Historic Catholic school enrollment rise holds steady as U.S. enters fourth year with COVID-19
Enrollment numbers at Catholic schools across the U.S. continue to hold steady following a bump at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. After data released last summer by the National Catholic Educational Association showed a 3.8% nationwide increase in enrollment for Catholic elementary and secondary schools during the 2021-2022 school year, numbers going into the 2022-2023 year continued to look strong.
“This year we had stable enrollment, and to me, that means schools already did a great job of retaining students and families,” Annie Smith, NCEA vice president of research and data, told OSV News.
As the pandemic raged on and schools were planning for the 2020-2021 school year, about half of New Jersey’s 589 public school districts remained in a remote-only model while Catholic principals across the Archdiocese created a plan to reopen fully fall of 2020.
Catholic Schools Week begins Jan. 29 when the schools of the Archdiocese of Newark celebrate Catholic education. Follow Jersey Catholic for more coverage throughout the week.
Archdiocese of Newark Schools, composed of 51 elementary schools and 23 secondary schools, saw an increase in enrollment of a little over 2% from the 2020-2021 to 2021-2022 school year, according to enrollment numbers provided by the archdiocesan Office of Schools. The Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Newark serve about 23,000 students across Bergen, Hudson, Essex, and Union Counties.
“We did see an increase in enrollment in the elementary schools from 2020-21 to 2021-22. That overall increase was due to an increase in Pre-K enrollment,” said Barbara Dolan, Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of Newark.
Among the Archdiocese Catholic schools that had significant enrollment increases from October 2020 to October 2021, and were able to maintain their enrollment numbers into the current school year are St. Michael School in Cranford, Corpus Christi School in Hasbrouck Heights, St. Theresa School in Kenilworth, Good Shepherd Academy in Nutley, and Holy Trinity School in Westfield.
“Enrollment has increased significantly each year because of our emphasis on community and family life, 21st-century skills, technology, and developing the whole child,” said Good Shepherd Academy Principal Jaclyn Pilat, who began her position at the school in October 2019. At that time, the school had just 239 students enrolled. Today, the school has 339 students enrolled and a waiting list for at least three grade levels.
Pilat additionally attributes the increase in enrollment to the adoption of a social-emotional learning curriculum, which emphasizes techniques children need to learn to gain confidence, set goals, make better decisions, collaborate with others in work and play, and navigate the world more effectively. While social-emotional learning has become a national trend in education in recent years, Catholic schools have always emphasized the importance of helping students develop self-sense and skills that will prepare them for a lifetime of success.
Enrollment at Corpus Christi School has been steadily increasing from 323 students in the 2019-2020 school year to 383 students in the 2022-2023 school year, with additional increases expected for the upcoming registration cycle.
“I believe that Catholic schools have really made a conscious effort to be a haven of education and faith for the children during this time,” said Jason Feliciano, Principal at Corpus Christi School. “We strive to make sure that every student feels safe, learns at least one new thing every day, and goes home with a smile.”
Sister Marisa DeRose, principal of St. Theresa School, attributes the Catholic school enrollment spike to “the family environment we create here, among our students, their families, our faculty and staff.”
Enrollment at St. Therese School has increased from 198 students in the 2017-2018 school year to 247 students in the 2022-23 school year. Sister DeRose also said that the shared experience of the pandemic has “shed light on what parents truly want for their children: spirituality, safety, security, and strong academics. Parents are rediscovering, or discovering for the first time, the value of a Catholic School education, she said.
Like the Archdiocese of Newark, other large archdioceses throughout the country are reporting rising enrollment numbers.
Countering a 6.4% enrollment decline from the previous school year, the 2021-2022 enrollment spike in Catholic schools was the first in two decades, and the largest ever recorded by the Leesburg, Virginia-based NCEA, which represents some 140,000 educators serving 1.6 million students.
In the Archdiocese of Chicago, Greg Richmond, superintendent of schools, said that their numbers had stayed steady for the first half of the 2022-2023 school year — a feat made even more impressive by the fact that “the annual number of births in our archdiocese has been plummeting,” he said.
According to Richmond, annual births within the Chicago archdiocese declined from 90,000 to 65,000 over the last 15 years. “So, there are a lot fewer kids than there used to be, but our numbers went up and stayed level,” he said.
In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Catholic schools marked a 4.2% uptick in enrollment last year, jumping from almost 64,700 to just under 67,500, according to senior director and superintendent Paul Escala.
Escala said the gain — the first in 27 years — was realized while complying with California’s stringent COVID prevention protocols.
“We advocated and worked closely with public health partners to allow for reopening in person, with masking, distancing, desk shields, and no visitors,” he said. “It was a tremendous challenge.”
Those efforts have paid off by attracting new families to Catholic education, said Escala.
Smith attributed the growth and subsequent steadiness to “a combination of things,” including Catholic schools’ ability to “pivot in meeting the needs of students” throughout the various phases of COVID restrictions.
In the pandemic’s initial days, she said, classrooms “may have closed on a Friday, but our Catholic schools had their instruction back up by Monday or Tuesday.”
Whether organizing remote or hybrid learning plans to comply with public health guidelines, the nation’s Catholic schools benefited from “a flexibility and agility you often don’t see in the public system,” Richmond said.
He said the Archdiocese of Chicago’s schools functioned remotely during the spring of 2020 term as educators “pushed (themselves) to the limit” to reopen in the fall of 2021. When they did, enrollment had risen by 3,000 students (4.5%) to approximately 66,000.
“We were free from the extremes of politics that you often see in many public systems,” Richmond said, while diocesan educational leaders “learned from each other through lots of conversations” with their peers across the country.
Concerned about “lack of instruction during lockdowns” in other schools, parents “saw Catholic schools as an opportunity for academics and social, faith-filled advancement during a very difficult time,” he said.
Richmond agreed the push to resume in-person learning “created an invitation for people to check us out and learn about Catholic schools. It shone a light on us.”
But getting kids back to the classroom was not the only driver for the enrollment bump, he said.
“People liked what they saw in terms of academics, values, and reliability,” even if they were not Catholic or practicing any faith, said Richmond.
The nation’s Catholic schools have “really focused on the whole child, not only academic learning,” addressing “social skills and mental health” while supporting families, said Smith. “They went above and beyond during COVID, asking, ‘Do you need food, a tuition break, someone to talk to?'”
Escala said he is working closely with philanthropic partners to ensure that assistance continues.
“Our mission orientation is to serve the poor, and our preference will always be for those who have less,” he said. “That’s been a hallmark of Catholic education from the beginning, and it remains so.”
Smith also said the rate of U.S. Catholic school closures had declined.
“We used to have about 100 per year,” she said, noting 209 schools closed or merged before the 2020-2021 academic year. “This year we had under 50.”
That trend has followed within the Archdiocese of Newark where no schools have closed since mid-2020 when eight schools closed.
Smith said that Catholic schools used to be a “best-kept secret,” but that phrase no longer applies.
“Now, they’re not a secret,” she said. “People have experienced their local Catholic schools, and they’re staying.”
Gina Christian is a National Reporter for OSV News. Jaimie Julia Winters is the editor of Jersey Catholic, Archdiocese of Newark. Jessica Miano is a writer for Jersey Catholic.
Featured photo: Archdiocese of Newark Schools, composed of 51 elementary schools and 23 secondary schools, saw an increase in enrollment of a little over 2% in the last two school years.
