The Fulton County (Ga.) school district is reporting its largest enrollment drop on record this year, a decrease the district attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Fulton County schools enrolled 90,376 students for the 2020-2021 school year, a drop of 3,572 students, or roughly 3.8%, from the prior year, according to school board documents.
The district noted the decline was below enrollment projections and represented “the largest population decline on record.”
“This substantial drop in enrollment can be attributed to implications caused by the Covid-19 global pandemic,” the district says. “Projections were developed pre-Covid [and] did not include assumptions for social distance and enrollment anxieties and fears associated with the pandemic.”
Public school systems across Georgia saw student numbers fall by about 2.2% this year, according to the Georgia Department of Education. Reasons cited include fewer students in kindergarten, which is not required in Georgia. Many districts began the year only online, a format that’s more challenging for younger students.
For next school year, officials now are projecting that enrollment will increase by about 1.7% to a total of 91,946 students.
