(RNS) Catholic schools saw a 6.4% decline in enrollment at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Now some dioceses are trying to attract new students with online schools.
The Tablet April 28, 2021
Diocese of Brooklyn schools available for in-person or fully online instruction
WINDSOR TERRACE Students at Catholic schools in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx will no longer need to log in for remote learning this fall as the Archdiocese of New York plans to fully reopen for in-person instruction.
A prekindergarten teacher helps a student with an assignment Sept. 17, 2020, at Maria Regina School. Since September, the 60,000 students across the Archdiocese of New York’s schools have been attending through a hybrid model. The Diocese of Brooklyn Catholic academies and schools have also been open since last fall. (Photo: CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)
(NCR, GSR logo/Toni-Ann Ortiz)
In an unprecedented drop, U.S. Catholic school enrollment decreased by 6.4%, or more than 111,000 students, between fall of 2019 and the beginning of this school year.
The plunge, based on diocesan data published by the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) in February, is the largest decline since record keeping began in the early 1970s and exceeded the drops that followed 2008 financial crisis and the clergy sex abuse scandal.
The enrollment drop translated to an equally stark number of Catholic school closures; 186 elementary schools and 23 high schools shut their doors permanently in 2020, more than doubling the average number of annual closures in the last five years, the NCEA found.
Catholic schools seek ways to counter steep decline in enrollment
Feb 9, 2021 national correspondent
Fifth-grade teacher Madeline Schmitt directs her students during class Sept. 9, 2020, at St. Patrick School in Huntington, N.Y., amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Credit: Gregory A. Shemitz/CNS.)
The 12 Catholic schools in the small Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, have bucked a nationwide trend. They’re enrollment has increased this school year at a time when the vast majority of dioceses are headed in the other direction.
NEW YORK The 12 Catholic schools in the small Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, have bucked a nationwide trend. They’re enrollment has increased this school year at a time when the vast majority of dioceses are headed in the other direction.