Wilmington Kindergarten Enrollment Declined 20% Last Year

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington public school enrollment dropped significantly from the 2019-2020 school year to the 2020-2021 year, with the biggest drops coming in the youngest grades.

The trend in Wilmington reflects the pattern across much of the country, according to enrollment data collected by researchers at Stanford University.

With the district's schools operating under a hybrid learning model for much of the school year, it appears many parents of young students chose not to send their children to local public schools — opting instead for private school, homeschooling or other options.

Nationwide, kindergarten enrollment dropped nearly 10 percent from fall 2019 to fall 2020, the New York Times reported. In Massachusetts, it declined nearly 12 percent.

In Wilmington, enrollment fell even further: the district went from 245 kindergarten students in 2019-2020 to 196 in the following year, a 20 percent decline. Wilmington also reported a significant drop in first grade enrollment and an even larger drop-off for pre-kindergarten, where enrollment dropped by almost 80 percent.

Did you take your children out of public school, or choose not to enroll them, last year? Patch would love to hear from you. Contact Christopher Huffaker at chris.huffaker@patch.com.

Some grades reported increases, but overall, district enrollment dropped from 3,166 students to 2,830 last year, the lowest number since at least 2015.

In response to questions from Patch, Superintendent Glenn Brand said enrollment would be discussed at a future School Committee meeting.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com. Disclosure: The author's sister is part of the Stanford team that collected the data for this story.