- In my mind, I want to be able
to say if you are here, I will serve you.
Whatever you need, we will make it happen
but that's not the truth.
The truth is budgets are fueled by enrollment.
- [Narrator] In Michigan's capital city,
the Lansing School District student count
had been shrinking for years.
But prior to the pandemic,
those losses were leveling out.
Then last year, as students, parents
and their schools struggled to stay connected
during the pandemic,
the district experienced a drop of almost 1,000 students
from the year prior, a 9.2% decrease.
- We count on the walls of schools so heavily,
and the walls kind of like keep us gathered
in this one central location,
and we did not have that over the past year and a half.
- [Narrator] That worrisome trend played out
in public school districts nationwide last year.
And this fall, it's unclear how many
of those students will return.
- This upcoming school year is new for everyone.
It's pivotal, there's no question about that.
- [Narrator] So what's at stake for schools long term
if they can't recover student numbers lost
during the pandemic?
- Traditionally, public school enrollment
and school funding are linked.
As a school has more students enrolled,
they get more funding from the state.
- [Narrator] When it comes to that state funding,
enrollment in Michigan is normally evaluated
on two count days during the school year,
which means regular student attendance is crucial.
During the pandemic, many states, including Michigan,
eased restrictions around how students are counted.
This helped to limit reductions in per pupil state aid.
Another safety net, funding from the COVID-19 Relief Law.
In 2020, the Lansing School District
received $8,227 per student in state aid,
which initially meant approximately $84 million
in state funding.
Without those more flexible policies,
the district says last year's student count decline
could have resulted in a loss of around $6 million.
This year, student counts
are largely returning to pre-pandemic policies.
- If schools aren't able
to bring enough students back to school,
they will be forced to deal with some rather significant
and awful decisions to make,
whether it's cuts to personnel,
programming cuts, those are all closely tied
to the amount of students they have enrolled.
- [Narrator] Enrollment declines don't necessarily mean
a school's costs go down.
So when budgets are cut,
it often means schools are left with less money
to pay for the staffing and programs
that the school still needs.
Nationally, grades that saw the most significant drop-offs
were kindergarten and pre-K,
grades that are not compulsory in many states.
That enrollment trend also occurred in Lansing.
- Families just didn't enroll their children
and so they were just waiting out
for another year.
They basically red shirted their kids.
- [Narrator] Experts say they initially believed enrollment
in younger students would tick up this fall.
And that kindergarten classes
might even be overcrowded.
But the spread of the Delta variant
is throwing that into question.
(telephone beeping)
- This is Jekeia Murphy.
I'm the principal at Reo Elementary.
How are you?
Do you know what the first day of school is?
I am talking to teachers
and I'm talking to parents.
What do we do to keep these kids in school?
Simply put.
- [Narrator] Of the students
who officially left Reo last year,
Murphy says the reasons for those departures varied.
Some moved away, others shifted to schools
offering in-person learning.
- I lost parents because they needed students
in the classroom.
I lost students to charter schools
within the Lansing school district boundary.
As a parent, I always left those conversations
saying I get it.
I get it.
- [Narrator] Murphy says the larger issue at Reo,
where 87% of kids are eligible for free or reduced lunch,
was with families who disengaged
or burned out from virtual learning.
- I would say our preschool kids,
and our kindergarten kids disengaged early on
in the school year.
And it was easier for those parents
because I asked, it was easier for those parents
to say we'll see you when we can come in person.
- [Narrator] This fall is the first time
the Lansing School District
is welcoming students back in person.
Shuldiner and his team put together different budgets
based on potential enrollment numbers
because the district's budget won't be finalized
for this school year
until after the fall student count,
which takes place in October.
- I've got some doomsday budgets
about what it looks like at 8,000 kids,
and that was about are you gonna shut a school down?
Are you going to close some programs?
Are you gonna do certain things?
And then I had some wonderful rainbow in the sky kind
of things that at 11,000,
wow, we might be able to reopen some programs
that we had shuttered 20 years ago.
- [Narrator] So how are public schools working
to recover students?
Shuldiner outlined three enrollment initiatives
that Lansing is prioritizing.
- [Ben] First and foremost
is that we've announced universal pre-K.
That for me is a linchpin
to what a district should always be doing.
- [Narrator] Shuldiner hopes it improves enrollment
in the long term.
- We looked at some numbers
and we basically said wow,
the students that start with us in pre-K, stay with us.
- [Narrator] Second, the district created a K
through 12 online school
for anyone who prefers remote instruction.
The online school will also allow
the district some flexibility
so that kids enrolled in in-person instruction
who need to quarantine because of COVID-19
can continue to attend school
and still be counted.
The third enrollment initiative focuses
on outreach to the community.
- Instead of them coming to us, we're pushing out
because we're trying to get enrollment numbers up,
and create new relationships.
- [Announcer] We've got enrollment
from anybody from K to 12,
for any of the Lansing public schools,
so make sure you see that booth.
- I will never be unprepared to enroll a student.
You don't have to come to me.
I will find you.
So if I'm at the grocery store
and I see a little kid,
I'm like hey, how old are you?
What school do you go to?
- [Narrator] Murphy says she and her team
are working to solve problems
for families and answer questions
that might be preventing parents
from bringing students back to school.
- Do you need transportation.
- No.
- Do you need before or after care?
- I don't think so.
- Okay, I think you're all good.
- All right.
- [Narrator] Once the academic year begins,
school leaders like Murphy need to ensure
that those students who did enroll keep showing up.
- [Bryan] Schools need to be really hyper-focused
on the supports that they provide to educators
as those educators then provide supports
to students as they return back to the classrooms.
- Plop it right in that hole.
- [Narrator] That return looks increasingly complicated
as districts around the country face challenges
like staffing shortages and quarantines due
to the spread of COVID-19.
Lansing School District has implemented a mask mandate
for anyone entering district buildings,
and a vaccine requirement for staff.
Still, Shuldiner says without renewed policies
that allow for more flexibility,
attendance and student counts
may be threatened by quarantines
or school closures due to COVID-19.
- So if that means I need to have conversations
with parents about why their enrollment matters
to us collectively at Reo,
I need to get my talking points together
and make sure that that is communicated
in a kind, sensitive way
but one that is effective
and resonates with all of us
because we do need all of us
in order for this to work.
(pensive music)