Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools began the academic year with nearly 2,000 fewer students than expected.
One explanation for the absences is the district’s start date this year, which was two weeks earlier than normal – a decision made in January.
According to Superintendent Tricia McManus, there were about 350 students who let the district know they’d be missing the first couple of weeks due to preplanned vacations and camps.
But that still leaves roughly 1,600 fewer students on the fifth day of school this year compared to last. That’s important because the state uses that data to calculate funding allotments.
"That's how we provide services for our students, our multilingual learners, and our students that have IEPs," she said. "Like all of the people and the resources that we provide are based on numbers.”
The district is reaching out to families in an effort to get kids back in class, which has been working to some extent. On the first day of school, McManus says there were 46,985 students. By the fifth day, that number rose to 49,544.
"I think it's just going to keep going up every day, and we'll just keep keeping our eye on that, and keep calling those that have not shown up yet," she said.
McManus says the goal is to stay close to last year’s enrollment figure, around 51,000. Plus, she says this is an important time for students to learn about procedures and expectations in their schools.
Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.