Florida’s public school enrollment, which had dropped significantly in 2020-21 because of the pandemic, recovered most of its lost ground this school year, according to figures recently released by the Florida Department of Education.
The total enrollment for Fall 2021 of 2,833,179 was 41,492 students higher than in the Fall of 2020, a 1.5% increase. The Fall 2020 enrollment was 67,265 students lower than it had been in the Fall of 2019, which was a 2.3% decrease.
The largest pandemic enrollment drops in the Fall of 2020 took place in the earliest grades. PreK enrollment was 23.1% lower in the Fall of 2020 than in the Fall of 2019 (a drop of 15,164 students). But PreK enrollment rebounded 17.2% (8,647 students) in Fall of 2021. The Fall 2020 Kindergarten enrollment was 8.0% (16,316 students) lower than it had been in Fall 2019. But it increased by 6.9% (12,955 students) in the Fall of 2021.
Enrollment in grades 1-5 fell 3.1% from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020, but recovered very little in Fall 2021, increasing only 0.7%. Middle school (grades 6-8) enrollment fell only 1.3% with the onset of the pandemic in Fall 2020, but didn’t increase at all this past fall.
Ironically, the pandemic seemed to accelerate the growth of high school enrollments. In the Fall of 2021, public high school enrollment was 2.3% higher than it was in the Fall of 2019.
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