JANESVILLE — The Janesville School District reported 9,190 students in its January student count to the Wisconsin Department of Instruction, a drop of 131 students since the third Friday count in September.
In September, the school district had 9,321 students enrolled, according to a spreadsheet released by the district.
Wisconsin school districts are statutorily required to report student counts to the state on the third Friday in September and second Friday in January. The counts are a component of state funding annually.
“Student enrollment counts across the state have consistently shown a reduction between the September and January count dates,” said Patrick Gasper, Janesville School District public information officer, in an email to the 69.
In the last three years, enrollment numbers have gone down in Janesville from the third Friday in September to the second Friday in January, Gasper said. In 2023-24, the drop was 45 students. In 2022-23, the drop was 60 students. In 2021-22, the drop was 152 students.
Gasper said the numbers are a net result of students moving in and out of the district, mid-year graduates and students dropping out of high school. Since September, Rock River Charter School has graduated 70 students, he said.
According to the spreadsheet, the biggest dropoff by school from the count in September was at Parker High School, which fell from 1,391 students to 1,366. The next highest is Rock River Charter School, which lost 35 students when it went from 265 students to 230. The third-highest drop was at Craig High School, which went down 25 students when it went from 1,391 to 1,366.
The lowest drops were at Roosevelt Elementary and Rock University High School, which both lost four students. Roosevelt went from 400 to 396 and Rock went from 92 to 88. Both Harrison Elementary and Lincoln Elementary did not lose any students.
Other decreases
- Adams 10
- Kennedy 5
- Van Buren 8
- Washington 6
- Wilson 5
- Edison Middle 14
- Franklin Middle 9
- Marshall Middle 13
The spreadsheet does not specify reasons for decreases.
Five schools in the district increased their enrollment going into the second Friday count. The largest increase was at ARISE Virtual Academy, which went up to 144 students, a gain of 26 students from 118.
Madison gained five for a total of 276 students. Monroe went up four for a total of 378. Jefferson went up three students for a total of 265. Jackson Elementary gained a student and went up to 299.
The district had a gain of 13 students in early childhood. There were 63 students in the September count and 76 students in January count.
Third Friday count
Enrollment numbers dropped between the 2023 third Friday count and the 2024 third Friday count as well. According to a memo from Director of Pupil Services Kimberli Peerenboom to Mark Holzman dated Oct. 18, the 9,321 total reported on the 2024 third Friday was down from 9,355 at the same time in 2023.
Peerenboom reported that middle and high school enrollments declined by 30 and 41 students respectively. She wrote that “337 pupils enrolled in DPI’s Home-Based Private Education Program (Homeschooling). This enrollment aligns with 2023 data from DPI which indicates a 33.3% increase in homeschool programming across the state from pre-pandemic levels.”
The district had a net loss of 23 open-enrolled students into the district as of September, Peerenboom wrote.
“This represents the second year in a row of open enrollment loss and the largest open enrollment loss in District history,” Peerenboom wrote.
In the memo, Peerenboom alluded to “declining national state trends in counts and enrollments,” and while stating “there are many reasons” for an enrollment decline, pointing toward a decline in the national birthrate.
Between 1990 and 2019, annual births in the U.S. declined from about 4.1 million to 3.7 million, according to the United States Census Bureau.
The Milton School District reported at a board meeting Monday that it had increased its enrollment in its second Friday count to 3,473 from 3,457.
