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charter school enrollment Archives - North Carolina Coalition for Charter Schools

Jul 07
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NC K-12 enrollment shifts: District, charter, private, and homeschool

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New state data from the N.C. Division of Non-Public Education reveal ongoing shifts in the K-12 landscape during the 2024-25 school year. Both home school and private school enrollment grew, increasing by around 5% and 3%, respectively. However, the charter sector experienced the greatest percentage growth increase of any K-12 sector in North Carolina during 2024-25, with a 6% uptick in enrollment.

Enrollment in district public schools continues to decline, although the decrease is slight. The majority of students in North Carolina, around 76%, still attend district schools. (Read this recent K-12 market share analysis from EdNC.)

Figures from the N.C. Division of Non-Public Education come on the heels of the state’s new annual charter schools report, presented to the Charter Schools Review Board last month. State Board of Education (SBE) members are expected to discuss the charter report at their July meeting later this week.

Public school enrollment: Charter and district

The number of students served by charter schools increased from 144,635 students in 2023-24 to 153,480 students in 2024-25. In addition, more than 74,000 students were on charter school waitlists at 161 charter schools at the beginning of this school year. As noted above, the increase in charter student enrollment represents a 6% uptick. (Read more about charter enrollment in this Coalition blog post.)

Charter schools often serve students from multiple counties/districts. See this 2024-25 breakdown in charter membership by students’ home district.

Attendance at North Carolina’s district public schools has decreased slightly, by around 1%, from 1,393,679 students in 2023-24 to 1,379,826 students in 2024-25. This figure is based on Average Daily Membership as outlined in the state’s public school budget. (See the historical breakdown in the March 2025 report, “Highlights of the North Carolina Public School Budget.”)

Home school enrollment

Estimated home school enrollment in North Carolina grew to include 165,243 students during the 2024-25 school year, a 4.8% increase over the year before. During the 2023-24 school year, 157,642 students learned at home. (View the state’s home school statistical history.)

In each of these five counties, more than 5,000 students were homeschooled in 2024-25:

  • Forsyth (5,765)
  • Johnston (5,427)
  • Mecklenburg (11,626)
  • Union (6,471)
  • Wake (15,454)

Private school enrollment

Private school enrollment increased to include 135,738 students during the 2024-25 school year, a 3.4% uptick over the year before. During the 2023-24 school year, 131,230 students attended private schools. (See the state’s private school statistical history.)

In each of these six counties, more than 5,000 students attended private schools in 2024-25:

  • Cumberland (6,274)
  • Durham (5,828)
  • Forsyth (6,082)
  • Guilford (7,367)
  • Mecklenburg (21,882)
  • Wake (21,621)

Students in these six counties comprised more than half of the state’s total private school population.

Above photo: Shutterstock.

 

Dec 05
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New Education Competition Index Ranks Country’s Largest Districts

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A new Fordham Institute report out today ranks the nation’s 125 largest districts on how competitive they are regarding K-12 market share. The core question: How much are the country’s biggest districts actually competing for students–with home schools, private schools, or charter schools?

To answer this question, researchers David Griffith and Jeanette Luna evaluated enrollment data from Spring 2020 for students in grades 1-8. They compiled charter, private, and home school enrollment numbers in each district, and then divided this sum by a district’s student population. The quotient for each district, then, represents the “combined market share of all non-district alternatives.”

Researchers conclude, as numerous other studies have attested, that the K-12 market has changed considerably over the past decade. But many districts, they found, do not face considerable competition for students. Those that do generally feature a more robust charter school sector.

And numerous districts–including North Carolina’s five biggest–offer insufficient non-district options for students of color.

Charter school growth is driving enrollment shifts for districts, according to these findings from the report:

  • Nationally, the proportion of students in grades 1–8 who were not enrolled in a district-run school increased by about three percentage points between 2010 and 2020, from roughly 15 percent to approximately 18 percent.
  • Across and within the largest 125 districts in the country, the increase in charter school enrollment between 2010 and 2020 was responsible for most of the increase in competition during that same time period.

Charters are offering educational options for non-white students

Researchers found that charter schools are also fueling enrollment changes for non-white students. Among districts, 116 out of 125 “saw an increase in non-white students’ access to non-district alternatives in the last decade.”

This portion of the report’s table below includes North Carolina’s five largest districts. Researchers concluded: “In our view, the districts that appear towards the top of this list are ideal targets for charter school expansion.”

Source: “The Education Competition Index: Quantifying competitive pressure in America’s 125 largest school districts,” Fordham Institute, December 5, 2023.

Here are the percentages of non-White students NOT enrolled in a district school in North Carolina’s largest districts:

  • Forsyth County Schools: 10%
  • Cumberland County Schools: 12%
  • Wake County Schools: 14%
  • Guilford County Schools: 15%
  • Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools: 16%

Here are the overall percentages of students enrolled in non-district alternatives:

  • Forsyth County Schools: 15%
  • Cumberland County Schools: 16%
  • Wake County Schools: 22%
  • Guilford County Schools: 22%
  • Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools: 24%

Of North Carolina’s biggest districts, researchers note that they are “in dire need of more options for students of color.”

Learn more about the Education Competition Index here.

 

Oct 31
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New brief: Charter school market share nationwide continues to grow

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A new education brief from K-12 Dive reveals parents nationwide are doubling down on pandemic enrollment trends. Culling data from Moody’s Investor Services and federal sources, the brief shows that charter school market share is increasing nationwide as families continue to leave public district schools. Not surprisingly, growth is greatest in states with policies and a climate friendly to school choice. But interestingly, as the brief notes, even states that are not generally as receptive to school choice are seeing growth.

Highlights of the changing charter school market share

Here are some of top takeaways in enrollment between 2017 and 2022 for choice-friendly states, according to K-12 Dive:

  • Texas charter enrollment grew from 5.1% of total K-12 enrollment to 7.4%.
  • Florida charter enrollment increased from 10.4% of overall K-12 enrollment to 13.3%.

However, charter school market share is also growing in New York and California–states that have been less receptive to school choice policies. Read more from K-12 Dive.

North Carolina’s shifting K-12 landscape

Meanwhile in North Carolina, charter schools enroll about 9% of the state’s public K-12 students. New enrollment figures for 2023-24 are not yet out, but recent trends have reinforced growth in the charter sector.

Over the past decade, there has been a 172% increase in public charter school enrollment. During the pandemic, charter school enrollment grew by almost 19%.

Last year, roughly 1.4 million students attended district public schools while 140,000 students attended public charter schools. Charter schools also reported over 77,000 students on waitlists for 2022-23, according to the state’s annual charter report.
Seven new charter schools opened this year, bringing the state’s total number of charter schools for 2023-24 to 211 schools. Read more on the Coalition blog about K-12 enrollment trends here and here.