D.C. counted more than 98,000 students in its traditional public and charter schools this year, the city’s “highest ever” enrollment since the education superintendent started compiling such data in 2007, officials said Thursday.
The numbers are preliminary — audited enrollment figures will be released in early 2024 — but they indicate the District is not merely returning to its pre-pandemic enrollment growth. It’s continuing to outpace it. Before the public health crisis, schools had been growing by an average of about 1,600 students annually, according to the D.C. Policy Center, a local think tank. The city added 2,120 students to its schools this year, early and unaudited data show.
This year’s growth represents a 2 percent hike since last year, compared to an almost 3 percent surge between the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years. Still, Christina Grant, D.C.’s state superintendent of education, said the figures are encouraging.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Lauren Lumpkin over at The Washington Post
