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.
New York Education News & Data
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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.
District Spotlight
Rochester's Absenteeism Crisis Has Plateaued at 63%
Rochester's chronic absenteeism rate was 63.0% in 2023 and 63.1% in 2024, a change of only one-tenth of a percentage point.
Absence
New York High School Absenteeism Exceeded Elementary/Middle by 6.7 Points
In 2024-25, New York high school chronic absenteeism was 31.3%, versus 24.6% in elementary/middle school. Both improved but remained above pre-pandemic rates.
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.