Enrollment at Catholic K-12 schools in the United States increased in the 2021-2022 school year for the first time in 20 years, recouping over half of the enrollment losses from the prior year, according to a new report from the National Catholic Educational Association.
The annual report found that Catholic schools saw a 3.8% increase in enrollment, the largest increase the organization has ever recorded, and the first increase in 20 years, indicating the nation’s largest network of private schools may be experiencing a rebound from a massive pandemic-induced enrollment drop.
The report says enrollment at K-12 Catholic schools increased to 1.68 million, an increase from the 1.62 million students enrolled during the pandemic-affected school year of 2020-2021. In the pre-pandemic school year of 2019-2020, enrollment stood at 1.73 million.
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The newly released numbers come after the pandemic led to the closure of over 200 Catholic elementary and secondary schools and a 6.4% drop in enrollment, accelerating a decadeslong trend that has seen the number of students at Catholic schools decline from over 5 million 60 years ago to less than 2 million now.
In the 2020-2021 school year, most Catholic dioceses opened their schools to in-person classes, even as their public school counterparts did not.
“Catholic schools innovated throughout the last two years to meet the needs of their communities,” the NCEA said in its report. “They need to continue to adapt to those needs and use the momentum to retain students and recruit new students in the upcoming years to stabilize or continue to increase enrollment.”
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But despite recouping over 60,000 students in 2021 from the year before, 71 Catholic schools remained closed in America. Nevertheless, the NCEA said this was below average for most years preceding the pandemic.
In 2019, 98 schools closed, up from 93 in 2018, but below 2017, when 110 schools closed.
