Enrollment in Missouri public schools has fallen by 2.2%, or roughly 19,000 students, over the last five academic years, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) education dashboard.
This drop in enrollment mirrors a national trend, according to data released by the National Center for Education Statistics. Between the fall of 2018 and the fall of 2021, public school enrollment across the U.S. dropped by 2.5%, which is roughly 1.2 million students. Over that same time period, private school enrollment increased by 8%, or 450,000 students.
While Missouri public school enrollment has decreased, it’s unclear where students have gone. This is because Missouri does not track private school enrollment data and does not require parents to notify the state when they choose to homeschool their child.
However, two private schools in Boone County—Columbia Independent School (CIS) and City Garden School—are expanding due to increases in enrollment. Officials at both schools attributed the national increase in private school enrollment to a combination of factors; from disruptions due to the pandemic, a search for more individualized instruction and a desire for a smaller, tight-knit community.
CIS recently acquired 6.85 acres of land to build a soccer field, tennis courts and additional parking. This comes on top of investments made to renovate its current building and construct a new upper school building.
CIS Head of School Bridgid Kinney said the renovation projects will total between $17 million-$18 million. She said the projects are necessary to accommodate additional students.
“We’ve had waitlists in different classes,” Kinney said. “We’ve had families that might want to enroll here, we can’t accommodate them, because we don’t have the physical space to add more classes.”
While Kinney said enrollment at CIS has increased steadily over the last 10 years, she said she thinks the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused parents to reevaluate choices in education.
“COVID forced people in many ways to look at different things,” Kinney said. “We’ve seen increased enrollment, over 10 years for us. But, I think that people started looking at other educational opportunities.”
She said public and private schools have different offerings for students.
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“There are services that they [public schools] offer that we personally do not,” Kinney said. “But, there are things that we can do, because of our smaller class sizes. There’s activities that we can tend to do that make it a little easier here than it would be in a large public school.”
Kinney said the school approaches the curriculum with the “whole student” in mind.
“We’re trying to teach the whole student,” Kinney said. “We want our students to be seen and heard here, to feel like they belong, know that they belong.”
City Garden School Head of School Jordan Johnson said the school saw a 28% growth in enrollment in the past two years. Next year, the school will also expand to include an eighth grade class. With the additional grade, Johnson said the school is projected to see a 24% growth in enrollment.
Johnson attributes increased enrollment to the pandemic. During the pandemic, the City Garden School was able to pivot to entirely outdoor learning.
“We, like a lot of private schools, had a boom in enrollment during the pandemic,” Johnson said. “And for us, I think that the main factor behind that was we made the decision to totally teach outside during that time.”
Johnson said she is a proponent of public school education. However, she said many public schools are currently not equipped to serve all students.
“Our students who need movement incorporated into their lessons, who need more hands on, who need less screen time, those are students who we see really come into themselves here,” Johnson said.
Due to some of the unique programs offered in alternative education settings, she said she thinks private school and homeschool enrollment will continue to trend upwards.
“We think that we are serving some families really well, who wouldn’t be served in public education as well,” Johnson said. “So, unfortunately, and fortunately, I do think that that’s going to continue to be like a growing movement.”