Beaufort County schools enrollment lowest it’s been since 2013-14, new numbers show

In a massive shift from previous school years, Beaufort County School District’s total enrollment dropped by more than 1,000 students this fall, according to newly released attendance numbers.

South Carolina’s Department of Education typically uses attendance taken on the 45th and 135th days of the school year to calculate a school district’s average daily membership.

That total is then used to determine how much money the district gets from South Carolina’s Education Finance Act, and to project population growth for schools, which can lead to school expansions, mobile classrooms or building new schools.

This year, the district’s 45-day attendance total was 21,229 students, a 1,173-student decrease — 5.2% — from last year’s count.

“In general, some people moved and left the area, some chose to homeschool, and some chose other local options that best met their family’s needs during the pandemic,” district spokesperson Candace Bruder said Friday.

It’s the lowest the count has been in the district since the 2013-14 school year, according to historical data from the DOE.

It’s also the first time the district’s enrollment has decreased since at least 2012-13, which is the last year of data available on the DOE website.

In 2019-20, there were 22,391 district students counted at the 45-day mark. In 2018-19, there were 22,328, and in 2017-18 there were 22,172. (Bruder said the DOE and the district’s 45-day counts for 2019-20 were pulled at different times of day, which accounts for the slight disparity between the two numbers.)

District planning coordinator Carol Crutchfield told school board members Wednesday that the largest decrease came from the elementary school level. In South Carolina, students are not required to attend kindergarten or pre-kindergarten.

Crutchfield said middle schools had seen a slight decrease in enrollment, and high schools had seen a slight increase.

Beaufort County’s 5.2% enrollment drop is higher than other S.C. school districts. Crutchfield said Greenville County saw a decrease of about 2,000 students (2.5% of last year’s enrollment), Charleston County dropped 1,500 students (3%), and Horry County’s decreased about 1,250 (2.7%).

She added that school planners in different states across the nation have witnessed the same result.

“Pretty much everyone is seeing similar trends this year, and are discussing delaying decisions on projections knowing this year is an outlier from previous trends,” Crutchfield said. “That certainly is the case with Beaufort County.”

Bruder said Friday that school board members would receive more detailed information on the attendance counts, including a breakdown by school cluster, next week, and that the public would receive the information shortly after.

“As we continue to educate the 21,000+ students in our system,” she said, and “as things normalize, people will want to come back and take advantage of the great programs BCSD offers.”