COVID-19 cutting school enrollment? Hundreds of kids leaving Fayette schools.

Morgan Dezarn is moving her first grade daughter in January from Fayette County Public Schools to private school. She is among hundreds of Lexington parents leaving the district during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our daughter missed several months of kindergarten when schools closed in March and I just do not have faith in FCPS at this point to put a plan in place that gets kids back to school five days per week,” Dezarn said. School district officials have said they won’t return to widespread in-person learning, which shut down in March, before Jan. 11. Gov. Andy Beshear has recommended that no Kentucky school in a critical “red zone” county resume in-person classes before Jan. 11.

Numbers obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act show that after growing in all but one of the last six years, Fayette County Public Schools has seen a decrease in enrollment in the fall semester of 2020 that officials are attributing to COVID-19.

Enrollment dropped from Dec. 1, 2019, to December 1, 2020, by 730 students, from 41, 251 to to 40,521.

With the exception of the 2017-18 school year, when Kentucky’s kindergarten entry date changed from Oct. 1 to Aug. 1, enrollment in Fayette County grew every school year since at least 2014-15.

The biggest change the Fayette district has seen this fall is at the kindergarten level, where it had 402 fewer students this year than in 2019, a drop from 3,223 to 2, 821, district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said.

Among the more significant decreases was at Cassidy Elementary School, which dropped from 759 in December 2019 to 628 in December 2020 and at Wellington Elementary, from 714 to 596.

Prior to this fall, Fayette County has generally seen an increase in enrollment of 450 to 550 each year, Deffendall said.

While the district does not specifically track numbers of students leaving to attend private schools, the number of students being withdrawn to homeschool in Fayette County increased by 505 students, from 1,333 on Dec. 2, 2019 to 1,838 on Dec. 2, 2020.

“The advent of COVID-19 has disrupted almost every aspect of our daily lives and forced many families to make difficult decisions about schooling for their children in order to find solutions that work best for their individual circumstances,” said Deffendall.

What is happening in Lexington is similar to a national trend. The Denver Post reported recently that public schools enrollment in that state is down for the first time in 30 years.

Enrollment in Missouri and North Carolina for example, are down 3 percent to 5 percent. “At New York City Public Schools, the country’s largest district, 31,000 fewer students — a 3.4 percent drop — are on rosters this year, according to Chalkbeat.” And in a survey of more than 60 districts, NPR found the average kindergarten enrollment dropped by 16 percent, the Post reported.

Even before the start of this school year, Kentucky officials recognized the impact the pandemic was having on attendance and enrollment numbers and adjusted state funding formulas in order to hold school districts harmless, Deffendall said.

In Kentucky, compulsory attendance begins at age 6.

Anecdotally, Deffendall said, district officials have heard from many families who kept their 5-year-olds in daycare or preschool settings rather than “start kindergarten on a computer. “

They have also heard from families who chose to homeschool this year by forming pods with friends or neighbors and hiring someone to teach small groups of children.

“Although our teachers and school leaders have done a phenomenal job of making connections and delivering content, we all agree that nothing can replace the magic of in-person learning and we are eager to have our students and staff back in the classroom when it is safe to do so, “ she said. “We are optimistic that the decreasing case numbers and availability of a vaccine will not only enable us to return to in-person instruction soon, but also usher in the beginning of an end to the pandemic.”

Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack had said the state is set to enter the next phase of vaccine distribution during the first week of February. Those eligible for a vaccine at that time will include K-12 school personnel.

Over the last month, Kentucky’s rate of new cases have been declining week over week.

This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 10:51 AM.