The New York City public schools notched the school system’s first gain in enrollment in nearly a decade, due in large part to the growing number of migrant children living in the five boroughs, Mayor Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks announced Wednesday.
Under the city’s per-pupil funding formula, more than half of local schools will see their budgets bolstered by a total of $183 million, according to a press release. But the remainder will have to give back funding for their lower than expected enrollments.
“When we say New York City is back, we are not just talking about our economy — we are talking about our communities and our entire city. And after eight years of declining enrollment, New York City public schools are back,” said Adams in a statement.
The increase in school enrollment comes as the city is rolling out widespread budget cuts to offset increased spending on caring for the explosion of New York’s migrant population. Those cuts include freezing the hiring and training of new police officers, the Daily News reported Wednesday.
An estimated 30,000 students seeking asylum in the U.S. have enrolled in the public schools since summer 2022, officials said. The city Education Department does not ask families their immigration status, but forms projections around new students living in temporary housing.
The school system’s overall enrollment grew by roughly 8,000 students this school year — a nearly 1% increase, according to the release.
That brings the total number of students in the nation’s largest school district to 915,000, including 3-year-old children in public preschool programs. A recent expansion of the initiative could mask enrollment changes in other grades.
But the gains are not spread evenly across all schools.
This year, roughly 57% of schools counted more students than projected and will receive an average of $209,000 extra per school. But 43% of schools are staring down average cuts of $167,000 each, according to the Education Department.
On top of those reductions, further cuts to the Education Department’s budget may be announced as soon as Thursday, with the Adams administration expected to present its plan to eliminate budgetary gaps as it pays for housing and other services for migrant families.
“With a majority of schools gaining additional funding during this midyear adjustment, we are well positioned to meet the challenges ahead,” said Banks. “However, to continue our progress and ensure the success of our students, particularly those in temporary housing, we urgently need increased state and federal funding.”
Also on Wednesday, the public schools released its annual class size report, which included more granular enrollment data on programs subject to the recent law capping class sizes.
That data show higher-than-the-citywide-average enrollment gains in preschool and high school, but fewer students in middle school.
Enrollment growth was highest in Manhattan’s Districts 1 and 4 on the Lower East Side and East Harlem and Queens’ District 30 — while dropping in two districts in the northeast and South Bronx, and Brooklyn’s District 15 from Carroll Gardens to Sunset Park, the report showed.
Student counts also grew sharply in the school system’s adult and alternative education programs, data show.
The data are preliminary and unaudited, and may change throughout the school year.
