Fairfax County school enrollment continues flat as neighbors boom

Enrollment in Fairfax County schools this fall is expected to see only a small increase over the last year, part of a years-long trend of flattening growth in student population that contrasts sharply with the booms of the county’s outlying neighbors.

Fairfax expects to have 164,490 students in its system this school year, a fewer than 1 percent increase over last year’s 163,593. In fact, Fairfax’s enrollment has been essentially flat since 2003. Officials say the trend is, in large part, due to a shrinking supply of buildable land that is constraining large-scale residential growth in Virginia’s most populous county, which is also by far the commonwealth’s largest school district.