself
New York's 9th-grade bulge shrank from 18% to 5% over two decades as survival rates climbed from 71% to 92%, a quiet success inside the enrollment decline.
District 75 Grew 42% While NYC Shrank
NYC's citywide special education district added 8,794 students since 2005, even as the rest of the city lost 223,000. It is now the state's 11th-largest district entity.
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demographics
Pre-K Grew 26% While Kindergarten Hit a 22-Year Low
New York added 12,800 Pre-K students since 2012, driven by NYC's universal program. Kindergarten lost 35,550 over the same span, falling to its lowest level on record.
enrollment
19 Districts Haven't Grown in 14 Years
Nineteen New York districts have declined every year since 2013, losing a combined 43,362 students across Long Island, NYC, and upstate.
covid-impact
Only 14% of New York Districts Have Recovered From COVID
Just 101 of 722 New York districts have returned to pre-pandemic enrollment. Nine in ten students attend a district still below 2019.
district-spotlight
Rochester Has Declined 17 Straight Years
Rochester City School District has lost 12,880 students since peaking in 2006, declining every year since 2010. No other Big Five district comes close.
enrollment
475 New York Districts at All-Time Lows
Nearly half of New York's 1,064 districts hit their lowest enrollment ever in 2026, including 24 of 32 NYC geographic districts.
demographics
New York's Kindergarten Class Hit Its Lowest Level in 22 Years
Kindergarten enrollment fell to 163,820 in 2026, down 19.2% from its 2013 peak and 7,994 students below the COVID trough — a signal that deeper declines are coming.
district-spotlight
Three Bronx Districts Lost 39,000 Students in 14 Years
NYC Geographic Districts 8, 9, and 10 have shed nearly a third of their enrollment since 2012, with kindergarten down 46% and no year of recovery in sight.
enrollment
New York Lost 37,000 Students in One Year
After a one-year migrant-driven reprieve in 2024, New York's enrollment plunged by 37,176 students, the worst non-COVID drop since 2012.
school-choice
One in Six NYC Students Now Attends a Charter School
New York's charter sector grew from 18,000 to 190,000 students in 21 years while traditional schools lost 567,000. But growth has stalled below 2% annually.
enrollment
New York Publishes 2025-26 Enrollment Data
NYSED releases 2025-26 enrollment data showing 2,447,074 students statewide — down 37,176, the largest non-COVID loss since 2012.