Abstract
Public school enrollment dramatically decreased during the pandemic, but the patterns of decline and student movement across schools are not yet well understood. Using statewide student-level data from Virginia, we find pre-K–12 enrollment dropped by 4% between fall 2019 and the first post-pandemic fall of 2020. The changes were the largest in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten and explained mostly by decreases in new enrollees, though exits also increased. K–12 enrollment declines were the largest among White and economically-advantaged students (but largest for Black and economically-disadvantaged pre-kindergartners). We also observe a decline in school transfers (both within and between districts), concentrated among Black and economically-disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. Findings have implications for equity, school funding, and student well-being.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
