Public school enrollment continues to decline following pandemic

Jenna King February 17, 2023

Last Updated: February 17, 2023

MEDFORD, Ore. —Public school enrollment continues to decline at the state level following the pandemic.

According to the Oregon Department of Education from 2020 to 2021 enrollment dropped by 3.7 %. The next year it fell another 1.4%.

Combined together Oregon’s public schools served nearly 30,000 fewer students at the start of 2021 compared to 2020.

The Medford School District says its mirrors that same trend. According to the district, its lost 3.7 % of its enrollment in the last 5 years.

“With the pandemic, we had families that opted into some different options that weren’t traditional public school so we had some families opt into private school, some opted into home school and they’ve stayed with that,” said MSD Superintendent, Bret Champion.

Champion says the district is looking at expanding its model of traditional school to give parents more options to stay enrolled.

Jenna King

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Jenna King is the 6pm and 11pm anchor for NBC5 News. Jenna is a Burbank, CA native. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Sports Business. During her time at Oregon she was part of the student-run television station, Duck TV. She also grew her passion for sports through her internship with the PAC 12 Network. When Jenna is not in the newsroom you can find her rooting for her hometown Dodgers, exploring the outdoors or binging on the latest Netflix release.