Seattle Public Schools consider closures as student enrollment plunges post-pandemic

Seattle Public Schools may have to close some of its schools over the next few years as the district battles budget shortages and plummeting enrollment after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The district does not plan on closing any of its 106 schools next year, and the earliest closures may occur in the 2024-2025 school year, The Seattle Times reported last week.

Consolidating some schools for the 2024-2025 year could save $28 million as the district projects a $92 million budget shortfall that year. 

Student enrollment has dropped to roughly 50,000 students from nearly 54,000 in the 2019-2020 school year. In a best-case scenario, school administrators expect 49,000 students by 2032, and in a worst-case scenario, enrollment may be as low as 43,000. 

The declining enrollment comes after homeschooling rates nearly doubled in Washington at the height of the COVID pandemic and are still at elevated levels from the 2019-2020 school year. 

Jen Garrison Stuber of the Washington Homeschool Organization told Fox News that homeschool enrollment is down, however, in Seattle from pre-pandemic numbers. 

"I really think that what Seattle's seeing, where those students have gone are either to private schools or they've left the school district and have moved elsewhere," she said.