Total enrollment in DCPS for 2024-25 is the highest ever recorded. The recently released data from DCPS showed 99,770 students enrolled in district public and charter schools, an increase of 1,121 from last school year.

DCPS Interim Superintendent Dr. Antoinette Mitchell told FOX 5 that the rising numbers show that families are confident in public schools. Additionally, she added that many of the new students appear to be high schoolers, “which is very exciting to us because our high schools are in the midst of a renaissance in some ways. With career and technical education, we have new standards,” said Mitchell.

However, the final enrollment numbers and data are expected in the spring, so DCPS currently doesn’t know exactly at which schools the student populations are increasing.

As enrollment rises, Mayor Muriel Bowser has invested roughly $350 million dollars in education for the 2025 budget, a 12% increase since last fiscal year. “An investment in schools is an investment in the city. It really speaks to families finding the opportunities that we have in the DC school system attractive,” commented Mitchell. 

Mitchell said that the data also points to a downward trend in chronic absenteeism and chronic truancy, which has been a significant obstacle for DCPS in the past.

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons, President of the Washington Teachers’ Union, told FOX 5 that public school enrollment in other big cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have been down post-pandemic, thus DC’s numbers are a positive sign and a testament to the quality of our educators. While enrollment in DCPS dropped for the 2020-21 school year, this year is the third straight year of increases, with the current enrollment surpassing 2020’s by almost 6,000 students. 

Director of the Education Policy Initiative at the nonprofit think tank DC Policy Center Chelsea Coffin agreed that the enrollment increase is great news for both the school district and the city as a whole. However, Coffin explained that increases in specific grade levels could mean implications for school budgets later on. For example, “high schools may see higher levels of funding if enrollments are higher at the high school level and that elementary schools may start to have more of a pinch if indeed that is where enrollment is decreasing,” said Coffin.