Enrollment in New York public schools during 2024-25 remained steady at 2.24 million, according to preliminary State Education Department (NYSED) data. Helped by an influx of asylum seekers, enrollment fell by only 1,451 students (-0.06 percent) since 2023-24, slowing down the decade long decline.

The enrollment data includes full-time students from kindergarten to grade 12 in public schools (excluding the charter schools) which was tallied on the first Wednesday of October 2024. The loss was primarily concentrated outside New York City where enrollment went down by 6,322 (-0.4 percent). Enrollment inside New York City ticked up slightly by 4,871 students (0.6 percent).

The decline in enrollment slowed in 2024-25, and slightly increased when accounting for the charter schools. This can largely be attributed to the sudden influx of migrants in New York City which reached its peak during early 2024, after the previous year’s BEDS Day enrollment were tallied. Between the spring of 2022 and December 2024, New York City received 225,700 asylum seekers, housing a peak of 68,000 asylum seekers during January 2024. Between July 2022 to March 2024, more than 36,000 students in temporary housing enrolled in NYC public schools for the first time.

Enrollment in both the charter schools and homeschools have grown since last year, which has helped raise New York’s total enrollment¹ (excluding non-public schools²) by a small margin of 0.17 percent (4,181). Enrollment in charter schools grew by 2.9 percent to 186,458 students, while homeschooling grew by 7.5 percent to 53,967 students.

The overall decline in New York’s public-school enrollment reflects both demographic trends and a shift of priorities by parents on how they want to educate their children.

Since the school year before the pandemic (2019-20), New York has lost more than eight percent (189,371) of its students from public schools.

Among the counties, the Bronx saw the largest drop in these five years, losing more than a fifth of its students from 174,830 to 139,305. Only Rockland County saw a rise in enrollment since the pandemic with the number of students growing by 0.76 percent (39,759 to 39,461).

New York’s population had already been in decline thanks to a combination of declining fertility rate, net domestic outmigration, and a decline in lawful foreign immigration. More than 100,000 students exited New York’s school system during the pandemic, and many of them have not returned. A large portion of them have turned to homeschooling as New York has become one of the leading states in homeschooling growth.

A majority of school districts (480 of the 717) saw a drop in enrollment since the previous school year. Among the larger school districts, Hempstead Union Free School District in Nassau County saw a 10.82 percent decline in enrollment from 5,738 to 5,117 students.

New York City’s Geographic District #31, which covers all of Staten Island, enrolled the highest number of students at 54,519. All the Big 5 City School Districts (New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, Syracuse) except Rochester saw a rise in enrollment. Enrollment rose in Syracuse by 3.25 percent (17,068 to 17,623) and declined in Rochester by 0.56 percent (19,927 to 19,816). The state capital, Albany, had a 5.83 percent (7,995 to 8,461) rise in enrollment.

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family. 

Data Notes:

1. This number includes all public schools, charter schools, and homeschools. It excludes data for non-public schools which NYSED has not yet published for 2024-25.
2. Nonpublic schools: These are schools that are not funded or operated by the federal, state, or local government.