Study projects flood of new Northern Virginia students

A surge of new students — many from immigrant families — will stuff Northern Virginia’s public schools during the next five years, just as school populations in the commonwealth’s southern communities are expected to wane.

Roughly 1.27 million students are projected to attend public school in Virginia during the 2014-15 school year, or about 50,000 more students than this autumn’s estimated enrollment of 1.22 million, according to a University of Virginia study.