Oregon public school enrollment levels off, with no sign of rebound from deep post-pandemic losses

According to recently disclosed data from the Oregon Department of Education, public schools in Oregon are currently teaching roughly 2,300 fewer pupils than they did during the 2023–24 school year.

Compared to the enrollment losses of the preceding few years, there is a very slight 0.4% decrease from the previous year, indicating that the exodus from public schools during the pandemic era is slowing but not returning.

In Oregon, there were roughly 580,000 public school students prior to the outbreak. Based on fall attendance figures, the state agency’s data indicates that there are currently about 545,000. That is an overall decrease of just over 6% from the fall of 2019.

A dropping birth rate and high housing expenses have caused some Oregonians to leave the state, according to demographers at Portland State University’s Population Research Center, who have linked the enrollment declines. According to census data, around 6,200 more people left Oregon last year than moved there, mostly to California, Washington, Arizona, and Texas.

The decreases are especially noticeable in early primary grades, as they have been in prior years. In contrast to the 47,000 members of this year’s graduating class, there are around 34,700 kindergarteners and 37,300 first graders in Oregon this year. The state has seen a surge in elementary and middle school students homeschooling since the outbreak.

Although Portland Public Schools is still the largest system in the state, there have been noticeable losses in the metro region. This year, the district lost over 660 kids, or 1.5% of its total enrollment. Currently, it instructs over 43,300 pupils.

Its portion of the state’s per-pupil funding will be cut because that loss exceeds the declines in statewide enrollment. The district intends to release revised personnel predictions by mid-next week and has laid out measures to reduce its budget by approximately $40 million for the upcoming year.

West Linn-Wilsonville, which reported a 2% reduction in enrollment, and Parkrose, which saw a 3.3% drop, were two other metro area school districts where enrollment declines above state norms. While David Douglas, Gresham-Barlow, and Estacada school districts all had growth of roughly 1% to 2%, the majority of other districts did not exhibit statistically significant changes in enrollment in either direction.

As of now, there are no plans to close schools statewide or in the metro area as a result of the enrollment changes. Due to strong parental opposition, West Linn-Wilsonville abandoned its plan to close or combine a few of its smallest elementary schools. A similar situation is playing out in Beaverton, where a discussion of elementary school consolidation at an early stage led to a spike in parent annoyance.