L.A. Unified enrollment continues to fall, but drop is cushioned by influx of 4-year-olds
Amid an overall drop in school enrollment, in Los Angeles, enrollment of new fourth-grade students in fall 2018 is up nearly 7 percent compared to the year prior. It is only the second year in a row that new-graduation-through-fourth-grade enrollment has been up as high as it has been this school year (2014).
With the overall enrollment decline continuing, the drop in the number of new fourth-graders is much smaller than the declines in the number of new second-graders and freshmen entering seventh and eighth grade. The decline in 2017-2018, though, was nearly identical to the previous two years.
With the enrollment decline among new fourth-graders, enrollment of new freshmen is down by 3.8 percent (to 14,566). That marks the second down year in a row of the freshman population, and first in three years.
There are no recent trends to suggest that the enrollment decline at U.S. public middle and high schools continues among incoming freshmen. That school year, U.S. high schools enrolled 12,639 freshman and 1,973 sophomores. In the past three years, the number of freshman has averaged 14,056. For the year 2018-19, the number of freshmen enrolling in U.S. high schools is down 2.7 percent for the current school year compared to the previous school year.
There are no significant trends to suggest that the number of new freshmen enrolled in U.S. high schools has been down for the past three years. The number of new freshmen has averaged 14,056 over the past three years.
While the declining enrollment of students in grades four through eight is of concern, it may be offset by a 4.5 percent rise in the number of new third-grade students (2,