Columbus City Schools District
Ohio Now 73,805 Below Pre-COVID Enrollment
Correction (May 29, 2026): An earlier draft of this article reported district recovery rates by size band (76.2%, 71.7%, 53.1%, and 47.1%) computed on an inconsistent basis. The corrected figures, com...
Ohio Lost 203,000 White Students. Every Other Group Grew.
Ohio's public schools lost 88,804 students between 2015 and 2026. White students accounted for 202,924 of that decline, more than double the total loss itself. The math only works because every other ...
Ohio Lost 19,611 Students in 2025, the Biggest Non-COVID Drop
In 2024-25, 96 Ohio districts sat at their lowest enrollment on record. One year later, the number is 391.
Ohio's community schools grew 16% since COVID. Traditional districts never recovered.
Correction: This article originally understated the traditional district enrollment decline. The correct figures are included below.
Ohio's Kindergarten Class Hits a Record Low
Correction (April 12, 2026): This article originally described the 2025-26 total enrollment loss of 19,611 as "the largest single-year decline in the dataset." The 2020-21 pandemic year saw a larger d...
Hispanic Enrollment Doubled in Ohio. Then It Stopped.
In 2015, Hispanic students made up fewer than one in 20 Ohio public school students. By 2026, the ratio is closer to one in 12. The 59,349-student increase, a 68.4% surge, occurred while the state's t...
Ohio Hits All-Time Enrollment Low as Losses Accelerate
Ohio lost 19,611 public school students this year. That is the second-largest single-year drop in at least 12 years, trailing only the pandemic plunge of 52,242 in 2020-21. What separates 2025-26 from...