Enrollment in KS schools dropped by more than 15K in the first 18 months of COVID-19
More than 15,000 fewer students were enrolled in Kansas public and private schools in 2021 than in 2019, Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson told the State Board of Education Tuesday.
The figure, he said, was one of many data points illustrating the impact COVID-19 has had on schools across the state. Many of those lost students, he said, likely enrolled in virtual or home schooling.
Despite the state’s work through the Kansans Can program to improve student achievement, Watson said, the pandemic affected nearly every measure of academic performance and social and emotional health.
The Kansans Can program, launched in 2017, seeks to shift the focus in Kansas schools from assessments to “soft skills.” Its results so far have been mixed.
“The last 18 months have been the hardest on our state, and schools are a microcosm of that, in the history of private and public schools,” Watson said.
Nationwide student achievement measures have been down after a year and a half of teaching and learning in a pandemic.
Kansas is no exception, Watson said.
According to data he presented to the Board of Education Tuesday truancy among Kansas students nearly tripled between 2019 and 2021 with 2,239 reports in 2021.
The percentage of students considered chronically absent (missing 10 or more days) grew from 13.93% to 17.54%, accounting for roughly 15,000 students.
More than twice as many Kansas parents refused to let their children take state exams.
Despite the grim outcomes in 2021, Watson said graduation rates and college preparedness improved between 2015 and 2020 in Kansas. He expected those metrics to drop for 2021.
“In some ways we were ahead of schedule (in the Kansans Can initiative) going into 2020,” Watson said. “You’re not going to be able to say anything other than how did the pandemic affect us, and we’re living it. We don’t know yet.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Enrollment in KS schools dropped by more than 15K in the first 18 months of COVID-19."
