NYC families leaving some of city’s top school districts at alarming rate

PS 58 has seen enrollment drop to beneath 800 college students.
Angel Chevrestt

They’re going, going, gone.

Households in among the metropolis’s prime college districts are leaving the Division of Training at an alarming clip, in response to state knowledge.

Mayor Eric Adams speculated this week that oldsters who’ve ditched the town and its public colleges are more likely to return as quickly as Gotham gathers itself.

However that ongoing flight — which is hammering college budgets — is hitting historically widespread districts particularly laborious.

Elementary college enrollment in Manhattan’s District 2, which encompasses prosperous areas like Greenwich Village and Soho, is down 10 % this yr and 17 % over the past two.

In accordance with state figures, the district went from roughly 16,040 youngsters in 2020 to over 13,333 this yr — a lack of greater than 2,500 college students over that span.

Mayor Eric Adams stated he believes the households will return to New York Metropolis ultimately.

Getty Photographs

A involved district supply famous that that may equate to the closure of as much as seven district elementary colleges.

In Brooklyn’s District 15, which incorporates Park Slope, elementary college enrollment has skidded by 16 % for the reason that onset of the pandemic, and shed greater than 1,800 youngsters over that stretch.

The Maurice Sendak Faculty, a reliably high-performing elementary college on eighth Avenue in Park Slope, has misplaced greater than a 3rd of its enrollment over the previous two years, dropping from 340 to 219 this yr.

At PS 58 on Smith Avenue, enrollment has dropped by greater than 1 / 4 over the past two years, going from 1008 to simply 740 this yr.

PS 41’s numbers have gone down by 26 % from 2019.

Matthew McDermott

Each Sendak and PS 58 boast take a look at scores properly above the citywide common.

District 2 has additionally seen hair-raising scholar losses at particular person colleges.

In Chelsea, PS 11 has seen enrollment drop from 900 to 730 over the past two years — a plunge of 17 %.

And PS 41 in Greenwich Village is right down to 492 this yr from 666 in 2019, which is a dip of 26 %.

The decline in enrollment numbers is occurring in a variety of prosperous areas of NYC.

Bloomberg through Getty Photographs

“The previous two years have been tumultuous for households nationwide, they usually made the most effective selections suited to their distinctive wants and circumstances,” stated DOE spokesperson Sarah Casasnovas. “Whereas the tendencies we noticed in New York are not any totally different, we're assured that households will return to school rooms as we flip the nook on COVID. Chancellor Banks is dedicated to participating with households and dealing to revive belief in New York Metropolis colleges.”