Districts on the hunt for 3,000 missing students
Schools seek to reconnect with families following enrollment losses
All districts – Where did they all go?
That’s what educators across Kent County and statewide have been trying to find out since learning of a dramatic drop in K-12 enrollment this fall – by some 53,000 students across Michigan and 3,000 in Kent ISD public schools.
Local districts large and small have taken hits to their student counts – and their budgets – as pandemic learning scattered families looking for options. Many parents held their children back from kindergarten, decided to home-school them, transferred them to non-public schools or moved out of the area or state. A good many students have simply dropped off the radar – missing in action from their former schools.