More South Bend students are choosing schools outside the district. Here's where they're going.
More students living within South Bend district boundaries are choosing to attend other schools than ever before.
New data released last week from the Indiana Department of Education details the number of students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through adult education classes in schools across Indiana.
It also shows the number of students attending schools within assigned district boundaries and where students transfer to when they decide to go somewhere else.
The data, dating back nine semesters, shows more South Bend residents are choosing to transfer to other public or private schools.
This comes as the South Bend district, in the midst of enrollment declines for years, weighs plans for possible middle and high school reconfiguration, and after the corporation closed two elementary schools last summer.
Pandemic effect: Here's where Michiana student counts stand first COVID year
The data also reflects a trend across the state, with thousands more students choosing non-public education than in years past.
More students transferring to private schools
As the number of students living within South Bend district boundaries has declined, so too has the number of residents enrolling in the South Bend corporation.
Five years ago, more than 23,300 students lived within the district and the corporation enrolled about 16,700 of those students, with the rest divided between other nearby public districts, charters and private schools.
By fall 2020, students living within district boundaries dropped to just shy of 22,600 and the South Bend corporation enrolled nearly 15,200 of them.
The district has increased the number of students it accepts from other nearby public schools by about 200 over the last five years. Despite this, and a slight increase of about 160 students living in district boundaries this fall, the South Bend corporation still reported its largest net loss of student transfers this fall of the last five years.
So, where are these students going? About 4,800 transferred to other public schools, like nearby Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. or Career and Success Academy charter schools. And, more than 3,100 went to private schools, according to the state’s latest public corporation transfer report.
Transfers from the South Bend district to other public schools have increased at a steady rate over the last five years, while private corporation transfers held somewhat steady, with between 2,500 and 2,750 transfers a semester, until this fall when transfers crossed 3,000 for the first time.
South Bend Q&A: Superintendent speaks on plan to "right-size" schools
The increase in private transfers follows an apparent trend across Indiana. Statewide, private school transfers have hovered between 34,500 to 36,500 students over the last five years. This fall, nearly 43,500 students transferred out of their public school boundaries to a private school using Indiana’s choice scholarship program, according to the IDOE’s data.
Nonpublic schools across the state saw a nearly 6% increase in overall enrollment this year while Indiana’s public schools saw a 0.2% increase.
Penn-Harris-Madison, like South Bend, saw a higher-than-average number of students living in its boundaries transfer into private schools this fall — about 390 — up from about 275 last year.
P-H-M also reported fewer public school students transferring into its district this fall and more transferring to other public schools leading to a net transfer total, at 526 students, nearly half of what it was five years ago.
Kindergarten drives increases in some districts
Despite this, overall enrollment at P-H-M continues to climb. P-H-M’s total enrollment is just over 11,500 this fall, up about 25 students from last year and 140 from the year before.
Enrollment statistics use a slightly different calculation, including pre-kindergarten and adult education programs, than average daily membership counts. The state recently removed adult education programs from its enrollment counting, which P-H-M administrators said in a recent school board meeting explains a slight decrease in the district’s average daily membership counts this fall.
About 200 more students are living within P-H-M district boundaries now than five years ago and the corporation saw increases this year, like others across Indiana, in pre-K and kindergarten enrollment.
South Bend schools, despite continued declines in overall enrollment, similarly saw increases in pre-K and kindergarten classes.
Pre-K expansion: Three South Bend elementary schools add programs
Districtwide, enrollment slipped below 16,000 for the first time, but South Bend enrolled about 75 more kindergarteners this fall than last year, bringing the district closer to its pre-pandemic total of over 1,200 kindergarten students.
The corporation also grew its pre-k class this fall by more than 200 students to its highest count in four years.
Statewide, kindergarten enrollment has grown nearly 5.3%, which state leaders attribute to some families’ decision to enroll their students in K-12 schools for the first time this fall due to coronavirus-driven disruptions last school year.
“With growing enrollment across all school types, today Indiana’s educators are focused on helping our students recover learning impacted by COVID-19 disruptions and building the foundational knowledge and skills to prepare them for a lifetime of future success,” Indiana Education Secretary Katie Jenner said in a news release.
Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend area students set new record for school transfers
