Fewer students attend Fayette schools in 2015 than a decade ago, so where have the kids gone? Not home or to private schools.
While enrollment in Fayette County’s public schools has been declining since 2007, the number of children attending private schools or being home-schooled has remained releatively level, according to a review by The Citizen of those totals over the past 10 years.
The review showed, for the most part, a relatively stable trend over time with approximately 8-9 percent of students attending classes outside the public school classroom.
The school system tracks the number of students attending private schools. The same was true of home-schooled students through the 2010-2011 school year. Figures for home-schooled students beginning in the 2011-2012 school year were kept by the Ga. Dept. of Education.
Figures for home-schooled and private school students as a percentage of school-aged children in Fayette County has fluctuated over the past 10 years, from a combined high of 2,133 students in 2009-2010 to an unusual low of 1,426 in 2013-2014.
Averaging 1,888 students per year, the number of students not in Fayette’s public school classrooms range from approximately 7-10 percent of the total school-age population and generally ranges 8-9 percent each year. (See chart below.)
While the total number of home-schooled students and those attending private schools has relatively stable over the past 10 years, the school system’s enrollment has seen an often incremental, but nonetheless continuous drop over the past eight years.
By way of comparison, the year-ending school system enrollment over the past 15 years is shown at right, below.
It should be noted that the enrollment figures listed above are generally those provided during the first month of the school year. Historically, those numbers fluctuate throughout the school year, with additional children often being enrolled through the first half of the school year.
