Slightly smaller share of Chicago families choosing CPS for their children, report finds

While declining birth rates continue to contribute to shrinking enrollment at Chicago Public Schools, an increasing number of families are also choosing other schooling options, according to a report released Tuesday from the nonprofit Kids First Chicago.

Though overall enrollment at CPS has declined for years, the district steadily served roughly 75% of the city’s school-age population between 2008 and 2018. That’s despite major disruptions including mass school closures and multiple budget crises that could have caused more families to look elsewhere.

Since then, the district’s share of the population has dipped, falling to 71% in 2023, the report found.

At the same time, the percentages of Chicago students enrolled in private school and those classified in census data as “not enrolled” have both inched up. The latter classification includes children who are homeschooled, dropped out, not enrolled in a formal education program or who are in between schools.

The recent drop suggests “that earlier enrollment declines were driven primarily by demographics rather than by more families choosing non-public options,” according to the report. “That trend, however, has shifted.”

Hal Woods, chief of policy at Kids First, said population decline continues to be the biggest driving factor of falling enrollment, but “it is interesting that you are seeing fewer families choosing CPS than you saw prior.”

Had the school district continued to enroll 75% of the city’s kids, it would be serving 18,000 more students, the report said. CPS enrollment has dropped by about 93,000 students since the 2009-2010 school year, when the district served 409,000 children.

While the district has shifted away from relying on enrollment to determine school funding, smaller cohorts of students can still mean fewer staff members, limited access to electives and coursework and schools with not enough kids to field sports teams, according to the nonprofit.

Meanwhile, Chicago continues to see fewer babies born each year. In a report released in 2022, the nonprofit found that Chicago experienced a sharp decline in births — and that trend continues.

The city recorded 45,427 live births in 2005. That number fell to 39,629 by 2015 and to 26,848 by 2023.

“In fewer than 20 years, Chicago’s annual birth total has nearly halved,” the report said.

The decline leads to fewer students entering and advancing through the district. Early grades demonstrate this effect.

CPS enrolled 27,651 kindergarteners in the 2015-16 school year. This year it enrolled 20,040, a decline of about 27%.

In recent years, the arrival of nearly 9,000 migrant students helped offset those declines, briefly swelling the district’s enrollment. But that growth has leveled off, and enrollment restarted its long-standing downward pattern this year.

About 316,000 were enrolled on the 20th day of the current school year, a drop of 9,000 compared to last year. The majority of grade levels and most student groups saw enrollment decreases, but the steepest declines were among Black and Latino students, which saw a combined loss of nearly 10,000 students.

In contrast, enrollment of white, Asian American and multiracial students increased slightly.

Declines in enrollment are also unevenly distributed across neighborhoods, the report found. West and South Side neighborhoods experienced the sharpest declines while other areas remain “relatively stable.”

Network 8, a CPS geographic area that is comprised of schools on the Southwest Side in the Mckinley Park area, saw the steepest drop, losing 7,000 students since 2015-2016. The network of schools in the Belmont Cragin and Austin areas was second with a loss of 6,000 students, and third was the network in the Pilsen-Little Village area with a decline of 5,000 students.

Woods said that while the district can’t control birth rates or economic conditions, it can help low enrollment schools adapt to the new reality. That might mean getting schools to combine resources. Some schools have come together to make one sports team, for example.

“There might be some opportunities to enrich student experience even at our lower enrollment schools,” Woods said.