Friday, Feb. 17, 2023
Have Wisconsin parents been taking their kids out of public schools faster than in the past?
Enrollment in Wisconsin public school districts declined in the 2021-22 school year by 0.1%. But Department of Public Instruction officials say that mirrors pre-pandemic trends of slow but steady decline in public school enrollment — and in the number of school-aged children in Wisconsin — since 2013.
In the previous school year — during the height of the pandemic — many parents did remove their children from public schools. That 3% decline in 2020-21 was the largest single-year drop in 25 years. That year, many schools still had not reopened to in-person instruction. And the state saw a surge in enrollment in virtual charter schools, reflecting the larger trend towards remote instruction early in the pandemic.
More recently, in 2021-22, some students left public schools for private schools, which saw a 2% increase. During the same period, home-based enrollment decreased by 8%, after a 47% surge in 2020-21 during the start of the pandemic.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Google Docs Wisconsin home-based instruction trends through 2021–2
- Wisconsin Department Of Public Instruction Home-based enrollment trends (including public, private and homeschool enrollment)
- Wisconsin Policy Forum Private school enrollment fell during pandemic; homeschool, virtual charters grew
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Headcounts drop in Wisconsin public schools, more students use vouchers for private schools, new data shows
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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