D.C. bypasses national public school enrollment drop

Defying national trends, Washington, DC’s public charter school enrollment is on the upswing, increasing by some 1600 students between 2019 and 2022, according to a report by the DC Policy Center. At the same time, despite a small decline in total enrollment, the drop is smaller than similar traditional school systems nationally over the same time. 

Chelsea Coffin, director of the DC Policy Center’s Education Policy Initiative, says that a decrease in birth rates in the District could impact public school enrollment in the future, especially for younger students. The report found that Kindergarten and elementary enrollment were down by 2.3 percent over the study period.