Metro Atlanta schools see enrollment down as new school year begins

Empty playground at Talley Street Upper Elementary School on October 21, 2020. (Photo by Dean Hesse)

Schools across metro Atlanta have been seeing a decline in enrollment since 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enrollment is overall going back up across the state, but local districts are still seeing a decline in the number of students in their school systems, mainly due to the pandemic.

Enrollment over the last five years was trending upwards between 2017-2020 across the state and was down during the 2020-2021 school year. Enrollment, however, went back up in the 2021-2022 school year. 

“The enrollment drop we experienced during COVID (from the 2019-2020 school year to 2020-2021) was largely concentrated in the early grades, particularly kindergarten – which is not compulsory in Georgia,” a spokesperson from the DOE said.