Alabama public schools lose 5,800 students; largest drop in 40 years, say state officials

Enrollment in Alabama’s K-12 schools dropped by 5,800 students in the 2025-26 school year, according to numbers released Monday the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE).

The department says the decline is the biggest enrollment drop in 40 years. The K-12 population dropped from 720,181 in 2024-25 to 714,358 in 2025-26, a 0.8% decrease.

School officials told members of the Alabama State Board of Education at their meeting earlier this month that the numbers would show a decline. Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey said at the meeting that students using the CHOOSE Act, a voucher-like program, and students being enrolled but not going to school is where the decline is most likely coming from.

“We have essentially 2,100 kids that were enrolled last year that just didn’t show up. They didn’t transfer to private school, they didn’t go to home school, they didn’t go to school in another state. They just disappeared,” Mackey told board members.

Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, the chair of the House Ways and Means Education Committee, which oversees the Education Trust Fund Budget, said in an interview Friday the decline in enrollment was expected.

“Just one, because of the population, the demographics and things like that,” he said. “Number two, we knew that it was some anticipation from the CHOOSE Act. I think we have about 3000 kids equipped from public schools to private or home school. And I think, on the national landscape, you’re seeing more people consider homeschooling and microschooling and charter schools and things like that. I think that will continue.”

In July, around 3,000 students who were enrolled in a public school took CHOOSE Act funds and switched to private education.

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Microschools are learning environments that are designed and operated to work with the specific needs of the students they serve. However, state regulations have yet to catch up.

Ryan Hollingsworth, executive director of School Superintendents of Alabama, said the decline in enrollment could lead to teacher jobs disappearing for the upcoming school year. Teaching positions are funded in part by the attendance within schools.

“Teacher units awarded by the state are based upon the average daily membership (student enrollment) of a school for the first 20 days after Labor Day. With the loss of students this fall, our schools will earn less state teacher units for the fall of 26. This could be extremely challenging if the loss is concentrated in one or two schools within the district instead of district-wide,” Hollingsworth said in the statement.

Garrett said Friday the teacher jobs shouldn’t be significantly affected by the decline because of the nationwide teacher shortage.

“I’m speculating somewhat, but I don’t believe we should see a massive impact on the number of teachers because right now we have a teacher shortage,” he said.

Garrett also said he doesn’t expect the decline to affect the Renewing Alabama’s Investment in Student Excellence (RAISE) Act. The RAISE Act allocates supplemental funding to public schools based on the amount of students enrolled in different categories including English language learners, poverty, special education, gifted students and those attending charter schools. It represented an attempt to start moving Alabama from an average daily attendance model to one that aims to connect resources to places of greatest need.

“If you have a pot of money, you have fewer people in the denominator, then the math would say more dollars per child would go to that effort. Again, we’ve already pulled down what we anticipate to be three years worth of funding, and I don’t think that would impact that,” he said.