Enrollment in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools appears to have sharply declined based on early attendance numbers.
The district’s 10-day count was 47,093 students — a decrease of nearly 2,000 from last year’s average daily membership.
This won’t be the district’s official enrollment number, though. Officials say the 10-day count is just for their own tracking. The State Department of Public Instruction will use the best of the Day 20 and Day 40 numbers, which aren’t available yet.
Still, the district is making a push for attendance. Superintendent Don Phipps shared this message at a recent school board meeting:
"If you're a student who should be with us and haven't come to school yet, we miss you, and we want you to be there," Phipps said. "So we're working really hard for our students who have not been yet to make sure that we reach out and let them know that they're missed and that we want them to be a part of our family.”
In North Carolina, school funding is heavily tied to enrollment. And the district already lost about 1,500 students last year compared to the year before.
Other public school districts are experiencing declines too. Records show there was a loss of nearly 24,000 students statewide over the last year.