School district addresses declining enrollment

May 14, 2026 By MEGHAN BRADBURY 4 min read

Faced with dropping student enrollment, the School District of Lee County says it is taking a proactive approach to stop the bleed.

“We want to be parents’ No. 1 choice,” Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin said during a workshop Tuesday. “The way we do that — it starts with a high-quality school district. We want to be No. 1, but not because of the accolades. When we are the best of the best, we won’t have this issue.” 

Adult, Career, Technical and Alternative Education Associate Superintendent Ed Matthews said the district is ranked eighth out of the Big 10 in terms of total enrollment. Miami-Dade has 232,617 non-charter students and 86,802 charter school students, compared to the district’s 87,107 non-charter students and 13,329 charter school students.

“Most of the schools have seen significant loss of students,” Matthews said, adding that Miami-Dade lost 15,288 non-charter students, and School District of Lee County lost 1,946 students from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026 school year.

Office of School Choice and Administration Executive Director Clayton Simmons addressed Florida Inventory of School Houses numbers.  FISH capacity by zone – actual number of student stations within the building, which is set by law – is at 94% capacity for the West Zone of which Cape Coral is a part; 102% capacity in the East Zone and 86% capacity in the South Zone.

“We pulled portables out, so you knew what the student stations are,” Simmons said.

The presentation also highlighted the different areas from which students enroll, and where the students are going -from another district, out of state, out of the country, from private school, from home school and first-time enrollment.

“We do have a little bit of drop in kindergarten that are enrolling in the school district. You’ll notice an increase enrolling from home school. Also seeing an increase that are enrolling to the school district from private school. Students are coming back to us,” Simmons said.

One of the biggest drops in enrollment is for enrollment from out of the country. The enrollment went from 3,369 students in the 2023-2024 school year to 475 in the 2025-2026 school year.

“In the past three years there was an 86% drop. That is a pretty telling mark right there,” he said.

The top four areas of where students are moving include home education, private schools, a public school in another Florida school district and out of state/country.

The leading withdrawal code is from a public school to out of state or country. The number of students who have moved out of Florida this year are 2,442, and of that 1,193 were born outside of the United States.

The second leading withdrawal to a public school in another Florida district. The number of students who moved to another district was 1,785; 630 of whom were born outside of the United States.

The presentation also highlighted movement from charter schools. From the district to charter were 933 students and those students that moved back to the district include 298 students.

“That number has decreased over the past three years. We are a choice district,” Simmons said. “We want them to choose us and decrease that number as much as possible.”

The home education transfers from the district to home education was 938 students, and 437 students from home education to the district during the year.

“That disparity of 501 students is decreasing,” he said.

For students transferring from the school district to private schools is 1,101 students. Of those 654 students returned from the private school to the district.

“That number is getting closer together,” Simmons said.

The district has implemented exit interviews and proactive measures to stabilize the enrollment for the district.

Simmons said the exit interview is a task for the student enrollment office.

“They will be very efficient and dedicated to hunting these students down and why they left us,” he said, so they can make adjustments to make a better fit.

Simmons said they also want to find out why a parent is unhappy and wants to remove their child or children, so the district can work with them to stay.

School Board member Vanessa Chaviano said when she looked at home education and private school transfers, she knows the money follows the students. She said the school district is losing between $7.5 million and $8.7 million between those two groups of students.

“This helps us paint a better picture of what is happening and where they are going. Tie in that dollar amount because that is what funds our schools,” she said, adding that the amount of dollars sitting out there is a significant number.

To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com