Originally published on NewsPub – November 25th, 2023
Schools at the north and south ends of Alabama are seeing an increase in public school enrollment.
As Alabama faces a serious teacher shortage in many disciplines, that can mean larger classroom sizes in growing schools. As students age and shift from elementary to middle to high school, that can mean teachers need to shift, too.
Alabama’s fastest-growing counties are Baldwin, Limestone, Madison and Lee counties. Similarly, the Wiregrass is seeing a population increase, which appears to be contributing to more students in county school systems, though not in small city systems.
Central Alabama, with few exceptions, is holding steady or losing students. Only two of Jefferson County’s 12 school districts added students this year: Tarrant and Homewood, which added 3% and 2% to their population, respectively.
Rural districts in the Black Belt area continue to see fewer students, which also tracks with the overall population decline in that area. As enrollment in those schools drops and federal pandemic relief money dries up, school officials are having to face the real possibility of closing small schools.
Since the start of the current school year, two rural schools – Dunbar-Ramer School in Montgomery and Kinterbish K-8 School in Sumter County – have announced they’ll close before the end of the year. Half a dozen other small rural schools have closed in recent years, too.
Statewide, enrollment numbers are about where they were last year, dropping by just under a thousand students. Current student enrollment is 726,700 students statewide.
The chart below shows the current student population in Alabama’s 10 largest school districts and whether that number is higher or lower than last year. Click here if you are unable to see the chart.
Charter school enrollment continues to climb
Enrollment continued to climb in Alabama’s 10 existing startup charter schools, and a new charter school – Covenant Academy in Mobile – enrolled 262 students. That brings the total enrollment in the state’s 11 charter schools to 5,176 students.
Charter schools are allowed more flexibility in exchange for more accountability and can be closed if students don’t meet the achievement goals set by school officials. That flexibility can be attractive to teachers and students, with most charter schools operating with a waitlist.
The three conversion charter schools in Montgomery enrolled 1,558 students this year – one student more than last year’s enrollment. The district’s overall enrollment has declined year over year for the past decade, falling to 25,760 students this year.
District gains and losses – last year and this year
Eighty-three of Alabama’s 139 traditional school districts lost students from last year to this year. For most, the loss was 2% or fewer of the total student population.
But in 28 school districts, that loss was more than 2%, with Perry County having the highest percentage decline. Enrollment in the district is down 7%, meaning there are 66 fewer students than last year, bringing the total to 828 students.
And Perry County is only the fifth-smallest district in Alabama. The other four are:
- Coosa County – 781 students
- Barbour County – 641 students
- Elba City – 602 students, and
- Linden City – 396 students.
Those numbers are all lower than last year.
On the other side of the scale are the districts that grew the largest, as a percentage of the student population.
Eufaula City, home to the 4,578-student Alabama Virtual Academy, grew at the largest rate, adding 657 students to the district overall, an 11% increase.
The map below shows districts that grew from last school year until the current school year in shades of blue, while shades of brown indicate areas of declining enrollment. Click here if you are unable to see the map.
The table below depicts the current school year enrollment for Alabama school districts and charter schools compared with the two previous school years. Click here if you are unable to see the table.
Statewide and standalone district virtual schools enroll more students
Virtual school continues to attract students, with the three statewide virtual schools – in Chickasaw City, Eufaula City and Limestone County – enrolling the majority of students and seeing the largest rise.
Together the three schools enroll 13,367 of the 16,926 virtual students statewide. That’s up by 808 students from last year’s enrollment of 12,559 collectively in the three statewide virtual schools.
Enrollment in the 11 district-level standalone virtual schools differs among districts, but is up by 301 students, rising to 3,279 from 2,978 last year.
Enrollment by school
As with the districts, enrollment ups and downs were uneven across the state, with county schools losing 2,621 students statewide and city schools gaining 391 since last year.
High schools continue to be the largest schools in the state, with Hoover High School topping the list at 2,884 students this year.
Rounding out the top six (fifth place is a tie) largest high schools:
- Mobile County’s Baker High School – 2,421 students
- Auburn City’s Auburn High School – 2,163 students
- Alabaster City’s Thompson High School – 2,132 students
- Enterprise City’s Enterprise High School – 2,121 students and
- Madison City’s James Clemens High School – 2,121 students.
On the other end of the spectrum, Alabama’s smallest traditional public schools – as opposed to specialized programmatic schools like alternative programs – are scattered across Alabama and include:
- Montgomery County’s Dunbar-Ramer School – 45 students,
- Monroe County’s Monroe Intermediate School – 55 students,
- Mobile County’s Dauphin Island Elementary School – 57 students,
- Sumter County’s Kinterbish Junior High School – 65 students, and
- Dallas County’s J.E. Terry Elementary School – 72 students.
Of the smallest schools, Dunbar-Ramer and Kinterbish Junior High are set to close by the end of 2023.
The table below shows school-level enrollment for this year and last year. Use the search box to narrow the list. It is best viewed on a larger screen. Click here if you are unable to see the table.
To learn more about Alabama Virtual Academy, visit https://alva.k12.com/.
