Schools prepare for a mixed bag as kindergarten enrollment numbers bounce back

Nicole Roberts Bitar was encouraged to see the numbers ramping up for kindergarten registration in the New Kensington-Arnold School District this summer.

Last year, the district was among many across the U.S. that saw kindergarten enrollment decline unexpectedly as families weighed their options: Should they send their 5- and 6-year-olds to school in the midst of a pandemic when many would have been online for at least part of the year? Should they look for a private school? Or should they simply hold off enrolling for a year?

In Pennsylvania, kindergarten is not mandatory, and students are not required to attend school until age 6.

Although much of Southwestern Pennsylvania has experienced a population decline in recent years, there was nothing in census data or birth records to suggest some school districts would be down as much as two or more classrooms of kindergartners.

In New Kensington-Arnold, state and school records show kindergarten enrollment declined 28%, dropping from 180 in fall 2019 to 130 last year. So far this year, it’s back up to 158. If past experience is any indicator, Bitar said, the school may pick up as many as another 20 kindergarteners during the first weeks of school.

Officials in Greensburg Salem saw a similar pattern. Kindergarten enrollment there declined from 202 in 2019 to 159 last fall.

Some saw declines in raw numbers that were even more stunning.

Pittsburgh Public Schools saw kindergarten enrollment decline by 384 students, or 21%.

A study by Stanford University and The New York Times found kindergarten enrollment declined by about 20% last fall in 10,000 school districts in 33 states, including Pennsylvania. In many instances, those were school districts with a large proportion of low-income students.

Locally, seven out of 31 school districts in Allegheny, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties — Fox Chapel Area, Gateway, Plum, Belle Vernon Area, Mt. Pleasant Area and Penn-Trafford — reported increases in kindergarten enrollment. Others saw declines by anywhere from 1% to 36%.

Hempfield officials initially reported a 10% decline in kindergarten enrollment last fall. However, Superintendent Tammy Wolicki said enrollment increased during the year and appeared on track to come close to the 2019 number as schools there began opening last week.

Emily Neff is policy director for Trying Together, a program that works with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the United Way through its Hi5 program to do outreach and encourage kindergarten enrollment by early summer. She said there was a 10% decline in kindergarten enrollment in Allegheny County last year. In an effort to counter that and prepare children for school, her group ramped up its efforts with teachers and principals to help families transition to kindergarten and prepare children.

Schools that remained on track with kindergarten last fall included Gateway, where officials in the Monroeville district participated in an outreach program designed to engage with the parents of preschool children and encourage early registration for kindergarten.

Michael Matteo, principal of Gateway’s Evergreen Elementary, said those efforts helped increase kindergarten enrollment, even during the pandemic. Teachers and administrators participate in the outreach program. Matteo said families seem to relish personal connections. It has proved a critical link, especially with lower-income families who have no prior connections with the school.

“That’s where I come in, getting them engaged. And that goes a long way,” Matteo said.

Back in the Greensburg Salem School District, Acting Superintendent Kenneth Bissell believes a combination of covid-19 fears and concerns about virtual schooling were among the issues that made some parents hesitate to enroll children in kindergarten last year.

“My youngest son is going to kindergarten this year. It’s his year to go, but I know there were some families in his preschool extending preschool for their children last year,” Bissell said. “I can’t say how many there were, but we saw that in our classes. Right now, we’re working up to what a normal kindergarten class looks like.”

Greensburg Salem had a 20% decline in kindergarten enrollment last fall. A week before the Sept. 1 start of classes, the district had 213 kindergarten registrations, or 11 more than were enrolled in 2019.

“And we typically have some last-minute registrations,” Bissell added.

Greensburg Salem added another kindergarten teacher this fall to accommodate the larger enrollment.

At New Kensington-Arnold schools, Bitar said teachers are preparing for a mixed bag this year. The principal, who taught kindergarten and second grade before leaving the classroom, said it may be challenging for teachers and their pupils.

“Not only are we seeing them come to kindergarten, we’re seeing some come to first grade who skipped kindergarten,” she said.

Steve Barnette, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, agreed kindergarten teachers likely will face challenges this fall on several fronts.

While an ever-increasing percentage of children typically attend preschool, recent survey research suggests that, too, changed last year.

“The key things we’ve learned is a bunch of kids didn’t go to preschool last year, more than didn’t go to kindergarten. And 1 in 5 with special needs didn’t have those needs identified, much less met,” he said.

That’s important, because preschool typically helps socialize children and prepare them for expectations they will face as they start school.

Barnette said parents also reported they spent less time reading to their preschool children last year as they juggled multiple roles and financial challenges in a rapidly changing pandemic world.

“So those children will be much less prepared for school,” Barnette said.

Kindergarten students at New Kensington-Arnold faced the same kind of on-again, off-again school many students across the U.S. experienced last fall, when schools that began the year in-person switched to virtual platforms when covid-19 surged. The district held in-person classes for the first two months last fall before switching to virtual schooling in November.

“Our teachers did a wonderful job engaging students with that, and we saw some really great stuff with those who did go through with it,” Bitar said. “I was amazed at the test scores we saw. Kids were pretty much where they would have been in a regular year.

“But there were some families, where maybe it was a job situation or there were multiple kids in the home and one device for five kids, where it was just too much and some dropped out of kindergarten.”

With that in mind, the school adopted a three-tiered plan to help students through the next year, including a preassessment to determine who might need to close gaps and grouping children who need extra attention to ensure they close the gap; after-school tutoring; and the use of technology to allow teachers to work as closely with each child as possible.

That said, the principal is just as worried about her second graders this fall.

“They were in kindergarten when the schools closed in March 2020, then they came back to first grade last fall. Not all of them were where they needed to be, and then we went virtual last year. That group has never had a consistent year of school, and we need to target them and make sure they get the skills they need,” she said.

Long term, she said, many will close the gap as long as it is addressed.

Barnette said the children he worries most about are those who are entering school a year late who may drop out before finishing high school.

“Now, they’ll reach the age where they can drop out with a year less of schooling,” he said.