One strange impact from the last thirteen months in the US is that children are dropping off the registers of schools. According to this recent article in the Economist in New York alone there were some 30,000 students less this year compared to last, a picture similar in LA (down 19,233) and Boston (2,368 fewer pupils), and curiously numbers are across the age spectrum. When you take out acceptable motives – such as moving school or district – there were still net declines in mostly rural areas and those with smaller, whiter and poorer districts. With the reductions in the number of pupils also comes a reduction in receipts of federal funds, so this situation is very worrying for many states, especially those who might have to return funds at the end of the year. Without addressing the root of the problem some of the attempts to increase the number of students have even involved staff members calling “thousands of families and conducted 115 home visits to get 1,279 pupils back on the books”. Prevention of the situation in the first place would have been easier but needs addressing many causes, some of which are systemic and beyond the control of school districts.
