FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Declining enrollment numbers at South Florida over the years has taken a massive toll on school districts trying to stay afloat. Numbers for the new year in Broward County have bolstered board members’ arguments that further closures may be unavoidable.
The 2026-2027 school year marks the largest dip in enrollment numbers for Broward County in the past five years, which has seen a steady decline in students.
According to officials, enrollment at traditional and charter schools plummeted by more than 12,000 this year. Charter school enrollments alone make up more than 2,000 of those empty seats.
As the number of students enrolled in the district continue to decline, board members are looking at another round of closures after shuttering six campuses last school year.
A new plan being weighed by the district would shutter an additional 10 schools facing low enrollment.
Officials have been holding a number of workshops with the community to discuss the future of those campuses on the chopping block:
- Silver Lakes Elementary
- Dolphin Bay Elementary
- Oakridge Elementary
- Hollywood Park Elementary
- Walter C. Young Middle
- William Dandy Middle
- Lloyd Estates Elementary
- Banyan Elementary
- Coral Springs Elementary
- Forest Glen Middle
Over the past five years, the district has lost more than 27,000 students.
Concerned parents have tried to ask officials to pin down why this massive exodus has seen no signs of slowing down amid worries of endless closures.
“There’s been a lot of focus on closing schools or absorbing schools to meet the decline in enrollment rather than finding what is the cause of our decline,” a speaker at one of the district’s workshops said.
In August, Superintendent Howard Hepburn pointed to the higher cost of living in Broward, coupled with declining immigration and birth rate numbers as the main cause.
“And I think the affordability and the birth rate are definitely a correlation. Also immigration policies, many of our newcomers are not coming to the country right now, which South Florida is a hotbed for immigration. And also the advancement of school choice,” said Hepburn.
Similar problems have plagued Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
Miami-Dade has seen a drop of nearly 16,000 students in their school system.
Officials there in the meantime have put a pause on consideration for closing up to 12 under-enrolled schools.
“We put a pause on it because I really wanna assess all the schools, I wanna assess how those schools were selected and I wanna make sure that we have a greater understanding not only among all our community but also among our staff,” said MDCPS Superintendent Rafael Villalobos.
As for Broward, the school board will be holding another workshop to continue discussions on possible school closures with the public on Tuesday at 9 a.m.
School board members are expected to hold a final vote deciding on those 10 closures sometime in December.
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