(The Center Square) – About 750 fewer students are expected to be enrolled in Caddo Parish schools in the 2025-26 year.
The Caddo Parish School Board discussions include planning for the continuing trend of the last 15 years. In 2010, there were around 42,341 students. This year’s enrollment was 32,614.
With the drop has come school closures throughout the parish and budget changes.
“We’ve been losing students for a while. We lost 850 students for the current year we are in,” said Caddo Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Jeff Howard. “I’m budgeting to lose 750 students for the 2025-26 year, at about $5,500 per student.”
Recently, the school board voted to close three schools in the parish, resulting in a savings of around $1 million annually. School Board President Jasmine Green said the drop from 42,000 to 33,000 students is significant and a lot of money.
“You can’t continue to run a school system and have 150 kids,” said Green.
The budget for the next fiscal year aligns with priorities of the district, which includes a highly discussed topic – truancy. The district continues to face issues with students missing school and chronic absences, as well as behavioral problems. Structures are being proposed that could potentially help the truancy issue like a pilot group to target absenteeism, increased support at The Harbor and a calming academy at Summer Grove.
The truancy issue has been a problem in Caddo Parish for years as student enrollment declines and absentee issues rise. Back in March, Superintendent Keith Burton spoke about the truancy issues with proposed plans.
Reports in March showed 39% of elementary students missing days for the 2024-25 school year. Since the pandemic, the number of students who missed 10 or more days rose from 379 in 2018-19 to 3,114 in 2022-23.
“When a kid is not coming to school at the elementary level, that is not the child’s fault. That’s a family situation we need to address,” Burton said previously during a school board meeting.
Burton said it might be beneficial to have a specific team to monitor these issues. Now, in the latest budget draft includes the pilot group. The parish received a B- rating, but believed they had more room to make differences for the students.
The school board will hold another meeting in June to vote on the budget before enacting it on July 1.
