PARENT & FAMILY LEADERSHIP
SB Collaborative Space
Near-Term Indicators
Healthy, Thriving Children & Families
Better Systems Alignment
Increased and Aligned Funding
Kindergarten Enrollment
Current Value
5,684
Definition
Description
The metric reported reflects the data published annually, usually in early March of the current school year (e.g., this year the Student Count datafile was published on March 3, 2021, for the 2020-21 school year). The reason why the enrollment data is not available earlier is that they incorporate data from both Fall Count Day (early-October) and Spring Count Day (mid-February).
The Michigan Department of Education classifies the schools included in this metric as LEA or PSA based on the statute under which the school district was incorporated.
LEA=Local Education Agency (aka, a traditional public school)
PSA=Public School Academy (aka, a charter school)
Story Behind the Curve
There is some evidence suggesting that prospective Kindergarten students were "redshirted" this school year (i.e., parents decided to wait to enroll them into K for a year). If that is the case, then we would expect 2021-22 K enrollment to far exceed pre-COVID levels rather than declining further.
One of the most immediate educational policy challenges for Fall 2021 will be making sure that Detroit schools have an adequate number of highly qualified Kindergarten teachers. Because next year's Kindergarten cohort will likely be the largest that we've ever seen assuming the pandemic is under control and things go back to something approaching normal. That is because we will have the normal number of K students enrolling as well as up to ~20% of last year's cohort. Teacher retirements are up significantly year-over-year and teacher shortages were already a challenge in Detroit.