The Miami-Dade school district was down thousands of students on the first day of the year at both traditional public and charter schools, compared to the start of the previous academic year.
On Aug. 13, the first day of the 2026-2027 school year, M-DCPS had 215,078 students enrolled and 190,983 students in attendance at traditional public schools, compared to 230,172 enrolled students and 206,665 students in attendance on the first day of the previous school year, according to district data.
Elmo Lugo, media relations director at Miami-Dade County Public Schools, attributed the decrease to "lower birth rates, shifting migration patterns" and "the region's high cost of living" in an email to the USA TODAY NETWORK.
On day one in 2026, charter schools
had 85,473 students enrolled and 79,633 students in attendance, down from 86,913 enrolled and 81,207 in attendance the prior academic year.
According to Lugo, on Aug. 25 of this year, 212,544 students were in attendance at the district's non-charter public schools, while 85,041 students were in attendance at charter schools.
Enrollment numbers in "district-operated schools" landed "5,333 below projections" Lugo said.
Compared to 2025, the neighboring Broward County school district began the current school year with around 13,475 fewer students, counting enrollment at charter schools, which represents a decrease of 5.6%, according to an Aug. 10 memo from the Office of the Superintendent.
Over the past few years, Superintendent Howard Hepburn said the district has seen a further decrease in enrollment around December, January and February, "where families are coming and going," during an Aug. 10 press conference.
"Following that trend, we may see another dip in the spring as well," Hepburn said.
Florida public schools have seen drops in student enrollment over past several years
The five largest school districts in Florida by enrollment, including Miami-Dade and Broward, have collectively lost about 67,000 non-charter students from the 2023-2024 school year through the 2025-2026 school year.
That’s according to figures compiled by the Lee County school district, provided in May as part of a discussion surrounding its “budget realignment.” The numbers are as of February 2026, and refer to total membership for grades from prekindergarten to 12th.
From 2023-2024 to 2024-2025, Miami-Dade Public Schools lost 6,947 non-charter students and gained 1,331 charter students. From 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, the district lost 15,288 non-charter students and gained 428 charter students. In February, the district had 232,617 non-charter students enrolled for the 2025-2026 year, along with 86,802 charter students.
It’s a dip that WLRN previously reported has been frequently attributed to Florida’s expanded voucher program, which allowed for the rapid growth of charter and private schools. Miami-Dade County officials, however, said the drop is partially due to fewer immigrant families moving to South Florida.
In Broward, meanwhile, the district lost 9,512 non-charter students from 2023-2024 to 2024-2025 and gained 68 charter school students. From 2024-2025 to 2025-2026, the district lost 6,955 non-charter students and 1,328 charter students. The district had 185,864 non-charter students enrolled at the start of the 2025-2026 year, as well as 48,460 charter students.
Collectively, the Broward and Miami-Dade school districts lost 38,702 non-charter students from 2023-2024 through 2025-2026.
Sarah Perkel is a South Florida Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Florida Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miami-Dade schools were down thousands of students on first day of school
